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25963o | types of government and their pros/cons | What are the different kinds of governments like totalitarianism, communism, socialism, capitalism, fascism, Nazism, and others? What are their advantages and disadvantages? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/25963o/eli5types_of_government_and_their_proscons/ | {
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"This is a rough overview of different systems, it's kinda caricatural, to help get a glimpse of what a government is about. Of course it has to be developed afterwards.\n\nCommunism : In the essence, everyone is equal and gets an equal fraction of what is produced by the workforce.\n\nSocialism : Could not explain, the definition seems different between anglo-saxon countries and others.\nIn Europe, it means that the people is what's most important to the state, and laws are written to protect the people.\n\nCapitalism : Money is a way to get a better life and to rise in the social ladder.\n\nFascism : The state is strong, the state is one man, this one man dictates laws. Fascism is an old Italian political movement, though, a form of dictatorship, as is the Nazism.\n\nNazism : a form of dictatorship, besides the lust for revenge (Triple Entente nations, mostly), I don't know the difference. Sure, there's the Holocaust, but many other dictatorships led genocides and *ethnic cleansings*.\n\nFrom what I know, totalitarism and dictatorship aren't that different. They both rely on one man (one political party) holding all power in the state, totalitarism just goes beyond and sets an ideology of devotion to this political party, a brainwashing process (that goes from propaganda to publicly executing the *opponents of the regime*). \n\nThere's much more systems and sub-systems to discuss, oligarchy, technocracy, antique democracy, and so on... \n\nNow feel free to add anything or correct me if I'm wrong. \n\nEDIT : Added Totalitarism.",
"Well first off, it should be noted that capitalism, communism, and socialism generally refer to how the country's economy works, rather than how the government works. \n\nCommunism = Government owns all businesses and provides all services to its people (healthcare, education, welfare, etc.). Advantages are that most people get what they need, and it's all easy to get thanks to the government providing it. Disadvantages are that there are no private companies, no competition in the marketplace.\n\nSocialism = Government owns most large companies, provides all services for its people, but the people also have many economic freedoms and choices. Advantages are that people still have freedom to make economic choices as opposed to communism, generally lower poverty rates, very low income gap between high and low wage workers. Disadvantages are slower economic growth, less entrepreneurial opportunities. \n\nCapitalism = free market, privately owned companies, people own their own businesses, but people must also buy their own services since they are generally not provided by the government. There is always competition in the marketplace, but often companies just strive for profit.\n\nTotalitarianism = Country rules by one political party, and what they say goes. Everyone must follow their orders. Can get things done efficiently, but often with only one party in power, bad decisions get made and they go power-crazy/corrupt.\n\nFascism = A type of totalitarianism in which the government is controlled by an extreme right-wing party (prime example being the Nazi party in WWII Germany)\n\nNazism = basically fascism which resembles WWII Nazi party actions and views.\n\nDemocracy = government by the people for the people. The people get to elect their public officials and who gets to be in power and lead their country. Advantages are that everyone's voice gets heard. Disadvantage is that they tend to be extremely inefficient due to the fact that everyone gets a voice.\n\nTheocracy = Government where rulers rule on behalf of a religion and religious values. Basically, the religion of that country runs the government and dictates the government's actions.\n\nAnarchy = no government.\n\nHope this helped!",
"To start, of the 6 examples you gave, three aren't types of government, two are basically the same thing, and one is more of a class of government. But I shall press on.\n\n**Types of government**\n\n* Anarchy [No government. Marxist communism falls here] Pros: The pros are mostly ideological, individualism taken to it's extreme. \nCons- Nothing preventing any crime, impossible to organize more than 20 people toward a common goal\n\n* Direct Democracy [Each citizen votes directly on every issue] - Pros: Everyone gets a voice in the government, which keeps people happy. No leaders to screw over the common man for their own gain. \nCons: Wildly impractical on any relevant scale; people are stupid and might vote for stupid things, 51% of the population can vote to screw over the other 49% however they like.\n\n* Republicanism [Citizens vote for representatives who then in turn vote on issues] - Pros: More conservative, unlikely to take any radical action, Career politicians can make nuances decisions, people can still hold their representatives accountable. \nCons: Career politicians get less accountable the longer they're in office, often unresponsive to change, politics becomes massively convoluted thus requiring career politicians\n\n* Aristocracy/Oligarchy [Small group of people in charge of everything] - Pros: Politicians (Aristocrats) have deep personal interest in the land they rule over, politicians careers not in jeopardy over a single gaffe, politicians can focus on doing what they believe is best rather than what the people want, Politicians can be trained from birth for their job. \nCons: Unavoidable and unalterable class system, Aristocrats can do whatever they want to the lower classes, aristocrats generally don't care about the workers, inevitable and purposeful wealth inequality\n\n* Dictatorship [One person in charge of everything] - Dictator deep personal interest in the land they rule over, dictator can focus on doing what they believe is best rather than what the people want, Dictator can be trained from birth for their job. \nCons: Unavoidable and unalterable class system, Dictator can do whatever he/she wants, dictators generally don't care about the workers, inevitable and purposeful wealth inequality, Generally unhappy people\n\n* Fascism [Very poorly defined. Generally means industries/corporations control government. Nazism was a form of fascism] - Pros: Strong economies \nCons: Stratified class system, usually nationalistic, usually militaristic, usually a police state, usually a dictator\n\n\n",
"This question assumes that all socialist systems, or all fascist systems, etc. are the same, this is simply not that case.\n\nSocialism/communism (which are ALMOST the same thing theoretically) in Western Europe, for example worked very well and led to increased living standards, better societies and didnt lead to blood thirsty dictators.\n\nSocialism in places like Russia and China on the other hand led to ruthless dictatorships which look more like fascist states than they do like idealized socialism.\n\nThis really goes for all the ideologies you mentioned, except Nazism, Nazism is always bad. Arguably China has a fascist system now (although you could also call it communist, which proves how useless these terms are) and they are doing pretty well, while other fascist countries are mired in poverty.\n\nIn places like America, Democracy is seen as the obvious best choice for running a society, but in Egypt and other places democracy is seen as an invitation to partisan bloodletting and chaos.\n\nInstead of looking at broad ideologies you should look at places/situations where the ideologies were tried out. All of these systems look good on paper, the cons dont come out until we try them in real life."
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yv5ec | Is ADD a real thing? Is that disorder questionable? Why do so many laymen roll their eyes about ADD? | I've honestly never been sure if ADD is a real thing or not. I can't tell if it's just a pop-psychology fad, or a real problem needing treatment and medication that a lot of people have. I'm sorry if this question is vague.
What's the current scientific consensus on ADD/ADHD? Is it a legitimate disorder? | askscience | http://www.reddit.com/r/askscience/comments/yv5ec/is_add_a_real_thing_is_that_disorder_questionable/ | {
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"Yes. It's probably overdiagnosed due to the difficulty of differentiating child behavioral problems (often related to family problems), childhood onset bipolar disorder, and ADHD, as well as a whole slew of other learning disorders like auditory processing problems. Exacerbated by the fact that it is often initially diagnosed and treated by primary care physicians instead of specialists, but it is a real thing.",
" > Is ADD a real thing?\n\nYes.\n\n > Is that disorder questionable?\n\nIt's more complex than people realized when it first became a mainstream concept. There are variations in what causes the behaviors associated with the diagnosis, as well as variations in the behaviors themselves depending on differences between people, and other elements at work in an individual. Someone who experiences ADD can also suffer from other ailments which result in a unique response to the combination of effects.\n\n > Why do so many laymen roll their eyes about ADD?\n\nIt's still being studied and understood, and the rapid pace of change in the field, coupled with a large influx of new diagnoses due to its recent pop culture prominence has led a lot of people to be automatically suspicious about the idea. Add to that the fact that many parents see solving the ADD problem as the key to solving all their child's problems, and it's understandable that there is more skepticism in the public at large.",
"i have ADD and it's a very real disorder. most people don't really understand it, so you cant expect people that aren't familiar with it to understand it. i don't use medication b/c i've developed coping mechanisms and am smart, so i can hide it well.\n\nthe biggest reason to doubt it is the rapid rise in diagnoses in the last ~30 years. obesity has also seen a rapid rise over the last 30 years. the problem is you cant look at someone and tell they have ADD whereas you can tell if they're overweight.\n\nthere's new research that the cause of ADD is sugar (same with obesity) and after quitting sugar, things just seem easier for me."
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8w51o4 | how can someone physically consume 74 hot dogs and what is the "aftermath" like? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/8w51o4/eli5_how_can_someone_physically_consume_74_hot/ | {
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"For the consumption, practice. They need to eat progressively larger amounts of food or liquids per a period of time so their stomach can (somewhat) comfortably stretch to hold it all and they can get used to eating/drinking way past their body’s ‘I feel full’ point. I don’t know about the rest, it isn’t talked about much.\n\n\nEdit: Liquids too.",
"It’s a process of gradually eating more and more food to help expand your stomach. Also being able to chew and break up the food is important as well. Smaller pieces of food will pack inside a stomach a lot more efficiently. Having strong monster jaws helps a lot. \n\nAll competitive eaters purge after these competitions. That’s the aftermath, lots of puke. \n\nEdit: most competitions don’t let you puke or make you hold it in for a certain amount of time. During training they will puke a lot. ",
"There was an episode of some TV show, I think it was MTV's True Life that followed competitive eaters preparing for the Nathan's hot dog competition in New York. The reigning champ was some tiny Japanese guy. He basically just worked out all day, and when he wasn't working out he was stretching his stomache by eating pounds of food. Obviously he worked up to that point, but that's the general idea.\n\nEat a ton of food every day and exercise enough to maintain your health.",
"In a way it's like a lot of other sports at a professional level. It takes an insane amount of time, commitment, and practice to be able to eat that much in ten minutes. It's not like you just get there. Chestnut had to gradually work his way up to being able to eat that many hot dogs in ten minutes.\n\nAKA Mr. Chestnut probably writes Oscar Meyer a lot of checks ",
"You can be genetically suited to eating more. It's dependent on how low your stomach is allowing it to expand more. There are records of professional eater's stating that they do not throw up. They train to eat more each time to increase their capacity. If they throw up, that attempt is a fail. The body didn't \"improve\".",
"Competitive eaters (at least, the successful ones) have expanded their stomachs over time, so they can fit way more inside. Instead of the stomach being a pouch, for them it’s more like a bag. There’s space in your abdomen, so that’s what it’s expanding into and using.",
"Mates a competitive eater. He trains regularly for it by eating lots of tough, filling food so that he can fit more in and chew easier. There’s a whole lot of strategy involved as well with how you eat the meal and what you eat first. Afterwards he usually just doesn’t eat for a day then is fine.",
"Furious Pete, a pretty well known Canadian competitive eater and one of the best iirc, said in one of his videos that most of the food he forces down his throat doesn't even get chewed up and digested properly, so his poop comes out with half digested food. I guess that's the aftermath. ",
"ELI5: Why would someone spend time learning how to eat 74 hot dogs? ",
"There are far worse things than \"just\" eating 74 hot dogs. Take this guy for example:\n\n[_URL_0_](_URL_0_)",
"If I eat one hot dog, I get diarrhea, so my guess would be that you would get 74 diarrheas.",
"Is this 8 seconds per hotdog for 10 minutes or is my math off?",
"I actually know a lot about this! \n\nTraining involves eating a high volume of low calorie foods and letting it pass naturally. A common thing would be eating an entire head of cabbage and drinking a gallon of water in an hour. This is a large volume that doesn’t put much into the body in terms of calories, so they can do it fairly often and maintain their health.\n\nOne reason that everyone up there was so skinny is because of the “fat belt” phenomenon. This is where the larger you are, the more your fat belt restricts the expansion of your stomach. Many of the gurgitators (the unofficial name of professional eaters) are pretty athletic people and go to the gym often.\n\nAs far as the aftermath, it’s somewhat of a pride point to not throw the food back up. It doesn’t disqualify you to do so after the time frame, but most of the top eaters pass it all naturally. \n\nIf you have continued interest in the topic, read “Eat This Book” published about 12 years ago. It talks about many of the famous eaters, how the circuit got started, and the other glorious adventures of professional eaters.",
"Those guys eat tons of lettuce and drink tons of water to expand their stomachs. They also dip bread in water to make it go down easier.",
"My husband put away a 12 pack of dogs in one day ONCE. Thank goodness, only once. Granted, he is not a competitive eater, but the aftermath was FOUL & SOCIALLY UNACCEPTABLE. Oh boy, it was bad. So bad. For about two or 3 days. ",
"I don't have an answer but at my job we had a contest of our own. Same rules, buns, dogs, 10 mins. Let me tell you, it isn't fun, but I won.\n\n\n\nWith 7....",
"Professional eating is just that, professional. It's a real sport that requires real training, that being gradual growing and stretching of the stomach, usually through drinking copious amounts of water, (like gallons a day), accompanied by a healthy diet and exercise regimen. As for the aftermath I've heard about stomach aches but unless they *really* Puch themselves that's about the and of it.",
"I take it this post was made with the thought of the Nathan hotdog eating competition today on tv. Probably explains why all Nathan's aside from the jumbo were sold out at my HEB. Won't lie though.. Bought the Jumbo's and they taste good but I could use a nap now. \n\nAnyone who watched it...did you hear the intro to the 70 year old man about coffee and dying? Lol",
"I’ve gone drinking with them after the big hot dog eating contest and Krystal burger contests a few years back. After the Nathan’s contest they go to a bar on Coney Island and drink... then go to another bar later that night and drink a whole lot more. ",
"Wow! A reddit thread that I can sorta relate too. I have witness and partaken In eating 16 of the 74 Hot dogs my friend bought at a cantine in Quebec, needless to say he got up to 35 before throwing up and then gave the rest to his dog which then puked after eating the rest",
"One time I let my dog eat 15 hot dogs in one sitting. Then he took a nap. That night he wet the bed. The next day his poop was normal. I was mostly boggled that his poop was normal.",
"They should have a competitive corn eating contest. There's some aftermath for ya, visualize that!",
"_URL_0_\n\nWatch this. It’s about mukbangs or people who eat a lot of food in front of the camera \nThis girl is kinoshita Yuka and shows you how her stomach expands to fit all the food ",
"ESPN has an interesting [article](_URL_0_) that highlights how Chestnut prepares for his competitions.",
"Joey chestnut fasts for 36 hours before this event. Then chugs a shit ton of water to stretch his stomach. It’s insane to eat 73 hotdogs in 10 mins but I guess there is always a strategy when your the best in the world at anything",
"I've always been curious how is competitors can eat 69 hot dogs in a row or 80 tacos and not gain any weight but I had a cheeseburger on Wednesday in a gain 5 pounds by Thursday."
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399fc7 | why does ac´s have hot and cold mode, if it lets you select the temperature? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/399fc7/eli5why_does_acs_have_hot_and_cold_mode_if_it/ | {
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"When you select a temperature, you're not setting what temperature the air coming out of the AC is. The AC can only produce two temperatures of air: warm and cold.\n\nThe temperature setting is called a \"setpoint\". It's the temperature than the thermostat needs to move past before the AC turns on, and whether the AC turns on when moving above or below the temperature is determined by whether you select \"heat\" or \"cool\".\n\nFor example, you set the AC to 70 degrees Fahrenheit, and set it to cool. If the temperature of the air near the thermostat raises above 70 degrees, the AC will start blowing cold air until the temperature falls back below 70 degrees, and then it will shut off.\n\nIf you set the AC to 70 degrees Fahrenheit, and set it to *heat*, the AC will turn on if the temperature in the house falls *below* 70 degrees, and will blow warm air until the temperature rises back up to 70."
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244kzj | Are there any documented battles between Greek style Hoplite Armies (or something resembling them) and Roman javelin and sword type armies? | AskHistorians | http://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/244kzj/are_there_any_documented_battles_between_greek/ | {
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"It depends how close to hoplite army you want to be \n\nThe [Hoplite period](_URL_3_) of Greece ended shortly after the end of the Peloponnesian War, between 400 and 350, when there was an increased reliance on mercenaries, a less hierarchical formation, and less formality in conflict (i.e., more sacking of cities, and noncombatant involvement, less ransom and mercy). \n\nSkip forward to 191 BCE, when the Achaean League incorporates Sparta and Messene, covering the whole region of Achaea (generally the lower half of Greece as we know it today). In Second and First centuries the Achaean army was primarily mercenary light infantry and cavalry. The portion of the army that was conscripted from the citizens of each of the cities mainly consisted of light infantry, which may have been partly javelin or spear throwers, and cavalry. There were also conscripts of heavy infantry called hoplites, but were a small portion of the army and were similar to the Classical hoplites in name only. \n\nSecond century Rome is in the middle republic. Around 160 Polybius wrote Histories, part of which details the middle republican [army.](_URL_1_) \n\n > The second rank, the Hastati, are ordered to have the\ncomplete panoply. This to a Roman means, first, a large shield (scutum), the surface of which is curved outwards, its breadth two and a half feet, its length four feet,—though there is also an extra sized shield in which these measures are increased by a palm's breadth. It consists of two layers of wood fastened together with bull's-hide glue; the outer surface of which is first covered with canvas, then with calf's skin, on the upper and lower edges it is bound with iron to resist the downward strokes of the sword, and the wear of resting upon the ground. Upon it also is fixed an iron boss (umbo), to resist the more formidable blows of stones and pikes, and of heavy missiles generally. With the shield they also carry a sword (gladius） hanging down by their right thigh, which is called a Spanish sword. It has an excellent point, and can deal a formidable blow with either edge, because its blade is stout and unbending. In addition to these they have two pila, a brass helmet, and greaves (ocreae). Some of the pila are thick, some fine. Of the thicker, some are round with the diameter of a palm's length, others are a palm square. The fine pila are like moderate sized hunting spears, and they are carried along with the former sort. The wooden haft of them all is about three cubits long; and the iron head fixed to each half is barbed, and of the same length as the haft. They take extraordinary pains to attach the head to the haft firmly; they make the fastening of the one to the other so secure for use by binding it half way up the wood, and riveting it with a series of clasps, that the iron breaks sooner than this fastening comes loose, although its thickness at the socket and where it is fastened to the wood is a finger and a half's breadth. Besides these each man is decorated with a plume of feathers, with three purple or black feathers standing upright, about a cubit long. The effect of these being placed on the helmet, combined with the rest of the armour, is to give the man the appearance of being twice his real height, and to give him a noble aspect calculated to strike terror into the enemy. The common soldiers also receive a brass plate, a span square, which they put upon their breast and call a breastpiece (pectorale), and so complete their panoply. Those who are rated above a hundred thousand asses, instead of these breastpieces wear, with the rest of their armour, coats of mail (loricae). The Principes and Triarii are armed in the same way as the Hastati, except that instead of pila they carry long spears (hastae).\n\nRome took Corinth, the last holdout polis of the Achaeans, in 146, effectively taking Greece until Mithridates and the [Mithridatic Wars.](_URL_4_)\n\nPolybius wrote a lot about middle republican armies, and Livy wrote about the Mithridatic Wars in Ad Urbe Condita starting around Book [70.](_URL_0_)\n\nOther sources\n\n[Timeline of Greece and Rome for references](_URL_6_)\n\n[A nice paper on the Achaean League and its politics](_URL_7_)\n\n[Military history of Middle to Late Republican Rome](_URL_5_)\n\n[More on the Achaean League](_URL_2_)\n\n"
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"http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.02.0150%3Abook%3D70",
"http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:abo:tlg,0543,001:6:19",
"http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/e/gazetteer/topics/history/Achaean_League/Britannica_1911*.html",
"http://courses.temple.edu/pericles/ober.htm",
"http://www.fordham.edu/Halsall/ancient/mithradates1.asp",
"http://www.usna.edu/Users/history/abels/hh205/fall%20of%20the%20republic.htm",
"http://people.umass.edu/dfleming/english704-timeline.html",
"http://content.lib.utah.edu/utils/getfile/collection/etd3/id/1920/filename/1917.pdf"
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70lz4y | why do manufacturers have english and metric nuts and bolts in the same system? isn't is cheaper to be consistent? | I noticed a lot of times when I'm working on a project that I'll have bolts that are 10mm or 15mm, then other bolts that are 5/8 or 1/2 inch. Sometimes it makes sense, e.g. my Toyota and Acura cars seemed to always have Metric parts and my bicycles (Huffy, Roadmaster) always seemed to have english.
Lately, though, it seems that it doesn't matter what brand something is, I can never predict whether the bolt will be english or metric. I was working on an Oldsmobile and it had a 1/2 inch bolt on the front of a bracket and 2x 15mm bolts on the back.
Is there a reason for this? It seems arbitrarily difficult and time consuming to swap out sockets all the time. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/70lz4y/eli5_why_do_manufacturers_have_english_and_metric/ | {
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"The US is still on its own measurements system despite (almost) every other country on Earth switching to metric decades ago. \n\nThis causes problems and confusion any time there is an insistence on using US measurements. "
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5oz66q | why do presidents wait until the very last week of their presidency to pardon convicted inmates, rather than doing it earlier on? | For example, Obama's comment regarding the 330 inmates he just pardoned was that he was trying to correct systematic injustice. So why did he wait 8 years to do it? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5oz66q/eli5_why_do_presidents_wait_until_the_very_last/ | {
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"Pardons are the most politically controversial thing a president can do. He's probably doing them for the right reason, but it would've made his re-election/presidency far more complicated if he'd done the pardons earlier.\n\nAlso, tradition.",
"There are two reasons.\n\nOne it's a bit of a tradition to grant some clemency as part of the final acts.\n\nSecondly an out going president is basically immune from political blow back so it's an opportune moment.\n\nFor one it will get mostly ignored what with the big news of having a new president, and even if people do notice you can't exactly punish the prez for it since they are entering retirement and don't need to win a popularity contest anymore.",
"Pardons tend to be somewhat to very unpopular with at least one of the President's constituents (usually at least the victim/their relatives but sometimes a much larger group). That means each pardon will make it incrementally harder to accomplish anything that requires congressional support or approval (some of the upset people will lobby congress to oppose the President's agenda). So most presidents wait until they have no time left for other Presidential goals to begin the pardon/clemency process. "
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1mz4gd | Is there any documentation of the death of Jesus in Rome at the time of his crucifixion? Or was he considered a petty criminal? | AskHistorians | http://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/1mz4gd/is_there_any_documentation_of_the_death_of_jesus/ | {
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"Supporters of the [mythical Jesus theory](_URL_0_) point out that we don't know of any non-biblical corroboration of his existence. We have a mention in currently known transcriptions of Flavius Josephus' history book, but there are very good reasons to think that those were added much later by a copist. \n\nKeep in mind that most ancient texts have only survived through milleniums in a very limited number of copies, and even then, mostly as fragments, palimpsests, or quotations. In this case, it looks like all the modern copies are descendants of a single copy made by a monk in one monastery. Imagine that monk, a fervent believer, ... how could a text of that era not mention our Lord, Jesus Christ! Surely, it must have been a mistake ... well you get the idea. \n\n"
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8138rh | why do blood drives collect all types of blood, instead of prioritizing o- and o+ donors? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/8138rh/eli5_why_do_blood_drives_collect_all_types_of/ | {
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"If there were an unlimited supply, it would make sense to prioritize the donors whose blood is the most compatible. But that's not the case; donations generally keep pace with the demand for blood but in the United States, there's not a large surplus. So it's more practical to collect and use blood of the same type when possible, and to save the most compatible blood for when no other match is available. Why turn away a willing and eligible blood donor?",
"There isn't a massive supply of O donors, blood banks already have shortages. In an ideal world, they'd have an unlimited supply of type O blood from donors. So having a decent supply of the other types lets them save the O types for situations where they are unable to find sufficient A, B or AB. ",
"Not all blood goes into random accident victims. Those random victims are the ones you have to give O- blood to.\n\nIf you're going into a surgery why would you waste O- blood when you can just use another matching blood type? Even O+ blood (The most common type) doesn't go into everyone. So you'd much rather use those rarer blood types if you have them on hand.",
"There are more blood groups than ABO and the Rh groups as well. Some patients who receive transfusion to stay alive (transfusion dependant) will constantly be exposed to some of the smaller blood groups (eg K, M, S, Fya/b, Jka/b, Kpa) that they don't have.\n\nSometimes our bodies will recognise these as foreign and launch a full immune response against them, and they can't have that blood anymore. Anyone from a stab victim, pregnant lady, cancer patient can have this response.\n\nSo take an A Pos patient. They can have A Pos, A Neg, O Pos and O Neg blood. It is a great blood group to have. They have a 2 unit transfusion at some point in their life and are exposed to say the Kell (K) blood group antigen which they don't have. They develop an immune response to it.\n\nThey now can't have K+ blood..... and the second unit they got also has Fya antigen which they don't have - their immune system responds to that as well. They can't have that anymore either. \n\n3% of the population has K+ blood. Their available pool shrinks. \n87.4% of people are Fya+. Their available pool shrinks.\n\nSo now you have someone who requires a blood bag that is K-,Fya- in order to not hurt/kill them. Their ABO blood group already restricts the blood they can have (they can't have B or AB blood) and now these antibodies are there too.\n\nRed Cross (or whoever does it where you are) have no idea what they are getting every time they do a blood run (or even a new donor). Every person's donation is precious because it COULD be the only unit in the bank that is negative to seven different antigens that some poor chemo patient has an immune response to and they need that specific unit of blood to say alive. \n\nBlood banking can be a complex logic puzzle and you don't always have the pieces available on hand... banks need all the donations they can get which is why they don't block based on ABO group."
