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2mg0qx
|
Are satellites sending data back to earth affected by the Doppler effect?
|
Are the data signals satellites send back to earth affected at all by the Doppler effect, since the data is in a wave form, and if so, does the satellite have to change the signal slightly to prevent data loss or corruption?
|
askscience
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/askscience/comments/2mg0qx/are_satellites_sending_data_back_to_earth/
|
{
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"text": [
"Yes, it's not small enough to interfere with communications, but it's large enough to be able to measure the speed of the spacecraft. If Rosetta is traveling at 15 km/s relative to Earth, then the change in wavelength will be 0.005%, from the formula:\n\nlambda^obs = lambda^emit \\* (1 + v/c)\n\n(sucks that markdown can't do subscripts)"
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[]
] |
|
1mw3ja
|
Why would it be fatal if someone had too much fat removed through liposuction?
|
I have heard that during a liposuction procedure you can only get 5 pounds or so of fat removed safely; why is that? Why can't you get 50 pounds sucked out? It's just fat.
|
askscience
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/askscience/comments/1mw3ja/why_would_it_be_fatal_if_someone_had_too_much_fat/
|
{
"a_id": [
"ccdf9gl"
],
"score": [
3
],
"text": [
"It's not just fat, fat isn't stored like cream cheese packed under our skin. Fat is stored inside specialized cells called adipocytes, liposuction removes many of these cells from adipose tissue depots. Like any other tissue, adipose requires blood flow, meaning it is vascularized. Removing large amounts of any type of tissue leaves a lot of open blood vessels and can lead to dangerous levels of blood loss. Adipose tissue also acts as an exocrine gland, removing a significant amount of mass can changes the levels of circulating adipokines and hormones so drastically and in such a short amount t of time it can have negative be health consequences. "
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[]
] |
|
fqms8
|
Why don't solids merge when pushed against each other?
|
Torn paper I can understand. But what about two crystals? As far as I understand, they're perfect molecular arrays. Let's assume that they are. When two of those are pushed together, what keeps them apart? Or would they actually merge if pushed hard enough?
|
askscience
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/askscience/comments/fqms8/why_dont_solids_merge_when_pushed_against_each/
|
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"Well each atom is connected by electrons to other atoms. If there was a free electron, it could bind to a site on an adjacent crystal if the conditions are right. But in actual crystals, the atoms on the outside that can't join with the same number as on the inside often have oxide layers that prevent them form forming bonds willy nilly.",
"Solids can most easily be thought of as a mesh of molecules. They are solid becuase this mesh has formed in a stable and strong way. Even the molecules on the edge of the solid are still locked in very neatly and tightly to all the others inside it. Therefore, there is no reason that merely placing another solid next to it will cause a reaction between the two objects that causes them to bond chemically.\n\nYou pretty much answered it in your own question. Two crystals are perfect molecular arrays. Each of the electrons that is in the lattice is already flowing around in the mesh and there is no free ones in the mix to actually bond to another crystal when placed next to the first.\n\nIf you pushed them together and introduced heat on the other hand, you might start to see something. Introduce enough heat (to the point of melting) then you start to break down that lattice of electrons in the material and the free ones start to bond to the material you are pushing into it.\n\nThink about welding for example. You have two bits of metal, that at room temperature don't have any free electrons to bond, but when you start to weld them (lets for this pretend that you aren't using additional metal as part of the welding) you heat each edge to the point where it starts to become a liquid, freeing up all the molecules from their lattice/structure, then as the bits are pressed, and cool, the energy dissapated causes the molecules to bond together across the gap of the two materials, meaning that molecular bonds form and the end result is that you have a section of two solids which are now joined in a very strong way.",
"That's a good question.\n\nMost crystal surfaces have an atomic-scale reconstruction, though -- that is, the atoms in the few layers closest to the surface rearrange themselves due to the presence of the surface. Take diamond, for instance. Do you think that all the surface atoms are just sitting there with two unsatisfied covalent bonds? Hell no, they join up with their neighbours and form a stable reconstructed surface that's mostly chemically satisfied. If you smoosh two reconstructed surfaces together then there's a huge energy barrier which would need to be overcome for them to both un-reconstruct and re-form a perfect crystal.\n\nThat's for pure substances. As iorgfeflkd (I hope I typed that in right) says many substances in air will form an oxide layer as well. That'll make life harder. And finally we have the issue that your perfect-looking crystals are generally not atomically flat -- they have raised portions and lower portions, which means the surfaces aren't going to line up perfectly.\n\nWhile googling for images to illustrate surface reconstruction I found this page which you might be interested in, doing simulations on what *does* happen if you smoosh two (unoxidized) pure silicon surfaces together: _URL_0_",
"Thanks guys, you extinguished my confusion, and taught me a bunch of interesting new things. I'm satisfied. Upvotes all around!\n\nEdit: Satisfied, but always eager to learn more, of course.",
"As an interesting aside from the explanations, there actually are some metals that, in certain situations, *will* bond together just through contact.\nThey call it [cold or contact welding.](_URL_0_)",
"Some can. If you take 2 pieces of gold leaf and stick them together, you will end up with 1 piece of gold leaf. It is called cold (or contact) welding. The 2 materials have to be the same though."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[],
[
"http://www1.mpi-halle.mpg.de/~md_simul/MDres2.html"
],
[],
[
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cold_welding"
],
[]
] |
|
zdkji
|
would curing cancer ultimately be a good thing?
|
Everyone has been affected by cancer, myself included, and I know that this is incredibly insensitive.. but with the current population increase rate doesn't it provide a good regulator? I heard somewhere that if nothing else kills you, cancer eventually will, so wouldn't it create a huge problem in regards to overpopulation?
Roll on, downvotes.
|
explainlikeimfive
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/zdkji/eli5_would_curing_cancer_ultimately_be_a_good/
|
{
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"c63mvg4",
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"c63o71g",
"c63pnny"
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"text": [
"Ugh, nothing is more annoying then \"boo hoo I'm going to get downvoted for speaking my mind\".\n\nIt's obnoxious.\n\nRegardless though heart disease is still the biggest killer in the US at least, and overpopulation isn't really a massive concern in the industrialized world where cancer is an issue.",
"We have plenty of space and plenty of calories and plenty of water in the world. The problem is not the amount, it's the location.\n\nBy the time the curing of cancer and other similar ailments becomes significant enough to cause problems with population, space/food/water probably won't be such a big limiting factor.\n",
"You don't need cancer, starvation, or anything else like that to control population. All you need is prosperity.\n\nThe more prosperous a country is, the fewer children it has. For example, in the US, the average couple has fewer than two children. The US population would actually be shrinking if it weren't for immigration.\n\nThe reason the world population is still growing is that there are still big areas that are not prosperous. Solve that, and you solve the population issue.\n\nAll that *without* resorting to brutal, pointless methods like disease and starvation.\n\nBesides - even if that weren't true, I would prefer a law that caps the number of kids you can have at 2, to a law that says \"if you get cancer, you're not allowed to get cured.\"\n\n",
"What exactly do you want to be explained like your 5? This seems like you want to have a debate on the merits of population control/aging via disease. \n\nNothing about your post suggests that there is something that you need help with understanding by having it explained in simpler terms. Please post this to a more relevant subreddit. If you then need help with the answer you get there, come back here. "
]
}
|
[] |
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[
[],
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|
82homb
|
who are the people peer reviewing statistics and scientific findings
|
Every week I see a new study on some subject and some of them contradict one another, others coincide, others are just off the wall and all of them use different metrics and ways of analyzing to skew the data to make it seem like there way is the best way.
So who the heck is approving all this stuff? Is there some entity in charge of checking if someone's findings are 'honest', accurate, and not skewed into some bias or is it just scientists in the same field signing off? If it's the latter that seems like a massive conflict of interest.
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/82homb/eli5_who_are_the_people_peer_reviewing_statistics/
|
{
"a_id": [
"dva44ok"
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"text": [
"Are you seeing actual studies, abstracts or articles about studies? All those are different and only proper journal studies are peer reviewed.\n\nBasically it gets sent to a random selection of experts in the field, who comb through the paper and the report to are if the findings are reasonable.\n\nIt depends very much of the field how specific the circumstances for reproduction are.\n\nDo you have any examples or a particular area?"
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[]
] |
|
2k6dr6
|
Why did telegrams fall from popular use?
|
AskHistorians
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/2k6dr6/why_did_telegrams_fall_from_popular_use/
|
{
"a_id": [
"clim6ma"
],
"score": [
2
],
"text": [
"They were overtaken by technology - telephones became more widespread in private residences and some point fax machines came along, then cellphones with the ability to send text messages and then a little later the internet and widespread use of email, which in some cases is being replaced by social media (facebook, twitter etc).\n\n"
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[]
] |
||
1d8vp1
|
When bright light reflects off a coloured or black surface and the reflection is white (IE from the sun), what is happening?
|
When you have a bright reflection of light from a surface that is coloured, why does it appear white? I'm talking about [this](_URL_0_) phenomenon.
Take a pure blue surface.
Is it that the surface is saturated and can't absorb enough light of "its" frequencies (red, green and otherwise), so all frequencies are reflected?
Or is it that so much blue light is being reflected that the photoreceptors in our eyes are unable to process it all, and our brains just interpret the light as White?
Apologies if this was asked before, I ran several searches and couldn't find anything.
**Edit to clarify**, as I don't think my question is coming across very well:
I'm asking why, when a surface is hit by a very bright light, regardless of how smooth or rough it may be, does it appear white even when the colour of the surface itself is not white?
Is it because our eyes are oversaturated in the way a camera is? Or is it that the surface is being hit with too much light to handle, and is thus reflecting ALL wavelengths of light (more than it normally does), rather than its preferred wavelengths?
|
askscience
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/askscience/comments/1d8vp1/when_bright_light_reflects_off_a_coloured_or/
|
{
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"c9o20zr"
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"text": [
"The problem has to do with the way you're defining a \"pure blue surface\". RuleOfMildlyIntrstng answers the question in passing, and addresses the possibility of a perceptual effect. But like you say, you're not talking about the perceptual effect.\n\nSurfaces have two macroscopic reflective behaviors under illumination: specular and diffuse (or Lambertian) reflection. Specular reflection is the image of the background that you see reflected on the hood of that Mustang. In physical terms it is the 'coherent' portion of the reflection; the lack of wavefront distortion is why you can see trees and the sun. The fact that you're seeing a 'white' or spectrally unmodified reflection is an intrinsic property of whatever part of the surface is causing the specularity. As ROMI points out, this is because of the first-surface index-change reflection on the clear coat of the car, which has no color sensitivity. The diffuse reflection of the pigment beneath is what provides the color, through selective absorption of different wavelengths. That's not a super satisfying answer, because I haven't asserted any cause and certainly not every apparently colored specular surface (like, say, the surface of colored acrylic) has multiple layers. For that answer we have to go back to the coherence part of our explanation.\n\nWhen a wavefront hits a surface, the photon-material interaction doesn't happen immediately at the surface, except in metals and some other materials*, but rather in a few wavelengths or (often, much) more. The interaction can be divided into coherent and incoherent scattering phenomena; simply, the coherent scattering is characterized by very little photon-material interaction: just refractive effects from the change of index: remember, as the light is actually penetrating a nonzero amount of distance into the material, even apparently opaque dielectrics will have some apparent index of refraction. As long as that index is roughly constant across the visible spectrum, you'll perceive a \"white\" reflection. The noncoherent scattering is potentially much more complicated and strongly material dependent, likely involving color-sensitive absorption and reemission of photons, some back in the direction of your eye. Because these \"colorful\" interactions have taken place over several wavelengths or more, as well as unknown delays from propagation and reemission times, the emitted photons, even those very close to each other \"know nothing\" about (are weakly or not correlated to) each other and are unable to be formed into an image of the light source. \n\nThe effect doesn't depend on however rough *you* think the surface is, because the degree of specular vs diffuse reflection (coherent vs incoherent) reflection can only be modified by changing the surface roughness on the scale of the wavelength of the light. So if you take a piece of glossy colored acrylic and sand it, you're not changing the fraction of specularly-reflected light (so the reflected light will still have a \"white\" component), you're just making the reflecting facets smaller (akin to why breaking a mirror does not change its color).\n\nWith rare exception (some \"dichroic\" materials, which have highly wavelength-sensitive indices of refraction on their surface) specular/coherent reflection is quite broadband. Incoherent scattering phenomena on a variety of scales can be broadband (white) or provide color, depending on their mechanism. Thus, images that you observe on surfaces will tend to be significantly less colorful than the bulk color of a surface.\n\n*this is why specular reflections from apparently-colored metals like gold and copper share the same spectral sensitivity as the \"diffuse\" reflection. "
]
}
|
[] |
[
"http://www.allfordmustangs.com/forums/attachments/2005-2010-mustang-talk/26077d1175982325-detailed-car-few-new-pics-june-06-nose-glare.jpg"
] |
[
[]
] |
|
1ktfp1
|
what are the biases of main us news networks? which us news network is considered the must unbiased?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1ktfp1/eli5_what_are_the_biases_of_main_us_news_networks/
|
{
"a_id": [
"cbsgasc"
],
"score": [
2
],
"text": [
"None of the cable news networks are unbiased.\n\nMSNBC is probably the most biased, with a far left slant.\n\nCNN is about as far left as Fox is right, both with a moderate to heavy slant.\n\nNBC, CBS, and ABC (the old three networks from before cable) all have left leaning slants of varying degrees.\n\nFox has the highest ratings of any US cable news, mainly due to being the only one without a left leaning slant, so they get the 50% of the population that is right of center politically."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[]
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||
bxun1r
|
how do animals without parental training know how to be the animals they are?
|
Like snakes, bees, lizards, crocs. Everything that doesn't have a parent raise them. How do they "know" how to survive?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/bxun1r/eli5_how_do_animals_without_parental_training/
|
{
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"eq9qa4u",
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3
],
"text": [
"First, if I were to cut your skull vertically and take a look at a cross-section of your brain, I'd be able to divide it into what you normally think of as the brain (the noodlely bits) and the brain-stem. \nMost of your instinctual functions, such as curling away from heat, your fight or flight instincts, reflex to swallow things put in your mouth, etc. are all handled by the brain-stem.\nAnimals that don't require parental nurture often have their behavior programmed into them. They're extremely complex chemical reactions at the end of the day.",
"They are literally programmed like a computer. The same way an application knows how to be an application. There is code in their genetic material that instructs them to do what a bee does, or what a lizard does. \n\nEverything that they do is an effort to survive, and procreate. Some animals are intelligent enough to innovate, and play/do recreational activities, but their main pull in life is survival, and procreation. \n\nWhen you hear the word \"instinct\" you can literally translate it to \"code base\"."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
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|
2st8c5
|
Microwave Ovens: What is the relationship between the power level selected and the cooking time?
|
Serious question...I'm wondering about the science behind this relationship, and how it affects the product being "cooked" if different combinations of power and time are selected.