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1gikro | What was Hamiltonianism and what did it become between 1790-1850? | AskHistorians | http://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/1gikro/what_was_hamiltonianism_and_what_did_it_become/ | {
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"Hamiltonanism was a political/economic belief in a Strong central government, encouragment of national industries and commercial economy and a distrust of the common man. The ideas of it still have no left us according to Michael Lind. It has been a persistent battle between Jeffersonian agriculturalists vs Hamiltonian commercialists. Its platform was carried by prominent politicans like Henry Clay in the 1830s and was somewhat carried out by the Presidency of John Quincy Adams. \n\n_URL_0_\nMichael Lind: *Land of Promise: An economic history of the United States*"
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3wr9pe | I've heard Islam and the Arab Caliphates were heavily influenced by Persian culture and traditions. Why is that and what are some examples? | AskHistorians | https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/3wr9pe/ive_heard_islam_and_the_arab_caliphates_were/ | {
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"An interesting read on this issue, mainly is about women's position in Islamic societies but gives quite a good idea about Persian (actually, Mesopotamian) influence over Islam and Islamic states: _URL_0_",
"Persians dramatically outnumbered Arabs. They were vastly wealthier, had a tremendously larger cultural tradition, including literacy, and they were more urban and sophisticated. The Umayyads tried hard to keep the Arabs ruling the Near East segregated from local populations in order to maintain Arab cultural unity, but in the far-flung areas of Khorasan (what is today Uzbekistan) this proved impossible, and Arabs and Persians mingled a great deal. The Persians had more wealth and culture, so they tended to make the Arabs more Persian than the converse.\n\nA good example of this is when al-Mansour built Baghdad in the 760s. The city was arranged in such a way as to conform to Persian obsessions with astrology, and when Mansour was installed, he had it done in the manner of a Persian king.",
"I'll speak mainly within the purview of Al-Tabari's texts and the Abbasid Dynasty as that is within my.area of familiarity. \n\nTo understand why the Persians had such an influence on the Abbasids we can start at the placement of the new capital of the Caliphate in Baghdad. Given its close proximity near the former Sassanid capital, this hints that at least geographically, the Abbasids had grown to rely on Persian bureaucracy and governance as a model. Furthermore, some theorize (though Al-Tabari highly suggests this) that the Abbasid connection to Persian rule was a way to cement legitimacy beyond the immediate area. Notably we see a large sponsorship of scientific and literary works from the Abbasids that were not written or translated to not only Arabic, but also Persian. Similar to the Byzantines at the time who continued the tradition of writing and producing literature in Greek, its possible that much of the Persian influence that the Abbasids borrowed from were products of a teleological justification.\n\nLiterary continuity commentaries aside, quite a lot of works that comes from the Abbasid Caliphate ended up being written in Persian and Arabic and the large projects translation of Greek and Roman philosophical works resulted in both Arabic and Persian transcriptions. Perhaps more pertinently, the political rise of the Abbasids depended on cooperation of the Persians against the Umayyads and though there was political friction afterwards, the prevalence of Persian political figures and people within the Abbasid Caliphate resulted in a much more inclusive rule.\n\nI'm fairly certain there are many aspects I've missed, so if anyone has any addons, feel free to add addendums.",
"Let me start of with a bit of a generalization, and then I'll try my best to support it. The society of the Arabian Peninsula was one that was constituted of a a largely oral cultural tradition, governed with tribal affiliation rather than the bureaucracy and politics we are familiar with, and without the same sheer infrastructure that we see in the Byzantine, Sassanid, and Old Roman Empires. This means that when they powerful Arab armies took over lands outside the Arab peninsula, they began to borrow from them on a cultural level, and administrative level, and on an architectural/structural level. They would be quite impressed by the way that foreign emperors would live, the massive architecture of these different civilizations, and they would find a great deal of use in the bureaucratic structures that helped other empires govern their multiethnic domains (much like the Arabs were, as you can't structure your politics around tribal relations completely when there are people that don't fit into that tribal mosaic.). I am not much of an Art Historian, or one too well versed in Architecture, so I will focus on the administrative/political level (art and architecture is important, and I could talk about it, but I only know about it inasmuch as I can relate it to the political and administrative so I don't really want to start taking authority in that area.) \n\nSo the first work I'd like to introduce you to is \"The Administration of Abbasids Caliphate: A Fateful Change in the Muslim History\" by Mohammed Tahir, a great Pakistani academic, in *The Pakistan Journal of Commerce and Social Sciences*. In the beginning of his article, he actually conceptualizes the defeat of the Umayyads and the Rise of the Abbasids, as well as the change of capital from Damascus to Baghdad as a battle of influences. The Capital had already been moved from Medina to Damascus, because of the centralization, and in a sense to also remove the Capital from its semi-nomadic roots in the desert to the high culture of the Byzantine/Levantine cultural sphere, though they retained a largely Arab-Centric Society and leadership. He argues that much of the ways that the Caliphs would begin to present themselves and operate during the Umayyad Caliphate was influenced by the way the Byzantine emperor operated, and it greatly influenced the more political nature of the Caliph ul-Islam. This influence would be changed when the Abbasids would adopt a far more Persianised point of view. They would move the capital towards Baghdad, and create a sort of Second person capital, and a new more persian empire on the remains of the more Arab Kingdom that they had vanquished to the far ends of Al-Andalus. (Although to be fair the Capital was actually moved to Kufa, then to Baghdad, then it had a stint in Ar-Raqqah and Samarra for short periods in between being in Baghdad as well). The Abbasids used the discontent of the Arabic centric politics that didn't really work with the growing diversity of the empire, to take control of it -- much of this misbalance was owed to what was effectively the swallowing of Persia and in turn its people and their culture. \n\nIt is also important to consider linguistic politics here as well. The Persian language, unlike many others in the region, took on a really important role. The language adopted an arabic writing system, and there was actually a great deal of patronage for works in the Persian language -- entire bodies of work and poetry in the Persian language flourished and the language itself would interact a great deal with Arabic and help create Arabic vernaculars. Much of these details can be discussed in Hayrettin Yucesoy's work \"Language of Empire: Politics of Arabic and Persian in the Abbasid World.\", he is a professor of the Medieval Middle East at WUStL. \n\nThe Abbasids would employ Persian methods of administration and bureaucracy, and even had many persians occupy important positions in government, marking a movement away from the ethnic rulership of the Arabs over all others (actually one of the Reasons the Umayyad fell in the first place). They also would adopt, from the Sassanid emperor, the idea of a Caliph who ruled with the divine sanctioning of God, a concept that would forever mark the position. The court life of the Caliphate would look much like that of the Persians, and the Caliph would wear a black turban, carry a staff of the prophet, and have the Quran before him on his throne as every one of his attendants and officials would kiss his hand when greeting him. They borrowed their system of investiture from the Persians as well. \n\nThey would also institute the Wazirate, a Wazir being a sort of prime minister, someone invested with all the sovereign powers to help the Caliph rule. They were often Persian, and would help in this transformation of administration. In addition other offices, such as that of an Executioner, and a diplomatic corps. The position of Wazir would exist and die with the Abbasid caliphate. So to conclude, the Abbasid Caliphate was emerged in a way as a more persianised alternative to the Umayyads, and they would go onto use Persian administration and language (and also artistic culture that I hope someone will be able to discuss more than I could.) I hope that gives you some insight, and if you'd like to know more, feel free to ask! "
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145dsi | How did Japan end up calling itself by China's name for the country: "Land of the Rising Sun"? | I did a little research, and confirmed that "Land of the Rising Sun" is the name that China used for the islands of Japan. That's fine.
But how did *Japan* then end up using China's name for itself? "Nippon"/"Nihon" translates as "the sun's origin". That would be like Canada calling itself "Country closer to the Arctic" (because of USA), or Australia calling itself "Land of the Setting Sun" (because of New Zealand). How did Japan come to adopt China's name for it as its own name for itself? Was Japan a territory of China at some point?
| AskHistorians | http://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/145dsi/how_did_japan_end_up_calling_itself_by_chinas/ | {
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"Interesting question, and I don't know the answer, but I'd guess during the 700s-800s. That was when Japan imported Chinese culture wholesale, from the writing system to the architecture to Buddhism to entire sections of the language. (even today, Japanese use Chinese prononciation in some cases; for instance, the \"shin\" in \"Shinto\" is the same word as the \"kami\" in \"Kamikaze\"; in the latter case it's pronounced in native Japanese, in the former it's pronounced as the Chinese did [modern Chinese: \"shen\"]).\n\nAlso, Australia does call itself \"Down Under,\" which only makes sense from a non-Australian perspective.",
"I was seriously just wondering about this a couple hours ago. The word \"Japan\" is also etymologically related to \"Nihon/Nippon\" as well as to the modern Mandarin name /ʐɿ.pən/. After all these years I'd only just today put that together, the connection to the English name I mean.\n\n/u/Tiako ought to show up and answer your question. That guy knows his shit.",
"No, \"Ni-hon\" (日本, sun origin, or sun root) was not China's original name for Japan. In the early Chinese dynastic histories, the Japanese islands and the people there were reffered to as \"Wa\" (倭), which means \"land of the dwarves\" or \"land of the stunted rice plants\". How the name changed, so to speak, is somewhat confusing.\n\nThe following is a passage from the New Tang History:\n\"In the first year of Hsien-heng [670] an embassy came to the court from Japan to offer congratulations upon the conquest of Koguryo. About this time, the Japanese who had studied Chinese came to dislike the name Wa and changed it to Nippon. According to the words of the Japanese envoy himself, that name was chosen because the country was so close to where the sun rises. Some say... that Nippon was a small country which had been subjugated by the Wa, and that the latter took over its name. As this envoy was not truthful, doubt still remains.\"\n\nThis passage raises some questions - who were the Wa, then? And who are these people who suddenly conquered a territory from the Wa? Nevermind that we're looking through the distorted lens of the Tang dynastic histories, with its Sinocentric perspective.\n\nThere's another interesting exchange between China (more specifically, the Sui) and the Japanese court at Yamato. The Japanese sent a diplomatic message to the Sui which read, \"The Son of Heaven of the land where the sun rises sends this letter to the Son of Heaven of the land where the sun sets. [I] wish you well.\" Wang Zhenping argues that the Sui court accidentally accepted this message from Japan, inadvertently legitimizing Japan's claims of sovereignty and equality with the Sui emperor. This isn't covered in the Tang histories and seems relevant as well in the \"approval\" of Japan's new, less diminutive moniker.",
"It reminds me of the meaning of \"Ukraine\", \"borderland\".",
"While your question has already been answered pretty well, I just wanted to add one little piece of trivia that might be tangentially related. Japans' oldest religion involved them worshipping Amaterasu, who is both their sun god and the creator of the universe. So the sun already played a large role in their society (not that it doesn't in others), so I would imagine being \"the place where the sun rises\" has a sort of appeal for them.",
"I wonder how common it is for a country to choose its name. After all, its inhabitants will call it \"The Country\" or, like Chinese, \"the country that is in the middle\" (I personally find it hilarious) but in a place like Europe, you can't have 20 countries called \"Center\"",
"On a side note, I've always been curious why we call it \"Japan\" if the name of the country is actually \"Ni-hon\". In case anyone else was wondering, here is what [Wikipedia has to say about it.](_URL_0_)\n\n > The word \"Japan\" (or \"Japon\") is an exonym, and is used (in one form or another) by a large number of languages.\n\n > The English word for Japan came to the West from early trade routes. The early Mandarin Chinese or possibly Wu Chinese word for Japan was recorded by Marco Polo as Cipangu. The modern Shanghainese (a dialect of the Wu Chinese language (呉語) or topolect) pronunciation of characters 日本 (Japan) is still Zeppen [zəʔpən]. The old Malay word for Japan, Jepang (modern spelling Jepun, although Indonesian has retained the older spelling), was borrowed from a Chinese language, and this Malay word was encountered by Portuguese traders in Malacca in the 16th century. It is thought the Portuguese traders were the first to bring the word to Europe. It was first recorded in English in 1577 spelled Giapan. \n\n > Though Nippon or Nihon are still by far the most popular names for Japan from within the country, recently the foreign words Japan and even Jipangu (from Cipangu, see below) have been used in Japanese mostly for the purpose of foreign branding.\n\n > As mentioned above, the English word \"Japan\" has a circuitous derivation; but linguists believe it derives in part from the Portuguese recording of the early Mandarin Chinese or Wu Chinese word for Japan: Cipan (日本), which is rendered in pinyin as Rìběn, and literally translates to \"sun origin\". Guó is Chinese for \"realm\" or \"kingdom\", so it could alternatively be rendered as \"Japan-guó\".\nCipangu was first mentioned in Europe in the accounts of the travels of Marco Polo. It appears for the first time on a European map with the Fra Mauro map in 1457, although it appears much earlier on Chinese and Korean maps such as the Kangnido. Following the accounts of Marco Polo, Cipangu was thought to be fabulously rich in silver and gold, which in Medieval times was largely correct, owing to the volcanism of the islands and the possibility to access precious ores without resorting to (unavailable) deep-mining technologies.\n\n > The modern Shanghainese pronunciation of Japan is Zeppen [zəʔpən]. In modern Japanese, Cipangu is transliterated as ジパング which in turn can be transliterated into English as Jipangu, Zipangu, Jipang, or Zipang. Jipangu (ジパング) as an obfuscated name for Japan has recently come into vogue for Japanese films, anime, video games, etc.\n"
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1ptv1j | why am i only bald on the top of my head and not the sides? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1ptv1j/eli5_why_am_i_only_bald_on_the_top_of_my_head_and/ | {
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"There's a lot of great articles online that go into the exact science behind it if you'd like to read up on it, but the basic version goes like this:\n\n\n1) The hair on the top of your head is genetically slightly different to the hair on the sides of your head. The hair on the sides of your head are \"closer\" to pubic hair - this is also the reason male pattern baldness (MPB)doesn't generally occur in the armpits / genital region / back / chest etc.\n\n2) The actual hair loss issue is when a hormone testosterone changes into another molecule dihydrotesterone (DHT) which \"attacks\" the hair follicles on the top of your head, causing them to gradually shrink then disappear.\n\nSidebar: Typically MPB is treated by two methods - orally taking a pill of finasteride (marketed as Propecia) which acts to \"disable\" the formation of DHT, combined with topically applied lotions of Minoxodil (marketed as Regaine or the like) which helps stop DHT from attacking the hair follicles directly.\n\nDisclaimer: I'm not a doctor and you should definitely have a chat to your local GP if you're having issues with MPB - they can save you a fortune you would spend with any of those hair clinics!!\n"
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sjmkx | What would happen if someone were to take a glass container out into space, close it, seal it, then take it back onto earth? | i was wondering this for a while. im not sure if its a stupid question or not...
thank you | askscience | http://www.reddit.com/r/askscience/comments/sjmkx/what_would_happen_if_someone_were_to_take_a_glass/ | {
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"If the container was strong enough, you'd have a glass container with a vacuum inside. If not, the container would implode when it returned to normal atmospheric pressure. The pressure of the atmosphere outside would push the walls of the container in, and there'd be nothing inside to push back.",
"Depending on the strength of the container, it would either implode or do nothing. You would have a container with nothing in it, not even air. Now it's hard to say what the chances are of having, say, *one* particle of something in there.\n\nAlso, depending on the mechanism used to open/close the container, it would be very hard to open, and once it was open, would immediately fill with atmosphere.",
"If the container was strong enough, it would simply contain a very high quality vacume. Depending on how deep space you were in, and how long you left the container in space unsealed for it to establish a pressure equilibrium.\n\nHowever, for a glass container, the outside pressure on the surface of the earth would almost certainly cause it to implode. Due to the difference in pressure between the inside and outside.",
"Follow up question: how cold would the container be assuming it doesn't implode?",
"As a followup to this question I was wondering:\n\nWould it be possible to make a vacuum chamber large enough that it would displace enough air to float, or would it always end up imploding under the pressure?"
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24fqge | What were relations between Pinochet's Chile and the military regime of Argentina like? | AskHistorians | http://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/24fqge/what_were_relations_between_pinochets_chile_and/ | {
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"I don't know the specifics of this question and it was one that I would like to explore myself when I have a bit more free time. Both were brutal regimes and cooperated with each other (along with other nations of the Southern Cone) in Operation Condor, which was essentially a transnational repressive campaign against \"subversives.\" For more on Operation Condor, see John Dinges *[The Condor Years](_URL_1_).* One specific incident was the assassination of General Carlos Prats, who was a Chilean general who went into exile after the coup and was later killed in a car bombing in Argentina. Another interesting chapter was the Malvinas/Falklands War. Pinochet was a big supporter and admirer of Margaret Thatcher and allowed British planes to refuel in Chile, which didn't sit well with Argentina. I don't know of one specific book that explains this deeper, but it is mentioned (I believe) in Mary Helen Spooner's *[The General's Slow Retreat](_URL_0_),* which I highly recommend! I really enjoyed it, Spooner is a journalist and also has another book called *Soldiers in a Narrow Land.* The latter explains the Pinochet regime, while the former is what happened after Pinochet was out of power through Michele Bachelet's first presidency. I hope this helped! "
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"http://www.amazon.com/The-Condor-Years-Terrorism-Continents/dp/1565849779/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1399017435&sr=8-1&keywords=the+condor+years"
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doatrm | Communications (post, radio, red cross etc) between allies and axis during WW2? | I have read in a number of war memoirs that prisoners of war were occasionally able to send / receive mail and were also sent Red Cross care parcels.
In one case, the famous, double amputee, fighter pilot Douglas Bader was sent spare parts for his false legs with permission being given for a British aircraft to fly over German held territory and to drop the box of parts with a parachute attached.
So I am fascinated to know if postal services still ran during WW2?
Where allied Red Cross people safely working behind enemy lines?
In the case of Douglas Bader...somone in Germany must have been able to contact somone in the UK. Were there still consulates in each country? | AskHistorians | https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/doatrm/communications_post_radio_red_cross_etc_between/ | {
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"For the general situation of post and parcels, from a [previous answer of mine](_URL_4_):\n\nFor signatories of the 1929 Geneva Convention relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War, [Article 77](_URL_6_) stated: \n\n\"At the commencement of hostilities, each of the belligerent Powers and the neutral Powers who have belligerents in their care, shall institute an official bureau to give information about the prisoners of war in their territory.\n\nEach of the belligerent Powers shall inform its Information Bureau as soon as possible of all captures of prisoners effected by its armed forces, furnishing them with all particulars of identity at its disposal to enable the families concerned to be quickly notified, and stating the official addresses to which families may write to the prisoners.\"\n\nThe official bureau was the International Committee of the Red Cross in Geneva, who worked in conjunction with a Protecting Power (for British prisoners the United States, until their declaration of war when Switzerland became the Protecting Power), various national organisations (the American Red Cross, Australian Red Cross, British Red Cross Society and Order of Saint John of Jerusalem, etc.), and government bodies who held e.g. next-of-kin information. Families would typically be informed by the military that their relatives were missing, then prisoners of war once that information was confirmed; the Red Cross would also contact the family with information on how to send letters and parcels. A Red Cross card, often pre-printed, might also be sent by the prisoners themselves shortly after capture where available, to let their family know they were alive and safe; the Germans used a bogus form (initially labelled \"Red Cross\", later changed to not specifically name the Red Cross but marked \"Printed in Geneva\"), telling prisoners that if they completed it then it would greatly speed up the process of contacting their family. It asked for much more information than the standard name, rank and serial number (e.g. names of units, objectives, comrades etc.), and once word filtered back Allied personnel were warned not to complete it.\n\nSome idea of the scale of the undertaking can be seen in this [picture of records at the Central Prisoners of War Agency, Geneva](_URL_7_), from a University of Melbourne [blog post](_URL_3_) about their holding of Australian Red Cross cards relating to Missing, Wounded and Prisoner of War Enquiries.\n\nThere was no particular difference in sending packages to different branches of the services, but the circumstances were quite different between prisoners of Germany and those of Japan. There are some example online of family members who have published the various telegrams, letters etc. connected with a prisoner of war such as [Ken Fenton](_URL_2_), a Britsh airman held by Germany, and [Frank Larkin](_URL_5_), an Australian held by the Japanese. They both include Red Cross documents with guidance on how to send letters and parcels to prisoners. Guidance could also be found in Red Cross magazines that were published and sent to relatives of prisoners such as [\"Prisoners of War Bulletin\"](_URL_1_) in the US and \"The Prisoner of War\" in the UK, and the Great Britain Philatelic Society also has Post Office leaflets on communications with prisoners of war in [Europe](_URL_8_) and [Japan](_URL_0_). \n\n*****\n\nIn terms of Bader’s leg, the British were notified by radio. The radio station at North Foreland received a clear text message stating that Bader had lost his right leg and requested a new one, and granted permission for a leg to be dropped with the day and time to be communicated by radio. The RAF felt that such an arrangement would be used as a public relations opportunity by the Germans, though, so did not arrange safe passage, but rather dropped a replacement leg as part of Circus 81, a standard bombing operation. Andy Saunders’ *Bader’s Last Flight* has details of the operation, including a reproduction of the original telegram to Fighter Command HQ from North Foreland."