Say I place a cup of water in the microwave. In one instance I select full power and 1 minute cooking time. If in another instance I select 50% power and 2 minutes cooking time, would I get the same result with the cup of water (same ending temperature of the water, etc)? Why or why not?
I'm assuming there must be a difference, as modern microwave ovens have a separate "defrost" setting you can select, which I assume has something to do with using a lower power setting over a longer time period.
I understand that the microwave "cooking" energy is (generally) applied to the water (fluid?) content of the item being cooked. And for my question, I am assuming the same output wattage microwave oven is being used (ie - 1100 watt, etc).
PS - Not sure if I should use the Physics or Engineering "flair", so I submitted as a Physics question.
|
askscience
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/askscience/comments/2st8c5/microwave_ovens_what_is_the_relationship_between/
|
{
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"text": [
"On my microwave, the microwave is heating the percentage of time you select. At 100% it's continuously microwaving. At 50% it'll be heating, then not heating, then back on, then back off, etc. \n\nOn my (cheap) one it gives the illusion of power changes, but it's really just cycling the heating off and on so it more slowly heats and rests whatever is in there. No change in physics, just the same as you starting and stopping it every 5 seconds. ",
"There are a variety of factors to take care of, so I'll try my best to explain:\nAdmitting your microwave has a power of 1'000 W (watts). It means it delivers 1'000 j/s (joules/seconds) at 100% power setting. For the sake of explanation we'll assume every joule is used to heat whatever is in.\n\nSo, if you have water, say a quarter litter, which happens to be one quarter of a kg (more or less), it would need about 1000 J (1046 to be more precise but we'll approximate to make things easy) to heat up 1 degree Celsius (or Kelvin, doesn't matter). If you have water at 20° and want it to boil (say to prepare coffee) it would need to heat up 80° so gain 80'000 J. Now remember, your microwave output is 1000 J/s, so in 80 seconds, a but less than a minute and a half, your water would be at the wanted temperature.\n\nBUT, and that's where it gets complicated, there are phenomenon like convection that take time, so energy that is not uniformly released in the water does not heat all the water, it takes some time for the temperature to equalise, imagine adding hot water in a bath, the water already there doesn't heat instantaneously, even if you mix it.\n\nSo, to go against this, you may put your microwave to say 50%, double time so that in the end the energy released is the same but water has had time to homogenise.\n\nWater being a fairly \"easy\" and uniformous matter already having \"problems\" you can imagine why it would be hard to fully see how it works on meat or a meal containing different things (say a soup with vegetables). \n\nTL;DR to heat in an more homogenous way, heat with less power more time so that heat can travel in the matter and equalise.\n\nSource: studying chemical engineering.\n\nPs if I said anything wrong, please correct. Sorry for formatting, I'm on a mobile device."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[]
] |
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zinna
|
How do we know how fast a galaxy was moving away from us at the time the light we can see left it.
|
That's it :) We know the red shift that could give us the distance, but how do we know how fast it was moving away from us.
|
askscience
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/askscience/comments/zinna/how_do_we_know_how_fast_a_galaxy_was_moving_away/
|
{
"a_id": [
"c64x666",
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],
"score": [
3,
2
],
"text": [
"The red shift tells us how fast it was moving, the distance is figured from a chain of observations and assumptions.",
"We are generally measuring quasars from a galaxy, not all the light from the galaxy. Quasars give us a specific idea of what wavelength the original light was and how much it has changed."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[]
] |
|
3cjzuu
|
/r/subredditsimulator
|
explainlikeimfive
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3cjzuu/eli5_rsubredditsimulator/
|
{
"a_id": [
"csw848t"
],
"score": [
4
],
"text": [
"The subreddit is filled with bots that randomly generate posts and comments, based on existing reddit content. For example /u/AskHistorians_SS generates comments from the content of /r/AskHistorians.\n\nThe sticky post explains how the comments are generated:\n\n > The text for titles/comments/text-posts are generated using \"markov chains\", a random process that's \"trained\" from looking at real data. If you've ever used a keyboard on your phone that tries to predict which word you'll type next, those are often built using something similar.\n\n > Basically, you feed in a bunch of sentences, and even though it has no understanding of the meaning of the text, it picks up on patterns like \"word A is often followed by word B\". Then when you want to generate a new sentence, it \"walks\" its way through from the start of a sentence to the end of one, picking sequences of words that it knows are valid based on that initial analysis. So generally short sequences of words in the generated sentences will make sense, but often not the whole thing.\n\nFor example, lets say the only things I ever wrote are \"I am the Walrus\" and \"I am the one who knocks\". The algorithm will therefore determine that the phrase \"I am the\" is always followed by the word \"Walrus\" or the word \"one\", so it will randomly choose between one of them. \n\nNow, if I also wrote \"the one I love\" then the algorithm might conclude that \"the one\" is sometimes followed by the word \"I\". So after writing the phrase \"I am the one\", it might decide to randomly pick the word \"I\", which will create the phrase \"I am the one I love\" - a phrase that I had never written, but is comprised of fractions of sentences that I have. Of course, the more content there is to draw from, the more possibilities there are for new sentences to be generated."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[]
] |
||
11pn01
|
Arguments that the Counter Reformation was a success?
|
Any info helps.
|
AskHistorians
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/11pn01/arguments_that_the_counter_reformation_was_a/
|
{
"a_id": [
"c6oibkq"
],
"score": [
3
],
"text": [
"Well, they restricted the Reformation to the fringes of Europe, kept Spain & France in particular in the fold, so that'd be where I'd start."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[]
] |
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1suiw8
|
What are the products of the regeneration of a diesel particulate filter?
|
My dad and I were talking about catalytic converters and other forms of emission control and I was wondering if diesel particulate filters and their regeneration cycle actually does anything but burn carbon? What would the benefits be of burning the particles rather than release them? Isn't CO and CO2 more harmful than unburnt diesel?
|
askscience
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/askscience/comments/1suiw8/what_are_the_products_of_the_regeneration_of_a/
|
{
"a_id": [
"ce1heus"
],
"score": [
3
],
"text": [
"I did a study for some US-Mexico transport agencies which focused on the reduction of Particulate Matter using these sorts of technologies in trucks, so i will mostly address trucks.\n\nThese filters are aimed at reducing the amount of particulate matter in vehicle emissions, but can reduce other contaminants which contain nitrogen and sulfur. \n\nReleasing particulate matter would be a bad idea because it has serious health effects depending on concentration in the air. Thats one of the reasons some european cities are developing Low Emission Zones, London and Germany are good examples. \n\nThese are EPA´s assessment of what particulate matter can do: \n_URL_0_ \n\nAnd they are using programs and tools like this to calculate what is the overall heatlh benefit of these technologies. \n_URL_1_\n\n_URL_2_\n\nIm on my phone ill try to format this and add more information later. \n\n"
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[
"http://www.epa.gov/pm/health.html",
"http://www.epa.gov/smartway/",
"http://www.epa.gov/cleandiesel/quantifier/"
]
] |
|
794q5e
|
How come when Europeans came to north America, they made the natives a minority, but in south America, the descendants of the natives at lest make up the majority? Or are they not native, but from elsewhere? (Spain?)
|
Ex, Americans are mostly form the old world, but Latinos are the majority in mexico
|
AskHistorians
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/794q5e/how_come_when_europeans_came_to_north_america/
|
{
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"dozygv2"
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],
"text": [
"Remember, South america was far more populated than North America. The reason for this was because South America held the most favorable conditions for farming which led to cities which led to civilizations arising like the Aztecs and the Inca. Of course many North American peoples settled into farming like the Hadanasuanee (or Iroqouis) but due to the snow and the seasons these nations could not farm as much as the Southerners leading to less population growth. And because the various European Plagues wiped out the natives in the Americas both North and south dropped dramatically. But due to the southerners common use of farming they were able to adapt to european systems easier andcould thus grow their pops more. Whereas the Northerners wern't used to farming and thus could not grow like the southerenres.\n\nAlso the British colonization policy was to send britishers to the New world to set up the colonies there. Due to this the areas were flooded with British folk far outnumbering the natives. This was partly due to the inability to get native workers early on as all the tribes ran somewhere else when the British tried to capture them. There simply wasn't a native society in North America that could be \"conquered\" because there were no lands or borders in N. America, just tribal claims and tepees(and other moveable houses) that could be moved and changed easily. These many reasons created a british policy of immagration to the new world.\n\nWhereas the land the spainish conquered coupd be conquered. They had kings, nobility, clergy and peasents. When the spainish defeated these kings, the people plegded loyalty to them because the natives were defeated. And because they had built cities and feudalism they couldn't just run away. After the spainish conquered the New world they decided that they only needed a spainsh minority in powr that could use cheap \"encomienda's\"(or slaves) to run their colonies. This led to the natives outnumbering the natives and because the natives were used to the farming system they could use the surplus food to grow their population.\n\nAlso the british had less useful land, like Spainsh America had gold, silver and plantations whereas British America had littleof that until the 1800's. This led to the british colonies being mire based of the people and their producing powere with a heavy influence on trade. Whereas the Spainish realized the most effective way to gain wealth was exploiting slaves and encomienda's to work the fields and the silver mines to make Spain so rich it had a inflation crisis. But the side effect was that societies cannot be built off pure extraction of resources which was a factor in todays poverty in south america.\n\nBut when the Former spainsh colonies declared independance(lets go Simon Bolivar) they realized that there was a major gap between the spainsh born, the spainsh New world born and the natives. To fix this issue the instatuited a policy of intermarrige that would join the 3(and more) communities into one. This was remarkably succesfull and united the different races and decreased racism(though it still exists). And on top of that the fact that most of the people were mixed race people were more willing to claim their Indeginous ancestry leading to a larger overall population of native-ish people. \n\n\n\n\n"
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[]
] |
|
34unbx
|
Is it possible for 0% humidity to ever occur on Earth? How would the human body react?
|
Would we become rapidly dehydrated? Would it hurt to breathe?
|
askscience
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/askscience/comments/34unbx/is_it_possible_for_0_humidity_to_ever_occur_on/
|
{
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"cqybmqc",
"cqyfv0d"
],
"score": [
5,
19
],
"text": [
"The only way to get absolutely 0% humidity is a vacuum. If we got to as close as possible (a few percent), we wouldn't have trouble breathing unless for a long period of time. We wouldn't get dehydrated rapidly, maybe slightly quicker, but our skin is made to help with that. If you inhaled heavily, it would dry your throat a bit, but it would go back when you stopped. You can see this during winter. When it's really cold out, the humidity is very low because the water condenses and falls to the ground.\n\nIn short: Not possible to get absolutely 0% moisture outside of a lab. The human body would be fine. We wouldn't get dehydrated. It wouldn't hurt to breathe normally.",
"I work in a [dry room](_URL_1_). The humidity gets pretty close to 0% (true 0% is pretty much impossible, the same way 100% purity is basically impossible). You can work all day in the dry room and not feel uncomfortable (it is maintained at a nice 70 degrees with excellent air circulation). The main effect is that when you come out of the dry room, everything feels \"wet.\"\n\nNow, the dry room is kept at around 1% humidity. This is actually comparable with the 1% relative humidity which seems to be the lowest reported outside of a lab ([here](_URL_0_)). Those who experienced it said their mouths dried out quickly. Why did their mouths dry out quickly, but mine does not in a dry room?\n\nThe answer lies in [evaporation rates](_URL_2_). The lowest humidity was reported at Death Valley, where the temperature often reaches over 100 degrees. This elevated temperature is doubly bad for dehydrating humans. First of all, the higher temperature makes water evaporate much more quickly. Second, your body will sweat to keep itself cool, causing you to lose even more water. In a humid environment you would get some of that water back as water condenses on your skin, but in a dry environment you will just lose all your water very quickly.\n\nIn contrast, the evaporation rate in my lab at 70 degrees Fahrenheit is pretty slow. The nice cool temperature does not prompt sweating, so you can easily work in there for hours and not feel a thing.\n\nEdit: I should mention that we often wear masks in the dry room. This isn't really to keep ourselves humid, but more to prevent the water in our breath from adding humidity to the air."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[
"http://www.city-data.com/forum/weather/1273770-just-how-low-can-relative-humidity.html",
"http://www.scs-usa.com/dry-rooms.html",
"https://van.physics.illinois.edu/qa/listing.php?id=1440"
]
] |
|
4okbr5
|
if we manage to get fusion, is that really unlimited energy and how does it compare to current energy sources?
|
Also, can we process normal water for fusion and get out energy efficiently (theoretically with 100% efficiency) or are our resources of fusion material just as limited as oil ?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4okbr5/eli5_if_we_manage_to_get_fusion_is_that_really/
|
{
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"d4daigr",
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],
"score": [
5,
2,
2
],
"text": [
"Not exactly - the fuel of a fusion reactor is deuterium, which is present in seawater. Approximately 1 out of every 6500 atoms of ocean hydrogen is deuterium. \n\nFusion power is non-renewable, and not unlimited. However, the amount of power that can be produced from a very small amount is tremendous and far outpaces any other known energy source. On top of that, the amount of fuel necessary is tiny and burns only in precise conditions. Even in a \"meltdown\", without being actively and constantly refueled it will burn itself out in seconds. In addition, the waste produced, while highly radioactive, has a much shorter half-life and the danger decreases sharply over 50-100 years. Compare this to fission nuclear reactors whose waste can remain radioactive for thousands of years.",
"Energy efficiency is likely to be lower for a practical process. If we use fusion to generate heat, that heat boil water to make steam, which spins turbines,and gets you 30 to 40% efficiency at best. However, if we can do it cheap enough, it is still cost effective, and the amount of fuel for the amount of post efficiency loss energy production is still very small compared to fossil fuel.",
"Not technically renewable or unlimited but there'd be A LOT of energy. Enough to, at current usage rates, last a few millenia. "
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[],
[]
] |
|
20v6ot
|
How often did medieval Christian priests fight in battles? Was the mace their weapon of choice?