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"https://archive.org/details/PrisonersOfWarBullitin",
"https://kenfentonswar.com/stalag-ixc/",
"http://blogs.unimelb.edu.au/archives/a-humane-and-intimate-administration-the-red-cross-world-war-two-wounded-missing-and-prisoner-of-war-cards/",
"https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/9ggpge/how_did_pows_of_wwii_receive_packages/",
"http://pow.larkin.net.au/documents/",
"https://ihl-databases.icrc.org/applic/ihl/ihl.nsf/9ac284404d38ed2bc1256311002afd89/8dfed95c1e653fdac12563cd00519226",
"https://cpb-ap-se2.wpmucdn.com/blogs.unimelb.edu.au/dist/9/92/files/2017/05/Geneva-Bureau-2kuli6f.jpg",
"http://www.gbps.org.uk/information/downloads/files/airmail-leaflets/POWs-in-Europe.pdf"
]
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|
|
1cwxbb | Why haven't we discovered prehistoric art as well rendered as some of today's modern art? | I hope I am articulating the question correctly. Why does the typical "caveman" art seem to be so simple? Why, when I am told that the modern human brain hasn't changed much in hundreds of thousands of years, have we not found perfect sketches or portraits of landscapes or a person's face on cave walls? Of course modern pens or ink didn't exist, but be that as it may, I feel it's not a tall order for cave people to have been highly artistic. Were their thoughts or concepts of art merely simpler than ours? Have we just not found that art yet? | AskHistorians | http://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/1cwxbb/why_havent_we_discovered_prehistoric_art_as_well/ | {
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"It might be to do with awareness, education, intellectual development, available time/labour, but that is all speculative. There are of course some famous Modern (20th century) art that looked to reclaim some of the value of cave art, not only that the history of art was not a linear progression of time, but the drawings and marks weren't that simple. There are examples of religious iconography that were painted after the renaissance that ignore the mathematical principles of perspective, even though they would have been aware of it. Symbolism, as different to accurate, \"realistic\" representation has been seen by some as an attempt to represent non-explicit or more abstract stories and ideas.\n[edit:expansion]",
"The hypothesis I recall from the intro Art History class I took freshman year of college, and that I think makes sense, has to do with the function of the art. When you look at art from the Enlightenment, Renaissance, and so on, you're seeing stuff that was created with the purpose of being regarded as art. Its function is form, style, technique, etc. By contrast, the hypothesis I learned in Art History was that prehistoric cave art was more for functional purposes. Animals are painted to show other members of the tribe where to aim the spears and arrows (prehistoric targets) and to illustrate which animals are good for hunting and which should be avoided. Humans might be painted for self-reflection, to identify members of the tribe or friendly tribes, or to represent gods. The accuracy of the drawing isn't as important as the message attached to it, so it's less-emphasized.",
"We have. \"After [Chauvet](_URL_0_)\" said Picasso, \"all is decadence.\""
]
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[],
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tnj49 | What is the "ceiling" for perceivable video resolution? | So, with the increasing quality of video resolution, the number (720p, 1080p) being amount of pixels and pixel depth (from what I understand, I am also not very tech informed/savy. If I am misinformed, I would also love a bit of ELI5); what is the maximum resolution that can be achieved where any further progress would make no difference to how the human eye interprets a video image (assuming 20/20 vision). | askscience | http://www.reddit.com/r/askscience/comments/tnj49/what_is_the_ceiling_for_perceivable_video/ | {
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"In part, wouldn't this depend on the size of the screen we're talking about? Conventional wisdom claims that most people can't discern the difference between 720p and 1080p on a screen smaller than 40\", for example.\n\nI know YouTube has a few 4k videos now. How big does the screen need to be to be able to tell 4k from 1080p?",
"Apple's marketing team makes the claim that the \"Retina Display\" for their new iPad has such a high pixel density that further improvements wouldn't result in a higher perceived resolution (at normal viewing distances). \n\nHowever: \"For raster graphics, Apple Inc asserts that a display of approximately 300 ppi at a distance of 12 inches (305 mm) from one's eye, or 57 arcseconds per pixel[9] is the maximum amount of detail that the human retina can perceive.[10] Raymond Soneira, president of DisplayMate Technologies, however, stated that the resolution of the human retina is higher than claimed by Apple, working out to 477 ppi at 12 inches (305 mm) or 36 arcseconds per pixel.[11]\"\n\n_URL_0_",
"As it turns out there's some physical limitations to the ability of an optical system (your eye) to resolve detail, so lets take an extreme example and see how many pixels it would take.\n\nSo lets say you've got perfect vision and really big pupils. Lets also assume you're watching a relatively dim screen in a dark room so you're pupils are fully dilated. This gives us a 1cm aperture for your eye. Kind of insane really...\n\nSince you're in a dark room, you'd be getting the low light adjusted photopic response out of your eyes, but lets assume a fairly short wavelength of light to keep things interesting: The screen is a kinda bluish green of about 500 nm. The scotopic curve is still up around 30% here so its not completely out of the question.\n\nSo how close could those two blue-green dots get before they blend together? The resolving power of an error free optical system is limited by the wavelength of light and diameter of the aperture via:\n\n(smallest discernible angle between two bright spots) = (wavelength of light)/(aperture diameter)\n\nSome folks append a 1.22 multiplier to this equation, but that has to do with the depth of hte dip in intensity between the two bright lights and is kinda up for debate, so I'm going with the sharpest recognized limiting resolution for the sake of this calculation. Anyway, for your crazy huge eyes the smallest perceptible angle is going to be 5E-5 radians, or 10.3 arcseconds (much smaller than the rule of thumb limitation of the human eye of 60 arcseconds).\n\nTo compare to the present convention of describing a screen's resolution by its horizontal line count, we have to figure out how much of your field of view you would like to fill with screen. I'm going to go with ALL of your forward looking vertical field of view just for giggles. The Wikipedia indicates this is ±60°, so you've got a maximum of 41,888 rows. For simplicity's sake lets call this 42000P.\n\nNow a more reasonable aperture for the light adapted eye is about 4 mm, giving a maximum resolution of 25.8 arcseconds and a maximum screen resolution of 16755 rows, or something like 16800P.\n\nAlso, obviously it might be a little intimidating to completely fill a viewer's field of view, so perhaps something as small as half these numbers would be more appropriate. Taking 50% of the vertical extent of a person's field of view and using the looser \"rule of thumb\" resolution of the human eye of 60 arcseconds, you'd still get to 3600P.\n\nIn any case there's plenty of room for improvement beyond 1080P."
]
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2127vq | what is the tl;dr of terms and conditions that i always i agree to? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2127vq/eli5_what_is_the_tldr_of_terms_and_conditions/ | {
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"This is our stuff. You have to use our stuff the way we say. If our stuff breaks your stuff, it's not our fault. You can't give other people this stuff unless we say you can. That's the basics. There are some other nuances, but not many. I would highly recommend reading through one T & C all the way. Following that you can skim and look for anything fishy with relative ease."
]
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100bwe | Does Splenda have an effect on the teeth similar to other forms of dietary sugar? | askscience | http://www.reddit.com/r/askscience/comments/100bwe/does_splenda_have_an_effect_on_the_teeth_similar/ | {
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"Simply, no. \n\nDietary sugars are very dangerous simply because of their very high energy density, and persistence in the mouth (stickiness).\n\nBacteria metabolise these sugars into instant energy for themselves, but also secrete oligosaccharide chains (sugar molecules around 10 units long called *dextrans* units) in order to achieve a number of things:\n\n1. Aid adhesion to the tooth surface for themselves\n2. Store energy extraneously for other bacteria and itself to use when more sugar molecules are not readily available\n3. Aid other bacteria to stick to the tooth surface, thickening the plaque layer\n4. To create an oxygen-sparse \"anaerobic zone\" close to the tooth surface where more virulent strains can populate and breed\n5. To create an isolated environment on the surface of the tooth that increases the acidity on the tooth surface, and protects the bacteria from salivary products that inhibit them (e.g. carbonate, antibodies, etc.)\n\nSucrose (refined sugar, a joined glucose/fructose disaccharide) is the most dangerous sugar we know of, simply because of its potential energy being even higher than the seperate units of fructose and glucose combined - the bond between the units is also energy available to the bacteria for harvest!\n\nThe molecules in sweeteners are far, far more difficult for bacteria to metabolise, and they cannot easily create these dextrans chains. Sweeteners are chemically distinct molecules! Usually aspartame is the main ingredient, which I believe is simply 2 amino acids joined together. Interestingly this binds to our \"sweet\" receptors about 1000 times stronger than sucrose does. Sucrose solution is surprisingly bitter! (Glucose syrup tastes *horrid*)\n\nOn an interesting aside, the sugar *xylitol* is literally glucose with one of the molecule combinations around a carbon atom flipped. Bacteria can't metabolise this at all! It inhibits bacterial growth because they *try* to metabolise it, and internalise it, but they can't! Amazing stuff. Chewing gum has loads of xylitol."
]
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| []
| [
[]
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|
||
dq7itx | Can you harvest the spin energy of an object? Can objects be spun up in 0 gravity to serve as batteries? | An object that is in motion stays in motion right, so if you were to spin a huge object really fast, and then use a machine to harvest that rotational momentum when energy is needed, could you not spin up an object in space and leave it spinning for as long as you want until you're ready to use its energy? Could spinning objects serve as simple batteries? Is it viable to harvest energy from a spinning object?
I posted this yesterday BTW and got 0 replies. AskScience is dying I think, or maybe just over-moderated. I'd be open to suggestions to alternative boards. | askscience | https://www.reddit.com/r/askscience/comments/dq7itx/can_you_harvest_the_spin_energy_of_an_object_can/ | {
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"text": [
"What you're proposing is called a [flywheel](_URL_0_) and currently exists."
]
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| []
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"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flywheel_energy_storage"
]
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|
|
bt03lt | why do stop lights make you press the walk sign button? | This isn’t all stop lights. At many lights the button doesn’t do anything. But at some of them you do have to press the button. What is the purpose of making you press the button? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/bt03lt/eli5_why_do_stop_lights_make_you_press_the_walk/ | {
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"The only stop lights I've seen with that button, are stop lights in places like highways or with high speed traffic that don't need a stop light due to a low amount of people needing to cross.",
"Think of it like the turn arrow. If there’s no car in the turn lane the sensor will never be tripped and the arrow will never turn green. The button is the simplest way to let the system know someone wants to cross so the walk sign turns on rather than the don’t walk staying illuminated.",
"If no-one needs to cross the road, it would be pointless to stop the traffic. By requiring pedestrians to press the button you can keep the traffic interruptions to a minimum and only when there is actually someone who needs to cross."
]
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tbu8w | If evolution has emotionally rewarded beneficial actions, such as sex feeling good, why do I hate exercising? | askscience | http://www.reddit.com/r/askscience/comments/tbu8w/if_evolution_has_emotionally_rewarded_beneficial/ | {
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"text": [
"You should keep in mind that our modern society is not at all a reflection of how humans have lived for the majority of our history. "
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|
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1s49c1 | How did early humans deal with Neanderthals? | AskHistorians | http://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/1s49c1/how_did_early_humans_deal_with_neanderthals/ | {
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"This question is better asked of /r/askanthropology since it is clearly pre-history. Emerging genetic [data](_URL_0_) indicates that there was some contact that involved the exchange of genetic information, but the nature (and relative enthusiasm) of that exchange is lost to a time before records. [Breaking news](_URL_1_) indicate that the exchange of genetic information between archaic species and our direct lineage goes back for some time. But you didn't get any of these insights here since this is restricted to historical periods. Go to /r/askanthropology."
]
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| []
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"http://humanorigins.si.edu/evidence/genetics/ancient-dna-and-neanderthals",
"http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/05/science/at-400000-years-oldest-human-dna-yet-found-raises-new-mysteries.html?ref=science&_r=0"
]
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|
||
56kb7i | what credit rating actually is | I know if I handle debts well it goes up, but if I pay for things with my savings it doesn't. I know that the number is used to help other people figure out stuff with money. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/56kb7i/eli5_what_credit_rating_actually_is/ | {
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"The most important thing to remember about your credit rating is that it is **not** for your benefit. It is for the benefit of those you want to borrow money from.\n\nYour credit rating is a conventient way for money lenders to know what kind of risk is associated with lending you money. Basically, how likely are you to pay back the debt you owe? That's why you can't build a good credit score by paying for things out of a bank account: you're not borrowing money, so they have no way to know how you'll handle that.\n\nIt's also important to know that your credit is not adjusted manually by someone looking at your actions. It's handled by a complex, mostly secret algorithm. It has nothing to do with what your intentions are or what they think your intentions are, it just has to do with what the actions you take are associated with statistically. That's why, for instance, checking your credit score lowers your score. Statistically, people who check their score do so because they are about to take out a big loan, to buy a car or a house, and they need to know how much they can afford. Taking out one loan means you're less likely to pay someone *else* back back you already owe money to the first person."
]
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[]
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19fghf | Are measurements of an object's radioactivity affected by background levels in the environment? | Question stems from this video (_URL_0_) - just after the 4 minute mark the researchers are assessing radioactivity of moose bone shards, but the bones are sitting on the ground in the no-man's-land around Chernobyl. Wouldn't the radioactivity of the ground be included in the measurement? | askscience | http://www.reddit.com/r/askscience/comments/19fghf/are_measurements_of_an_objects_radioactivity/ | {
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" > Are measurements of an object's radioactivity affected by background levels in the environment?\n\nSure, but this is the first thing you correct for. At work I measure the output of a radiation treatment device for cancer. The first thing I do is just take a measurement with the treatment device off, and measure the level of ambient radiation. Then when I do a measurement with the machine on, I subtract the background out of the measurement."
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353y11 | A Song of Ice and Fire depicts medieval warfare as devastating the countryside, crop harvests, and peasant population with widespread abuses of non-combatants. Is this accurate of what warfare was really like during the War of Roses time period? | AskHistorians | http://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/353y11/a_song_of_ice_and_fire_depicts_medieval_warfare/ | {
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"Yes, and for a much longer period than just the Wars of the Roses (ie. mid-to-late fifteenth-century). The encastellation of Europe in the eleventh- and twelfth-centuries made violent marches through enemy territory, known as [the chevauchée](_URL_3_), a highly popular and essential military tactic. The purpose of this form of warfare was to damage your opponent's financial income and their reputation - since one of the features of good lordship was the ability to protect and nothing demonstrated bad lordship like hiding in a castle while your land was ravaged. The treatment of non-combatants is [a central topic to the study of chivalry](_URL_0_) (side-note: Gillingham has several fantastic papers available through _URL_1_, I highly recommend taking advantage of this and his other freely available articles), often romantacised by the idyllic imagination that noble warriors would spare those not explicitly involved in the combat, has been comprehensively demonstrated as untrue, [see this post for more information](_URL_2_). \n\nIn this Martin is accurate, but this does not mean, of course, that all knights were bloody sadistic torturers (ie. they were not all Mountains that Ride or the Bloody Mummers) but that such actions were a widely accepted part of warfare and only condemned within certain moral contexts or because they might contravene accepted norms or desired (quasi-idealised) standards but usually not explicit legal structures. \n\nHowever, even the standards of chivalric conduct have been noted as being thrown out the window during periods of civil conflict. As Philip de Commynes, writing about the Battle of Towton (1461), noted King Edward 'shouted to his men that they must spare the common soldiers and kill the lords, of which none or few escaped'. As demonstrated by the violence of the Anarchy of the mid twelfth-century; the Baronial Movements of the thirteenth-century; the deposing of Edward II in the fourteenth-century; and the Wars of the Roses in the fifteenth-century, it is clear that chivalric conduct often did not withstand the force of civil strife (and these examples just restricting us to England and Normandy).\n\nTraditional non-combatants usually lacked even this thin veil of protection, and when the aim was to better yourself at the expense of your enemy (and doubly so when you knew you would be unlikely to keep hold of any territory you might ride through) it was a fairly vicious time to not have a set of walls to hide behind.",
"You'll find an excellent first-hand source for this in the form of the Paston Letters. They're the surviving correspondence between members of some of the Norfolk gentry from 1422 to 1509. Although they deal with all sorts of issues (most notably how the lady Paston thinks her sons are all idiots. A fine woman indeed,) it makes references to warfare in the countryside and the devastation it could inflict.\n\nI recall one instance (I am paraphrasing here since I don't have a copy of the letters with me anymore, alas,) where a group of mounted soldiers apparently raided an estate, murdered everybody and set fire to the local church when a group of people sheltered inside."
]
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"Academia.edu",
"http://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/24z6jv/how_did_knights_treat_commoners/",
"http://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/2t2tn8/did_medieval_knights_receive_much_training_in/"
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4wivpn | Were cannonballs considered "reusable" after being fired? or would they be deformed/ damaged after impacting a target. | If so would armies send crews to go looking for cannonballs after a battle? | AskHistorians | https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/4wivpn/were_cannonballs_considered_reusable_after_being/ | {
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"**Occasionally, but typically under only specific circumstances.**\n\nIn the first centuries after the development of the cannon, stone shot was used in most cases. Stone is frangible; it tends to shatter upon impact, and even if a stone cannonball did not shatter, it was easily converted to peaceful use as building material. Both of these factors tended to work against the recovery and re-use of stone cannonballs. During [excavations at Edinburgh Castle between 1988 and 1991](_URL_1_) archaeologists discovered a handful of never-fired stone cannonballs and fragments from rounds that had clearly been used and shattered. \n\nThe use of iron shot began to take off in the 16th century and by the 17th century, they were almost ubiquitous. The issue here, as with stone, is that poor-quality iron (endemic in this period) is brittle and will shatter upon impact just as stone will. Given that cannon shot were designed to be destroyed, they were typically constructed of the cheapest iron possible, which increased the likelihood that they would fracture or deform.\n\nNow, allow me to divert you into the question of **why** and **when** solid shot would be recovered. Solid cannon shot, whether iron or stone, tends to be *extraordinarily* heavy for its size and is difficult to handle because of its shape. You have to have a *reason* to go through the effort of recovering a particular solid shot. It is much easier to get new shot from your logistical train than to go through the effort of recovering shot. Large-scale shot recovery only makes sense if your own supplies are limited.\n\nYou might need a block and tackle setup to lift the shot. You'll need wagons and horses to carry the shot away. All this is expensive in both time and labor, which means you typically see shot recovery take place only where large concentrations of artillery have fought in a confined area. The effort of mustering a shot-recovery detail is offset by the ability to collect large amounts of shot.\n\nRemember, too, that you have to cope with matching the shot's caliber ─ something not always easy if both sides in a battle aren't using compatible ammunition.\n\nSo to recap: In order for shot-recovery to be feasible, you need to have a shortage of ammunition that forces you to recover shot. You need to have the manpower to be able to recover the shot. You need to be fighting between approximately 1500 and 1870. You need to be at a place where large amounts of artillery were used in a confined area.\n\nThis checklist limits how often cannon shot was reused, but it did happen time and again. Stephen Bull, in his book *The Furie of the Ordnance* about artillery in the English civil wars, writes, \"It is likely that the largest number (of 17th century cannon shot) were picked up and reused, or scrapped, within a relatively short period of the time they were fired or lost. Shot are recorded as having been removed from many of the major battlefields, notably Marston Moor and Naesby, over a very long period of time.\"\n\nMark Thomson's book, *Wellington's Engineers* about military engineering during the Peninsular War, references an account from Alexander Dickson: \"the soldiers were offered a bounty for every roundshot they could recover for re-use and so as not to discourage them, even roundshot of calibres which were of no use were paid for.\"\n\nDuring the Crimean War, when vast amounts of artillery were leveled against the Russian defenders along the Black Sea, the practice of round shot recovery [was captured on camera](_URL_0_), with the cannonballs in the ditch having been rolled down a hill by soldiers seeking to collect them.\n\nFinally, during the American Civil War, the logistically-strapped Confederacy's quartermaster department [mined the Seven Days battlefields for almost a year afterward](_URL_2_), recovering supplies and spent cannon shot to be used in the war effort. At isolated places like Ship Island, in Texas, and elsewhere, Confederate artillerymen recovered Union-fired round shot in order to keep their guns fed. \n\nThe development of exploding shot and artillery shells brought an end to the era of recovering round shot. Even by the time of the American Civil War, round shot was on the way out of circulation.\n\n\n",
"I am amazed I have something to contribute for this very specific question, but it was only for one specific circumstance. And I apologize because in order to get the exact quote I will need to interlibrary loan a diary /memoir that is held at Rice University that I took notes from some 20 years ago. And since these were handwritten notes -- long before I was digitizing things -- I don't know the woman's name from memory. Hopefully in describing this particular memoir -- because it's story was so unique -- perhaps one of my fellow colonialists will recognize the woman's name in question and I can find the original source again.\n\nAt Rice when I was doing research on southern beliefs I came across a rather remarkable journal / memoir of a woman who had been a refugee after the Revolutionary War. She and her husband were Tories, he was a doctor, and they would eventually after the war flee to Jamaica. (Again I hope this will trigger some memories in any of my colleagues to help me dredge up a name -- this woman's story was so fascinating that years later it stays with me.)\n\nAnyway, in discussing the events that led to their abandoning the British North American colonies, she described how she and her husband were present during a siege of a southern city. And again, I apologize, I do not recall which city, though it may have been Yorktown. \n\nWhat was remarkable in her narrative was something she mentioned in passing that -- and it struck me to this day -- an event I hadn't even thought about happening. She described how the streets were part sand in places and how they had been bombarded by the Patriots. And she described how young black children would run into the streets -- while bombardment was still happening -- to cover cannonballs that had landed but not broken into pieces with sand. She then described the children digging these up later and selling them back to soldiers on her side -- Tories.\n\nAs I had never run across a story even similar to this, even though it had nothing to do with the research I was doing, it struck me as so singular -- I hadn't even thought about the idea that someone would try to recovered shot solid cannonballs, much less the idea of children \"selling\" them -- it stuck in my memory. (I also wondered if how she reported the events were quite accurate, as her perception of what the children were doing -- or the fact that they were enterprising versus if they were somehow being coerced into doing so -- but obviously when you only have a single source you have no way to know that.)\n\nI always meant to go back and re-read this diary, so I have to thank you for your question for triggering this distant memory. And reading The Alaskan's excellent post, above (I am no expert with military pieces, I just happened to have read a firsthand account of the practice by a civilian bystander in my research along the way) it appears the account from the journal I had read matches the circumstances under which he noted that recovery might have occurred.\n\nI did a causal search of the Fondren Library holdings electronic catalog just now without success to try and see if I could identify the source. I will call them this week and see if they can help me trace it down. If any of my colleagues knows the source I am talking about please chime in, it was a pretty unique set of circumstances, so I would have a hard time believing we may not be able to identify the specific name and hopefully in a week or two I might get the source back in my possession so I can pull the original quote. (I will warn that some of the language in the original quote in reference to the children may contain language that would not be as appropriate to today's sensibilities, so if I get the source and reprint the quote I note in advance some language may be, well, colorful.)",
"One particularly interesting example of cannonballs being repurposed was during the on-again, off-again Siege of Candia. The Ottomans wanted the city, the Venetians had the naval power necessary to keep the port open and thus prevent a proper siege, and the native Cretans were hostile to both sides (the Venetians tended to ruthlessly exploit them and the Ottomans were foreign invaders who wanted their island; neither was really a good option for the Cretans). The Ottomans were also plagued by truly abysmal morale: such a long-running affair required home leave and when home leave was granted exclusively to Janissaries in 1649-1650, against the advice of the commander (Deli Huseyn Pasha), the reaction from the regular Ottoman troops roughly mirrors that of the French mutinies in WWI -- they refused to fight, except on the defensive, and stubbornly resisted all attempts to convince them to fall back in line. At least until they finally got their leave. \n\nOver the course of the siege, the Ottomans and Venetians shot cannonballs at one another. Late in the siege, the Ottomans looked at this enormous pile of Venetian cannonballs they had been collecting and presumably said, \"wouldn't it be funny if we shot these things back at them?\" And so the Ottomans casted new cannon in the field (this wasn't *terribly* common in the 17th century but when you've got a 21-year siege you tend to get creative), loaded them with Venetian cannonballs, and shot the Venetians' own cannonballs back at them. \n\nIt's not a coincidence that the Ottomans casted three new cannon in 1668 for the approximately 30,000 Venetian cannonballs they had on hand and that the siege, which had by then dragged on for two decades, would end the next year. \n\nAs for why the they're explicitly mentioned as having \"collected\" this frankly ridiculous number of previously useless cannonballs fired from enemy guns, I can't even begin to guess. Rhoads Murphey, who generally offers all sorts of explanations for weird events like this, is regrettably silent on the issue (and the quote in Turkish he cites doesn't appear to offer much more information, though my Turkish is probably about as good as a three year old's). "
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"http://eprints.gla.ac.uk/3121/",
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2avk6y | What effect does the arctic summer sun have on plant life? | As illustrated by [this gif](_URL_0_), the arctic summer sun doesn't set. Does the constant sunlight have any effect on plants in that area?
In an unrelated question, how productive would a field of solar panels be under this sun? Would the panels produce a lot more energy than elsewhere in the world? | askscience | http://www.reddit.com/r/askscience/comments/2avk6y/what_effect_does_the_arctic_summer_sun_have_on/ | {
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"In theory, it would certainly help plants grow. In reality, though, it has very little effect, because the limiting factor of plants in the arctic is nutrient availability. The soil there has a layer of permafrost that prevents anything big and vascular from growing. It's why most plants in the arctic are low-growing shrubs and mosses"
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33xt8p | How accurate are the common pronunciations of Biblical names (i.e. Daniel)? Are they dead on, or have the pronunciations evolved? Are the names even original? | Thank you :-) | AskHistorians | http://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/33xt8p/how_accurate_are_the_common_pronunciations_of/ | {
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"hi.. you might get something out of these related posts\n\n* [Luke is short for Lucas. Why does the bible Luke only have the short form?](_URL_3_) - /u/vhcngh traces John, Jonathan, Luke, Mark and Matthew from English to Latin to Greek\n\n* [Which came first, the name 'John' or 'Johnathan' (or similar spellings?) Were the Johns of biblical times simply called John or were they less famously named Johnathan? If John came first, how did it evolve to become the short version of Johnathan?](_URL_1_) - various respondents provide the original Hebrew names for John, Jonathan, Adam, Matthew and Paul\n\n* [Was Jesus a common name when the biblical Jesus was alive?](_URL_0_) - lots of comments and links to other posts discussing the Hebrew name for Jesus\n\n* [Biblical names like John,Paul,Gabriel or Peter have different pronunciations in other languages like Juan (John ,Spanish) or Paolo ( Paul, Italian). How were these names pronounced during biblical times?](_URL_2_) - very scanty information here, but a few more names are given"
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"https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/2wwxw6/was_jesus_a_common_name_when_the_biblical_jesus/",
"https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/2z0jjh/which_came_first_the_name_john_or_johnathan_or/",
"https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/2gw7a4/biblical_names_like_johnpaulgabriel_or_peter_have/",
"https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/2v2r84/luke_is_short_for_lucas_why_does_the_bible_luke/"
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2g2lrc | how do tv shows with multiple writers avoid the "too many cooks spoil the broth" syndrome? | I was randomly browsing the wikipedia articles of my favorite tv shows (Avatar: Last Airbender, Breaking Bad, Sopranos, just to name a few) and I looked at the people credited as writers and I'm like....O_O!!!
Avatar, for example, has ten, TEN writers, and by some miracle it turned out pretty fucking amazing.
How? Like seriously. For me, it's already a headache just working with two other people in a collaboration, yet the two who created ATLA somehow worked with eight other writers with their own visions, inputs, ideas, etc? How could their not be conflicts with people not feeling some sort of way? Either they're total yes men or that's some amazing teamwork.
| explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2g2lrc/eli5_how_do_tv_shows_with_multiple_writers_avoid/ | {
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"A head writer makes final decisions ",
"It's important to understand that for any team to function well they HAVE to get over their individual egos to at least a certain level, or they will not be able to get along and the team approach doesn't actually work. Then it's just a bunch of individuals working together and the odds of a great result decline drastically. \n\nProfessionals that work in teams learn to acknowledge and defer to other professionals. If they don't, either they're a problem or they're really the leader that everyone else simply defers to and executes the orders of (I'd guess trying to act in a movie with Bill Murray would be something like this), or they're effectively a team of one that has to be specially managed around because they bring a very specific skill, or some combination of these. And the team itself usually needs some form of leader that acts as an authority or tiebreaker when others within the team get trapped on some point, which is why there's usually a head-writer for each episode.\n\nPlease don't assume that those writers don't have their own headaches. Collaboration among highly creative people that are trying to develop something new and brilliant takes a lot of management and compromise and is often highly unpleasant for at least some of them and often all of them. But they have to suck it up to reach that goal. \n\nOr occasionally, something *really* clicks, various quirks line up in amazing ways, and magic happens and you get Monty Python's Flying Circus.",
"Usually it's a bunch of people writing a few episodes each, not a bunch of people on every episodes. ",
"The simple answer is that they each work on separate chunks of the show, and work as a team to stay co-ordinated across chunks.\n\nThe situation varies show to show and is obviously more complicated with something like Lost or Breaking Bad (where a continuous story has to progress episode to episode) than with something like The Simpsons (where virtually every episode is completely and totally unrelated to others).\n\nThe most typical situation is to have a writers' room headed by someone informally called the showrunner. The showrunner is an executive producer and the highest-ranking member of the crew. The roster of permanent writers, which can be anywhere from 3 to 15, sit around a table together and take turns giving 'pitches' for story ideas. These can be as little as one-sentence concepts (\"What if Homer became an astronaut?\") but are usually 2 or 3 paragraphs outlining a story and maybe some key scenes. The other writers then give their feedback on it, criticise it, suggest improvements. If everyone likes the idea as it develops, it goes on the board. This goes on until there are a decent number of outlines on the board, then those outlines are assigned to specific writers (sometimes in pairs) to turn into episode scripts, and everyone goes off to work. After a period they return to the writer's room and read out their scripts; at this point, all the other writers will start brainstorming jokes and one-liners and funny situations that can be added. They're incorporated into the draft and then the episode is performed at a 'table read' where the voice actors sit at the table with the script and perform it out loud to get an idea of how the episode will go. Then the writer of the script might go and tighten the episode, remove stuff that fell flat, write in jokes people improvised during the reading, etc, before turning it in as complete. You'll notice that even though episodes are attributed to one or two writers, they actually involve the work of the full team: this is just a necessity of the system, and if you tune into any DVD commentary for The Simpsons, Futurama, Seinfeld, or any other show like this, the writers will always point out details that the other writers added and contributed, thank whoever provided the idea for the episode they wrote, etc. There were writers on staff who pitched thousands of jokes but rarely sat down to write scripts, so there wasn't really a good way to credit them. It's messy.\n\nThat's the simplest scenario. It works for The Simpsons because there doesn't have to be any coordination between different episodes, for the most part the episodes can come in any random order and be fine. The Simpsons writers weren't very cross-coordinated between these meetings; the most prolific writer the show ever had, John Swartzwelder, famously started working from home so he could chainsmoke and drink while working, and would just drive up, leave his script with the receptionist while the car was still running, and go home. (This guy was basically Ron Swanson in real life, they call him at home in the DVD commentary for one episode and he is tipsy and cooking steaks at 9AM.)\n\nShows with continuous stories are where the showrunner becomes vital and force the writers to communicate more.\n\nWith shows like The Office or Arrested Development, where there's some level of continuation between episodes, more attention paid to character development and story arcs, etc, the episodes have to be in a specific order and have to be co-ordinated. That's what the showrunner handles. They will often personally draft the story arc for the season (sometimes with the help of the other writers, sometimes alone), and then sit down with the writers in the writers' room to hear their story pitches. The difference is that all those pitches must fit into the showrunner's dictated arc: episode 5 must end with Jenny having a heart attack, episode 8 must feature a breakup, the season finale must end with Jack's car exploding and the police finding the recording device. When the ideas for individual episodes accumulate, the showrunner puts them into a specific order and orders changes to them to make them fit better together.\n\nShows with *very* continuous stories, like Lost, have the showrunners acting as total dictators. With Lost and with Dexter and other shows in that style, the showrunner(s, Lost had two) would write out episode summaries for almost every single episode. Specific writers were hired to flesh them out, add side stories, write the dialogue, etc -- but the actual plot was all laid out by the showrunner and the episode writers didn't have much freedom to actually change the story. Meetings between the various writers were relatively rare and writers *could* pitch, but they didn't hold pitch meetings like The Simpsons did. This style of writing is closer to the British and Australian styles (where TV shows are often entirely written by one person or partnership) and was historically very unusual in the US, but became popular starting in the early 2000s with the success of The Sopranos (run and dictated by David Chase), The Wire (David Simon), Oz (Tom Fontana), Lost (Damon Lindelof & Carlton Cuse) and The Shield (Shawn Ryan). Shows that use this model often have coherent serialised stories at the expense of shorter runs (rarely more than 12 episodes a year), because an American 'full season order' (24-25 episodes) is too much for one person to do."
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34kunh | What did escapees from East Germany have to go through upon arrival in West Germany? | I saw [this video](_URL_0_) of East Germans swimming to West Germany.
* If escapees lacked family or other resurrect in the West and arrived literally with the clothes on their back, what, if anything, did West Germany provide for them?
* Did new arrivers automatically get West German citizenship? What was the legal process like?
* Were West Germans, either the government or the people, suspicious that new arrivals might be spies?
* Was anyone ever deported back to East Germany?
----
Follow-up question:
* What happened to East Germans who were caught attempting to escape to West Germany? | AskHistorians | http://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/34kunh/what_did_escapees_from_east_germany_have_to_go/ | {
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"I can answer the follow-up question: They were imprisoned according to paragraph 213 of the GDR criminal code.",
"First of all, I'm sorry if significant portions of this answer lack good, reliable English cites. I'll at least give English wikipedia links, for all the good they are, for some answers.\n\nEast Germans arriving in West Germany as refugees had one significant advantage over refugees from other nations. Since West Germany did not fully acknowledge East Germany, instead insisting on an [exclusive mandate](_URL_0_) for Germany as a whole, the refugees were considered German citizens, with all rights. So, for example, they couldn't just be sent back because they had a right of residence in West Germany. So, in a way, the West German official view was that the arrivers did not *get* the West German citizenship, because they already *had* them. It was just officially recognized when they arrived.\n\nHowever, here's where things get a bit more complicated and not as clear-cut. Especially in the early years before the border was closed off effectively, large numbers of East Germans relocated to West Germany. To channel those refugees, the West German legislature passed a law (the [Bundesnotaufnahmegesetz](_URL_1_), sorry German link only), which limited the right of abode for East Germans relocating to West Germany. In the following, several large central refugee camps were created. I would imagine, though I don't know for sure, that in those refugee camps, people were interviewed to (a) make sure that they actually were German, and not members of other nations, and to (b) to at least a rough prescreening for potential spies. This didn't always succeed. The maybe most famous example would be [Günter Guillaume](_URL_2_), who relocated to West Germany as a Stasi (the East German secret service) spy, and eventually managed to install himself as personal assistant to West German Chancellor Willy Brandt, leading to the [Guillaume Affair](_URL_3_) and Brandt's eventual resignation.\nIn any case, from those refugee camps, East German arrivers were eventually relocated to different areas of Germany. I assume that if they had family, they would be allowed to relocate there; otherwise, they would be distributed over the area of West Germany, so that no area had too many refugees to support. That support, at a bare minimum, would be the standard social security services available to every German in need. In addition, there seems to have been support from the Bundesausgleichsamt, which was created in 1952 especially with the goal of supporting the integration of German refugees arriving in West Germany. However, I cannot really tell you what amount of help they would receive from there; we're getting into a very specialized and obscure area here, and for a good answer would need an expert on that specific field of research, which I am not.\n\nAs to your final question, I can't say for sure, but I cannot imagine anybody being deported back to East Germany against their will. There were people who relocated from West to East Germany, and there were spy exchanges, but both of these were not deportations to East Germany against the will of those relocated."
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"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guillaume_Affair"
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5b0uag | if life were such a probable event, we don’t have evidence of multiple origins? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5b0uag/eli5_if_life_were_such_a_probable_event_we_dont/ | {
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"There could have originally been many potential self-replicating molecules or molecular systems, but likely one type was better at replication than others and there was a molecular form of natural selection. It is thought that RNA preceded DNA, and that the first life was RNA-based. RNA is simpler and capable of storing genetic information just like DNA. However, we don't see any RNA based life (although there are some RNA viruses), probably because DNA is more stable, and was a better mechanism for encoding genetic information. All RNA based life would have gone extinct because it couldn't compete with DNA (or RNA could've formed symbiotic relationships with DNA, but cease to exist as its own life form).\n\nWe have no idea how many forms of life existed, we just know that the \"LUCA\" (last universal common ancestor) had a DNA structure resembling all current life. The LUCA however is in no way considered to be the first living thing... It's just the first living thing to produce a lineage that is not extinct."
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dy67z6 | why are you required to wear specialized eyewear when welding, and in what way the light emitted differs from another light source? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/dy67z6/eli5_why_are_you_required_to_wear_specialized/ | {
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"The quality and color of the light varies depending on the materials being welded and type of welding. However, almost all forms are so bright that they'd damage the eye and more practically so bright that they you can't actually see the weld area because all you see is a glowing orb around the work area.",
"The brightness of the arc form an arc welder is bright enough to cause damage to your retina if you looked directly at it. How it differs from other light sources, is intensity. Like the sun, the brightness is so intense that direct exposure will damage your vision. In fact, arc welders are brighter than the light from the sun entering your eye (of course it's travelling much shorter distance, and not through miles of atmosphere).\n\nExposure to the brightness of the weld area leads to a condition called arc eye in which ultraviolet light causes inflammation of the cornea and can burn the retinas of the eyes. Welding goggles and helmets with dark face plates—much darker than those in sunglasses or oxy-fuel goggles—are worn to prevent this exposure.",
"Welding arcs give off radiation over a broad range of wavelengths. The UV C and UV B are absorbed in the cornea of the eye while UV A passes through the cornea and is absorbed in the lens of the eye. Ultra violet light can produce an injury to the surface of the eye, also called arc flash or flashburn. I've had flashburn numerous times and it can be extremely painful for the eyes until it goes away.",
"As a welder I can tell you that the arc and puddle are so bright, you can't see anything with out filter. Now you instagram welders can come boast all uou want, but I can't, maybe I'm just weak and a coward because I wear my PPE.\n\nBut biggest issue is the UV radiation, how much you get depends on what and how you weld. TIG aluminium being the worst thing for you. Welder's eye is basically a sunburn, but on your eyes, it can even burn inside your eyes. It can cause harmful mutations. (which is why you should wear your PPE american instagram welders).\n\nOther thing is Infrared radiation. It will burn you a lot. \n\nRod welding is kinda like old school lime light, little UV, but really bright white light and lots of infrared. Imagine looking at a camera flash, but it is constant, or magnesium flare. \n\nWhile TIG, And Mig/mag cause this electric blue light, heavy in UV. Even reflections are really harmful to you, so the fact you can't see the arc, doesn't mean your are protected from it.\n\nOxyacetylene mean while is a bright gas flame. No UV. But powerful white light and lots of infrared. Imagine looking at a bright gas torch. For this you only need gas googles, DIN3, basically powerful sunglasses.",
"As everyone here has stated, you can obviously burn your eyes if you don’t wear your mask. I also wanted to point out how welding works a little bit. First and foremost, the “arc” in arc welding is essentially a tiny lightning bolt. This tiny lightning bolt heats the metal around it to a high enough temperature to literally melt it. When you are actively welding and have a mask on you can actually see this little melted pool of metal around it, which is commonly referred to as the “puddle”. The “welding” part is exactly what it sounds like. You are joining two pieces or parts of metal together, and you do this by making the little puddles on each piece of your metal combine into one puddle right in the middle of them. Then you add your filler metal by dipping it into that little puddle, move the puddle a little bit, then add more filler metal. This creates that overlapping circle pattern that you can see on pretty much any type of weld. In order to create a strong weld that’s not going to be porous or crack, you need to be able to see all of that clearly. Without the dark mask, you would just see a bright light, so even if you didn’t need eye protection somehow, you would still be working essentially blind, and have a poor product."
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aa5kzx | how will the upcoming hospital pricing requirements help consumers? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/aa5kzx/eli5_how_will_the_upcoming_hospital_pricing/ | {
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"Who knows, people may start bringing their own medications and nursing staff, many are already opting for an Uber over an ambulance.",
"It'll be helpful for a few different reasons.\n\nFirst, it brings transparency to the process. You'll know *before* you get the bill what everything will cost. \n\nSecondly, it will help to regulate healthcare costs. When Hospital A sees less business because Hospital B is 30% cheaper, Hospital A will have to adjust. That does raise the issue of corner cutting, but we'll see about that when it happens.\n\nTransparency almost *always* helps the consumer."
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96hsq1 | What is Einstein Tensor, and how it is implemented in Physics? | askscience | https://www.reddit.com/r/askscience/comments/96hsq1/what_is_einstein_tensor_and_how_it_is_implemented/ | {
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"score": [
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"text": [
"The Einstein tensor **G** is a tensor that quantifies the curvature of spacetime. It is a function of the metric tensor **g** and partial derivatives of the metric tensor and in fact the only tensor-function of **g** to be divergenceless. It appears on the left-hand side of the Einstein field equations\n\n**G** \\+ Λ**g** = 8**π**T,\n\nwhere **G** = **R** \\- 1/2**g**R. The above equation may be read as curvature + expansion = energy, mass, momentum.\n\nI wouldn't say it had any special meaning and that more fundamental tensors such as **R** and scalars such as R are more useful to understand a spacetime's properties."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[]
]
|
||
314i9e | why does everybody know the phrase "the mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell?" | Was there a particular textbook that most modern books borrowed that phrase from? It seems like nationally everybody was taught that in Bio when they discussed cells. I looked in the search bar for other people who have asked the same question and another person used that quote in a different context. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/314i9e/eli5_why_does_everybody_know_the_phrase_the/ | {
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"cpybv0i"
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"score": [
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"text": [
"It's simply a statement to remember what it does and people find it to be effective in teaching. Kinda like how Roy G Biv and Please excuse my dear aunt sally."
]
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| []
| [
[]
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|
|
dw7y2k | Is the sea level "flat" across the oceans? Or are there water "mountains"? | I've wondered this for a while, but searching usually yields results related to rising sea levels and underwater mountains.
Basically, if I have a glass of water, pond, pool, even a small lake, the "average" water level (excluding waves created by wind, etc), is flat.
In the case of oceans, it would be spherical, I suppose. But is the "line" of that sphere, uniform and flat? Or are there areas where the water is "higher"? | askscience | https://www.reddit.com/r/askscience/comments/dw7y2k/is_the_sea_level_flat_across_the_oceans_or_are/ | {
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"your assumption is correct, the water level varies around the globe.\n\nthere are some fun stories about bridge projects that almost failed because the engineers didn't think about that and as a result built from both sides with different heights",
"Sea level is generally split into \"mass\" and \"steric\" terms. Mass is the amount of water molecules, and geographical variations in mass are influenced by gravitational variations as others have said.\n\n\"Steric\" is about the density that water molecules are packed together, and is further split into \"halosteric\" - more salt content increases density - and \"thermosteric\" - warmer water reduces density - terms. Generally speaking I think the deeper oceans below a few hundred meters are fairly well mixed so there is less influence on the base state height distribution than from mass and gravity. However, the upper few hundred meters have a close relationship with what's going on at the surface so variability there can cause fairly significant high frequency steric sea level variations.\n\nFor example, during a strong El Nino event the Western tropical Pacific cools sharply and sea level there drops by about 25cm over the course of a year while the Eastern tropical Pacific warms and sea level there rises by about 25cm."
]
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[],
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bgmdrj | When pollen reaches the stigma, how does it get to the ovules? | askscience | https://www.reddit.com/r/askscience/comments/bgmdrj/when_pollen_reaches_the_stigma_how_does_it_get_to/ | {
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"One of the most interesting details of plant biology is the fact that they have life cycles which involve [alternation of generations](_URL_4_). Unlike humans and most other animals, which are multicellular diploids for our entire lives (with the exception of an extremely brief unicellular bottleneck at fertilization), plants go through [multicellular diploid and haploid phases](_URL_0_). The haploid gametophyte phase produces gametes through mitosis, while the diploid sporophyte produces spores through meiosis. To make an analogy, is sort of like if humans gave birth to testes and ovaries that became self-sufficient entities rather than parts of our bodies, and then these went on to make new humans by themselves. In the earliest plants that colonized land, like mosses, the haploid gametophyte phase dominates the life cycle, with the [sporophyte depending on it](_URL_6_) for nutrients. Later plants like ferns developed separate [gametophytes](_URL_3_) and [sporophytes](_URL_7_ that are both more self-sufficient, and this became a general [trend towards increasing dominance of the diploid sporophyte](_URL_5_) stage in more derived groups of plants. Ultimately, this trend has reached a peak with angiosperms (flowering plants), in which the pollen produced in male flowers is actually a large number of extremely reduced and simplified gametophytes that are incapable of surviving on their own.\n\nThat probably seems like a lot of build-up before getting to your actual question, but it's an interesting topic and I wanted to provide some background. The point of everything I just explained is that pollen is *not* actually a plant's gametes (which would make it equivalent to sperm), but is in fact more accurately thought of as a multicellular (though very small) individual plant which *produces* gametes. So, just like any larger plant, pollen is capable of germinating and growing in a way that a single-celled gamete like sperm cannot, and this is exactly what it does upon reaching the stigma of a compatible plant of the same species. It grows a [pollen tube](_URL_1_) which travels down the stigma to the ovule and connects with it. Then, the pollen releases not one but *two* individual male gametes down this tube, in a process called [double fertilization](_URL_9_). One of the male gametes [fertilizes the female gamete](_URL_2_) to produce a diploid zygote that will grow into an embryo, while the other one merges with two additional haploid cells to make a *triploid* cell that develops into the endosperm. The endosperm is basically the equivalent of a yolk that sustains the embryo while it develops, and for many plants with edible seeds (e.g., cereal crops like corn, wheat, rice, etc.), this is actually the [main part that is consumed](_URL_8_)."
]
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"https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/80/Alternation_of_generations_simpler.svg/1920px-Alternation_of_generations_simpler.svg.png",
"https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Leonor_Boavida/publication/42975714/figure/fig2/AS:324937496711170@1454482544070/Pollen-tube-growth-in-the-pistil-A-B-Schematic-representations-for-the-pollen.png",
"https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/courses-images/wp-content/uploads/sites/1223/2017/01/31233519/Figure_32_02_07-1024x523.jpg",
"https://botanycompanion.files.wordpress.com/2014/12/fern-gametophytes-jb.jpg",
"https://www.britannica.com/science/alternation-of-generations",
"http://cdn.biologydiscussion.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/clip_image004_thumb45.jpg",
"https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Claudine_Ah-Peng/publication/314650250/figure/fig4/AS:669651642114087@1536668801945/Figure-The-moss-gametophyte-and-sporophyte.jpg",
"https://www.thoughtco.com/thmb/gogGDPolEHNn4d-FH2QaS-N9E2A=/768x0/filters:no_upscale():max_bytes(150000):strip_icc()/GettyImages-521606980-5a7b3f7cc064710037c365fd.jpg)",
"https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/4d/Wheat-kernel_nutrition.png/800px-Wheat-kernel_nutrition.png",
"https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/agricultural-and-biological-sciences/double-fertilization"
]
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||
18x622 | How does ice actually form from liquid water? Need a physics explanation! | I understand a snow flake and ice cube, and phase changes and yadda yadda...but I want to know the detailed physics of how water molecules actually just somehow magically form this crystalline structure because their energy is so low. That in itself just sounds insane, how do they know to form a crystal structure? What about low energy makes them go into this formation? | askscience | http://www.reddit.com/r/askscience/comments/18x622/how_does_ice_actually_form_from_liquid_water_need/ | {
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"Its not magic, its thermodynamics! Any system that is not in equilibrium will tend to minimize its total energy. Specifically, for crystallization, there are two steps. \n\nStep 1: Density fluctuations in an unstable system lead to a nucleus. If these fluctuations result in a cluster of a critical size, then the nucleus grows. If the fluctuations result in a cluster that is smaller than the critical nucleus then the cluster shrinks. The critical size is dictated by the surface energy of the cluster, which acts to negate cluster formation, and the energetic gain by a the formation of a new phase. When these two effects are equal (the energetic cost by forming an interface=energetic gain by phase separation), the cluster is said to be of critical size. For clusters greater than this size, the energetic gain by phase separation (cluster growth) outweighs the energetic cost of forming an interface. For clusters smaller than the critical size, the energetic cost of forming an interface prohibits growth and the cluster shrinks.\n\nStep 2: Growth. The nucleates grow by addition of water to one of the faces of the crystal. \n\nOverall, the system's energy is minimized by the phase change. In these types of systems (unstable liquid phases) the crystalline structure is lowest energy state and thus favored."