|
I heard somewhere that the weapon of choice for priests was the mace as it did not draw blood, is there any credible backing for this statement?
|
AskHistorians
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/20v6ot/how_often_did_medieval_christian_priests_fight_in/
|
{
"a_id": [
"cg75wer",
"cg76dpr"
],
"score": [
5,
5
],
"text": [
"Priests are, as this myth rightly says, prohibited from the shedding of blood. However, there are quite a few Church canons specifically prohibiting clerical participation in warfare. \n\nThis is not to say it didn't happen - *La Chanson de Roland* has Bishop Turpin in full armor, and the frequent repetition of canonical decrees is usually inferred to mean the existing rules are probably being disobeyed - but in that case there would be no particular need to restrict oneself to a mace.\n\nSo yeah, just another medievalism.",
"The [Knights Templar](_URL_0_) were originally a monastic order, though not priests *per se*, and I can't find any evidence that the chaplains actually fought.\n\nThere is, however, evidence of 'war clerics' like those you're probably thinking of. The Bayeux Tapestry depicts a Norman Priest wielding a mace - [Bishop Odo of Bayeux](_URL_2_). It's a theme that stretches through much of Scandinavia and those of Scandinavian descent. [Bishop Absalon of Roskilde](_URL_1_) led a military campaign against the Wends of Eastern Germany. "
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knights_Templar",
"http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/1688/Absalon",
"http://penelope.uchicago.edu/~grout/encyclopaedia_romana/britannia/anglo-saxon/hastings/bayeux.html"
]
] |
|
v0rmi
|
why does the human body get used to things? for example: smells, the way a room looks, routine
|
to explain more... Every family has a scent to their house, but they are unaware of it. You go to a new place and it looks huge at first, the more times you go there, the smaller it seems. Can someone explain why the brain does this?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/v0rmi/why_does_the_human_body_get_used_to_things_for/
|
{
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"c50a564",
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"c50bmci",
"c50dt57"
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"score": [
3,
3,
2,
2
],
"text": [
"because it is the *unusual* sound, smell or object which may offer the unique opportunity or be an immediate danger. \n\nregular stuff... becomes unimportant. ",
"it's not really a bodily process more than it is a mental process. \n\nwhen we are presented with something new (whether it be a new place, a new smell, or a new sound) our brain makes us aware of it because it is different from what we are used to. being aware of new stimulus (going off of what viniTheHat mentioned) is important due to the fact that the stimulus can present a danger that we are unaware of.\n\nthe process of becoming familiar with something is called habituation, by which we become more accustomed and familiar to something. after a long time being exposed to something, the body and the brain learns that maybe the stimulus we are exposed to is not that dangerous. it takes less note of it and it becomes filtered out of our consciousness as routine.\n\n",
"If we didn't become used to things, we would never be able to focus on things. If you constantly had to take in every single detail of your living room, you wouldn't be able to pay attention to your tv. Human attention is very selective. Google the cocktail party effect and habituation in infants if you want more detail.",
"sensory adaptation. Your body hates change, so sensations that are consistent and unchanging are put on the bottom of the list of things your body pays attention to, so it can devote more time to find new things to pay attention to. Do you FEEL your clothes on you right now? no because you've had them on all day. Do you HEAR the clock ticking on the wall? no because it has been making the same noise for hours. --- Here's a little extra... your sense of smell is the most adaptive of the senses. A room smells bad, but stand in there for a minute or two and you suddenly won't notice it. ALSO there are nervous system diseases that prohibit your body's ability to \"tune out\" constant sensations (aka stimuli) and results in pain and irritation constantly. Imagine having that sensation of an annoying T-shirt tag rubbing on your neck, but all over your body, all the time.... :/"
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[],
[],
[]
] |
|
at1bjo
|
What a ischaemic heart disease really is and what happens to the heart?
|
askscience
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/askscience/comments/at1bjo/what_a_ischaemic_heart_disease_really_is_and_what/
|
{
"a_id": [
"eh00iza"
],
"score": [
2
],
"text": [
"Ischemia means reduce blood supply.\n\nThus in ischemic heart disease the blood supply to the heart is reduced or blocked fully due to atherosclerosis and causing conditions like myocardial infarction, angina and cardiac death."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[]
] |
||
2mmhku
|
In space, can magnetic material orbit a magnet using magnetism the same way mass orbits each other using gravity?
|
So orbiting works for things around earth by them moving fast enough that the earth curves away from it before it hits the ground.
So hypothetically, can magnets work in the same principle and orbit each other in space using magnetism instead of gravity?
|
askscience
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/askscience/comments/2mmhku/in_space_can_magnetic_material_orbit_a_magnet/
|
{
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"text": [
"No it can't, for ways that are difficult to explain without math. Basically, there are only two types of forces that lead to stable orbits: Coulomb/Newton forces that obey an inverse square law, and harmonic/elastic/spring forces that obey a linear force law. This is proven as [Bertrand's theorem](_URL_1_)\n\nForces between magnets are not like these, they are complicated and generally fall off as higher inverse powers of distance. _URL_0_",
"As everyone else here has said the answer in layman's terms is no. \n\nHowever charged objects in space can orbit each other if there is an atmosphere as on the ISS and you aren't talking about free space such as an orbit. \n\nSee Don Petit's experiment with charged water droplets and a knitting needle [here](_URL_0_).\n\nThis really isn't anything like your question suggests but it's interesting nonetheless. ",
"Most of the answers here are \"no\" but I would like to provide an exception.\n\nIf you place two permanent magnets (Like the ones you would put on your fridge) in space, place them at just the right distance apart, with north of one of them directly facing south of the other, and give both of them tangential velocities anti-parallel to one another at just the right intensity, they could actually orbit each other perfectly, until the magnetism runs out (which it would eventually), at which point the magnets would recede away from each other.",
"For a loose interpretation of the word 'orbit', there is a way. \n\nLook up 'magnetic mirroring'. That's a phenomenon by which particles streaming toward one of the Earth's poles are reflected backward...where they stream toward the other pole and are reflected again. Instead of orbiting around the Earth, protons and electrons bounce from north to south. This forms the Van Allen belts and causes aurorae when the particles dip into the atmosphere.\n\nIt's not really orbiting, and it's only feasible for very light objects in a very large magnetic field. But objects can be held at a distance from a magnet using magnetism.",
"At a distance, gravity has an evenly distributed force so that the object in orbit is affected relatively equally throughout the entire orbit (ie, the same size force pulls the orbiting object toward the center of the larger mass at all times, creating a stable orbit). Since magnets are polar, with the magnetic forces opposing one another at either pole, the magnetic object wouldn't orbit smoothly unless its mass was perfectly symmetrical and it orbited precisely half-way between the two poles. Otherwise it would eventually be drawn to the nearer pole. So, yes it's possible in theory, but extremely unlikely in reality."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Force_between_magnets",
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bertrand's_theorem"
],
[
"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UyRv8bNDvq4"
],
[],
[],
[]
] |
|
70mzkn
|
how do plastic bags help preserve food?
|
Assuming you don't vacuum seal it how does trapping the food with the same oxygen that's outside the bag help it stay fresh?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/70mzkn/eli5_how_do_plastic_bags_help_preserve_food/
|
{
"a_id": [
"dn4cudw",
"dn4divj"
],
"score": [
3,
7
],
"text": [
"I think it depends on the item. E.g. Cucumbers are usually wrapped in plastic to prevent moisture lose - _URL_0_",
"It limits the amount of bacteria that can find its way to the item.\n\nWhile it won't remove any that's already on the item, it will prevent new bacteria from happening to land on it.\n\nIn addition, it helps the item retain its moisture instead of drying out, or keep it dry instead of absorbing moisture from the air, depending on whether it started out moister or dryer than air.\n\nIt also prevents cross-contamination with other items. If your fridge was full of open jars and loose items, the smells from each would float around and sink into each other, and soon you would have pickle-flavoured cake and milk that tastes like boiled eggs.\n\nIt also helps prevent live organisms from interfering with the food, such as flies that would otherwise land on it and potentially lay eggs in it."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[
"http://www.cucumbergrowers.co.uk/news/articles/why-are-my-cucumbers-shrink-wrapped"
],
[]
] |
|
ebt9at
|
where is non-physical government money stored?
|
[deleted]
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/ebt9at/eli5_where_is_nonphysical_government_money_stored/
|
{
"a_id": [
"fb7gg57"
],
"score": [
2
],
"text": [
"A large majority of money in the world is non-physical. It’s just 1s and 0s in a computer system somewhere."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[]
] |
|
3kwa1n
|
What actually happens during the combustion of hydrocarbons?
|
When something such as methane or ethene is burnt, what is the mechanism (if that is the correct term) for what happens? Does the molecule break apart (hydrogens break away) and then the free atoms/molecules react with oxygen?
|
askscience
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/askscience/comments/3kwa1n/what_actually_happens_during_the_combustion_of/
|
{
"a_id": [
"cv1akck",
"cv1bsak",
"cv1ml5q"
],
"score": [
4,
4,
3
],
"text": [
"Here is a paper from 1992 that gives a \"simplified\" mechanism.\n\n_URL_0_\n\nIn short, radicals are formed and then the reaction proceeds very quickly. There can be a large number of different species that take part in the reaction so it is a very complicated thing to describe kinetically. Reactions that may initiate combustion are:\n\nCH4 = > CH3(radical)+H(radical)\n\nH(radical)+O2 = > HOO(radical)\n\nThis continues and more and more different radicals are formed that propagate the reaction.",
"Combustions are normally incredible complex processes. They have multiple interlocking reactions that are often depicted in a reaction path diagram. \n\n[Here is one for Nitrogen in combustions](_URL_1_) it's from [this paper](_URL_2_) from Miller and Bowman(yeah, paywall, sorry). This is a rather small example of an reaction path diagramm. \n\nThe next thing is, the rates of all these reactions are dependend on the concentration of educts (and pressure) and the temperature. \nNaturally as temperature changes over the volume of a flame it is rather difficult to model even a simple flame. And if your base substance is complicated (like wood) or things also change over time (comustion in an engine.) knowing, what exactly happens becomes near impossible. \n\nGenerally speaking combustions are chain reactions with three types of elemental reactions(example: H2+O2):\n\n1. initiating reactions: The initial spark, that starts the reaction. Here something breaks apart and forms a free radical (e.g. O2- > 2O.)\n\n2. Propagating reactions: these form reaction sequences that are started by a free radical and in the end produce (the same) free radicals. (O+H2- > OH+H, OH+H2- > H, H+O2- > OH+O)\n\n3. Terminating reactions: reactions of radicals that form stable molecules. (these reactions are important to prevent detonations). (H+O2+wall- > HO2+wall) Yes, HO2 is here considered \"stable\". \n\n[The burning of hydrogen](_URL_3_)\n\n[They build a glass engine to study combustion in engines](_URL_0_)\n\n",
"As people have said, it's messy. In a flame in particular you'll have essentially all possible combinations of radials and molecule fragments flying around. \n\nThe reaction of a hydrocarbon with O2 is actually 'spin-forbidden'. The O2 molecule has two electrons with their 'spin' (intrinsic angular momentum) in the same direction (net spin = 2). Hydrocarbons and CO2 all have all their electron spins paired up in opposite directions (net spin = 0). \n\nThis means a reaction like CH4 + 2O2 -- > CO2 + 2 H2O would actually violate conservation of angular momentum if it occured directly like that, as there are two unpaired spins on the left side of the arrow while all spins are paired on the right side. So the reaction _has_ to occur through the formation of radicals (atoms/molecules with an odd number of electrons), allowing the spin of the single odd electron to change if needed.\n"
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[
"https://web.anl.gov/PCS/acsfuel/preprint%20archive/Files/37_2_SAN%20FRANCISCO_04-92_0960.pdf"
],
[
"http://www.tvu.com/PSCylTEngweb.html",
"http://i.imgur.com/1d2gsnQ.png",
"http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/0360128589900178",
"http://www.tau.ac.il/~phchlab/experiments_new/SemB03_Explosion/02TheoreticalBackground.html"
],
[]
] |
|
3dr569
|
How far would various groups of people travel in a days time in Roman times
|
How many miles could say a trading caravan, Roman legion, or just an individual cover in a days time?
I realize most people wouldn't travel alone but I'd they did how far could or would they have gone?
|
AskHistorians
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/3dr569/how_far_would_various_groups_of_people_travel_in/
|
{
"a_id": [
"ct82k65"
],
"score": [
4
],
"text": [
"Historians at the University of Stanford have made an excellent interactive map which answers all of your quesions and then some: \n_URL_0_"
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[
"http://orbis.stanford.edu/"
]
] |
|
4dkaik
|
What would be the result if we somehow trap photons in closed metallic sphere that is as reflective as a mirror on the inside?
|
Would that produce heat from all the back and forth reflection?