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8emqi0 | Everything in space spins it seems, so how could an enormous cloud of spinning dust and gas ever condense to form a star? | It seems the angular momentum of a gas cloud would prevent the cloud from condensing, unless most gas clouds in fact do NOT have significant spin. | askscience | https://www.reddit.com/r/askscience/comments/8emqi0/everything_in_space_spins_it_seems_so_how_could/ | {
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"You're right, some gas clouds don't collapse! But others clearly do, and *exactly* how that happens and why is a topic of much research. First off, though, the main thing preventing collapse is the cloud's *temperature*, not its spin, though that also is very important to the process. Whereas **viscosity** can serve to remove angular momentum by placing most of it in a fairly small portion of the material, the cloud has to either remove it's thermal energy (an aggregated microscopic version of kinetic energy) by radiation, which is quite slow, or bring together enough mass into a small enough space for the gravitational forces inward to become stronger than the thermal pressure outward (e.g. by turbulence). The amount of mass you need to concentrate to start this collapse happening is called the \"[Jeans Mass](_URL_0_)\". This is still something of an oversimplification, since the gas cloud can *also* be supported by magnetic fields lacing the gas and dust, but it's a close enough picture to get on with, and anyway the exact relative importance of turbulence vs magnetic support is not really settled (you can google \"hierarchical\" vs \"competitive accretion\" star formation if you feel like falling in a rabbit hole). ",
"Hi ! This question has been a hot topic in star formation for a long time now. What I say is valid for low-mass star formation (lighter than 10 solar masses), but we are not sure to which extent it applies for heavier stars.\n\n/u/Imxbftw has already given some elements, for example the fact that star formation involve a lot of different processes whose energies ar all the same order of magnitude. But I want to tell you the story of the angular momentum in star formation, since this is almost exactly your question.\n\nIndeed, the star-forming clouds (called dense cores) have a spin. I don't know if you are familiar with the concept of angular momentum, but you can think of it as a \"rotation inertia\" that is supposed to be conserved. As a consequence, when a spinning object condeses, its rotation accelerates (like in figure skating). From observation, we can determine the angular momentum of dense cores, and calculations show that their collapse increases the rotation so much that no star would be formed because of the centrifugal force. The surface of the sun would have a rotation velocity of nearly the speed of light ! \nHowever, it is also observed that the angular momentum of young star is 1000 times lower that those of dense cores, so a large fraction is removed during the process. That was the \"angular momentum problem\".\n\nNow we have an excellent candidate : the magnetic field. A process called [magnetic braking](_URL_2_) (I can explain if you wish) is able to transport the angular momentum away and significantly slow the rotation.\n\nYou can stop there to have the big picture, now I will add some details and the continuation of the story.\n\nTo test the hypothesis of the magnetic braking, numerical simulations have been performed. They showed that indeed, rotation was significantly slowed which allowed the formation of a star. BUT ! the rotation was so slow that it was impossible to form a [protoplanetary disk](_URL_1_), structure orbiting around the young star in which planets form. This is known as \"the magnetic braking catastrophe\".\nAnother problem comes from the magnetic field itself : the magnetic field in the young star is several order of magnitudes higher than what is observed. With these models, we would predict that the magnetic field of the sun would be 10 millions times larger. This is known as the magnetic flux problem.\n\nThe two problems have a common origin : the model to describe the behavior of a fluid in a magnetic field is simplified. It assumes a perfect coupling between the magnetic field and the fluid. This is known as \"ideal magnetohydrodynamics\". Since recently (last ten years), people have started to refine the models and take into account decoupling terms. This has not been done before because they are difficult to handle in numerical simulations. The question still have no clear-cut answer, but the results are extremely promising.\n\nSources : _URL_0_ (abstract in French but content in English. You can find in the introduction all these elements and the associated references.).\n\n"
]
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"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetic_braking"
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e8m7xu | I recently read in my anatomy textbook that recent studies have found that there is no correlation between cholesterol in the diet and serum cholesterol levels. How did we get this wrong for so many years and what causes high serum cholesterol then? | askscience | https://www.reddit.com/r/askscience/comments/e8m7xu/i_recently_read_in_my_anatomy_textbook_that/ | {
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"Very much an over simplified answer from a person unqualified to give much more: the liver (which produces cholesterol within your body) & genetics. \n\nAs for how we got this wrong for so long:\n*Snarky answer:* as humans we've been getting things wrong for thousands of years. \n*Serious answer:* my understanding is that dietary intake does play some role in cholesterol levels. However that role is significantly smaller than the role of other variables.",
"How did we get this wrong? Time for a history lesson.\n_URL_0_\nYou can look up more details about this. But in short, major sugar companies had funded research in order to move the blame for the rise of heart diseas from the correlated and increased sugar intake to the fat and cholesterol consumption, either by cherry picking data, or by publishing research focusing solely on the effect of fat intake and increased cholesterol levels and their relation with heart disease.\n\nAs for what causes high serum cholesterol levels, first. Plaque buildup. We don't know how plaque builds up in arteries but we have some clues that it is caused by inflamation of the arterial walls. (We don't know exactly what causes such inflamation. But the main risk indicators currently are high LDL levels, high blood pressure and increased waste products in the blood) Such inflamation that the body tries to contain by covering it with fat, cholesterol, fibrin, ane calcium. \nThe point here is cholesterol. Cholesterol isn't the cause but is merely the result. The body's natural response to contain the inflamation for a short enough notice so that the body is able to find the cause, in the case of continous inflamation the body then proceeds to cover plaque buildup with calcium. Which is why coronary calcium scans are the most reliable in detection of heart desease. Rather than cholesterol which can be in high levels due to an increased intake or due to increase in hormones or cell production.",
"There's some indication as I recall that it's more the lack of vegetables in the diet than the cholesterol intake. Could be fiber, could be gut bacteria related, but if you give a damn about your body then eat vegetables.",
"This video rails against sugar pretty hard, but what I find most fascinating is the [biochemistry section](_URL_0_) where he breaks down the differences between consuming 120 cal of glucose, ethanol, and fructose, and exactly how the liver processes in each case.\n\nShort answer, the cholesterol in your blood is made in your liver, and the composition of your diet is a huge factor in determining how much of each type of cholesterol you liver produces.",
"First off, science is difficult. It's not like you burn some incense and say a prayer and answers are revealed to you completely and correctly. People make hypotheses, test them, and see what happens. Sometimes you make a hypothesis, do a test, and things look good because your hypothesis was almost good enough and your test had a hell of a lot of error in it. As far as science is concerned, that's the current truth until somebody else comes along with a better hypothesis or a better test. It's an iterative process and we only approach real truth over time.\n\nHere's another problem: Testing people's diets is extremely hard. You can't exactly do a double-blind study because there's no way for people to be eating food and not know what they're eating. You also can't have a study with a real control group. Let's say we want to narrow down the cause of high blood cholesterol. You can't ask 100 people of diverse background to only eat cholesterol and not eat any sugar (and another group only eat sugar and no cholesterol). Too many foods have these things mixed together, and too many people are set in their ways over diet.\n\nSo here's the chain: We know that people who die from heart problems tend to have a lot of cholesterol in their blood. We also know that these same people tend to have a lot of cholesterol in their diets (because most people who aren't vegetarians do). Then we know that we can't really isolate any other causes because there's no way to control people's diets. Combine this with, as other people have pointed out, efforts from the food industry to keep their own profits up, and you get stuck with incorrect results being treated as the truth for a long time.\n\n(And it's not that companies are \"evil\" as some will claim. They have a legal responsibility to protect themselves and their shareholders. If food industry companies didn't do what they had to do to keep profits up, they would be legally liable. It's an imperfect system with a lot of people doing their best with the hand they are dealt.)",
"A heart surgeon I discussed this with stated, every arterial plaque deposit he removed was found to contain a micobacteria similar the the ones found in tooth decay.\n\nThere is a strong correlation between those with many cavities, and those with heart disease. \n\n_URL_0_\n\n_URL_1_"
]
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kn3qn | This was posted in R/Conspiracy earlier. My BS meter went through the roof. Can AskScience provide some arguments for/against this please? | _URL_0_ | askscience | http://www.reddit.com/r/askscience/comments/kn3qn/this_was_posted_in_rconspiracy_earlier_my_bs/ | {
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"I don't think something like this warrants a serious response (hair emitting \"electromagnetic energy\"?) So, I'll just correct the fact that, in the Biblical account, Delilah never cut Samson's hair - she called for a servant to do it for her.",
" > Hair is an extension of the nervous system, it can be correctly seen as exteriorized nerves, a type of highly evolved \\’feelers\\’ or \\’antennae\\’ that transmit vast amounts of important information to the brainstem, the limbic system, and the neocortex.\n\nThis has enough grounding in truth to be good at confusing people. Hairs allow small motions to be detected easily. Things like insects crawling on your arm. But they don't directly transmit any information. Instead, the nerve cells at the base of the hair respond when the hair is physically moved.\n\n > hair also emits energy, the electromagnetic energy emitted by the brain into the outer environment\n\nThis is just completely ridiculous.\n\n > This has been seen in Kirlian photography\n\nKirlian photography involves applying a voltage to an object. So applying voltage to hair causes the resulting electrical discharge to expose a photographic plate? Nothing surprising or supernatural about that at all. \n\n > When hair is cut, receiving and sending transmissions to and from the environment are greatly hampered.\n\nWhat transmissions? What precise EM frequency do they use? What is the mechanism for their transmission and reception? These things can (and should, if they're serious about their claims) be measured. ",
"\"it can be correctly seen as exteriorized nerves\"\n\nNo. Nerves are nerves. Hair is hair. These words have actual meanings. Nerve cells can receive information from the external movement of hair just as muscle contraction can move hair. You wouldn't say \"hair is exteriorized muscles\". \n\nYou can use that article to calibrate your BS meter for \"maximum possible BS content\".",
"Even better advice is to stop going into that subreddit.",
"Grow your hair out. Try it. Let us know.",
"I don't think something like this warrants a serious response (hair emitting \"electromagnetic energy\"?) So, I'll just correct the fact that, in the Biblical account, Delilah never cut Samson's hair - she called for a servant to do it for her.",
" > Hair is an extension of the nervous system, it can be correctly seen as exteriorized nerves, a type of highly evolved \\’feelers\\’ or \\’antennae\\’ that transmit vast amounts of important information to the brainstem, the limbic system, and the neocortex.\n\nThis has enough grounding in truth to be good at confusing people. Hairs allow small motions to be detected easily. Things like insects crawling on your arm. But they don't directly transmit any information. Instead, the nerve cells at the base of the hair respond when the hair is physically moved.\n\n > hair also emits energy, the electromagnetic energy emitted by the brain into the outer environment\n\nThis is just completely ridiculous.\n\n > This has been seen in Kirlian photography\n\nKirlian photography involves applying a voltage to an object. So applying voltage to hair causes the resulting electrical discharge to expose a photographic plate? Nothing surprising or supernatural about that at all. \n\n > When hair is cut, receiving and sending transmissions to and from the environment are greatly hampered.\n\nWhat transmissions? What precise EM frequency do they use? What is the mechanism for their transmission and reception? These things can (and should, if they're serious about their claims) be measured. ",
"\"it can be correctly seen as exteriorized nerves\"\n\nNo. Nerves are nerves. Hair is hair. These words have actual meanings. Nerve cells can receive information from the external movement of hair just as muscle contraction can move hair. You wouldn't say \"hair is exteriorized muscles\". \n\nYou can use that article to calibrate your BS meter for \"maximum possible BS content\".",
"Even better advice is to stop going into that subreddit.",
"Grow your hair out. Try it. Let us know."
]
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| [
"http://whale.to/c/truth_about_hair.html"
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1vhihj | why am i able to listen to any song i want on spotify for free as many times as i want but can only skip 5 songs on pandora | And I cant even choose the songs I want on Pandora | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1vhihj/eli5why_am_i_able_to_listen_to_any_song_i_want_on/ | {
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"text": [
"Because they're different companies that operate under different business models."
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crue9h | how can nuclear launches be detected and identified? | If Russia launches at The US, how does the US know that it was Russia? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/crue9h/eli5_how_can_nuclear_launches_be_detected_and/ | {
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"Between satellites and radar, it is pretty easy to track anything that flies like a rocket. Rocket exhaust is really hot, and infrared cameras in space can spot them launching. Once it is airborne, an ICBM flies up to the edge of space and then flies unpowered over to its target. During this phase, it is a large metal object sitting in the middle of a big empty area, and radar has no trouble spotting it. From here, we can extrapolate its target based on its current path, since its engine has turned off. It is difficult to figure out if the payload is nuclear or not, but usually if an ICBM is launched at anything other than a military base, it is probably going to be nuclear.",
"[Here is a rocket launch, seen from the International Space Station](_URL_0_). You can see it with the naked eye (or a regular camera, in this case) over something like 1000 kilometers. Sure, it was the night side of Earth, but you can imagine how easy it is for a network of specialized satellites to pick up such a launch. Radar works very well, too.",
"There's a few arrays of satellites in orbit watching for bright or hot spots on the ground.\n\nA rocket launch is this intensely bright and hot spot for about a minute, far far brighter than anything around which makes it easy to spot. All rocket launches and missile tests are publicized in advance because they'll trip this warning system\n\nThese same satellites can also detect a nuclear detonation on the surface. They work in conjunction with the seismographs around the world which are used to detect earthquakes but were initially installed to detect underground nuclear tests."
]
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2ap1c1 | why do my pubes itch after i shave them? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2ap1c1/eli5_why_do_my_pubes_itch_after_i_shave_them/ | {
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"text": [
"Because the ends of the hairs are sharper than they were before you shaved, the hair curls around and irritates your skin."
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aw120r | What did East Germany do well and West Germany do poorly? | I've been taking a class at my college about divided Germany, going from the end of World War 2 to the reunification of Germany. So far, most of the class (as well as most other students' knowledge of it) focuses on the successes of the West Germany economic system and the failures of the East German's command economy. While history does seem to favor the West, and I have no doubt given hindsight which "did it better", I also know that the nuances and complicated matter of history mean that it couldn't be that black and white. So, getting to my question: what things was the economic system of East Germany able to do better than the West? And what shortcomings did the West German system have? I hope this question is clear enough! | AskHistorians | https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/aw120r/what_did_east_germany_do_well_and_west_germany_do/ | {
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"Well, between 1968 and 1988, East German athletes won a total of 409 Olympic medals at the Summer Games and 110 at the Winter Games. West Germany won 204 Summer Games medals and 39 Winter Games medals. Twice the medal count, when West Germany had four times the population. \n\nThe answer that springs immediately to mind for many is doping, and the East Germans absolutely relied heavily on a [systematic doping regime for its athletes](_URL_0_). This was just part of the regime's focus on sport as a cost-effective way to gain prestige and cement a separate East German identity. (The entangled questions of East German acceptance of nudism and how all of this descends from Nazi ideas of the physical ideal, I'll leave to a specialist.) Physical fitness was a large part of the curriculum in East Germany, which started with compulsory (and heavily ideological) preschool. Students were regularly assessed for athletic potential, and promising children were pulled out of school at an early age for rigorous training. (Another question I'll leave for a specialist is the parallel between this and the other various Communist sports programs, as well as how this model has evolved in modern-day Russia and China.) "
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1jy3wk | Are swimming pools breeding chlorine-resistant organisms? | Like the overuse of antibiotics. Are we breeding super microbes through the use of pool chlorine? | askscience | http://www.reddit.com/r/askscience/comments/1jy3wk/are_swimming_pools_breeding_chlorineresistant/ | {
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"If you think of microbial resistance in human terms, it makes more sense. If you send out a plague that kills a lot of people, some will survive and will likely be more resistant. The plague is a very specific, complicated way of killing an individual. Now if instead, you threw every human in lava, nobody would survive to develop resistance. Lava is simple and direct, and you can't have a \"lava doesn't kill me\" gene.\n\nThink of antibiotics (specific, complicated, potentially survivable) as the plague, and the chlorine as lava (non-specific, simple, very difficult to survive).",
"The thing about chlorine is that it kills all the organisms, not just \"bad\" ones. Think of it like fire. Taking a blowtorch to a petri dish over and over will not breed fire resistant bacteria.",
"On the one hand, no, we are not creating evolutionary pressure for pathogenic chlorine-resistant microbes. On the other hand, cryptosporidium oocysts are already quite resistant to chlorine. \n\nTL;DR - Don't poop in the pool. ",
"Others have said that resistant microbes aren't an issue because chlorine can kill everything, but that's not entirely true. [Biofilm](_URL_0_) can form, which gives the microbes a protective layer that can allow them to survive. I don't know the degree to which microbes may be becoming more adept at forming a biofilm layer, or whether that's as much of a concern as actual resistance to chlorine, but it's still something.",
"The resistant organisms already exist nd have a cyst form. They cause diahrea, so easy for them to become prolific.",
"I'm no microbiologist, but I do have a _URL_0_. and a quick googlescholar search revealed a number of articles examining chlorine resistant organisms. While I can't comment on whether pools have contributed to this yet, I can at least falsify the top comments that say that an organism in chlorine is like a human in lava. \n\nFor example:\n > Results of our experiments showed that the attachment of bacteria to surfaces provided the greatest increase\nin disinfection resistance. Attachment of unencapsulated Klebsiella pneumoniae grown in medium with high\nlevels of nutrients to glass microscope slides afforded the microorganisms as much as a 150-fold increase in\ndisinfection resistance. Other mechanisms which increased disinfection resistance included the age of the\nbiofilm, bacterial encapsulation, and previous growth conditions (e.g., growth medium and growth temperature). These factors increased resistance to chlorine from 2- to 10-fold. The choice of disinfectant residual was\nshown to influence the type of resistance mechanism observed. Disinfection by free chlorine was affected by\nsurfaces, age of the biofilm, encapsulation, and nutrient effects. Disinfection by monochloramine, however, was\nonly affected by surfaces. Importantly, results showed that these resistance mechanisms were multiplicative\n(i.e., the resistance provided by one mechanism could be multiplied by the resistance provided by a second\nmechanism).\n\n- LECHEVALLIER et al 1988\n\nor \n\n > nactivation experiments of seven strains of chlorine-resistant bacteria, isolated from a drinking water distribution system, were conducted with four kinds of disinfectants. All the bacteria showed high resistance to chlorine, especially for Mycobacterium mucogenicum. The CT value of 99.9% inactivation for M. mucogenicum, Sphingomonas sanguinis and Methylobacterium were 120 mg x (L x min)(-1), 7 mg x (L x min)(-1) and 4 mg x (L x min)(-1), respectively. The results of inactivation experiments showed that chlorine dioxide and potassium monopersulfate could inactive 5 lg of M. mucogenicum within 30 min, which showed significantly higher efficiency than free chlorine and monochloramine. Free chlorine was less effective because the disinfectant decayed very quickly. Chloramination needed higher concentration to meet the disinfection requirements. The verified dosage of disinfectants, which could effectively inactivate 99.9% of the highly chlorine-resistant M. mucogenicum within 1 h, were 3.0 mg/L monochloramine, 1.0 mg/L chlorine dioxide (as Cl2), and 1.0 mg/L potassium monopersulfate (as Cl2). It was suggested that the water treatment plants increase the concentration of monochloramine or apply chlorine dioxide intermittently to control the disinfectant-resistant bacteria.\n\n- Chen et al., 2012\n\n\n",
"As a pool guy I've noticed algae is already fairly resistant to chlorine, most varieties I encounter have a slimy outer layer that helps it withstand even a heavy dose of chlorine. This is easily countered by brushing of course, or just keeping the water shocked for an excessively long time. But without a brush most algae's will survive a shock or two. I don't know if this is evolved or not but it does kinda seem that way to me. Black algae is especially resistant to chlorine death, as its outer shell is thick and sometimes difficult to brush off by normal means.",
"What if the water has a very low concentration of chlorine? Would bacteria be able to evolve to survive it's pretense in the environment",
"It would have to be both an extremophile and pathogenic. Not impossible but not probable due to the very different conditions the bacteria would have to thrive in.",
"Chlorine (and ozone, hydrogen peroxide, chloramine -- which is ammonia and chlorine in some molecule) are common strong oxidizers used for water treatment/disinfection.\n\nBacteria, protozoa and viruses all have an outer layer that they rely on to isolate themselves from the surrounding environment. Bacteria have something akin to a phospho-lipid bylayer (cell wall), virus have a strong protein coat to contain their viral DNA (or RNA? not biology major), protozoa have something as well.\n\nA strong oxidizer like chlorine likes to chemically react by tearing electrons away from other molecules forming negative chloride ions in solution. With lots of chlorine, peroxide or chloramine molecules around anything with electrons to donate is fair game for oxidization. The stronger the oxidizer the more it will want to destroy other molecules (in protein coats or cell walls).\n\nSo the protein coat, cell wall or whatever gets chemically oxidized, damaged or completely broken down which then exposes the innards of the bacteria, virus or protozoa to the surrounding environment or chlorine and that pretty much is destruction.\n\nHow would resistance develop? To small amounts of oxidizer perhaps -- maybe bacteria could form a bacterial slime that protects them (works for other things like antibiotics) -- I'm not sure a cell wall could be evolved that can protect a single individual bacteria. Probably the bacterial slime colony secretes a slime that can protect them from the harsh oxidizer -- with enough concentration though even that will get attacked and diffusion over time would get enough oxidizer to the bacteria killing them.\n\nWith oxidizers, sanitisation strength is measured in either contact time or solution strength. Want more sanitized water? Add more chlorine or increase the amount of time chlorine is in contact with bacteria-containing water (prior to consumption).",
"\"Black spot Algae\" as we call it in Western Australia is a particular type of chlorine resistant algae that forms a wax layer over it to prevent chlorine penetration. Its very hard to kill and remove. "
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2cvmsx | morals and values | Where do these come from? What I consider morally right or wrong other people might think the opposite. Why do people feel the need to push thier own values and morals onto other people? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2cvmsx/eli5_morals_and_values/ | {
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" > Why do people feel the need to push their own values and morals onto other people?\n\nWhy do you?\n\nIf you see someone murdering someone else in front of you, surely you are going to stop him and tell him this is *wrong*. So, why are you trying to push your morals onto other people?\n\nYes, most often their morals are not welcomed and you wish they kept it for themselves. But this is the general logic as to WHY people feel the need to push their moral to other people. Because they truly believe that they are right and that they are helping.",
"There are two ways to come at this question - from the direction of psychology and the direction of philosophy. Lots of research has been done in psychology about how morals work, where our ethical ideas come from and how we apply those ideas to different situations. On the other hand, philosophy has been trying to work out what 'the good' *actually is*, whether there's any such thing, and if we can know it even if there is, since the time of Plato.\n\nSome interesting psychology research has come out in the last few years which suggests that we can identify a number of 'foundations' of morality. People across different cultures and of different political persuasions place different weights on these different foundations and this, I think, can explain many of our moral disagreements.\n\nThe foundations they identify are:\n\n* **Harm/care** - it is inherently wrong to harm another (for no good reason)\n\n* **Fairness** - it is inherently wrong to preferentially treat someone better or worse (for no good reason)\n\n* **Purity** - this one's a bit more complex (and a little more controversial) but the idea is that many cultures have a notion that there are certain things (like having lots of sex, having sex in a particular way, being gay) which are inherently wrong, regardless of the harm they may or may not cause\n\n* **Loyalty** - it is inherently right to preferentially treat members of your 'in-group', whether that be your family, your tribe, ethnicity, country, etc\n\n* **Authority** - it is inherently morally wrong to disobey or disrespect people in certain positions. An example commonly given is to imagine that you and your father are both part of a play, and your part involves pretending to slap your father across the face, and he has agreed to this. For many people, in many cultures, this would seem very wrong, regardless of the fact no harm is caused, because you are disrespecting an authority figure\n\n* **Liberty** - it is inherently morally wrong to stop someone doing something they want to do (for no good reason). The freedom of the individual to act as they wish is one that should be morally respected\n\nIt's been noted that political conservatives and political liberals disagree about which of these foundations are important. Liberals tend to not have much time for Authority, Loyalty or Purity, whereas these things do apparently matter far more to conservatives."
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2hvzk6 | During the American War of Independence, what were the main religious differences between the Americans and the British? | I've recently read some accounts of occupying British forces turning Congregationalist churches into stables and otherwise having a dim view of the Colonists' religion. What were the main differences, and what role, if any, did this play in driving a wedge between the colonies and England? | AskHistorians | http://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/2hvzk6/during_the_american_war_of_independence_what_were/ | {
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"This is a big question, I won't be able to do it justice, but here's a start. In short, yes, there are significant differences in religious life between England and the N. American colonies and these differences come into play during the Revolutionary War. To this day Queen Elizabeth II is Supreme Governor of the Church of England and Defender of the Faith whereas the United States famously affirms the First Amendment.\n\nThe main difference you need to appreciate is between the Church of England and dissenting Christians. If we go way back to Henry VIII's Reformation we can see that initially he didn't change theology from the Catholic beliefs, for instance in the 1530s transubstantiation is affirmed, but he replaced the primacy of the Pope with himself. Reformed theologies are spreading in England throughout the reign of Edward VI, then Mary's Catholic repression martyrs Protestants and confirms Protestant theology within Anglicanism. When Elizabeth becomes Queen she's confronted with the problem of reforming the Anglican church to fully establish its Protestant character, like Protestantism itself this is a matter of great controversy, and some conferences of scholars are called to produce what's known as the [\"Elizabethan settlement.\"](_URL_0_) The settlement makes some Protestant liturgical reforms but claims for Anglicanism a magisterial/state authority similar to Catholicism. The Act of Uniformity and Book of Common Prayer are legally mandated, there's no freedom of conscience for someone who is more radically Protestant than the C of E.\n\nAnd over the course of Elizabeth's reign the ranks of those radical Protestants are swelling! Called Puritans in England, these are people who refuse to attend the Anglican Church and who acknowledge no authority above the Scripture interpreted with aid of Grace. I've written some [big comments on Puritanism](_URL_1_) if you're interested.\n\nBetween 1600-1650 there is growing conflict between these dissenting Protestants and the Anglican Church, many emigrate to the New World in search of greater freedom to govern their religious affairs. It's important to note that these groups want to *govern*, they want not only freedom from persecution but the freedom to persecute! In the 1640s England has a Civil War between Parliament and King, Parliament being dominated completely by dissenters. Oliver Cromwell is himself a (relatively mild) religious independent.\n\nSo from the beginning of settlement the American colonies have significant religious diversity and this is one of the factors encouraging emigration. It varies regionally, but some areas are quite mixed, there's plenty of conflict. In 1689 there's even an anti-Catholic coup in Maryland. \n\nDissenters remain in Britain too, of course, but they are henceforth always a minority. \n\nAbout Congregationalism more specifically. Some radical Protestant theologies are associated, fairly or unfairly, with specific political ideas. Cromwell's revolution had a religious character, they killed a King, and there's a persistent tradition of anti-authoritarianism in some of these groups. Quakers would be the best example. \"Congregational\" refers to a mode of Church government different from the CoE and implictly Calvinist. Indeed the historic Congregational churches were strongly Calvinist. In 1776 a British person would connote Congregationalism with anti-Monarchical ideas/sentiment, since the Revolutionary War was framed by loyalists as being about loyalty to a legitimate King you can imagine why a Congregational church would attract abuse."
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2gzobb | what are the main differences between machines and robots? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2gzobb/eli5what_are_the_main_differences_between/ | {
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"Robots are a kind of machine.\n\nGenerally when people speak of robots in a layman's colloquial sense, they mean the popular culture sort of humanoid, advanced AI machine.\n\nThere are lots of industries, though, that use machines that they call robots. It's usually because they have some sort of ability to make decisions/adjustments based on environmental input. So instead of just being a machine that makes the same movement over and over, or a machine controlled exclusively by a human's touch, it's an arm or something that can adjust to the location of whatever it has to pick up/move/assemble or whatever."
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24v1x2 | What happens to electricity in space? | Theoretically, if you could set up a system to simulate lightening in space, what would happen to the electricity emited? Would it still have the same properties and look like a lightening bolt, or would it take on another. Would it do nothing at all? | askscience | http://www.reddit.com/r/askscience/comments/24v1x2/what_happens_to_electricity_in_space/ | {
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"Without a gas to super heat it will not look like a lightning bolt. \n\nlightning is the result of a discharge of electrons from a high potential source, like a storm cloud, and a source of electrical ground (like the ground) when that voltage potential exceeds the beakdown voltage of the insulating material (air)\n\nWithout any material between source of voltage and source of ground the only way to have the same transfer is to eject an actual stream of electrons through the vacuum of space. I imagine with a large enough electron gun you could perform a similar transfer of current, but I doubt it would be visible.",
"in space, you have close to a vacuum. Electricity is the transfer of charge(really the transfer of electrons in a science sense). These electrons need to move through something, usually a conduction band.\n\nIf the electrons cannot jump easily(as they cannot when the atoms are meters away from each other), then you have a very high resistance(tends to infinity). So you have no current(tends to 0). Which means no lightning. If you have an electrical engineering background, you can think of it like an open circuit. A very high voltage across V+ and V-, but no way for the current to flow."
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8udtc5 | Would an object falling from infinity to the surface of the earth reach escape velocity before it makes impact? | askscience | https://www.reddit.com/r/askscience/comments/8udtc5/would_an_object_falling_from_infinity_to_the/ | {
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"Under standard assumptions (falling radially, no atmosphere, etc.), an object that falls from infinity reaches *exactly* escape velocity at the surface of Earth just before impact. Indeed, this is an equivalent definition of escape velocity."
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n9lgt | How are city tram power-lines powered? | I live in Prague where there are miles of Tram-power lines that power what seems to be DC powered trams (could be AC) with the use of a touch to live wire source.
My question is how do they "keep the lines hot"?
Isn't it wasteful to keep the whole network charged at full?
Also, I have noticed there are a lot of places where I see power lines connecting to the hot-line, so how is that not causing lops/breaks/shorts in the circuit?
EDIT: here is a map, the purple it the lines; _URL_0_ | askscience | http://www.reddit.com/r/askscience/comments/n9lgt/how_are_city_tram_powerlines_powered/ | {
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"\"Keep the lines hot\" is a misunderstanding\n\nPower, in the electrical sense, is when current flows from a high voltage conductor to a low voltage conductor. Keeping them separated does not require any power. Air is a pretty good electrical insulator, so very little current flows from the power lines to the rails, and very little power is used. Only when the train is there, and is connecting the lines, does electricity get used (to turn the train motors). When there is no train, the power required to maintain a high voltage line that is insulated with air and glass/ceramic insulators (those ridged white or grey cylinders) is minimal.\n\nIt's the same way that all the pipes in your house are full of water, but no water is actually used until you turn on the sink, flush the toilet, etc. ",
"\"Keep the lines hot\" is a misunderstanding\n\nPower, in the electrical sense, is when current flows from a high voltage conductor to a low voltage conductor. Keeping them separated does not require any power. Air is a pretty good electrical insulator, so very little current flows from the power lines to the rails, and very little power is used. Only when the train is there, and is connecting the lines, does electricity get used (to turn the train motors). When there is no train, the power required to maintain a high voltage line that is insulated with air and glass/ceramic insulators (those ridged white or grey cylinders) is minimal.\n\nIt's the same way that all the pipes in your house are full of water, but no water is actually used until you turn on the sink, flush the toilet, etc. "
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6phz7m | solid state batteries, why are they the future? | It's seems like all the cell phone manufacturers and automakers are saying solid state batteries are 3-5 years out. Why are they choosing Solid State instead of improving lithium ion? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6phz7m/eli5_solid_state_batteries_why_are_they_the_future/ | {
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"The main reason is li-ion is unstable and highly flammable, there have been numerous cases of laptops and phones suffering near explosive combustion due to the li-ion battery.\nThere was even a cargo plan that was brought down by a fire in the hold due to li-ion batteries",
"Lithium-ion based batteries can hold a lot of energy, but they're also very sensitive. Fast or overcharging, or short circuiting a pack can cause it to puff up and potentially burst. If the pack ruptures, the lithium inside rapidly and violently oxidizes and catches fire. Obviously not a good thing if say an EV gets into a crash and the batteries get punctured.\n\nThe other problem with li-ion batteries is their energy density. Yes they can hold a lot, but not nearly as much as gasoline, even when you do take inefficiencies in internal combustion engines into account. Range is still a major limiting factor for EVs. \n\nLithium batteries are also very expensive. Which is why you only see range comparable to petrol vehicles in high end luxury cars. Lithium mining is also a pretty dirty industry. There are studies out there that show EVs with current technology may actually be slightly worse for the environment that petrol cars. So your Leaf may not actually be so green. \n\nSolid state batteries promise to be safer and pack three times the energy density of li-ion cells. They also last longer and can be changed faster. They use materials like glass and sodium which are widely available, cheap, and more environmentally friendly to produce. If manufacturing this new technology can be scaled, it could result in the holy grail of EVs. An all-weather, fast fueling, long range econobox car that's price comparable to current petrol vehicles in the same class. \n"
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f23eeg | why can heavy menstrual bleeding sometimes contribute to anemia? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/f23eeg/elif_why_can_heavy_menstrual_bleeding_sometimes/ | {
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"Anemia caused my menstruation is more likely as lack of iron than a lack of blood. Women need roughly twice as much iron as men because of this.\n\nFoods high in iron include legumes, red meat, nuts, seeds and wholegrains. Also vitamin C can help up iron intake.",
"Having anemia means you don't have enough red blood cells to carry oxygen effectively. If you regularly bleed heavily, its a much harder burden on your body to replace the blood, which can lead to not having enough blood",
"Iron deficiency anemia is most often associated with the menstrual cycle. As we all know, iron is in your blood and during your period you are expelling more blood than you normally would and you body isnt able to produce iron on its own. You get it from your diet and some people need to consume more than others. \n\nBut combine this answer with the one from garura and you've got it covered",
"Anemia simply, is a lack of red blood cells or haemoglobin. You could read this as a 'lack of blood'. \n\nKnowing that, the idea that heavy bleeding can result in suffering from a lack of blood makes perfect sense really."
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3sr36h | how does the paint that changes color by temperature work? | Hot wheels, or plastic cups that change color when hot or cold. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3sr36h/eli5how_does_the_paint_that_changes_color_by/ | {
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"Omg. I was at the science festival in sf last week and they were passing out rulers that did this... The kids passing them out had no idea how they work other than to say there are two layers of paint and the top layer becomes transparent with heat. \n\n"
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11wmqt | If the universe is expanding, are we able to see stars going backwards in time? | I've recently learned in depth about the big bang, expanding universe, etc. Most of the sources use the expanding balloon analogy, where points on opposite sides of the universe are expanding away faster than the speed of light, therefore we can't see the stars across the universe. However I also read that the universe expansion is accelerating as well. So that leads me to believe a star that at one point was moving away slower than the speed of light could now be moving away faster. Would that mean from our vantage point a star could be going backwards in time, in terms of its lifespan? | askscience | http://www.reddit.com/r/askscience/comments/11wmqt/if_the_universe_is_expanding_are_we_able_to_see/ | {
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"No. That would require light from later in the star's life to catch up to and pass the earlier light, which isn't possible.",
"Any object which, due to the expansion of the universe, is moving away from us faster than the speed of light is essentially forever inaccessible to us. It is over the cosmic horizon which we can never cross. So if, due to the fact that the expansion is accelerating, a galaxy were to accelerate to recede from us at a speed greater than the speed of light, it would cross our cosmic horizon, never to be seen again. You wouldn't see that star going back in time.",
"I don't see why that would be the case. Maybe you could clarify why a distant galaxy would appear to be going \"backwards in time.\" If a galaxy is moving away from us, then light it sends to us should be received in the order it was sent.",
"A light source would have to be moving *towards* us faster than the speed of light for us to perceive it as going backwards in time, which isnt possible."
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39s8vr | why are cows so sacred in india that they cannot be slaughtered and beef cannot be eaten there | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/39s8vr/eli5_why_are_cows_so_sacred_in_india_that_they/ | {
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"Cows aren't harmed in India as a sign of respect. Cow's milk is an important part of every Indian household and several dishes are based on it. They are considered to be gifts from God and people are thankful for them.",
"It's part of Hindu culture, not Indian. Muslims eat beef. \n\nYou don't find cow temples or anything, people do not pray to cows nor are cows given a pimped out life.\n\nIt is simply considered bad to kill or harm a cow. It has a lot to do with them providing milk. \n\nIt's similar to how the USA treats bald eagles.",
"It is just a cultural mindset, similar to the idea of disliking meat of dogs and cats in the world. [An external link to an article with longer explaination](_URL_0_)\n\n",
"For cowherds, cows are literally money. Except that this money can die. When your wealth is measured in the number of living animals, you don't randomly kill them off.\n\nAdvance a couple of thousand years, and the rules about protecting cows no longer make sense, but are followed in a superstitious fashion. Like any other religion.",
"Just to add on to the other points already mentioned here:\nCows are very versatile animals, used not only for their milk, but also for manual labor for plowing the fields, transportation, and, believe it or not, house walls in India are smeared with cow dung for its antibacterial (outnumber the harmful bacteria with commensal bacteria) and mosquito repellent effects. \n\n_URL_0_\n\nCows have been an integral part of Indian society as a whole, and thus they are rarely slaughtered for consumption. Religious tenets were commonly used to reinforce important principles such as this- it is hard for some people to see the negative future implications of slaughtering cattle, even during desperate times. \n"
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3pqcj0 | What happens to blood cells if you invest them? | I'm watching my cat, who escaped our house and just returned with a minor cut, lick her bloody paw repeatedly. Will the cells be absorbed and reanimated in the bloodstream somehow? Either through nutrition or are they small enough to just go on being blood cells? Does our stomach acid or saliva kill them? | askscience | https://www.reddit.com/r/askscience/comments/3pqcj0/what_happens_to_blood_cells_if_you_invest_them/ | {
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"Saliva or stomach acid would likely kill them. If blood cells aren't in a liquid with the same concentration as blood they will basically pop due to water entering the cell or shrivel up due to water leaving the cell. Absorbing whole cells would risk having bacteria enter the bloodstream too easily, so things are broken up in the stomach and absorbed by the cells lining the stomach and intestines before being transferred to the bloodstream. The fragments of the red blood cells might be recycled though, as well as any other minerals and nutrients in the blood. ",
"As Unsetting Sun mentioned, the blood cells wouldn't survive.\n\nSo why lick the wound? Saliva can help sterilize your kitty's wound, and it also contains Epidermal Growth Factor (EGF), which might help with [tissue regeneration](_URL_0_) in the wound.\n",
"The other answers are correct. Additionally, this is why certain medications like insulin or some rheumatoid arthritis medications need to be injected because otherwise they would be destroyed in the stomach (if taken by mouth)."
]
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[],
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"http://www.hon.ch/OESO/books/Vol_3_Eso_Mucosa/Articles/ART064.HTML"
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1t353r | why does the uk still have a -house of lords? | I understand the need for check and balances, but a group of people who were not democratically voted in, but either knew the right people, or paid their way in, with the power to block any legislation they don't like, seems like a poor way to implement such balance. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1t353r/eli5_why_does_the_uk_still_have_a_house_of_lords/ | {
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"Because it works fine and most people are happy with it? \n\n\nHow can you have a check system if the way you appoint members in the upper house is the exact same way you appoint members of the lower house? You will just end up with the same result.\n\n\nLords can also be nominated by the public. There are also restrictions on what the lords can and can't reject and they can be bypassed if need be. ",
"They don't have the power to block any legislation. All they can do is ask the House of Commons to think again. \n\nOut of the two Houses, The Commons is supreme, as it contains the elected members.",
"Most people in the Lords will be former civil servants/ politicians or people with long careers in public service. The experience they can bring into scrutinising legislation can be invaluable. \n\nHowever everything the Lords do can be overridden by the House of Commons so they have no real power, and a democratically elected second house could take away power from the commons or be more obstructionist, resulting in the kind of gridlock seen in the US congress"
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29cna7 | What leads to different colors of marble? | I am aware that marble is limestone metamorphosed by heat but on a recent trip to Sicily I saw a floor with many different colors of marble: white, green, yellow, brown. What determines the color of marble? Are different colors of marble actual marble or just traditionally named marble? | askscience | http://www.reddit.com/r/askscience/comments/29cna7/what_leads_to_different_colors_of_marble/ | {
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"from the wiki\n\nPure white marble is the result of metamorphism of a very pure (silicate-poor) limestone or dolomite protolith. The characteristic swirls and veins of many colored marble varieties are usually due to various mineral impurities such as clay, silt, sand, iron oxides, or chert which were originally present as grains or layers in the limestone. Green coloration is often due to serpentine resulting from originally high magnesium limestone or dolostone with silica impurities. These various impurities have been mobilized and recrystallized by the intense pressure and heat of the metamorphism\n\nI would think that the yellows and browns would also be caused by sulfur. ",
"There are a many different factors involved in the formation of marble. As you know it forms via a process of metamorphism, specifically of carbonate minerals.\nMetamorphism is a process that occurs after burial and lithication of the carbonate material (when it turns to rock). However the degree of metamorphism is controlled by three main factors:\n\n1. Heat. As a rock is continuously buried at depth it will be subjected to an increasing amount of heat from the inner earth. This heat can change the carbonate minerals structure.\n\n2. Pressure. As the carbonate rock is continuously buried it is subjected to increased lithic pressure which will also alter the carbonate material.\n\n3. Time. Depending on how long this carbonate material is buried for before subsequent uplift to the surface it will effect how long it is effected by heat and pressure.\n\nBasically, it is not uniform how much temperature and pressure a rock will be subjected to as it undergoes metamorphism thus creating a multitude of variants of marble. Also the mineral make up of the carbonate material prior to metamorphism will effect it's eventual outcome.\n\nThe reason that it is possible to see marbles of different colours basically is due to the mineral make up prior to metamorphism and then during this process, the temperatures and pressures that the material is subjected to.\n\nThat's as basic as I can make it but I know people who have spent their whole life looking at metamorphism and it genuinely is one of the most complicated parts of geology going."
]
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2xojup | why is it illegal to share movies, music, etc; but completely legal to borrow books, movies, music, etc from the library? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2xojup/eli5_why_is_it_illegal_to_share_movies_music_etc/ | {
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"Because at a library there is one physical copy being shared, it can only be with any one user at a time. With computer files you are creating copies so each user can access the file at the same time. ",
"It's illegal to *copy* and *distribute* properties that you don't have the rights to (that's why it's called *copyright*). The Courts have decided that large scale sharing via torrenting is more similar to distribution than sharing because you wind up giving it to hundreds, thousands of people that you don't know. ",
"It is not illegal to share a movie or music on the original media. For example, you can legally loan or give your friend a DVD or CD that you bought from the store.\n\nBut it is illegal to copy that and give it away, just like it's illegal to photocopy a book and give that away."
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1dueb1 | How was Art Deco architecture viewed and judged when it was built? | In general, these days, Art Deco architecture is admired. We have a city in New Zealand, Napier, that had a [massive earthquake in 1931]( _URL_2_). Much of the re-build was done in Art Deco, and [it looks great]( _URL_3_). People come from [around the world]( _URL_0_) to admire it. Was Art Deco admired at the time? Or was it derided?
This question has interesting relevance now, because another city in New Zealand (Christchurch) is being re-built after another [earthquake]( _URL_1_). As a result, a lot its architecture [will reflect current sensibilities]( _URL_4_).
| AskHistorians | http://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/1dueb1/how_was_art_deco_architecture_viewed_and_judged/ | {
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"Art Deco was very popular at the time, and influenced buildings around the world. It was associated with luxury and progress, and was widely embraced by all levels of society, while [contemporary modernist and expressionist architecture were more intellectual/elitist.](_URL_0_)\n\nRebuilding a town on a large scale offers unique possibilities for architecture, as Napier shows. An earlier example is the town of [Ålesund](_URL_2_) in Norway, destroyed by [fire in 1905](_URL_1_), was completely rebuild in Art Nouveau/Jugendstil. The town has an unusually consistent architecture, most of the buildings having been built between 1904 and 1907. It's been argue that it was a boon for the town and it has become a tourist attraction."
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| [
"http://www.artdeconapier.com/",
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_Christchurch_earthquake",
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1931_Hawke%27s_Bay_earthquake",
"https://www.google.co.nz/search?q=napier+art+deco&client=firefox-a&hs=Afv&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=i4OIUYQ_ituKAoibgVg&ved=0CAoQ_AUoAQ&biw=1024&bih=638",
"https://www.google.co.nz/search?q=christchurch+rebuild&client=firefox-a&hs=ihv&sa=X&hl=en&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&ei=KYSIUcmZH4GgiQL-yYHICA&ved=0CD8QsAQ&biw=1024&bih=638"
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"http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/art/3591841/Dark-side-of-Art-Deco.html",
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%85lesund_Fire",
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%85lesund"
]
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1a1cbg | why any person in front of a judge must take an oath regarding god ( "so help me god" ) irrelevant of religion | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1a1cbg/why_any_person_in_front_of_a_judge_must_take_an/ | {
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"Many venues give an option to make an [*affirmation*](_URL_0_) instead (that you will affirm that all of the statements you're making are the truth).\n\n",
"I like what Duke_Newcombe said. But other than that, I think in this context \"God\" is being used as a general entity to refer to many common religions (since most have god/gods in some form). However, this does not account for atheists or the few religions that don't have a God figure.",
"In the UK at least every effort is made to provide witnesses with the appropriate holy book to swear on, or if the witness has no faith, they are allowed to affirm.\nIn my experience as a prosecutor, affirmation had no affect on whether witness is believed."
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dnyhda | so veritasium explains in his video that trees gain their mass mainly from the air, better said from carbon dioxide. how exactly does it work? | Unfortunately he does not exactly explain what exactly happens inside the tree that makes it keep the carbon and "spit out" the oxygen again. And how does carbon make the tree gain mass?
ELI5! | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/dnyhda/eli5_so_veritasium_explains_in_his_video_that/ | {
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"photosynthesis is extracts CO2 from the atmosphere along with water from the tree's roots. It uses energy from sunlight to split the molecules and recombine them to make sugar; the bulk of most plant's mass is cellulose which is a type of sugar.",
"By photosynthesis.\n\nCarbon Dioxide + water + light transform chemically by photosynthesis into Sugar and Oxygen. Sugar is 6 atoms of carbon, 12 atoms of hydrogen and 6 atom of oxygen.\n\nFrom there the tree will use the sugar to feed his cells, who can divide and multiply, just like in our body. The wood is made of cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin which are made of carbon, hydrogen and oxygen atoms."
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1wearr | if singapore encourages learning standard mandarin and english over dialects, and taiwan encourages standard mandarin, why don't hong kong and macau continue to promote only cantonese? | I've already been explained as to why Singapore discouraged Singlish, Hokkien, and Teochew. But why do Hong Kong and Macau continue to officially use Cantonese? Wouldn't it be better for Chinese integration to promote Mandarin?
Also, why do Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan continue to refuse to use simplified characters? Doesn't this create confusion? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1wearr/eli5_if_singapore_encourages_learning_standard/ | {
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"It's partly an issue of identity, nobody likes to feel like they're becoming obsolete.\nAlso re-education is very expensive and time consuming and would require infrastructure changes on many levels. think about it, it's not just teaching kids, it's teaching adults who could be spending their time doing more productive things. It would also mean changing road signs and reprinting millions of books whose earlier editions are now worthless. The effects are huge reaching.\nThere has to be a pretty huge incentive for a nation or a jurisdiction to change their languages and acceptance and integration would have to be pretty rewarding to be worth it.\nSimplified characters are found often in places where trade and travel are common, however I know they exist elsewhere and i'm not sure why so can't help you there, would like to know though.",
" > Why do Hong Kong and Macau continue to promote only Cantonese?\n\nAt least when it comes to its education policy, Hong Kong is aiming to make its students biliterate in [Modern Standard Chinese](_URL_4_) and English and trilingual in Mandarin, Cantonese, and English according to [page 8 of this PDF](_URL_5_), though it's admitted fuzzy on how to achieve that goal.\n\nAs to why Hong Kong hasn't abandoned Cantonese wholesale and switched to Mandarin, /u/Losingstruggle covered how important a sense of identity is. It's worth adding that a sense of Cantonese-speaking identity is strong even in Mainland China, [crowds gathered in protest when Guangzhou proposed broadcasting more programming in Mandarin at the expense of Cantonese.](_URL_2_)\n\n > Also, why do Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan continue to refuse to use simplified characters? Doesn't this create confusion?\n\nFrom the perspective of Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan, they've just been using the same characters they've been using all along and it's Mainland China that's changed; it's not the opposite situation as if Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan all changed and went out of their way to be different.\n\nHong Kong and Macau both are Special Administrative Regions and have a high degree of autonomy. Hongkongers are already resentful of Mainlanders, [as this New York Times article explains](_URL_3_), and I think Hongkongers might not want simplified characters from the Mainland imposed on them.\n > For years, Hong Kongers have nursed complaints about the growing parade of visitors to their city from mainland China. The mainlanders spit, litter, jaywalk and cut in line, the locals grouse; they talk too loudly, eat on the subway and otherwise flout Hong Kong’s more refined standards of public behavior.\n\n > ...\n\n > But the seven million residents of Hong Kong increasingly fear that mainlanders are challenging them for services, for property and to some extent for their cultural identity. Many suspect that wealthier mainlanders see Hong Kong as an escape option, for their children if not themselves, should confidence in China’s future fade.\n\nAs for Taiwan, I'll say it hasn't been eager to rejoin the PRC and give up its de facto independence. President Ma Ying-jeou has flip-flopped on the issue of simplified versus traditional, [in 2009 Ma proposed adopting simplified characters](_URL_0_), but i[n 2011 he ordered the Tourism Bureau to take down the simplified versions of its webpages](_URL_1_).",
" > Also, why do Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan continue to refuse to use simplified characters? Doesn't this create confusion?\n\nOccasionally, but for the most part educated people reading either Simplified or Traditional are able to read a large percentage of text written in the other character set. Chinese and Taiwanese \n\nAs to why, it's mostly a matter of politics, and to a lesser extent regional identity. There's also people who argue that Traditional characters are more beautiful, but that's a fairly subjective standpoint. "
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| []
| [
[],
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"http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5gOVIFkd_Q70o23zAkf6k8TXQPeDQ",
"http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/front/archives/2011/06/16/2003505898",
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guangzhou_Television_Cantonese_controversy",
"http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/23/world/asia/mainland-chinese-flock-to-hong-kong-to-have-babies.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0",
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Written_vernacular_Chinese",
"http://140.122.100.145/ntnuj/j49/j491-13.pdf"
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ka711 | Is there any truth to the idea that inter racial breeding among humans decreases mutations? For example, is the offspring of a white and asian person more likely to be healthy than two whites or two asians? | askscience | http://www.reddit.com/r/askscience/comments/ka711/is_there_any_truth_to_the_idea_that_inter_racial/ | {
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"There is a concept called[ heterosis, or hybrid vigor](_URL_1_), which states that **on average** the offspring of genetically dissimilar parents would be \"superior\" to the offspring of genetically similar parents.\n\nHowever, this effect is extremely small when considering the mixing of human races, because there is more[ genetic variation within a race than between races](_URL_0_). Humans differ from one another by about 1 in 1000 base pairs of DNA. Racial differences account for only about 10% of that variation. \n\n",
"There are genetic diseases that are more prevalent in certain populations than others. Some examples would be cystic fibrosis which is more common among people of European decent or sickle cell anemia which is more common among people of African and Mediterranean decent. So you can certainly say that a child with parents both of European decent would be more likely to have cystic fibrosis than a child of parents with European and African ancestors. Of course there are a multitude of diseases caused by mutations that may or may not be linked to a certain ancestry. I'm not an expert in that area so I couldn't say if it is a general rule that a child with parents of different ancestries would be more likely to be healthier overall.",
"I would think yes, but only slightly so.\n\nFirst, to be precise, racial interbreeding doesn't decrease \"mutations\". Mutations happen at a steady rate. What it can decrease is the number of homozygous deleterious variants. However, if both populations are in mutation-selection balance, mixing the populations will not decrease the number of homozygotes. However, if the populations have unique recessive deleterious variants, then a mixture would have lower risk of suffering from those.",
"There is a concept called[ heterosis, or hybrid vigor](_URL_1_), which states that **on average** the offspring of genetically dissimilar parents would be \"superior\" to the offspring of genetically similar parents.\n\nHowever, this effect is extremely small when considering the mixing of human races, because there is more[ genetic variation within a race than between races](_URL_0_). Humans differ from one another by about 1 in 1000 base pairs of DNA. Racial differences account for only about 10% of that variation. \n\n",
"There are genetic diseases that are more prevalent in certain populations than others. Some examples would be cystic fibrosis which is more common among people of European decent or sickle cell anemia which is more common among people of African and Mediterranean decent. So you can certainly say that a child with parents both of European decent would be more likely to have cystic fibrosis than a child of parents with European and African ancestors. Of course there are a multitude of diseases caused by mutations that may or may not be linked to a certain ancestry. I'm not an expert in that area so I couldn't say if it is a general rule that a child with parents of different ancestries would be more likely to be healthier overall.",
"I would think yes, but only slightly so.\n\nFirst, to be precise, racial interbreeding doesn't decrease \"mutations\". Mutations happen at a steady rate. What it can decrease is the number of homozygous deleterious variants. However, if both populations are in mutation-selection balance, mixing the populations will not decrease the number of homozygotes. However, if the populations have unique recessive deleterious variants, then a mixture would have lower risk of suffering from those."