EDIT: I am *assuming* 100% reflectivity.
|
askscience
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/askscience/comments/4dkaik/what_would_be_the_result_if_we_somehow_trap/
|
{
"a_id": [
"d1rre8k",
"d1rvwjg"
],
"score": [
15,
25
],
"text": [
"First of all, because mirrors are rarely much more than 99% efficient, the photons would be absorbed in a fraction of a second. The energy of the absorbed photons would be re-emitted as heat. Energy is conserved, so the heat produced by the sphere would only be as much as the wattage of photons put into it. ",
"As others have stated, it's impossible to have a material with a 100% reflectivity and making a closed box with photons going back and forth would be experimentally difficult.\n\nIt's however possible to trap light between two mirrors and one of the 2012 physics Nobel prize recipients does just that: he and his team made a cavity with [two mirrors](_URL_0_) in which photons can get trapped. Due to absorption though, the photons could survive only for an average of 0.1s (which is still sufficient for the photons to travel 40.000km between the mirrors before absorption!).\n\nOne of the really cool things this team used was an experimental setup which allowed them to figure out how many photons were bouncing between the mirrors at a given time without needing to absorb the photons to detect them (like you would with a camera or light sensors in general). To do this, they used excited atoms in which the electrons were going around the nucleus in a very elongated orbit and made them pass through the cavity. If there were photons in the cavity, the electric field would rotate the axis of the elongated orbit without any photon being absorbed, and they measured this rotation to infer how many photons were between the mirrors.\n\nIf you want to learn more, Serge Haroche's [Nobel acceptance speech](_URL_1_) is really interesting and goes over how they used this experiment for studying quantum mechanics.\n"
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[
"http://www2.cnrs.fr/sites/en/image/img_9334_star_hres.jpg",
"http://journals.aps.org/rmp/pdf/10.1103/RevModPhys.85.1083"
]
] |
|
39mwrr
|
why do people prefer "natural" diamonds. are there real differences?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/39mwrr/eli5_why_do_people_prefer_natural_diamonds_are/
|
{
"a_id": [
"cs4ouk6",
"cs4p0cm"
],
"score": [
2,
2
],
"text": [
"It's all about marketing creating the public perception that \"real\" diamonds are superior to artificial ones. All it takes is one salesman to say \"well, if you don't really love her *that* much, we've got these synthetics over here\" and most customers are going to jump right back into the natural diamonds.",
" > I thought that we (humanity) could create Diamonds\n\nYes, synthetic gem-quality diamonds have been around for some time now. The de Beers corporation works overtime to make people think there is some actual difference between a synthetic and \"real\" diamond. It was also de Beers, back in the early 20th century, that created the marketing myth that diamonds are rare and valuable.\n\n > can't we essentially create any element? \n\nNot as such, no, and this is a different question. In making a synthetic diamond, we are not \"creating an element,\" we're just crystallizing carbon. You have to provide the carbon.\n\nThe only way to actually create a NEW quantity of an element is by nuclear processes, fusion or fission. But that takes a fuckton of energy, and produces just a few atoms.\n"
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[]
] |
||
wwws6
|
Why does smoke leave a smell?
|
What is happening on the small scale. What remains behind for that lingering smoke smell (like clothes after a bonfire or a smoker's car) and does it disperse? If so, why?
|
askscience
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/askscience/comments/wwws6/why_does_smoke_leave_a_smell/
|
{
"a_id": [
"c5h5oe4"
],
"score": [
6
],
"text": [
"Some chemical components of smoke will physisorb on surfaces. This means that the molecules land on and very weakly bond with surface. They will sit there for a while. At some point they will leave the surface by desorbing. This is one reason why the smell will persist for a length of time. The surface will act as a temporary reservoir for these molecules."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[]
] |
|
4cj6ot
|
the growth rate of real gdp per capita is usually lower than the growth rate of real gdp
|
Why? And under what circumstances can it be the same or higher?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4cj6ot/eli5the_growth_rate_of_real_gdp_per_capita_is/
|
{
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"d1ioo67",
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3,
2
],
"text": [
"Per capita GDP growth is lower than real GDP because of population growth. If GDP per capita is $100 and the population is 100 then GDP is $10,000. If GDP per capita grows to $110, that's a 10% increase per capita. And if population grows to 102, then real GDP would have grown by 11.2%",
"If population were constant, the growth rate of real GDP per capita would be exactly the same as the growth rate of real GDP because GDP per capita is just GDP divided by population.\n\nIn real life, the population is almost always steadily growing."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[]
] |
|
1gcsds
|
What causes people to create and believe in truly outlandish conspiracy theories?
|
For example, I just read that Obama and Biden will resign on 6/21 because the Earth's core has changed from nickel to plasma and we'll be crossing the galactic plane on that date. Is there any explanation for creating or believing in these types of theories other than a mental illness?
I'm not talking about more mainstream conspiracy theories that seem to be just denial, such as the 9/11 truther and the birther movements.
|
askscience
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/askscience/comments/1gcsds/what_causes_people_to_create_and_believe_in_truly/
|
{
"a_id": [
"caj1hol"
],
"score": [
3
],
"text": [
"There tend to be several reasons people tend to believe in conspiracies. People are often initially drawn to these theories as a search for meaning. this can be readily seen in the aftermath of a tragedy like 9/11, when the enormity of the event lead some people to seek alternate explanations. Once the idea has formed it tends to be reinforced by confirmation bias and attempts to avoid cognitive dissonance. There may also be social effects such as communal reinforcement and group polarization that reinforce the belief as well. Besides these reinforcers, I know of no other means by which conspiracy theories are reinforced.\n\nAlso, I am not sure the example you provided qualifies as a conspiracy theory.\n\nFrom Wikipedia:\n > A conspiracy theory is an explanatory proposition that accuses a person, group or organization of having caused or covered up an event or phenomenon of great social, political, or economic impact.\n\nUnless there was a coverup somewhere in this story, I don't believe it qualifies as a conspiracy theory."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[]
] |
|
1cqc90
|
What do all languages have in common?
|
askscience
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/askscience/comments/1cqc90/what_do_all_languages_have_in_common/
|
{
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10,
21,
2,
3
],
"text": [
"I'd recommend a good book by John Lyons called \"Introduction to Theoretical Linguistics\". It goes into detail about what you're asking. _URL_0_",
"Well, one of the things languages tend to have in common, is that they follow Zipf's law. As quoted from Wikipedia[^1](_URL_1_):\n > Zipf's law states that given some corpus of natural language utterances, the frequency of any word is inversely proportional to its rank in the frequency table. Thus the most frequent word will occur approximately twice as often as the second most frequent word, three times as often as the third most frequent word, etc. \n\nThere is a related law, which is the law of brevity. This law states that more often used words tend to be shorter than longer words. Interestingly, this law not only holds for human languages, but also for non-human animal vocalizations, i.e. vocalizations that are used more often tend to be shorter [^2, ^pdf] (_URL_0_). ",
"This is a question of typology, and the answer is: not a whole lot.\n\n*Perhaps* every language has a distinction between nouns and verbs, but some Native American languages (e.g. Salishan) might not have many tests to distinguish them (and perhaps no tests at all). [There's some excellent discussion of this issue over at StackExchange](_URL_1_).\n\nThere *might* be a universal category of subject, (as in English \"**I** run\", \"**He** hits me\"), but it's problematic for ergative languages, which pattern the single argument of the intransitive verb (\"**I** run\") with the less agentive argument of the transitive verb (\"He hits **me**\"). See [here](_URL_0_) for examples of what this *might* look like in English. The category of subject is also problematic for languages that have 'direct-inverse' systems, where a morpheme or combination of morphemes tells you what persons are involved in a given act, and who did what to who is resolved by a 'hierarchy' and the presence or absence of an 'inverse' morpheme.",
"I wonder if certain vowel sounds or consonants are common to most languages?",
"Syntactically, there are some putative universals that have been identified/proposed over the years:\n\n- Extraction Islands\n\n- Thematic hierarchies\n\n- Syntactic hierarchy\n\n- Burzio's Generalization\n\n- The head movement constraint\n\n- Spec-Head-Comp ordering\n\n- Cinque's functional hierarchies\n\nThere are lots more, these are just a few off the top of my head. Whether any of these is truly universal is a topic of debate, of course."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[
"http://www.amazon.co.uk/Introduction-Theoretical-Linguistics-John-Lyons/dp/0521095107"
],
[
"http://arxiv.org/ftp/arxiv/papers/1303/1303.6175.pdf",
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zipf%27s_law"
],
[
"http://literalminded.wordpress.com/2013/03/03/ergative-english-2/",
"http://linguistics.stackexchange.com/questions/763/whats-the-global-difference-between-nouns-and-verbs"
],
[],
[]
] |
||
jdrfa
|
Is it possible to 'paint' a target with a proton beam to make it more attractive to a tesla coil?
|
I am stupid, but imaginative; is it possible to send a proton beam to 'paint' a target and the move a Tesla Coil into the path to send lightning to the target?
|
askscience
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/askscience/comments/jdrfa/is_it_possible_to_paint_a_target_with_a_proton/
|
{
"a_id": [
"c2banc1",
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],
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4
],
"text": [
"I think that the number of protons you'd need to fire at a target to get it to achieve a significant net positive charge would be prohibitively high. This is in part because the protons would collide with molecules in the air, scattering them.\n\nHowever, the concept of tagging a target for electrical discharge has been considered: _URL_0_\n\nIt sounds like a reasonable concept; by ionizing the air along a path, you're making a much lower-energy channel for electrical discharge. The plausibility of such a technology depends a lot on things like the availability of large power supplies, I suppose.",
"I think that the number of protons you'd need to fire at a target to get it to achieve a significant net positive charge would be prohibitively high. This is in part because the protons would collide with molecules in the air, scattering them.\n\nHowever, the concept of tagging a target for electrical discharge has been considered: _URL_0_\n\nIt sounds like a reasonable concept; by ionizing the air along a path, you're making a much lower-energy channel for electrical discharge. The plausibility of such a technology depends a lot on things like the availability of large power supplies, I suppose."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[
"http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/08/26/ionatron_still_going/"
],
[
"http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/08/26/ionatron_still_going/"
]
] |
|
c2d8vx
|
When fighter jets break the sound barrier, is it loud in the cockpit?
|
I can see it being just normal high Db, but I guess I could also be convinced that it's dangerously loud, or even by some way of pressure change or something it could actually get more quiet.
|
askscience
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/askscience/comments/c2d8vx/when_fighter_jets_break_the_sound_barrier_is_it/
|
{
"a_id": [
"ermci02",
"ermftvz"
],
"score": [
3,
6
],
"text": [
"Surprisingly no. The only noticeable difference is the feeling on the control surfaces - they become slightly \"mushier\" and less responsive. \n\n_URL_0_",
"The thing is the jet never breaks through anything.\n\nAircraft engines are pretty loud. So you create sound that spreads from the plane in all directions. If the aircraft is slower than the sound waves, they fly ahead of the aircraft unhindered. But if the aircraft moves faster than the sound it produces, it pushes the sound in front of it, so to speak. The sound waves can not dodge so fast. They are squeezed, thickened and pile up. This is the so-called sound barrier. Behind the plane, the sound waves are cone-shaped - you can imagine that like a ship, the water accumulates in front of him at the bow and produces water waves behind him.\n\nSo you would hear a bang every time the jet passes over you."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[
"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZDy5YRwPZUc"
],
[]
] |
|
1obgct
|
19th-20th century American schools
|
I submitted this over a week ago with no replies so I will try again.
How standardized or progressive was the USA's education system mid 19th to early 20th centuries? Did the cirriculum vary by school, state, or region? How popular were ideas such as John Dewey's and did they have widespread implementation?
What changes came about to the education system during or because of the Cold War?
|
AskHistorians
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/1obgct/19th20th_century_american_schools/
|
{
"a_id": [
"ccqiw6z"
],
"score": [
3
],
"text": [
"Perhaps your trouble to find responses comes from the fact that there is no question in the title. From the [subreddit rules](_URL_0_),\n\n > Please put your question in the post title"
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[
"http://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/wiki/rules"
]
] |
|
1kow07
|
Why do rowing teams need to be synchronized?
|
Say there are two identical boats, each with an identical team of rowers. One team rows in perfect synchronization and the other does not. Intuitively I'd expect the boat with the synchronized team to be faster. But I'm also thinking that the total work done by each team would be identical. Where is the benefit to having everyone row at the same time?
|
askscience
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/askscience/comments/1kow07/why_do_rowing_teams_need_to_be_synchronized/
|
{
"a_id": [
"cbr4crc",
"cbra80e"
],
"score": [
14,
3
],
"text": [
"That way they don't bang their oars into each other. ",
"Here's a paper that says there may be benefits to rowing a little out of phase:\n\n[Don’t Rock the Boat: How Antiphase Crew Coordination Affects Rowing'\nAnouk J. de Brouwer, Harjo J. de Poel, Mathijs J. Hofmijster]\n(_URL_0_)\n\nLast two sentences from the abstract:\n > These results imply that antiphase rowing may indeed improve performance, even without any experience with antiphase technique. Furthermore, it demonstrates that although perfectly synchronous coordination may be the most stable, it is not necessarily equated with the most efficient or optimal performance.\n\nI'm not sure how representative their method of connecting the rowers is of actual rowing, but it sounds like it's an open area of research."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[
"http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0054996"
]
] |
|
n355f
|
why is copper such a good conductor?
|
Cause [this shit](_URL_0_) don't make sense
|
explainlikeimfive
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/n355f/eli5_why_is_copper_such_a_good_conductor/
|
{
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"score": [
4,
9,
3,
4,
9,
3
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"text": [
"Try [this shit](_URL_0_).",
"Copper has only one electron in its outermost electron orbit, which makes it easy to steal away the electron or add it back. Electricity, (the movement of electrons) takes advantage of that lone electron.\n\nOther metals with one electron in their outermost orbit are Platinum, Silver, and Gold; each of which, predictably, are outstanding electrical conductors. ",
"Atoms of metals connect to each other in a very special way. They share their electrons with each other, but not in the conventional sense where only two atoms grab on to the electron and hold it. Instead, the atoms are free to move about in a \"sea of electrons\" that flows between and around all the metal atoms. \n\nThis explains why metals are good conductors, but what's so great about copper?\n\nWell, copper atoms aren't very attracted to each other. which means that the \"sea of electrons\" has more wiggle room to move around. (They have only one atom in the d sub-level) \n\nCombine that with durability, ductility, stability, and relative abundance and you have the perfect charge carrier.\n\n",
"Try [this shit](_URL_0_).",
"Copper has only one electron in its outermost electron orbit, which makes it easy to steal away the electron or add it back. Electricity, (the movement of electrons) takes advantage of that lone electron.\n\nOther metals with one electron in their outermost orbit are Platinum, Silver, and Gold; each of which, predictably, are outstanding electrical conductors. ",
"Atoms of metals connect to each other in a very special way. They share their electrons with each other, but not in the conventional sense where only two atoms grab on to the electron and hold it. Instead, the atoms are free to move about in a \"sea of electrons\" that flows between and around all the metal atoms. \n\nThis explains why metals are good conductors, but what's so great about copper?\n\nWell, copper atoms aren't very attracted to each other. which means that the \"sea of electrons\" has more wiggle room to move around. (They have only one atom in the d sub-level) \n\nCombine that with durability, ductility, stability, and relative abundance and you have the perfect charge carrier.\n\n"
]
}
|
[] |
[
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copper"
] |
[
[
"http://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copper"
],
[],
[],
[
"http://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copper"
],
[],
[]
] |
|
850884
|
how were the first perfect objects manufactured? first straight piece, first perfect circle, first perfect sphere, first perfectly straight sword, etc.?
|
As the title says. Thank you!