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gj5i0 | How much air speed does a modern fighter jet lose by firing a salvo of bullets at an enemy plane? | Those are usually of big caliber and have a considerate mass. Since F=ma that has to be a considerable amount of stopping power. | askscience | http://www.reddit.com/r/askscience/comments/gj5i0/how_much_air_speed_does_a_modern_fighter_jet_lose/ | {
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"You need to conserve momentum. Assuming an M61 Vulcan cannon firing 100g rounds at 1000 m/s and a burst of 1 second (~100 rounds), a half loaded F-22 Raptor (~25000kg) would lose 0.4 m/s. Even with some fudge factors for the accelerated air, you wouldn't lose more than 1 m/s.",
"Hmm, comment disappeared.\n\nF-22 Raptor ~25000 kg\n\n\nM61 Vulcan cannon fires ~100 rounds/second, 100g, at 1000m/s\n\n\nAfter a 1 second volley, the Raptor lose ~0.4m/s,",
"Well the F-16 has a mass of about 8600 _URL_1_ has a 20mm cannon that fires 100g rounds (all found [here](_URL_0_)) at about 1000 m/s.\n\n\nFrom conservation of momentum, we can find that each bullet fired will reduce the speed of the plane by about 0.011 m/s. Since the vulcan M61 gatling gun can fire 100 rounds per second, this translates into an acceleration due to the gun of about 1.1 m/s^2, which is about 10% of one g. This is probably barely noticeable to the pilot.",
"Layperson here: I'll get you started if I can.\n\n_URL_2_\n > The Raptor carries an M61A2 Vulcan 20 mm rotary cannon, also with a trap door, in the right wing root. The M61A2 is a last ditch weapon, and carries 480 rounds; enough ammunition for approximately five seconds of sustained fire.\n\n_URL_1_\n > typically firing a 3.5 oz (100 gram) projectile \n...\n > Around 1988 a new round was introduced, the PGU-28/B,[5] which is now standard for US Navy and USAF aircraft. The PGU-28/B is a \"low-drag\" round designed to reduce in-flight drag and deceleration, and has a slightly increased muzzle velocity of 3,450 feet per second (1,050 m/s). \n\nThus the entire salvo would be 48kg, at a velocity of 3450f/s. Now I'm not great with physics, but [wolfram says](_URL_0_) that this equates to 50475 kg m/s. The raptor has a loaded weight of 29,300 kg, so I think that means the aircraft would lose about 1.7 m/s of speed.\n\nThe Raptor cruises at 1,963 km/h (1,220 mph), which is 545 m/s. (Although I suspect that the canon would never be deployed at that speed.) So firing the canon would not be a very remarkable reduction. And of course this is over-simplified; I suspect that there are some intricacies involved here.\n\nAnd somebody please check my work!",
"(Layman on the subject, but here's a fun fact)\n\nThe A-10 (an anti-tank plane) is designed to fire that [giant gattling gun on it's nose](_URL_0_) while pointed towards the ground. The recoil of the gun causes the plane to maintain its altitude.",
"Don't forget that the fighter jet is very heavy, so even a large force won't induce much acceleration.",
"It can't slow the plane down much, but what it *can* do is cause the plane to yaw to one side. That's why the gun on the A-10 is [offset to one side](_URL_0_), so that the firing barrel is in the dead center of the plane when it fires (at the 9 o'clock position).\n",
"Draw a diagram. Not sure if my math or Physics is right but this is what comes to mind.\n\nPlane --v-- > Pew > Pew > Pew > \n\nNumBullets * MassOfBullet * SpeedOfBullet = BulletsMomentum\n\n((PlaneMassStart + PlaneMassEnd)/2) * PlaneSpeed = AvgPlaneMomentum \n\nAvgPlaceMomentum - BulletsMomentum = NewMomentum\n\nNewSpeedOfPlane = NewMomentum/PlaneMassEnd\n\n",
"What do you mean, an African or European jet fighter?"
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3dvhh7 | is a mobius strip actually a 2-dimensional object, or is it a representation? | A basic Mobius strip: twist a strip of paper in the middle and tape the ends together. What once had definite length, width, and height now has definite width and height but infinite length. But somehow this is now a 2-dimensional object because you can traverse the entire length without coming to a break or vertex? It's fasinating and interesting, but it is actually two-dimensional? What really is this thing? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3dvhh7/eli5_is_a_mobius_strip_actually_a_2dimensional/ | {
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"The confusion here comes from the confusion of \"infinite length\" with \"no end\". The Mobius strip does not have infinite length, any more than does a circle.\n\nMathematically speaking, the Mobius strip is a 2D manifold, which basically means if you zoom in enough it looks like a plane.",
"I would add that when you're talking about a physical piece of paper that you have twisted into a mobius strip, that is not truly two dimensional. If you were to zoom in close enough, you'd see that the paper has an edge, the page has thickness. So a piece of paper, while often used to represent a 2D object, is really a 3D object, it's just that the paper is very thin, compared to its length and width. So when you're looking at a physical piece of paper that you've twisted and taped into a Mobius strip, you're just looking at a 3D representation of a 2D concept."
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1z2c58 | why hasn't the us signed the geneva convention? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1z2c58/eli5_why_hasnt_the_us_signed_the_geneva_convention/ | {
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"It doesn't want to be held to international law.",
"They don't want to have to follow other people's rules.",
"But the US have signed, and ratified, the four Geneva Conventions, and the last of three amendment protocols, the first two of the amendment protocols have been signed but not ratified. Thus your question is, in every way, a nonsensical question. \n\nSource: [Page 6 of this pdf. Geneva conventions are abreviated as GCI-IV and amendmet protocols as AP I - III](_URL_0_)\n\nGeneva conventions are abreviated as GCI-IV, and amendmet protocols as AP I - III."
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||
111rpj | How accurate is the show How Booze Built America? | [*How Booze Built America*](_URL_0_) is a special that's been coming on Discovery Channel where Mike Rowe talks about how alcohol was behind a lot of the country's greatest changes.
Was alcohol really this big for the US, or is it just being inflated that it lead to the American Revolution, put the Pilgrims in Plymouth, and win WWII and all that? | AskHistorians | http://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/111rpj/how_accurate_is_the_show_how_booze_built_america/ | {
"a_id": [
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"text": [
"People certainly drank a lot, about three times as much as we do today and they tended to drink hard stuff while we mostly drink beer and wine( mid 19th century United States). I haven't seen the show, but it certainly sounds like an exaggeration. "
]
} | []
| [
"http://dsc.discovery.com/tv-shows/how-booze-built-america/videos"
]
| [
[]
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|
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dgz5w6 | why is there a delay with connecting a bluetooth device to a different device? | If you connect for example a speaker to a phone regularly. It will pair in 2-3 seconds. If you try and connect it to a laptop afterwards, the speaker will pair in 6-7 seconds.
Now if you suddenly change and regularly connect the speaker to a laptop instead of the phone. Vice versa will happen. Why is this? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/dgz5w6/eli5_why_is_there_a_delay_with_connecting_a/ | {
"a_id": [
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"score": [
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"text": [
"When a device changes Bluetooth association like you describe, two things are happening. It's terminating the connection to the first device, and performing the handshaking protocols to connect to the new one. If it isn't actively connected to a different device, there's nothing to disconnect from."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[]
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|
|
8ksjff | How deep can insects live in the ground? | Found some bugs while renovating the basement, near where the slab had some damage near the foundation walls. I wondered if bugs could enter that way despite being at least 4 feet under the ground. One of them bugs was particularly ugly.
(Of course we're fixing that with concrete and a lot of gaps and cracks will be fixed with polyurethane) | askscience | https://www.reddit.com/r/askscience/comments/8ksjff/how_deep_can_insects_live_in_the_ground/ | {
"a_id": [
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"score": [
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"text": [
"Not quite insects but nematodes have been found 3.6km underground. \n\n[Nematoda from the terrestrial deep subsurface of South Africa](_URL_0_)\n"
]
} | []
| []
| [
[
"https://www.nature.com/articles/nature09974"
]
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|
|
417zdc | why are some colds way worse than others? if i have a bad cold and transfer it to someone else, is it guaranteed to be bad for him/her? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/417zdc/eli5_why_are_some_colds_way_worse_than_others_if/ | {
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"It depends on your immune response.\n\nInflammation, fever, coughing and runny nose are mostly caused by your immune system fighting the virus.\n\nDepending on the effectiveness of the immune system it might be a single day of hell or a week of minor problems.\n\nNot to mention that a \"bad cold\" is subjective."
]
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| []
| [
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|
||
dtj9d4 | After The Civil War, Did Some Ex-Confederates Just Leave the United States Entirely? | Faced with the idea of a Union government, did some Confederates just nope out and move elsewhere? What about former African-American slaves - did they take the opportunity of their new emancipation to leave the country? | AskHistorians | https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/dtj9d4/after_the_civil_war_did_some_exconfederates_just/ | {
"a_id": [
"f6xw9bg"
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"text": [
"More can always be added, but /u/sowser wrote [this post](_URL_0_) in this sub about the Confederados who went to Brazil."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[
"https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/36v1sr/had_some_slave_owners_in_the_last_months_of/crhci32"
]
]
|
|
49znjz | If speed depends of the spacial reference system chosen, wouldn't kinetic energy depends too? If so kinetic energy is defined by the object chosen by the observer? | askscience | https://www.reddit.com/r/askscience/comments/49znjz/if_speed_depends_of_the_spacial_reference_system/ | {
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"text": [
"Yes, kinetic energy depends on your reference frame.",
"Yes, kinetic energy depends on which reference frame. Additionally, this is where E=Mc^2 comes along. E in that equation is rest energy, which all matter has. The total energy takes into account the kinetic energy, which will be affected by a factor of 'gamma'. Gamma is the relationship between reference frame translation which is the same factor that affects time dilation and length contraction."
]
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| []
| [
[],
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||
4bf5o9 | Looking back at past early presidential elections, there were never any popular or county results for South Carolina, Why is this? How did they vote for president? | AskHistorians | https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/4bf5o9/looking_back_at_past_early_presidential_elections/ | {
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"That's a good catch. I don't know offhand when it changed, but during the antebellum period a lot of political power was routed through the SC General Assembly. Eligible white male voters could vote for their state representatives, but the legislature would then choose the governor and other prominent state positions, US senators and representatives, and vote on the state's behalf for President.\n\nWhat's fascinating is how this reflects upon South Carolina's (though the South was indeed diverse, SC wasn't singular in its beliefs either) interpretations of American notions of liberty and republican government. They were adamant in their support of these ideas but were also forced to reconcile them with their wider cultural beliefs which espoused the existence of naturally elite men (and they were men) who were uniquely suited to lead the rest of society. These men distinguished themselves through social, personal, and economic independence as demonstrated through ownership of land and slaves as well as absolute control of their business (plantation) and family lives. They achieved economic independence via prosperous plantations and demonstrated leadership through the control of dependents (wives, children, slaves). Theoretically any white man could enter this class but SC's commitment to this ideal also meant that state government was highly insular and restrictive. A small elite group kept a firm grip on nearly all state government affairs.\n\nReadings:\n\nStephanie McCurry, *Masters of Small Worlds*\n\nDrew Faust, *James Henry Hammond and the Old South*"
]
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| []
| [
[]
]
|
||
204wz3 | how are small cell services like boost so much cheaper than large ones like verizon? | I assume there is some thing they are providing lesser service on. What is it about these services (Boost, MetroPCS, etc...) that allow them to be so much cheaper. I want to switch to what seems much cheaper, but I assume it is too good to be true.
If you have one of those services, how is the service? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/204wz3/eli5_how_are_small_cell_services_like_boost_so/ | {
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"They dont maintain their own towers. If you live in a rural area, service will probably be good, however I believe their data works a little different. For example, first 2gb at 4g, then 3g after. I have been thinking about switching myself. I have had att since my first cell phone, but they are pretty expensive. I pay $100 a mo for the minimal package. Stupid. 50 sounds a lot better.",
"The two biggest reasons are lower risk and no subsidized phones. \n\nRisk - They don't maintain towers, just purchase bandwidth from from the big guys. Don't have to worry about building towers, don't have any actual assets (with the exception of some tech support and a billing department). \n\nSubsidized phones - for whatever reason, in the american market consumers don't like to front the ~$600 cost of a phone up front (like pretty much the rest of the world does). So retailers decided to just cut off about 400 of that cost and tack on another 20/month to your plan, and force you into a two year contract (also notice that 20*24 /= 400). \n\nMy wife and I switched from verizon (probably around 150+ a month) to net10 (85 a month). Net10 runs on At & t and Tmobile, so it's not quite as good of service, but it's nearly half the cost. And I can use a nexus 5. ",
"Little FYI:\n\nSprint owns Boost Mobile and part of Virgin Mobile\n\nT-Mobile owns Metro PCS\n\nVerizon owns no known MVNOs\n\nAT & T Owns a SHIT TON\n\nAmérican Móvil owns TracFone, Net 10, PagePlus etc."
]
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dxpr6d | How is the double slit experiment with single particle done practically ? | I am reading about the quantum eraser and the double-slit experiment and thinking the odd observation and eventually, strange interpretation may be due to experimental uncertainty factors.
How could scientists isolate a single electron or photon and make sure they did? How do they make thin enough slit? How do they detect a photon without absorbing it, since it has to pursue its trajectory? How do they pump out matter so that the single-particle could propagate in void space? | askscience | https://www.reddit.com/r/askscience/comments/dxpr6d/how_is_the_double_slit_experiment_with_single/ | {
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"You can make sensors sensitive to single electrons, shoot electrons with a low average rate and discard events where more than one electron came close together. In principle you could also make a source that can release individual electrons.\n\n[Single-photon sources](_URL_0_) are a standard research tool. You create exactly two photons, the detection of one of them shows that there is a single other photon on the way to your experiment.\n\n > How do they make thin enough slit?\n\nIt doesn't have to be that thin.\n\n > How do they detect a photon without absorbing it, since it has to pursue its trajectory?\n\nYou absorb it in the detection - behind the double slit.\n\n > How do they pump out matter so that the single-particle could propagate in void space?\n\nWith good vacuum pumps, where needed. You don't need it for the double slit experiment with light, as light doesn't interact often with air."
]
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| []
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"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single-photon_source"
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2mnhs3 | What practical purpose did the comfort women under Japanese occupation serve? Were there cases where the same purpose was fulfilled without resorting to comfort women in history? | AskHistorians | http://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/2mnhs3/what_practical_purpose_did_the_comfort_women/ | {
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"Serious question: Did Comfort women really exist?",
"To put it in a bit of perspective:\n\nIn ancient times, when armies went to war and conquered a city, poor discipline could lead to the army going on rampage and burning, looting, and raping their way through the conquered city. This was called a sack. While large-scale sacks mostly died out after the 1800s (for instance in the wake of the Sepoy Mutiny), it was still a major concern for the public images of many governments, not the least of which was the Japanese. The Japanese had already had their image tarnished in the First Sino-Japanese War, when Japanese troops massacred Chinese civilians after sieging Port Arthur.\n\nTo combat this, the administration had the \"bright\" idea of setting up government mandated prostitution for the troops. The idea was that by giving the troops a legal, government-controlled avenue to vent their sexual frustration, this would minimize their need to go around raping and killing innocent civilians. Meanwhile, the prostitutes would be able to earn money to pump back into the Japanese economy. Win-win, right?\n\nThe problem was that, as with most things run by the Japanese government at the time, the management of the comfort women program-not least due to the socially conservative views of the ruling government-was at an arms distance and more or less uncontrolled. A very small amount of actual volunteers for the program led to coercion, informal \"selling\" of daughters, and outright kidnapping and trafficking. In the conquered territories, Chinese and Korean women were often impressed into the service, or lied to, saying it was a factory that needed workers or the like. There were many more Chinese and Korean women serving as comfort women than Japanese women: this partly contributed to a Japanese comfort woman being more expensive than Chinese or Korean ones.\n\nAfter the war ended, in preparation for the American occupation, the Japanese government, fearful of American soldiers running around raping Japanese women (especially their blue-blood, aristocratic daughters), organized a similar institution, the Recreation and Amusement Association, this time recruiting primarily poorer Japanese women with the promise of food, money, and shelter, as well as with Yakuza intimidation tactics and the aforementioned lying and kidnapping. This association was shut down within the year, but it should be noted that after the association was shut down, the number of rapes under Allied occupation increased significantly."
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2vgpsn | why are so many famous songs targeted at pre-teen girls? | Popular songs and artists I mean. Katy Perry, Taylor Swift, Justin Bieber... I mean, why do those artists get so many views? Is it because girls start listening to music earlier than boys? i don't know | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2vgpsn/eli5_why_are_so_many_famous_songs_targeted_at/ | {
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"Because Preteen girls normally have a higher rate of buying things they don't need. ",
"Preteen girls are a very important demographic. They are considered more responsible than boys the same age, and therefore generally have more spending money; but that conception of them is utterly wrong, because they impulse-buy at a greater rate than any other demographic.\n\n**TL;DR** Pissing away Daddy's money like tomorrow will never come.",
"Puberty and new emotions.\n\nThis makes them an easy target for emotional pop songs about feeling upset over boys as they are chemically wired to react to this.\nSame reason 12-16 year old boys corner the metal market... wired for agression.\n\nParents will buy their kids their favorite album, which is basically an emotional support kit.\n\n\nTie this in with teen channels and magazines that portray the artists and deserving worship, especially the dreamy boy type ones... tell the girls they should crave validation from these teens idols then have them pay for an album of vague songs saying they love you. Or that sound like every breakup ever.\n\nThey're just a prime demographic for the emotional product the artists are selling.\n\n\nWatch this video for a catchy musical explanation _URL_0_",
"All best selling music and movies now days is aimed at kids and morons because kids and morons don't know how to steal music and movies. "
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1z6psn | when a plane banks left or right, why doesn't everyone's drinks fall off the trays. surely gravity is still in effect? | If the plane was at that angle when on the ground then I expect it would cause everything inside to fall over, but unsure why this does not happen when it is airborne | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1z6psn/eli5_when_a_plane_banks_left_or_right_why_doesnt/ | {
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"Consider water in a bucket on a string. No matter what you do with the bucket, as long as the string is at strain, the water will stay parallel to bottom of the bucket, not the ground. Why? Water is affected by gravity, \"G.\" The bucket is affected by gravity \"G\" AND the strain of the string \"S.\" So from the frame of reference of the bucket, water experiences force G-(G+S) = -S, which pulls it towards the bottom of the bucket. ",
"Gravity is balanced by the (imaginary) centrifugal force.\n\nCentrifugal force is a perception that, when you go around a corner, you're thrown to the outside of the corner. In fact, what's happening is your body just wants to go in a straight line, instead of around the corner, but from your position it seems like you're being pushed out of the corner.\n\nWhen an aircraft turns left, it banks left, and gravity makes you want to move to the left of the aircraft. But centrifugal force makes you want to move to the right. These two forces balance out.\n\nWhen a pilot flies a turn so that these forces are balanced, we call it a \"balanced turn\", and we describe the aircraft as \"in balance\". Pilots nearly always fly balanced turns, because they are more efficient than flying out of balance.",
"Not an ELI5, but cool related pic:\n\n[Imgur](_URL_0_)"
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bwc9i7 | how does a massive government like china just deny that an event like the tiananmen square massacre didn't happen? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/bwc9i7/eli5_how_does_a_massive_government_like_china/ | {
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"China has a massive power called, “controlling education.” they disposed of all evidence that it happened and not put it in the education. just like what happened to the Tank Man incident. they also did it through propaganda.",
"If the media is not allowed to report on it, teachers aren’t allowed to teach it, and your internet is heavily censored then its easy. \n\nIf you are one of the people that knows about it because you travelled overseas and found out. Do you come home and tell your family and friends? Or do you just pretend you didn’t hear it or it’s not true?\n\nIf they killed 10,000 people peacefully protesting its better to just pretend you didn’t find out about it.",
"Simply put. They control, censor or spy on everything. They have state run media too, so all of the large media outlets in China are controlled by the government. You also can be fined or jailed for speaking out against the government. They also control the schools, so they try to mold kids to be very nationalistic from a young age.\n\nSo if you try to shout to everyone on a street corner in China that their government slaughtered thousands of people. You'll be harassed by the people first, then probably jailed by the police later. No one will believe you and you'll become a criminal."