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/850884/eli5_how_were_the_first_perfect_objects/
|
{
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"dvtqe4k",
"dvu7huo",
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],
"score": [
2,
3,
2
],
"text": [
"I don't know, we will let you know when it happens. No such \"perfect object\" has ever been made and it seems impossible.",
"There's no such thing as a \"perfect object.\"\n\nIn fact, we use a concept called \"significant figures\" to tell you how confident we are about a measurement.\n\nFor example, if I say something is 100.00 meters long. That actually means that object is 100.00 +/- 0.01 meters long. So it could be 99.99 m to even 100.01 m.\nA perfect object would have an infinite amount of significant figures. This is completely impossible, absolutely everything we will have some estimation to it. Even with modern technology, your measurements aren't perfect. They are so good it doesn't really matter, but they aren't perfect. \n",
"You can make a straight object by rubbing two not-straight objects together. As long as the stroke is long enough, the high bits will wear off until it's all flat low bits. \nOnce you have a straight/flat thing, you can slide tools along it to carve other straight/flat things. Among the straight/flat things worth making are a lathe bed. Put an object between two pointy things to hold it in place, spin it, use something sharp to cut off the high bits, and you have a perfect (within manufacturing tolerances) circle. Slide the sharp thing along the straight thing and you get a perfect cylinder. \n\nThe HARD thing is threads. You can hand cut threads to a fair tolerance, but there will still be outside-of-tolerance variation. You can cut other identical threads by gearing the thing that drives your cylinder to your OK thread, and using the OK thread to drive your sharp thing. \nTo make your thread more accurate, you construct a scissor, that averages between two separate places on your OK thread. By averaging the difference, you get a thread that's closer to perfect. After a few generations you get a thread that's perfect, ie, within tolerances. \nOnce you have a thread of any size, you can use gears to drive that thread at various speeds, so you can cut a thread at any ratio to your perfect-but-not-sized-right thread. \n\nWith within-tolerance straight things and flat things and threads, you can build machine tools to make anything within the tolerance of those machine tools. Using good-enough machine tools and similar tricks, you can make better machine tools, to any tolerance sustainable by the materials you're using."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[],
[]
] |
|
2aqyq5
|
What happened with prisoners in the German Democratic Republic after reunification?
|
While I understand that political prisoners were released and reimbursed what happened with the ordinary criminals? Did the sentences get adapted to the laws of the Federal Republic or did the original sentences remain? Were there new trials to prevent people still being locked up for political reasons?
Also as a follow up question: how was the prison infrastructure and staff continued? Were the wardens that were active in the GDR replaced by Westgermans, reeducated or did they just keep on working as before and just switched uniforms?
|
AskHistorians
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/2aqyq5/what_happened_with_prisoners_in_the_german/
|
{
"a_id": [
"ciy0xh5"
],
"score": [
2
],
"text": [
"The GDR didn't cease to exist, it joined the Federal Republic instead. The Federal Republic thus is the successor state to the GDR, inheriting its debts and obligations, like both were to the German Empire.\n\nThe reunification itself is governed by the *Einigungsvertrag* (Unification treaty) in conjunction with the *Treaty on the Final Settlement With Respect to Germany* (for some reason better known as 2+4-treaty). The unification treaty makes a rather long and boring read. It includes hundreds of specific regulations, but also some general ones which help answer your question:\n\n > (1) Vor dem Wirksamwerden des Beitritts ergangene Entscheidungen der Gerichte der Deutschen Demokratischen Republik bleiben wirksam (…).\n\n[Einigungsvertrag, Art. 18](_URL_0_) \n\n\n > (1) Rulings made by courts of the German Democratic Republic issued prior to the admission [of the GDR to the Federal Republic] remain effective.\n\n(My own crude translation.)\n\nThe treaty also specifies that political prisoners were to be released and that all rulings were up to review under the treaty, but within the court system.\n\nAs to the continuation of the prisons: in principle, they were continued as before. Same staff, same prisoners, same regulations. In the wake of unification, I'm sure however that staffers who were too obedient or affiliated with the Stasi were quickly replaced.\n\nPrisons run by the Stasi, on that note, were already closed (or rather, opened?) prior to reunification, when the first and only democratic government of the GDR disbanded Stasi."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[
"http://www.gesetze-im-internet.de/einigvtr/art_18.html"
]
] |
|
2mu6m0
|
how does a virus such a ebola stay unheard of for so long and then have massive outbreaks? are there still a few cases between outbreaks? or is it truly non-existent in humans in the time between outbreaks?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2mu6m0/eli5_how_does_a_virus_such_a_ebola_stay_unheard/
|
{
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"cm7tamu"
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],
"text": [
"It's actually been around for a very long time, yet it's remained mainly in parts of Africa. Which means that unless its on Facebook, nobody here in America really cares for more than a week or two. But of course once it reaches America we actually care about it when media says its become a massive outbreak",
"RadioLab just re-released an updated version of their episode that looked at the origin of HIV. They added a segment specifically talking about the origin of Ebola. You can listen [here](_URL_0_). The short answer, though, is that viruses like Ebola and HIV come from other animals: monkeys in the case of HIV, bats (we think) in the case of Ebola. In humans, however, these are very new diseases.",
"In the case of ebola it's generally in the wildlife. That's where the human cases generally originate from since it tends to kill the human carrying it in short order. A lot of times the outbreaks are restricted to small villages in the middle of nowhere. Simply put, no one cares about an exotic disease that kills a handful of people once in a while. We have bigger diseases to worry about like malaria or the various forms of cancer.\n\nThis is the same reason why people complaining about the lack of a cure/research into ebola are idiots. We have limited resources to expend on disease research. The fact that there's no money in ebola research is directly tied to the risks the disease poses, not because of greedy pharma companies. There's no money in it because it's of low risk to the overall population while there are many other diseases causing far more damage. ",
"Ebola has been known for almost 40 years. It was identified after the first 1976 outbreak and, prior to this year, had infrequently reappeared in small outbreaks. The kind most Western media didn’t give a shit about: 300 here, 50 there, 180 here, and so on, all occurring in jungle close to the arsecrack of Africa where no-one or nothing important was. There were bigger problems in Africa at the time (war, genocide/ethnic cleansing, mass famine, apartheid – depending on what part of the continent you were in) so it never really crossed in to the mainstream. \n\nYou also have to take into account how the news cycle has changed over that time. 20 years ago, most people were still only watching one half hour news bulletin per night and reading the newspaper in the morning. A small outbreak of Ebola would have barely made page 40 in the World News section, if at all. Now we live with a globalised news system delivering everything in real-time from every corner of the Earth. \n\nThis is certainly the biggest outbreak of Ebola so far, but most of it is sensationalist beat-up designed to turn fear of the disease in to ratings/clicks. The simple truth is Ebola is not the kind of disease that will cause a global pandemic. Its natural reservoir are African bats which have infrequent contact with humans – hence the rarity of the outbreaks. Secondly, it’s just too good at spreading via fluids. It’s not going to spontaneously evolve to spread in the air when it’s perfectly efficient at spreading how it does. Thirdly, it’s fairly easily controlled in non-squalid environments. Finally, it’s too lethal. Once they become symptomatic, the virus doesn’t let the vast majority of its hosts live long enough to actually spread the disease en-masse. \n\nEbola has the potential to cause major carnage if it lands in the slums of Johannesburg, Port-au Prince, Lagos or Delhi where there are third world conditions, no functioning sewerage systems and poor medical access, but as for China, Europe or America -- an outbreak would be completely locked down and isolated in days. But that story will never sell a newspaper. "
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[
"http://www.radiolab.org/story/patient-zero-updated/"
],
[],
[]
] |
||
7exuu6
|
[physics] When I turn off my oven but leave the door closed how does the temperature cool?
|
askscience
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/askscience/comments/7exuu6/physics_when_i_turn_off_my_oven_but_leave_the/
|
{
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],
"score": [
14,
6
],
"text": [
"The oven is not perfectly insulated, so the heat inside the oven will gradually be conducted to the things surrounding it (other parts of the kitchen, air, etc...).\n\nIn addition, many ovens will keep running the fan for some time after the oven was turned off. By cycling air through the oven, the cooling down process is sped up.",
"It will radiate some heat away as infrared into the room.\n\nMost of the heat will conduct through the oven's mountings into the walls it is attached to. The walls will dissipate the heat gradually.\n\nOvens are well insulated, with the actual oven compartment being insulated as well as possible from the surrounding frame. The door is insulated with several air/glass layers.\n\n\nA modern, well-insulated oven heated to 200°C can take several hours to cool to room temperature.\n\ntl;dr - mostly conducting heat through the walls. Some radiation into the room.\n\nedit: as /u/Rannasha says, if the fan keeps running, heat loss will primarily by air cooling which then convects away."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[]
] |
||
bmuo6v
|
why "trap music" has such a distinguishable beat. what about the beat is different?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/bmuo6v/eli5_why_trap_music_has_such_a_distinguishable/
|
{
"a_id": [
"emztbkt"
],
"score": [
7
],
"text": [
"Trap music usually follows a formula of simple crisp snares and hats, often in 16th and 32nd notes. That mixed with an 808 and a few synths gives you a basic trap beat. Its different because most trap is very simple and alot of it sounds similar compared to alot of other hip hop and rap."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[]
] |
||
19f24a
|
Why did the German Army stop using paratroopers in WW2?
|
I understand that the casualties on Crete were a turn off for the high command, but surely they could have been used in Barbarossa?
|
AskHistorians
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/19f24a/why_did_the_german_army_stop_using_paratroopers/
|
{
"a_id": [
"c8niprb",
"c8njxsf"
],
"score": [
2,
6
],
"text": [
"The Germans did not stop using paratroopers. What they did was that they stopped dropping them by parachute and instead used them as highly trained ground troops.",
"First off, paratroopers themselves were still used until the bitter end. They just stopped airborne assaults at a divisional level.\n\nThe battle of Crete can be credited to this decision. The horrendous casualties sustained by paratroopers, which for some units ran as high as 90%, traumatized Hitler and Goring and they wouldn't authorize major airborne ops in the future. By 1943 Germany had lost air superiority on every front, so the option was pretty much off the table even if they wanted.\n\nAs for why Crete was such a struggle for the Germans, airborne troops were still a new innovation by 1941 and the Germans made a number of operational errors. They would land directly on top of ANZAC units and were more or less torn to shreds initially. Later on they won the day through sheer perseverance, amphibious landings for support, and more use of gliders (which could land more accurately)."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[]
] |
|
4lu12y
|
how could two shapes or places that have same the perimeter, have different area?
|
I know this in theory, i.e. in Mathematics. But, somebody please explain this to me further and give me an example in real life. Thank you!
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4lu12y/eli5_how_could_two_shapes_or_places_that_have/
|
{
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9,
2
],
"text": [
"Take a loop of string to represent your fixed perimeter, and try arranging it on the table to make different shapes which have that perimeter. You can make it into a circle and have lots of area inside the string, or you can stretch it out until it's almost just two lines side by side, and there's hardly any area inside.",
"A piece of string has a fixed perimeter but can be deformed to enclose many different areas. There is generally no relationship between the perimeter and area of a planar region."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
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4kyl2f
|
rim lost its dominant position in the smartphone market,and nokia its dominant position in mobile handsets general market.
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4kyl2f/eli5rim_lost_its_dominant_position_in_the/
|
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"Apple leapfrogged them with the iPhone, which was far better and far easier to use than the BlackBerry. Google copied Apple with a good enough copy and gave it away free to cell phone manufacturers around the world. Between the two companies, iOS and Android took over 90% of the smartphone market in a few years and RIM couldn't adapt quickly enough. Tech is fast changing and brutal. Apple almost died a RIM style death a decade or two ago and was fortunately saved by Microsoft.\n\nNokia didn't really die, they just never got competitive in the smartphone arena. Microsoft bought them for talent and patents and made a good Windows Phone 10 system, but it was far too late and they ran into a chicken and egg situation in which nobody (customers or app developers) wanted a a Windows phone, so nobody much bothered to make a Windows phone ecosystem for that nonexistant market.\n\nMicrosoft, Nokia, and RIM were all big companies too slow to react to sudden changes in their industry. Apple was dying and had nothing to lose and hit it big with the iPod and then iPad and iPhone. Google had enough money from advertising that it was able to make and give away early Android as a loss leader just to prevent complete market dominance by Apple. The other companies just didn't effectively fight this battle until it was too late.",
"They didn't catch up with the new guys so they were history. \n\nAndroid and iPhone appeared and people wanted that kind of usability, those guys remained in the path they always had so clients shifted to brands that had what they wanted. ",
".Nokia is bigger and earlier player of smartphones. Their biggest blunder is not moving forward beyond \"Symbian OS\". By the time they realize they are behind, they try to bargain with google to do exclusive of some sort. Google said \"forget it\". And Nokia went with Microsoft and fucked it all up.\n\n.RIM had their OS and locked emailing system. They didn't see why Android such a big deal after it's too late. RIM was still very much profitable, when their sales suddenly drop to near zero seemingly overnight. (2012 .. I think)\n\n... basically, these players were too big and too arrogant to move on until it was far too late.\n\nearly form of iphone and Android were fairly primitive, so these two think they know everything there is about wireless device. Don't forget they own huge amount of patents too. But software and service are what people want. And the rest is history.\n\n"
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1472qt
|
the physical process of death
|
I'm curious about what happens to your body as you die. The order of events and how one might feel as this is going on. Thanks!