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22kvab | What is the oldest event, figure, law, etc. that you can think of that still has some influence on society today? | AskHistorians | http://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/22kvab/what_is_the_oldest_event_figure_law_etc_that_you/ | {
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"Law- the Code of Hammurabi (1772 BCE) is the earliest I can think of that has had consistent sway on law ever since. Essentially the notion of reciprocal (if in this case draconian) justice. If not that, Lycurgus' (Aprox. 780 BCE) mixed constitution of Sparta is essentially the system of American politics today. "
]
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22bii4 | when movies make horses fall, is it real, and if not, then how do they do it? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/22bii4/eli5_when_movies_make_horses_fall_is_it_real_and/ | {
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"In the past, a device known as the \"running W\" was used to trip horses at a specific point, but it is now illegal. It is possible to train a horse to fall over on command in such a way that neither it not the rider are in much danger, and this method is used currently. As with any trick, teaching the horse to do this requires practice and the correct incentives. There may be other ways of getting a horse to fall over, but I'm not aware of them.",
"No, the horses are trained to command, either verbal or physical cue by rider. Source: My ex wife is a professional horse trainer.",
"After the filming of the movie *The Charge of the Light Brigade* killed dozens of animals during its climactic battle, the tripping of horses with concealed wires was made illegal. In newer movies involving horses falling, watch the rider just before the stunt. He will pull the horse's head sharply to one side, which is the command to fall. The horse will then curl its body and roll on its side. Contrast this with older movies made before Congress's ruling and you'll see horses violently flung forward onto their faces, completely surprised by the hidden wires, many landing with contorted necks.",
"Sorry this is not an answer to your question. But related trivia here! There is a horse scene in Conan The Barbarian that is very real where horses hit large palisades. I believe it sparked the beginning of animal rights in movies and the famous \"No animals were hurt in the making of this film.\" It was the last scene to feature a horse being hurt. \n\nA lot of stuff now is CGI. Others are saying the real horses are trained and I believe it. That is also extended to dogs etc... \n\n_URL_0_\n\nHere is a scene from the new movie. I watched it over and over. I don't really know what is going on but It does look like it is a trained horse. Also if you watch it over and over you realize the chain has no real weight to it. So if there is no CG there it is probably just a really light chain (plastic?). Look at how it lands after impact. It feels light. \n\n The \"dust\" that comes off from the impact is ridiculously easy to add in in CG. A lot of impact in movies is sound, camera shake, camera angle, and CG crap on top of it. ",
"I believe there is a featurette on the django unchained blu ray where they talk about trained horses for falling over (this was in reference to the \"Jonah hill horse charge scene\"). ",
"I don't know about many other movies but in the Lord of the Rings films when ever a large group of horses and their riders were taken down at once by the Nazguls or whatever, they were all CGI.\n\n_URL_0_",
"Here's an interesting way they did it in The Last Samurai... jump to around 0:50 to see the technique\n\n_URL_0_",
"Here's a clip from the indian movie \"Alluda Mazaaka...!\" (1995), here you can see the wire that is attached to their hooves/legs making the horses trip and fall HARD! :(\n\nClip:\n_URL_1_\n\nImdb movie link:\n_URL_0_\n\nA user review on the IMDB page wrote this.\n\"According to one web article, 157 horses were killed during the making of this movie.\"\n\nO_o",
"_URL_0_\n\nI thought of this scene instantly lol",
"As many others have commented, in the past the horses were made to fall with hidden wires, which often led to the deaths of the horses. Now-days there are three main options: CGI, animatronics and trained stunt horses. [Here](_URL_0_) is a short video about one of the better known stunt trainers out there who combines classical dressage and circus techniques to train his horses. This video gives you an idea about the methods that they use to make the horses fall but is not particularly in depth. There is another feature length documentary about training stunt horses that is fantastic but I can't recall what it was called. I think it was a bio pic on Mario or another European trainer.\n\nIf you feel like watching a film with some superb horsemanship in it I recommend taking a look at [the horseman on the roof](_URL_1_).",
"I actually know this pretty well because a good friend of mine has capitalized on it in the film business. Yes, they used to be incredibly cruel to animals in Hollywood. Then Animal rights groups got involved (as they should have) and it was outlawed. Now the current standard is to use life size puppet horses. You've seen my friends horses in movies like The Last Samurai, The Lone Ranger and True Grit. Here's an example of how the horse falls worked when they did 300 _URL_0_\nOther behind the scenes examples can be seen on their web page. \n\n*edit: Bad Link",
"In the movie Braveheart there was a horse collapse that looked so real that the ASPCA was going to fine them\n\nLuckily they filmed backstage footage and could prove it was an animatronic horse ",
"For the filming of LOTR Return of the King, CGI renderings of horses falling we're added to the raw clip of actual charging horses for the battle of Pelennor Fields. There is supposed to be one genuine fall in the raw clip, however this was not intentional.",
"Interesting behind the scenes video about how they got the horses to fall on command in Django Unchained. _URL_0_",
"While we're at it : How do they make all the toddlers cry on cue? Just scare the shit outta them?",
"Were you watching The Lord of the rings on television, because I was and I was thinking the exact question",
"In the Lord of the Rings during he battle of Pelennor Fields, every horse that falls or dies in some way is CGI.\n\nThey filmed with ~2000 horses and none of them ever falls.\n\nA trained eye surely can tell the difference between animated and real horses but the average cinema-goer doesnt recognize it.\n",
"I just created /r/sfxexplained . I think this questions and its answers are great and deserves its own subreddit.",
"A widely used technique also consists of using a fully rubber horse with a barrel/drum as stomach to give it weight by filling it with water. \n\nSource: worked for special fx company",
"It is real in some circumstances, especially in older movies. It still happens a lot with Asian movies, and recent examples include Red Cliff.\n\nIn the UK, this is banned under the 1937 cinematograph act for cruelty to animals, and films with real horse trips, must be cut to remove them before release. You can find many examples by searching for the relevant UK releases at _URL_0_\n\nExample for Red Cliff (bottom of page) - _URL_1_",
"I think it was in the commentary on braveheart where they talked about this actually. The set got shutdown for a day because the animal rights guy did not believe the brutal stuff was special effects. Generally though, they mentioned that certain ways of a horse falling are acceptable. Watch any recent movie and you will notice that all the horses fall the same way. Everything else is special effects. Zooming in, etc to hide the fact that it's not a real horse.",
"One of the more famous horse stunts. Blazing saddles:\n\n_URL_0_\n\nI have heard the horse was trained for it. You can see the rider pull hard on the right reign. Mongo never actually touches the horse.",
"I've often wondered how Mongo did this...\n_URL_0_\n",
"Had to watch the 1939 John Wayne movie named Stagecoach for an intro to film class. In the end battle there are several horse falls and they used what's called a running w to trip the horses, and many ended up dying in the process. You can read about it here. They obviously don't do this anymore thank god.\n_URL_0_",
"In Akira Kurosawa's Kagemusha, there is a scene where they are showing a desecrated battleground filled with horses. To capture this, they tranquilized all the horses and filmed them as they were struggling to wake up. ",
"That’s one of the things CGI has made obsolete. They used to use a harness that pulled their legs out from under them. If a leg broke.....Oh well, the cost of the horse was in the budget.",
"Can someone tell me how they tripped the horses is the 2011 movie Shaolin? There's one scene where the horse falls down a set of stairs. I assume wires were used here too.",
"Hey, you're in luck, I happen to have a friend who's helped her dad out, and been involved with this in some major films. And I mean major, like the Christopher Nolan Batman films, the most recent Superman movie, etc. His name's [Frank Calzavara] (_URL_0_).\n\nThe currently used method is a progression of several different steps. The first thing you have to train a horse to do is bow, like [this] (_URL_1_). This really isn't all that hard, and can be done with most horses. You have to start off by working with them, and teaching them to lower their head, generally by lightly tapping on a front leg with a stick. Eventually you teach them to extend the leg and do a full bow. \n\nAfter you do that, you train the horse to fall into the leg that it has extended, by pulling their nose the opposite way, and teaching them to give into pressure and fold over. It's really not all that different than learning how to take a fall in a basic martial arts class, they have to learn to roll with the momentum. Obviously, some horses are better at this than others. I couldn't find any real great still photos on google showing this motion, but basically, when you see the horse's head turned to one side, the rider will generally give a verbal or physical command that the horse is trained to, and it will move into a similar stance as the bowing motion, then roll over. It looks kinda bad because they almost flop down, but as someone who's spent a lot of time with horses, trust me, they're not that easy to injure. Anyways, I hope that was clear enough!"
]
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s08rs | In an atom, can an electron ever collide/w or touch the nucleus of the atom it is apart of? | Just a random thought that I had today. Going from my only knowledge I think it this would only happen at absolute zero where all energy is gone, and the electrons stop moving. But does anyone have a better answer for this? | askscience | http://www.reddit.com/r/askscience/comments/s08rs/in_an_atom_can_an_electron_ever_collidew_or_touch/ | {
"a_id": [
"c4a1tpw",
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"score": [
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"text": [
"Yeah, sometimes a proton captures on electron and causes a nuclear decay. It's called [electron capture](_URL_0_).",
" > I think it this would only happen at absolute zero where all energy is gone,\n\nNot that this is a bad \"guess\", but no. In the collapsing core of a star this can happen as electron degeneracy pressure is overcome during a supernova, leaving behind a neutron star (or a black hole if the density is high enough).\n\nIn reference to your \"actually change the element\" comment below, neutron stars have roughly the same density as an atomic nucleus.\n\n"
]
} | []
| []
| [
[
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electron_capture"
],
[]
]
|
|
wxua9 | direct x | I know that it's not a gaming engine, but if affects games? What is it exactly? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/wxua9/eli5_direct_x/ | {
"a_id": [
"c5hehgk"
],
"score": [
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"text": [
"DirectX is the way that your game communicates with your graphics card. Microsoft takes requests from game developers and makes a list of features that game developers want, but can't do right now.\n\nMicrosoft then goes to AMD and NVIDIA, and says, \"Hey, these are some things that game developers want to be able to do. We're going to expose these commands to those games, and here's what we're telling them to expect. You can build these commands into your graphics cards however you want, as long as you make them accessible to games in a particular way- and we'll call the group of these commands, brought together, DirectX.\n\nBasically, if game developers had to write games at the level of the computer's base hardware, it'd take forever, and certain games would only work on certain graphics cards. DirectX is a layer in between. It lets games make specific, predetermined commands, and then uses a driver made by the graphics card's vendor to convert those into commands that the graphics card can understand."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[]
]
|
|
357dpn | Would we be able to notice a difference in the earth's speed if we were part of a different galaxy that rotated faster/slower? | askscience | http://www.reddit.com/r/askscience/comments/357dpn/would_we_be_able_to_notice_a_difference_in_the/ | {
"a_id": [
"cr1r2d8",
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"text": [
"Not through any physical sensation that we would notice with our bodies, but we'd certainly be able to measure the solar system's orbital velocity around the galaxy in the same ways that we do now: high-resolution measurements of the proper motion of the center of the galaxy, and measurements of the relative redshifts of stars throughout our area of the galaxy.",
"Yes, but I'm not sure whether this is the sense in which you mean it; we know our velocity relative to the rest frame of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) by [measurements of the CMB dipole](_URL_0_). That velocity is the sum of our velocity around the earth, the earth's around the center of the Milky Way, and the velocity of the Milky Way itself. "
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[
"http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap140615.html"
]
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|
||
8dfw96 | Do passing asteroids have an effect on for example the tides? | Seeing as how a relatively big asteroid passed earth at "only" 200.000km last Sunday I wondered if passing asteroids (or other things) affect the tides. | askscience | https://www.reddit.com/r/askscience/comments/8dfw96/do_passing_asteroids_have_an_effect_on_for/ | {
"a_id": [
"dxob79j"
],
"score": [
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"text": [
"What's interesting about gravity is that it has an infinite range, which is not true for the other 3 forces (strong, weak nuclear and magnetism). Because of this, you could say that every atom of matter in the universe has an effect on the tides of our oceans, this includes you! You walking around has an effect on tides, that's pretty crazy.\n\nA better question is \"do passing asteroids have a perceptible effect on the tides\" and the answer to that is leaning very heavily to the no side. The moon weighs 1.2% of the entire earth which is still like a bajillion tonnes (or something) so its affect on the oceans is quite great. Asteroids usually have a mass in the few thousands of tonnes, which is like a speck of dust compared to the moon, the gravitational affect of this is negligible."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[]
]
|
|
3oppk4 | How do spider populations survive the winter? | askscience | https://www.reddit.com/r/askscience/comments/3oppk4/how_do_spider_populations_survive_the_winter/ | {
"a_id": [
"cvzex44"
],
"score": [
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"text": [
"Many spiders go into diapause (similar to hibernation) over the winter ([Source]( _URL_1_)). They decrease their oxygen consumption and activity level. They will bury themselves in leaf litter (or similar) for warmth. The life cycle stage (egg, juvenile, or adult) that diapause occurs during is species-specific ([Source]( _URL_3_)). Some spiders remain active in the winter in caves, under leaf litter, or under snow. Spiders can even be found on the snow surface when temperatures are above 0 C ([Source]( _URL_2_)). In all cases, a spider can only survive if it can prevent its hemolymph (blood) from freezing. In very cold climates, this is sometimes accomplished by using antifreeze proteins ([Source]( _URL_0_))."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[
"http://www.researchgate.net/profile/Brian_Barnes2/publication/8621025_Antifreeze_proteins_in_Alaskan_insects_and_spiders/links/551d72510cf252bc3a87aa28.pdf",
"https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=4TztCAAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PA331&dq=spider+winter+diapause&ots=9jaIYpI5QE&sig=vk3i2Qb_HIYkUSw9btHjaLq8WNo#v=onepage&q=spider%20winter%20diapause&f=false",
"http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/11250000601017233",
"http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1439-0418.1977.tb02381.x/abstract"
]
]
|
||
32o86s | why don't states ever try to secede from the us, opting to keep their tax money and run things exactly as they would like? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/32o86s/eli5_why_dont_states_ever_try_to_secede_from_the/ | {
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"text": [
"A bunch of states tried that back in the 1800's. It didn't turn out so pretty good.",
"Because they can't. A state can't ever *legally* secede from the union of the United States.\n\nA state can *revolt* against the union, though - That's what a lot of states had tried to do during the American Civil War. When a state (or states) tries to revolt, the US proper can (and will) fight to make sure the states trying to secede can't.",
"We had a whole civil war over this. We are the UNITED states of America and not the United States of America and Texas. We've had supreme court rulings over this as well states can't leave the united states. If they do we federalize the national guard and declare martial law. ",
"The USA is a Union, not a Unitary Republic. However... The rules are... Once you join the Union, you don't get to take a \"Mulligan\" and back out of the Union.\n\nHowever, the States do still enjoy a great degree of autonomy... That's why they are called \"States.\"",
"Also states recieve a huge amount of money from the federal government. A state that was independent would need a big increase in taxes to maintain their state spending.",
"CGP Grey covered it in a brief 3 and half minute video, and I recommend giving it a watch [here](_URL_0_). ",
"A lot of the red states rely on federal aid or programs to basically survive. ",
"Supporter of peaceful secession here: I think the Civil War sort of ruined the idea for a lot of people. \n\nI suspect much of the country would be happier by having different policies. For example, do Texas and Utah really have that much in common with New York and California?",
"They do, but they always fail. For a number of reasons:\n\nThe amount of Federal infrastructure that they'd have to remunerate the government for is beyond the means of the individual States to muster.\n\nAlso, the agreement to become a State is eternally binding...no backsies. ",
"Because the Union is good for the states. It provides them with financial support and security when they need it."
]
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[],
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"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S92fTz_-kQE"
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|
||
6c0x1u | why do we more commonly associate bad memories with songs? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6c0x1u/eli5_why_do_we_more_commonly_associate_bad/ | {
"a_id": [
"dhr2olt"
],
"score": [
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"text": [
"Any highly emotional state will induce powerful memories of associated sounds, smells and other senses. Evolution probably coded this into us in order to ensure we would remember both dangerous situations and opportunities to thrive. This would be especially important for mating rituals in young adulthood because the propagation of the species is biologically crucial. Hence the common experience of remembering songs we associate with early love, both happy and sad."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[]
]
|
||
1e97g5 | how do ad networks work? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1e97g5/eli5_how_do_ad_networks_work/ | {
"a_id": [
"c9xzv85"
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"text": [
"Ad networks generally have agreements with a lot of popular websites. The ad network pays the sites to place their ads, and vendors pay the ad networks to display their ads in those spots.\n\nWhen / if you click on one of those ads it brings you to the vendor's website. The ad network tracks where you saw the ad, when you clicked on it, and where you went. If you actually purchase a product after that, it is called a \"conversion\".\n\nAd networks often use a \"pay per click\" business model as well, where the vendor will pay the ad network for every ad click. In other words, they are paying the ad network just to get people to click on the ads... thereby visiting the vendor's site. More traffic to the site means more chances for sales to be made."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[]
]
|
||
4hno7r | why is st. louis not as important in the united states as it once was? is it likely to continue shrinking? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4hno7r/eli5_why_is_st_louis_not_as_important_in_the/ | {
"a_id": [
"d2r36rl"
],
"score": [
7
],
"text": [
"It was very important when the Mississippi was a big hub for transferring industrial products out of the Midwest. The small arms factory my grandmother worked at during WWII in Davenport, IA shipped through St. Louis, for example.\n\nAs Midwestern industry declined, so did the shipping of those products out along the Mississippi. \n\nThat said, the shrinking of St. Louis is exacerbated in the statistics. While other cities expanded their borders as their populations sprawled, St. Louis couldn't because it was not part of any of the neighboring counties. Chicago, today, makes up something like 80% of Cook County. St. Louis couldn't expand in a similar way because it couldn't take land from a county it didn't belong to."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[]
]
|
||
5vm9na | why do different countries have different electrical outlet layouts and voltages whereas (almost all) cars/trucks are standardized at 12v and the little round outlet (cigar lighter)? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5vm9na/eli5_why_do_different_countries_have_different/ | {
"a_id": [
"de3bsl5",
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"score": [
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"text": [
"Cars wear out and get replaced, so over a period of two decades 99% of all cars on the road will be replaced with new ones. The last several decades in the auto industry have been ones of consolidation into a few enormous multinational companies that sell cars in dozens of countries around the world. So they've standardized, and that standard can be seen in every vehicle you're likely to enter. There are still the odd 6V and 24V vehicles out there, just not many. Same thing with computer/phone connectors: a few standards take hold and spread worldwide.\n\nOn the other hand, electrical outlets installed in the 1920s—when even different parts of the same country might have different standards—are still in use in millions of homes. The cost and difficulty of retrofitting is not inconsequential, nor is there much need to, so long as appliances are imported country by country.",
"From my understanding about cars and trucks, most are made European, American, and Asian. Asian nations started a little later in time. It was competition that made voltage and outlets become universal. \n\nThere isn't a competitive drive for countries to change their ways in accord with another. \nThere's a lot more to it, hopefully someone knowledgable elaborates clearly"
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[]
]
|
||
23shrw | How exactly does one ionize xenon, such as in ion propulsion? | I understand that it involves sending an electrical charge through the xenon, but my questions revolves around why a noble gas is used and what happens when the charge is imparted upon the xenon? | askscience | http://www.reddit.com/r/askscience/comments/23shrw/how_exactly_does_one_ionize_xenon_such_as_in_ion/ | {
"a_id": [
"ch0gpmd"
],
"score": [
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],
"text": [
"In Ion Propulsion drives, Xenon is ionized by shooting it with electrons. Xenon has a pretty low ionization energy, so it doesn't take much to steal an electron off of it! Once you have a nice Xe+ ion, you shoot it out the back by electrostatically accelerating it through a set of charged grids and into space, giving you a tiny bit of acceleration.\n\nXenon is used both due to the low ionization energy I mentioned before and it's ability to be relatively easily stored as a liquid at room temperatures and high pressures."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[]
]
|
|
3xvm9q | whatever happened to piracy? | Seemed like a few years ago every few months we'd hear about pirates capturing a ship and holding the crew for ransom. When did that stop being a thing and why?
Also, why wasn't piracy a problem for ~150 years between the age-of-sail and the Somalia pirates? Back in the 1700's - early 1800's there were all kinds of famous pirates, and state-sponsored piracy like impressment, Barbary corsairs, letters of marque and reprisal, etc. Then it's like suddenly there are no pirates from like 1850 to 2008, then piracy is in the news for three years, then it stops again. Why?
| explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3xvm9q/eli5_whatever_happened_to_piracy/ | {
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"text": [
"It's still going on but isn't getting the same level of attention is was a few years back. According to the news, they've moved on to Iranian vessels. ",
"It's still very much a thing, although it has slacked off a bit. There was a huge surge in piracy around the Horn of Africa/Gulf of Aden/Indian Ocean region a few years back. Most of the pirates were based out of Somalia.\n\nSince then there has been a large multinational effort ongoing to interdict pirate ships and protect merchant shipping in the region. The US has also conducted a number of strikes against suspected pirate headquarters ashore.\n\nSomalia's situation has also improved a bit in the last few years which helps to divert people away from piracy which was a really last-ditch option for many.\n\n\nWhat killed historical large-scale piracy was the advance of effective government into the New World. (North and South America). Pirates need places to repair and refit their ships and markets on which to sell their stolen goods. Once the colonial governments in the Americas became strong enough to control their territory pirates ran out of safe havens. This also coincided with the major powers in the Caribbean having a prolonged period of peacefulness and thus no incentive to support pirates.\n\nPrivateering continued through to the end of the 19th century when the Declaration of Paris laid out a framework for international maritime law that forbade signatories from engaging in privateering.\n\nSmall-scale piracy is still incredibly common in places like the Gulf of Aden and Straits of Malacca but is cracked down on pretty hard due to it's detrimental effects on trade and commodity costs.",
"[Anarchy at Sea](_URL_0_), an article from The Atlantic, September 2003, talks about piracy already re-emerging as a problem.",
"Right now the narrative that news networks wish to push has changed.\n\nMany issues come and go, but many more only appear to do so. With the advent of 24/7 News channels, we have a very odd phenomenon culturally where news stations tend to cannibalize one another's stories.\n\nWhen piracy was the flavor of the month, that's all we got. Now, they've moved one to other topics. Might be news... might be \"info-tainment\". But the actual occurrence of events in the real world vs the amount of reporting done on said events seems to have a bit of a disparity. "
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[],
[
"http://www.wesjones.com/anarchy.htm"
],
[]
]
|
|
df7rxj | Why did big game hunting become so popular during the Victorian era? | AskHistorians | https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/df7rxj/why_did_big_game_hunting_become_so_popular_during/ | {
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"Questions of popularity are not going to be easy to nail down (why did everyone suddenly get interested in zombies?) But it's not that actually doing big game hunting was popular ( it was, after all, rather hard for most Victorians to do it) as much as reading about it. That's rather obvious: reading about hunting large dangerous animals that can kill you can be thrilling, the difference between watching a bass fishing competition and seeing *Jaws*.\n\nAs to why some people ( yes, mostly men) in the 19th c. were shooting giant beautiful animals and putting their heads on their walls, it could be summarized best perhaps as an animal-rights activist might summarize it, as a crime: with motive, means, and opportunity.\n\nMotive: the stereotypical big game hunter in a pith helmet in Africa or India was English. [Sport hunting had long been a hobby of the landed classes in England](_URL_0_) .For one thing, they owned the gamelands. Unlike poachers on their lands, they didn't necessarily need to eat what they hunted ( though they did have staff to clean and skin or pluck them) so it was easy for them to get into trophy hunting. Also, hunting the wildlife to keep it away from the crops was thought useful.\n\nOpportunity: When England got an Empire, those upper-class sportsmen were able to simply begin doing the same sport hunting in the new dominions: they were in positions of power and could do so. Also, there was a good bit of game habitat,and the more primitive shorter-range weapons in the hands of the native populations had not reduced the numbers of large dangerous game. So, excitingly large numbers of lions, tigers, cape buffalo, gnus etc. could be found.\n\nMeans: though the English wouldn't be limited to spears and arrows, their own gunmakers in the 18th c. had produced rifles and shotguns for small game, birds, and deer. Bringing down rhinos, elephants and buffalo required much more powerful firearms, and by mid-century makers like Westley Richards and Gibbs were producing big game rifles that were at last satisfying the blood-lust of hunters like Sir Samuel Baker, firing belted lead balls weighing as much as two ounces on heavy loads of black powder. These would batter the hunter almost as much as they battered the animals, but as firearms modernized, range and effectiveness did as well. With less punishing rifles to shoot, by the turn of the century, there could be women in pith helmets as well as men, bringing down large animals that they could then pose with for photos.",
"Although the stereotypical image of big game hunter is of an Englishman in Africa, with a train of native gun-bearers behind him, the willingness of hunters to travel far to find new places to hunt was not limited to the English, of course. [Friedrich Gerstäcker](_URL_0_) traveled to Arkansas territory in the 1840's to simply wander around and hunt- something that was much easier to do on the US frontier than in his native Germany. Americans- notably Teddy Roosevelt- would travel to Africa for big game hunting after 1900. And the thrill of felling large animals was by no means limited to Africa or India: even the historian Francis Parkman would describe killing large numbers of buffalo on his 1847 trip to Oregon, with no apparent reason other than they were simply there and could be shot at.\n\nThese two men were also writers, and it is notable how often big game hunters are known chiefly by what they wrote about themselves. Sir Samuel Baker, Richard Selous, Peter Capstick, J.A Hunter, W.D.M. Bell ....all wrote \"ripping yarns\". With the advances in transportation and firearms technology in the 19th c., in retrospect their success in traveling into new remote habitats and shooting large numbers of large animals seems to be somewhat inevitable and tragic, but it's not until rather late- after 1900- that the tone changes from triumphant, when Selous, Roosevelt and others would begin to express concern about conservation."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Art_of_the_United_Kingdom#/media/File:Gainsborough-Andrews.jpg"
],
[
"https://libraries.uark.edu/specialcollections/exhibits/displayexhibit.asp?ExhibitID=130"
]
]
|
||
11yhfl | Did The Celts participate in Human / Animal Sacrifice? | I'm the guy that's been here before asking for info about the Celts and Romans for a video game that I'm developing.
I recently got into an argument with the co-developers about the Celts and human sacrifice.
**Did the Celts Sacrifice Humans or Animals? - If they did, what was the end goal?**
*I wouldn't mind hearing about other rituals and religious tendencies for the Celts either so feel free to leave that stuff too :)* | AskHistorians | http://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/11yhfl/did_the_celts_participate_in_human_animal/ | {
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"_URL_0_\n\nSame goal as most sacrifcing culture. Ensure that the next harvest or the next year will arrive, that there will be a good yield or protection against desaster and desease.\n\nNeedless to say the Celts didnt have a centralized church so everything varied locally.\n\nIs it Rome 2 by any chance?",
"Yes, some Iron Age inhabitants of modern France did sacrifice people. In Ribemont-sur-Ancre, we found a heap of bones, reconstructed as basically something that looks like a barbecue rack, or something like a fish-smoking construction (but with no burning or anything), with decapitated people in uniform with their weapons and shields. They also found a kind of 'building' made of human bones. Lots of them had cutmarks, indicating that these people were killed. But that's the only definite proof I know of; otherwise, there's Caesar's accounts of course, but I don't think they are very reliable because he would have wanted to depict his conquered people as more ferocious and barbaric. Other than that, there's widespread evidence for human sacrifice in Denmark, Britain and the Netherlands in the form of the bog bodies, most of them from the Iron Age. New C14 dates suggest most of them were killed around 160 BC, but I've yet to see the definite report on that. These were probably individual human sacrifices, but whether these people were 'Celtic' is debatable. Same for the large-scale human sacrifices of Denmark and Sweden, of which we also have an account from the Cimbric wars around 100 BC in southern France.\n\nAnimal sacrifice I really take for granted in Iron Age communities."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[
"http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ancient/british_prehistory/human_sacrifice_01.shtml"
],
[]
]
|
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