|
explainlikeimfive
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1472qt/eli5_the_physical_process_of_death/
|
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"\nThe loss of blood in the capillaries happens rapidly, within minutes of death.\n\nAlgor mortis is when the body begins to cool. Within the first hour, the body will lose two degrees in temperature. Then, every hour afterward, it will lose one more degree of temperature until it is the temperature of the environment it is in.\n\nRigor mortis is the stage most people are familiar with, if they know their CSI. It is when a dead person becomes stiff. It begins after three hours of death, reaching full stiffness after 12 hours. Then, three days after death, the body becomes soft again as it slowly decomposes.\n\nLivor mortis is the next stage, when the blood begins to pool to the lowest part of the body. Since the body no longer combats gravity by pushing the blood around, the blood just resorts to falling down to the lowest level.\n\nDecomposition and putrefaction occurs, marked by the production of vapors. The body’s cells are rupturing and breaking apart. The intestines push out and fall prey to distension. The skin breaks apart often and the insides purge out. Insect activity begins to take shape.\n\nDecay is marked by the breaking down of the body. Bacteria, fungi, and protozoa begin to move in, as insect and possibly animal activity begins to become more rampant. The darker the color of the body, the longer the person has been dead. Also evident are blisters or skin slippage.\n\nSkeletonization or diagenesis is the final stage. The moisture in the body is lost. The bones are visually evident. Two years is typical in moderate temperature, whereas in hot climates like Africa, skeletonization may occur as quickly as in two weeks.\n\nBones, in the first year of death begin to bleach and moss or algae may grow on them. After a decade, big cracks will form.\n\nThe End.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n",
"I'll try to generalize, since the cause of death obviously shakes things up a bit. \n\nSo, what is death? Death is the permanent stopping (or cessation) of the things that sustain you, the living organism. But this rarely happens all at once. Death isn't just a flick of an electrical switch - it's not really a 'moment', so to speak.\n\nDying can be a very slow process, after all, not everyone keels over clutching their chest at the Heart Attack Burger Joint, dead before they hit the floor. Some outward signs include gradual loss of energy and weakness, often resulting in the loss of the desire (or ability) to eat or drink. Loss of bowel and bladder control is not uncommon either.\n\nNow, you're probably wondering why we don't just click off all at once. That's because your body is trying really hard to preserve itself. It's going to try and keep the most vital functions up for as long as possible. \n\nYour body starts to shut down, though the speed does depend on the cause of death. If dying is a prolonged incident, your body will begin to shut down in stages, starting with the 'least important' areas. Your reproductive system, digestive system, immune system - these, I believe, tend to be the first to go. \n\nEventually, your vitals start to fail. Breathing slows, as does your heart. Eventually, when your breathing and heart stops, oxygen isn't getting into your body and there's no pump to push that oxygenated blood to the rest of your body. Your brain can't survive and begins to shut down.\n\nIt's hard to say for sure how one might feel. The cause of death is very significant - the book 'The Perfect Storm' has a chilling description of what death by drowning might feel like, but dying in a hospice with end-of-life care would be completely different. [Here](_URL_0_) is a rather unpleasant read on what death by a number of common causes would feel like.\n\nWhat actually happens next is unclear. Some people claim to have Near-Death Experiences - visions of brights lights, long tunnels or out of body experiences as their body is clinically dead. Others have no such experience, or at least, recall no such experience, and simply 'wake up in hospital'. The ways in which people respond to death are as varied as the people reporting their experiences.\n\nThis much we know for certain - eventually, the vital organs shut down, as oxygen fails to reach the very cells that keep us alive. We lose consciousness. Our heart, lungs and finally, brain, cease to operate.\n\nAnd...then nothing. Or the Great Beyond.\n\n\n\n",
"Theres a book called The Big Sleep that explains in (not gruesome) detail what happens, as well as celebrity last words and all kinds of neat stuff. Its a very good read, without being gory or gross. ",
"If you're genuinely curious about this topic, and you're not actually 5 years old, you should definitely read [Stiff](_URL_0_) by Mary Roach. It's a fantastic book that discusses death and the 'life' of cadavers in an entertaining, in-depth, and not-so-macabre way. \n\nFuck it. You should just go and read all of her books. They're great. And they all deal with different aspects of the human body.",
"Fuck I hate death.",
"The \"10 Fascinating Stages of Death\"\n_URL_0_\n\nextremely interesting and very educational.",
"Timor mortis conturbat me. \n\nThe fear of death disturbs me.",
"Im 17 and spent the last 7 months in an out of hospitals for a ruptured appendix, severe crohn's disease and a perforated bowel. I hid the pain for a long time, and eventually had to be life flighted to a few different hospitals because the ct scans baffled doctors. I remember being so weak i couldnt lift myself from one bed onto another only 3 feet over, and being constantly drugged up with god knows what, where i was seeing colors, felt like i was constantly floating in water, and i felt warm. A that point, you begin to accept your fate. I didnt care about life anymore, as the pain wasnt even worth living with. After being fed through my vein for 2 or 3 months, and having some intestine etc removed, my life is back in order. Im now on chemo and need infusions every 2 months to reduce risk of another attack, but life feels so good knowing i can be somewhat normal again. Im doubtful anybody will read this, but i felt this would be an ideal location to vent to people i dont know."
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eptnb5
|
When you diet and exercise, where does the fat you burn physically go and how?
|
askscience
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/askscience/comments/eptnb5/when_you_diet_and_exercise_where_does_the_fat_you/
|
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"You're body uses fat to store excess energy not required during your metabolic function. So when we eat more energy than we use our body stores the excess for later as fat. Conversely when we use more energy than we eat our body switches over and breaks down the stored energy in fat. In mammals like humans this is accomplished via aerobic respiration _URL_0_\nScroll down on this page for a decent explanation. When you metabolize you are essentially combusting the energy (burning it) in the presence of oxygen. And the major byproduct of aerobic respiration is carbon dioxide CO2. Your cells use the energy and the waste of this process is exhaled. Basically you breath that fat out.",
"We actually breathe it out. Their results, published in the British Medical Journal, reveal that 22 pounds (10 kg) of fat turns into 18.5 pounds (8.4 kg) of carbon dioxide, which is exhaled when we breathe, and 3.5 pounds (1.6 kg) of water, which we then excrete through our urine, tears, sweat and other bodily fluids.",
"SciShow did a [short YouTube video](_URL_1_) answering this question and amazingly within only the last decade did someone actually [do the math](_URL_0_) to figure it out. When your body breaks down fat cells you get 80% CO2 and 20% water, so basically your sweat and breathe are fat leaving your body.",
"* Adipocyte > \n* bloodstream > \n* muscle cell > \n* muscle cell's mitochondria > \n* mitochondrion's matrix > \n* energy conversion from a dense chemical state to a more easily used chemical state (via beta-oxidation first then citric acid cycle *and last the electron transport chain*) > \n * Energy molecules:\n * Muscle fibers/myocytes\n * Energy conversion from chemical to mechanical\n * Rest products from Beta oxidation, Citric acid cycle *and electron transport chain*:\n * Bloodstream again > \n * Lungs > \n * CO2 is exhaled\n * *Bloodstream continues to kidneys*\n * *Excess water excreted.*\n\nOff the top of my head, I think that's what is going on. I don't think water is a rest product of the complete break down of FFA.\n\nGoogled the pathways for you to see them in more clear text (I know I suck, I didnt remember them from school):\n\n**Beta Oxidation:** C*n*\\-acyl-CoA + FAD + NAD++ H2O + CoA → C*n*\\-2-acyl-CoA + FADH2 + NADH + H+ + acetyl-CoA\n\n**Citric Acid Cycle:** CH3C(=O)C(=O)O (pyruvate) + HSCoA + NAD+ → CH3C(=O)SCoA (acetyl-CoA) + NADH + **CO2**\n\n*Electron Transport Chain: At the mitochondrial inner membrane, electrons from NADH and FADH2 pass through the electron transport chain to oxygen, which is reduced to water.*\n\n~~EDIT: Read some answers that talk about water being a rest product. I think that's only glucose metabolism and maybe amino acids?~~\n\n*A fun thing to know about the ECT: You can uncouple it chemically and also enzymatically. It is how your brown adipose tissue works - it uncouples the ECT so that the H+ ions diffuse the membrane bypassing the ATP synthase complex and producing heat. There's also a byproduct or maybe it was a precursor? of TNT manufacturing called DNP which does the same, it was used as a highly successful and unsuccessful dieting pill back in the 60s(?). It causes fever which also caused some fatalities which in turn is why it is not sold anymore. You can of course still get a hold of it, but please don't - just don't. Seriously, don't.*\n\nFor those chemically enclined you can see the similarities between DiNitroPhenol and TriNitroToluene.\n\nEDIT: Forgot about the electron transport chain. Edits in the post are marked with italics.",
"/u/Cromulus answered the where (carbon dioxide and water), here's the how.\n\nYour muscles need energy to move. Very very roughly, your body makes this energy by breaking a molecule called ATP into ADP (ATP has a higher energy than ADP). Through a series of complex metabolic reactions, your body can leverage the breaking of ATP into ADP into muscle movement (along with a whole bunch of other things).\n\nCO2 is produced when your body breaks down sugar to replenish ATP. Again this occurs by a set of complex metabolic reactions.",
"When you make some exercise but it’s the same for every movement ergo muscle contraction you have tu use ATP, a nucleidic acid that can separate itself in ADP and a phosphate group, this create enough energy so you can move yourself, the biggest the movement the biggest the ATP used\nTo create ATP our body make happen some chemical reaction inside every cell. Every one of this reaction uses the products of the precedent as reagents. The molecule that makes the process starts is glucose, so when you make exercise you are actually using sugar or carbohydrates to create energy. Our body can also create energy from lipide, the molecules in fat basically, this different process is less efficient because uses more molecules and create less ATP but is faster and the human body know how to store lipide.\nThis explain why if we exercise and we eat less energy food, like fat and carbohydrates, than we use our stored fat. All the products of these reaction that are not used are expelled via sweat or pee\n\nI’m sorry for the english, hopefully this can be a complete answer to your question",
"You breathe it out. Fat molecules are generally a c55h104o6 configuration, which your biochemistry arranges into a lot of h2o and co2. Some of this makes it into your sweat etc., but most of it (about 84%) goes back into the lungs, ready to be breathed out!",
"Your circulatory system (blood) carries pretty much everything around your body.\n\nYour cells get nutrients, water, and oxygen from your blood. The MITOCHONDRIA, POWERHOUSE OF THE CELL performs aerobic respiration to turn food (sugars, fats, carbohydrates, and proteins) and oxygen into CO2, H2O, and energy.\n\nH2O and the released energy is subsequently used to turn ADP into ATP in the cell. ATP is kind of like the cellular rechargeable battery. Mitochondria effectively shit ATP out into our cells, our cells use the ATP and convert it back to ADP and water, and then send the ADP back to mitochondria for a recharge. \n\nSince nothing is perfectly efficient, we have H20, CO2, and energy as waste products that need to be disposed of. Energy dissipates from the cell naturally. It goes into surrounding cells and your blood, which helps to dissipate the heat throughout your entire body and eventually out through your skin. Sweating really helps to dissipate heat by using the latent heat of vaporization.\n\nThe H2O and CO2 are carried away by the blood. The H2O stays in the blood until your kidneys filter it out with other liquid wastes. The CO2 is preferentially exchanged with new oxygen in your lungs.\n\nCarbon is often considered the \"building block of life\". It forms the complex multiple bonds needed for diverse organic structures, and is the backbone of all your food and nutrients. Most of the weight from the food you eat is released as CO2.\n\nWhile our cells prefer sugars and carbohydrates as fuel for aerobic respiration, we can really use any hydrocarbon based molecule. Fats and proteins are key examples. When sugars aren't available, or are in too short of a supply for the current demand (e.g. while exercising), then our body sends out a signal that it needs more energy. When this happens, fat cells break down and your blood shuffles them along throughout your body. Cells that need energy can then use this as a fuel instead, undergoing the exact same aerobic respiration process, turning the fat molecules into CO2, H2O, and energy.\n\nWhen I said we can use any hydrocarbon as fuel, there's a reason we don't run very well on gasoline for example.\nOne of the requirements is that our fuel doesn't kill our cells on the way in, and the other is that our cells recognize the molecule as \"food\" rather than \"danger\".\n\nWhile simple alkane hydrocarbons would be nice and handy, they happen to have a lot of rather unhealthy effects on our cells, particularly related to them being non-polar solvents and containing none of the other minerals and nutrients required for cell life.\n\nTL;DR: Your body uses fuel like sugars, carbs, and fats in respiration (combustion) reactions, converting the large complex molecules into an abundance of H2O, CO2, and usable energy. H2O and CO2 make up the waste mass, and both are carried away through our circulatory system where CO2 is vented in the lungs and H2O filtered out in the kidneys.",
"Basic human metabolism boils down to breaking down a carbohydate by unlinking carbon pairs. Those carbon pairs end up as part of you. It leaves you with a stray carbon atom, usually a pair of hydrogen atoms which binds to some oxygen you breath and uses some water in your body. The stray carbon atom ends up as part of the CO2 you breath out, usually leaving a pair of hydrogen which again borrows some of that sweet sweet oxygen you breath giving you some H20.\n\n & #x200B;\n\nIn short you exhale it and pee a tiny amount of it out.",
"When people say 'burn', they mean break down. In simple words, fat is just sugar molecules (glucose) bound together in huuuge long strands. This is why fat (adipose) makes you a big person, because that's a lot of area to work with.\n\nWhen you break it down, you are making energy, for your body to use. This is why exercising after a fast (like sleeping, hence break-fast) is a great way to burn fat. You have expended all your glucose while asleep, so your body needs to break down fat to get more glucose to use.\n\nNow, your question is basically where does that glucose go? Since now we know it gets broken down to be used as glucose when needed.\n\nThe glucose - sugar - is used up and broken down to create ATP, which in simple words is body energy. To do anything in your body, you require ATP. This is why you have a recommended calorie intake. This amount of calories a day is what you need for an average day due to breathing, walking, etc.\n\nIf you want to learn the science behind breaking glucose into atp, just look up intro tutorials on learning a process called cellular respiration. It's a very simple process and you'll see that we make ATP and carbon dioxide. This is because glucose has a lot of carbon and oxygen in it, so it makes carbon dioxide from them, and the excess hydrogen goes to the ADP to make ATP (D means di=2, T means tri=3).\n\n**TL;DR So basically, you burn fat to make energy and end up breathing out carbon dioxide.**",
"Fat, or actually triacylglycerols, are molecules composed of one three carbon part, glycerol, and three longer chain (generally 16-20 carbons) fatty acids.\n\nWhen there's a need for energy in the body, and the glucose reserves are low, degradation of the fatty acids will start. 2 carbons are taken from the chain to produce acetyl-CoA, which is needed to start the Krebs cycle, and is eventually released as carbon dioxide.\n\nGlycerol is a 3 Carbon molecule as I said before, so unlike acetyl-CoA, it can be transformed into glycolisis intermediaries. That means glucose can be synthesized and sent to the muscles or the brain, or used to replace Krebs intermediaries which are currently in low quantities. Though it could be transformed from pyruvate (final product of glycolisis) into acetil-coa to get energy from Krebs too.\n\nBasically, we breathe the fats outs.\n\nEdit: 16-20 not 12-16"
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3lvre4
|
Was the "Battle of the Bulge" really the "greatest single defeat in American military history"?
|
I was watching a documentary and heard this claim get thrown in. They didn't qualify in what metric they were qualifying this claim, but is there any truth to this assertion?
|
AskHistorians
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/3lvre4/was_the_battle_of_the_bulge_really_the_greatest/
|
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"The Bulge was the greatest single land battle the US Army ever participated in. It was not a defeat, however. The American units in the center were pushed back significantly and a large German salient developed, but the Germans were never in serious reach of their overall goals (Seize Antwerp). The German thrust lost momentum due to a combination of poor operational planning, the denial of communications routes in the center of the Salient, and the brilliant 90 degree turns of the XII (Advancing South-North) and the VII corps (Advancing North-South) at either end of the Salient.\n\nIt ended in a German operational failure and largely broke the Panzerwaffe's back, ruining what few intact armored forces remained in the West. Furthermore, it actually resulted in disproportionate casualties among what few veteran German divisions remained. ",
"Certainly not; although it was the second deadliest battle in American history, and saw some defeats such as the Eiffel Plateau and St. Vith, the campaign as a whole was a great American and Allied victory. Really from the outset it was a victory, as 6th Panzer Army was stymied in it's efforts to push through the Losheim Gap, thus leading to the offensive being redirected to 5th Panzer Army's front, in turn diverting the Germans away from their main objective, Antwerp. The initial delays imposed by the conditions and American resistance hampered the German advance, ultimately leading to defeat. \n\nBy contrast, their are plenty of devastating defeats in American history one could look at; Kasserine Pass and Bataan for example.",
"One could argue that one successful part (for the Germans) during Bulge was Operation Bodenplatte; a raid that was planned in secret. Bodenplatte did manage to destroy 290 Allied aircraft and damage 180 more. Howevee the Luftwaffe paid heavily, losing 234 pilots in that one day.\n\nSo even in the context of the Luftwaffe, Bulge was a extremely costly and an operational failure for Germany. With regards to the Luftwaffe, Bodenplatte would mark the steep decline that was already beginning to materialize by 1943 due to pilot attition. After Bodenplatte despite the increase of fighter and plane production for the Luftwaffe, the Luftwaffe would have a shortage of trained pilots.\n\nIn fact so costly was Bodenplatte that the Luftwaffe's effectiveness was rendered moot. After Bodenplatte the Luftwaffe lost any ability to contest air Superiority entirely."
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c6jguk
|
how do websites which ask for the x, y and zth letter of my password avoid storing it in plain text?
|
Edit:
This is better than I expected! I've learned things - such as the actual secure part of the process is the 'Memorable Word' that you also have to type in with the 1st, 3rd and 9th letter of your 'password'. Use anything you can remember for the password, as it will likely be stored plain-text - use a password for the memorable word, as that's actually encrypted.
Also - the internet is a terrible place for poor passwords.
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/c6jguk/eli5_how_do_websites_which_ask_for_the_x_y_and/
|
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"There’s no guarantee that they aren’t. They very well might be. It only takes one lazy programmer or someone on an “off” day to set to store in plain text.",
"Remember the site who told you whose password you typed when you tried to create one that was already in use?\n\nSecurity standards of websites differ greatly. Thats why you should use different passwords everywhere, some might store it openly in plaintext, some might even be more lax about your security.",
"The whole point of encrypting passwords *(that is, seeding and hashing them and others)* is that the then produced value cannot be converted back to the password. Okay theoretically it's possible but it'd take centuries or millennia to do that.\n\nSo yea, if they ask you for the 7^th letter of your password they have the 7^th letter saved in their databases.",
"Hi, programmer who recently implemented this here.\n If they ask you for characters from your password, they are storing the password insecurely. Current standard for password storage is hashed with a 64+ character randomly generated string this makes it so that there is no way to get back to the original password. (There is however it takes current technology many years and has will have false positives)\nWhat should happen is they will also store along side the password a security word. This is shouod strongly encrypted. (Not hashed) because it is encrypted the original value can be compared against. It is this that should be used for character checks. (If possible only decrypting the characters that are wanted.)"
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53gbo1
|
Do we have texts of Asian countries exploration of the Middle East and Europe pre 1600's? If so, how did they discribe people from the Middle East and Europe?
|
AskHistorians
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/53gbo1/do_we_have_texts_of_asian_countries_exploration/
|
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"Yes and no. Most of China's exploration was centered either in the 'Western Regions' in Central Asia or in India. Something really important to remember is that before the later dynasties, the official Chinese \"empires\" only controlled segments of what is modern day China, so much of their exploration was either west over the Tibetan highlands or skirting the coast to India, Southeast Asia, and, yes, even the Arabian Peninsula. \n\nHowever! We do have records of Chinese explorers skirting the coasts of Africa, stopping in Ethiopia, Egypt, Iraq, and even Morocco as even farther back as the Song Dynasty (Bowman 104-105). \n\nOne notable work by Jia Dan, a military official, *Route between Guangzhou and the Barbarian Sea* was lost, but we do know that it included details on sea routes to East Africa and the minarets of the Persian Gulf. \n\nA few other explorers described ivory, slave, and whale hunting in Africa. (Levathes 38). Guangzhou, in later centuries, became arguably the most diverse city in the world. \n\nHowever, by the 1500s, China had receded back behind its borders, with it actually becoming a capital offense to build large ocean going ships. \n\n##Sources\n\nBowman, John S. (2000). Columbia Chronologies of Asian History and Culture. New York: Columbia University Press\n\nLevathes (1994). When China Ruled the Seas. New York: Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0-671-70158-4.",
"Though this is not directly addressing the cases of Chinese explorers, I think the trade relationships China had through the Silk Road are probably a lot more descriptive (and go much further back than the the cusp of the late 1500s) about how the Chinese viewed the world around them and how the Chinese viewed foreigners.\n\nThere are plenty of texts going as far back as the Tang Dynasty and the Song Dynasty due to the interactions between Middle Eastern Merchants and Chinese Merchants on the Silk Road. Though there isn't much that I've read that describes Europeans (though I am certain there are plenty) I'll focus on Middle Eastern Merchants in Tang and in Song as the most immediate material I have regards that particular time period.\n\nSo the first thing to note is the method of characterization of people and how societal norms color descriptions. In the case of the Tang, foreigners from the Xiongnu, Uighurs, to the Turks were all compared to beasts and animals with unkempt hair and poor manners. Societal comparisons are made with foreigners between Tang where culture is a result of upbringing and that manners or an understanding of Tang culture equated to a level of sophistication.\n\nSo there are clearly undertones of Sino-centrism even within the very cosmopolitian nature of the Tang Dynasty where trading cities near the Silk Road had quarters for Iranian Merchants who were described as people with \"Deep eyes and high noses\".\n\nThis isn't necessarily to say that the Tang saw foreigners as barbaric as much as non-native culture was seen as inferior. In fact far from it being an appearance matter, there are writings that compliment foreign merchants who acted within accord to Tang cultural norms who the Tang considered \"Han\" and \"Han looking\" Tang who were not considered Tang due to the lack of cultural fittings. Probably one of the more interesting tidbits about this exchange was the continued interest of both the Tang and the Song in the happenings of Europe. Though there was no immediacy, the turmoil in the 1200s with Constantinople and continued contact with Europe and the Middle East grew despite the distance. It's also important to remember that most of the writings I'm mentioning (and pulling from Edward H. Schafers *Iranian Merchants in Tang Dynasty Tales* and Marc Abramson's *Deep Eyes and High Noses*) are local understandings of the outside world as opposed to an emissary or diplomat's description of the world. But indeed by the Tang Dynasty, China's understanding of the world around them at least on the continental point through the Silk Road and the Tarim Basin contained a wealth of information that carried onwards and actually informed on how diplomacy with foreigners would be conducted. This too applied to the Song, Yuan, and Ming. \n\nOn an ending note, I understand that I did not explicitly answer the question pertaining to exploration, but I'd like to point out that much of the continental exploration and contact with the world had already happened by the 1200s. Barring the large seafaring explorations of the Ming (which are an entirely different kettle of fish), I would surmise that from the Tang onwards, China (at least) showed an evergrowing interest and curiosity to the world outside of their immediate boundaries and a large degree interest in things ranging from cultural exchanges to local and regional politics despite the sheer distance of cultures. Though perhaps the local and domestic impression of foreigners depended on visual and behavioral suggestions, the stereotyping done within those works seemed to apply on an individualistic basis as leaders and important emissaries always had differing descriptions written about them. In fact there are one or two generals within the Tang who were actually praised for being \"beast-like\" and were Turkish as opposed to native \"chinese.\"\n\nThere's a lot more to uncover here, like the relation to how \"Chinese\" identified themselves vs. foreigners, but I'll do a follow up if requested instead. :)\n\nSources:\n\n1. Edward H. Schafer, Iranian Merchants in Tang Dynasty Tales\n\n2. Marc Samuel Abramson, Deep Eyes and High Noses: Constructing Ethnicity in Tang China\n\n"
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[]
] |
||
3ms349
|
how is circumcision acceptable in cultures or religions that don't accept body piercings or enhancement surgerys?
|
[deleted]
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3ms349/eli5_how_is_circumcision_acceptable_in_cultures/
|
{
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6,
2
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"text": [
"They consider it to be separate from and different than body piercings or enhancement surgeries. It's considered a different thing entirely. It's a bit like asking, \"If Muslims and Jews don't eat pork, why is it acceptable to eat beef?\" The answer is \"Because beef isn't pork.\"",
"In Judaism, you mean? Tribes -- and everyone is a member of a tribe -- define themselves more by what they refuse to do, and much less by what they do. While cosmetic procedures are seen as a perverse excess, ritual amputation is a convenient taboo. They do not say 'we are the tribe that circumcises its boys;' they say 'we are the tribe that does not abide foreskins.' \n\nThat, incidentally, is why circumcision is so popular in the US. Call it anti-communist sentiment. 'We do not have dirty foreskins, like the *Europeans* do.'"
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[]
] |
|
7dl8xq
|
if wavelength of light emitted by a heated metal is supposed to keep on going down as temperature goes up then why does a metal never glow purple?
|
Also why doe it glow white?
|
askscience
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/askscience/comments/7dl8xq/if_wavelength_of_light_emitted_by_a_heated_metal/
|
{
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"text": [
"The spectrum of thermal radiation is a continuous function over all frequencies. When the peak of the distribution first goes into the visible range, you see it as red because red is the only visible color where the distribution is relatively high. \n\nWhen you get hotter than that, the peak of the distribution eventually reaches blue and violet, but the distribution is relatively high across the entire visible range.\n\nSo it’s not *just* blue, it’s *every* color. So when you look at it, it’s just looks like a saturated white glow because it’s the sum of all visible frequencies (some a little more than others).",
"_URL_1_\n\nIt skirts purple.\n\nYou have to realize that with temperature you're taking a \"window\" or \"slice through\" a distribution shaped like this:\n\n_URL_0_\n\nrepresenting how the visible range falls on the shape. Thus at higher and higher temperature, the \"window\" is moving to more and more to the right of that curve (i.e. the peak of the curve is moving to the left of the visible.)",
"First off, violet, not purple. Purple comes from a combination of red and blue/violet. Radiation from a black body, like a metal, can be violet in the sense that the peak is on violet, but by that time, the amount of all visible light is so high it appears white to your eyes. Or at least, that's what a black body starts looking like at some point past 7500 K. You don't see metals heated that high usually. When a metal appears white, the peak of the black body radiation has shifted \"blue\" enough (shorter wavelength) and is somewhere in green or blue. Stars can be considered black bodies as well, and their apparent colours go from red to yellow to white to blue. I don't actually know how hot the star would need to be so that it would appear violet, because even if the peak is in the far end of visible light, it still appears blue because there isn't that big of a difference in their relative intensities. However, there are some really hot stars, up to 200000 K, so there could be something that would appear violet there if you disregard the fact that by that point it's so bright along the whole visible spectrum that it looks white. I hope my comment makes some sense. "
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[
"https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/19/Black_body.svg",
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Color_temperature"
],
[]
] |
|
36yxks
|
[Psychology] Does working with people with mental illnesses increase your chances of developing a mental illness yourself?
|
askscience
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/askscience/comments/36yxks/psychology_does_working_with_people_with_mental/
|
{
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"crih2i8",
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"text": [
"a mental illness is a mental condition usually caused by genetic and environmental factors. working with someone with a mental condition does not make it any more likely that an unaffected person would start to exhibit symptoms. however, human beings are social creatures and tend to puck up traits and habits from others that help us fit into the social or cultural group we want to belong to. in that way, it is possible to pick up traits of someone with a mental illness but not the illness itself\n",
"There's a distinction between those trained to deal with the mentally ill, and those who work with them incidentally without such training.\n\nI've thought about this a lot. Most people in mental health would understand the processes behind mental illnesses, and know most of the ways in which to treat them. In this way, they wouldn't be susceptible to the obsessions of a person with, say, OCD, as they would understand intimately why it happens and how to deal with it. Or at least, moreso than the average person.\n\nHowever, if you're susceptible to certain conditions like schizophrenia and OCD - and since, as the other commenter suggested, humans are social beings - I could see someone developing mental issues from spending too much time with someone who is already destabilised in that area. Distressing cases of mental illness, where a person has very disturbing thoughts and delusions, could cause a lot of stress for the practitioner if they can't keep their mind off it. It could possibly develop into an obsession or anxiety disorder of its own. Again, this would more likely happen to people who are incidentally dealing with the mentally ill than those trained to work with them."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[]
] |
||
8k4btu
|
what is the difference between dna and rna, and how do the work in biology?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/8k4btu/eli5_what_is_the_difference_between_dna_and_rna/
|
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"text": [
"DNA is like a book in the reserve section of the library. It’s the full complete section of your entire genetic information that can’t leave the nucleus. \n\nRNA are the photocopies/notes of the book. You can take those anywhere and use them to study, and they are only going to be the pages that you actually need at that moment. \n\nEdit: Thanks everybody for the gold and the karma. ",
"At a chemical level, DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) has one less hydroxyl group (an -OH group) than RNA (ribonucleic acid). The DNA code is A-T G-C, while RNA replaces the T with U (uracil).\n\n.The information flow of biology is DNA- > RNA - > protein. Functionally, DNA is the hard code of the cell, and the entirety of DNA exists in a stable, “permanent” manner within the cell. When a gene is expressed within the DNA, RNA is formed, carrying the information for that gene only. Because of this, a given RNA strand is much more transient and can be quite small. The RNA will then connect with ribosomes, building a protein, and once that’s done the RNA strand can be degraded into its nucleotides.\n\nTo make it even simpler, RNA transmits information from the DNA to build proteins.",
"DNA and RNA are very similar. They are words containing information on how to build an animal. DNA is like the instruction manual. It is made in this beautifully bound, tough book. It is really really important, so it sits in this protective case. (DNA is deoxyribose nucleic acid. It is made of four bases adenine, thymine, guanine, and cytosine. RNA contains a uracil instead of a thymine, because it costs less energy to make and if it is present in DNA, the body knows cytosine was broken down and there is an error. RNA is ribose nucleic acid. At the 2' carbon, DNA has no hydroxyl group, but RNA does). \n\nRNA is a messenging service. It is kinda like mail. The DNA is located in the secret HQ of our bodies. It is really important amd cannot be taken out of this HQ. But messages still need to be sent to the factory to produce our machines to make the body work. \n\nRNA differs from DNA by being written on post it notes instead of a book. The post it notes get sent outside of HQ, where the factory workers read it, and start putting pieces of a machine together. RNA post it notes should not last long, so it is very easy to discard these post it notes. Thats why HQ adds some stuff before the post it notes go out. There is a sticker saying it is from HQ and not fake, and a bunch of little post it notes on the end so the people of the cell know itnot to throw it out. Eventually this post it note will still be thrown out. Which makes sense, because we dont want the building people to make 1000 of a machine when we only need 4. And because there is a lot of gibberish in the post it note, the stupid stuff gets cut out, and the important imformation pasted together.\n\n(Gene expression, or transcription of a set of genes, needs to be transient. Continual expression of an uneeded gene wastes precious resources. Tightly controlled expression at the level of transcription is therefore important. RNA is a relatively inexpensive thing for the cell to make, and it will be degraded at some point. This is why we add the 5' methyl guanosine cap and the 3' poly a tail. It tells the cell that this RNA is not foreign and has a function to perform. The 2'hydroxyl on the ribose increases the chance of self attack, however, adding to the transient breakdown of RNA. We want this though, to regulate translation. Lastly, the mRNA has the introns cut out and the exons spliced together. Introns are important for transcription, but not translation. These uncoding regions are cut out for the exons to be spliced together. \n\n",
"DNA is double stranded and used for storing the genetic information, a part either strand can be transcribed (complimentary base pairs, A to T/U, C to G) to produce the RNA that fits with the DNA. The single stranded RNA is then directly used to make proteins using ribosomes",
"Feynman simply explained that they’re very similar, but RNA is shorter and has been sent to ribosomes for protein synthesis.",
"DNA is a boss that hates talking to his employees directly. \n\nRNA is the loyal secretary that transmits info to works and does a little extra work on the side that she doesn’t want to bother the boss with. \n\nProteins are the employees. ",
"DNA cannot leave the nucleus, RNA can. Both carry genetic information, but since RNA can leave, it copies the information found in DNA. It leaves to go find a ribosome to be able to make proteins.",
"This was posted on Reddit a while back. Some awesome guy made it for bonus marks iirc... _URL_0_\n\n"
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[
"https://youtu.be/_x2RksGrzyE"
]
] |
||
85riry
|
why can't we send someone with a piece of paper and a pencil to map the paris catacombs?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/85riry/eli5_why_cant_we_send_someone_with_a_piece_of/
|
{
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"dvzj5ng"
],
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"text": [
"Because he would end up dead in few minutes of course.\n\nSeriously, there are maps of Paris catacombs (official and not public or unofficial and public), they could be incomplete because things can change and (I guess) nobody cares about extra dead-ends."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[]
] |
||
1siqp7
|
Why is it significant that the East India Company was a company that colonized India, and not the British government?
|
I hate to be asking questions from a class I'm in, cause it looks like I'm just doing this to get answers for my test, but whatever. I'm legitimately stumped by this, and I hoped you guys could help. On our final, one question we can be asked is this one about the East India Company. I understand who they were and what they did, but why is it important to note that this was not the British government colonizing India, but was instead a British corporation? Any help is greatly appreciated.
|
AskHistorians
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/1siqp7/why_is_it_significant_that_the_east_india_company/
|
{
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"cdy41gx"
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"text": [
"It's important because it shows how de-centralised the process of colonisation and empire-building was. \n\nColonisation was not an initiative launched by the Crown, or a formal government policy, it was private enterprise solely for the purposes of profit - which is bad news for the natives. Indeed [in the Marxist worldview](_URL_0_), imperialism is the 'highest stage' of capitalism and you can quite easily see how Marxist thinkers came to that conclusion.\n\nSo it's significant to note because without understanding that key element of how imperialism works you might end up with the wrong impression - of some moustache-twirling monarch pointing to a big blank space on the map for his cowering subjects to go and exploit and annex For The Glory of The King. (I wouldn't advocate writing that in a test, but I hope you see my point). \n\nIt's vital to understanding the dynamics of how colonialism developed."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imperialism,_the_Highest_Stage_of_Capitalism"
]
] |
|
vnale
|
youtube top comments
|
What the hell kind of system do they use?? They change every minute!
|
explainlikeimfive
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/vnale/eli5_youtube_top_comments/
|
{
"a_id": [
"c55y81y"
],
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],
"text": [
"It's a mess and YouTube hasn't been very forthcoming about the algorithm in play. \n\nSome videos don't even have top rated comments despite having comments with over 100 thumbs up. Even if the thumbs down of highest rated comment is taken into account, the math still doesn't add up."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[]
] |
|
3sdr5d
|
how does a website like facebook or google handle millions of requests a minute?
|
I know load balancing is a thing, but how does it work?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3sdr5d/eli5_how_does_a_website_like_facebook_or_google/
|
{
"a_id": [
"cwwb5cx"
],
"score": [
2
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"text": [
"There are many different ways to handle load balancing. Here are just two examples:\n\n1) It's possible to create DNS records for your domain that effectively point users to different servers (by IP address) by presenting the user's computer with a list of server IP addresses associated with the domain in a randomized order and then the users' computers will typically just submit their requests to the first server on the (randomized) IP list they receive.\n\n2) It's possible to have a specialized load-balancing appliance that sits in front of many servers. This appliance is designed to handle extremely high loads of traffic, but the only function it can serve is to hand-off the traffic to another server for processing. So the load-balancer itself uses up very few CPU resources per request because all it has to do is assign and redirect the traffic to another server to handle and then it's up to that server to actually generate the page/content the user is requesting which is a much more computationally expensive operation."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[]
] |
|
1z6b0t
|
if i was an employer, would i be allowed to fire whoever i wanted for no reason?
|
Would I be allowed to fire someone just because I wanted to? Or are there laws preventing this from happening?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1z6b0t/eli5_if_i_was_an_employer_would_i_be_allowed_to/
|
{
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"I believe its different from country to country. In Canada there's termination with cause and without cause. With cause is with reason such as theft or misconduct. Without cause means you should be provided notice of termination and may be entitled to compensation, an example of without cause is your position no longer exist within the company (due to changes management made).",
"That's highly dependent on your location.\n\nThe US is *generally* \"at will\" employment - meaning you can quit or be fired at any time for any reason, as long as that reason doesn't amount to discrimination based on protected attributes (gender, race, religion, etc). Some jobs - particularly city workers - are unionized / tenured, and their contracts with the employer require them to prove and document valid reasons for termination.\n\nEurope as a whole (but there is quite a bit of variation between the nations) requires reason and has pretty powerful workers rights laws."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[]
] |
|
4yny3g
|
why do we wake up to alarms even if we seem oblivious to background noise while asleep?
|
Another question: why do people who leave televisions running or music playing all night wake up to alarms if the alarm clock is essentially just more noise?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4yny3g/eli5_why_do_we_wake_up_to_alarms_even_if_we_seem/
|
{
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"There are two forces in play:\n\nThe sound of an alarm is annoying. While the radio or TV can be annoying, it's not annoying enough. For example, I often fall asleep during a radio program, but I get woken up at the hourly beeps before the news.\n\nTraining: Your brain learns to recognize the alarm sound and the requested action with it: Waking up.",
"I used to work shifts. I had annoying buzzing alarm clock to wake me at 5am. My wife used the TV to wake her every morning around 7.30. \nMy alarm never woke her, and the TV never woke me (if I wasn't getting up early that week or was on nights). Perfect example of selective hearing if you ask me.",
"The alarm is not an harmonic sound, it's noise, in its technical definition. It's sound is designed to be annoying on a physiological level.",
"While we sleep, our brain recognizes sounds, but doesn't process them because it's already doing something else. In particular, if the sound is prolonged in time (television sounds, air conditioner, etc.), as long as the sound is somewhat regular, our brain ignores them, letting us sleep. When, in our sleep, we listen to a strong sound (alarm, a thunder, glass breaking, etc.), we wake up because our brain recognized that something near happened, and it needs to see what happened. Also, in the case of the alarm, soon the brain link the sound to the action 'wake up', so we wake up knowing what disturbed your sleep.",
"There was a time when i got used to alarm tunes after few days. So I wouldnt wake up even for alarms. Then I had to change the alarm every few days to trick my brain out. ",
"My current alarm clock sound is softly chirping birds so the idea of \"discordant sound as alarm\" doesn't feel right to me, smoke alarms notwithstanding. ",
"My question is: why do I NEVER hear alarms? But my dog about to throw up works every time...",
"Our consciousness operates like an office. You have your workers going out and getting information/sending out information. Any information that is coming in has to go to the higher ups to be processed so the company is aware of it. All incoming information has to go through a secretary before it reaches higher ups so they aren't burdened by a constant influx of useless information. Secretary also fetches their coffee so they don't fall asleep. \n\nDuring sleep, higher ups get to go home and sleep, but all other workers keep doing what they do during day, just in case anything in the outside changes. Everything is still relayed to the secretary, who just decides not to inform the higher ups until something important happens. This can be something drastic in the outside or some agreed signal in surrounding. When that happens, the secretary fetches the coffee, wakes up the higher ups so they can act on the changes in the environment. \n\nIn non-eli5, consciousnesses is maintained by RAS (reticular activation system, coffee) in brain stem. During sleep all senses (workers) function during sleep, but thalamus (secretary?, which usually relays info and also keeps RAS \"active\") doesn't relay those signals to higher centers (cerebral cortex). If anything drastic happens in the environment (varies on degree for individuals) thalamus again activates RAS, and \"awakens\" the higher centers to process the info.\n\nCrappy metaphor, but I suppose it gets the job done. Read up on RAS :D interesting stuff, how loss of RAS fibers lead to coma and such.\n\nTl;dr: Brain has a secretary who stays up all night listening for important sounds, and wakes up the rest of brain only if the sound (also other sensations) fall in to \"important\" category. What's important changes person to person.\n\nDisclaimer: may have some exaggerated/simplified info. Forgive me, this stuff was years back.\n\nEdit: Grammar",
"I read somewhere that anythingcthat isn't repetitive background noise could indicate an intruder.",
"We have evolved to react to changing stimuli, I can sleep with blaring brown noise drowning out all background noise - because it's consistent.\n\nWith an alarm, the stimuli (sound) changes rapidly, waking you up (it may represent danger and demands attention)"
]
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[] |
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|
12qrlq
|
Why was Italy and the City of Rome so dependent on Egyptian and North African grain shipments?
|
Italy isn't a desert and during the Roman Empire, the population density is still pretty low compared to modern times. The vast majority of Italy was still countryside wasn't it?
|
AskHistorians
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/12qrlq/why_was_italy_and_the_city_of_rome_so_dependent/
|
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"Much of the food produced by farming families in the classical period was needed to feed the families themselves. So when crop output is as low as it was, even small increases of production result in large increases in surplus. Egypt had much more efficient agricultural production than Italy did though, due to its climate and the floods, allowing for easy creation of large grain surpluses far beyond what Italian farmers could do.\n\nRome also had a population density unlike anything the Western world had seen. The ease of transporting the vast quantities of food up the Tiber on ships, rather than on carts over land, was also a factor... at least until it silted up and needed to be dredged.",
"Italy could have certainly fed to population of Rome with relative ease, but it could not feed Rome and the rest of the urban population. Italy was heavily urbanized, with standard estimates giving it roughly 30% urbanization, which is comparable to many regions during the Industrial Revolution. Each region had its own major cities, all of which consumed the produce of its immediate hinterland.\n\nFurthermore, the sheer size of Rome--a million or more--was completely unsupportable in a pre modern economy without an imperial hinterland. That is why there was not another city of a million in Europe until London during the Industrial Revolution. The only cities of comparable size before 1800, like Tang Dynasty Chang'an, could only survive due to an imperial agricultural regime not unlike Rome's.",
"Well Egypt at the time was considered the breadbasket of the empire. Rome and other Roman cities required a huge amount of food, especially if you consider that the city of Rome hit a million people during this time. \nThe nile also provided a great deal of fertility and enabled a large amount of crops to be grown. Italy had rivers, but not as fertile as the Nile. As the Nile produced the most food there was extra to send to Italy to support the growing population.\nAs to why Italy couldn't grow as much grains,it was due to a financial choice by the owners of the villas who chose to grow fruits and vegetables as they could make more money off of them and weren't as suitable for shipping to expiring. Additionally it was cheaper to buy grains from Egypt, North Africa, and even Sicily than to switch from the other produce being grown. \nThink of comparative advantage in economics. It was more profitable for provinces to specialize in one good rather then to diversify and make a portion of each product. So Italy made wines, fruits, and vegetables or luxury goods, while North Africa focused on grains and staples.",
"to make everything short and simple (i'm french so you'll have to excuse my errors)\n\nEgypt was one of the finest producers of grain during antiquity (in the Mediteranean region), always producing an important surplus of grain and shipping it out overseas. \n\nSince Rome was not the only big city in Italy, you have to consider that there was a very big % of urban population in the country for that time. \n\nThe most important point, the Punic wars against Carthage had a very negative effect on the Italian Demography since the main part of the legionnary forces were coming from the peasants. (you can find more information on the internet regarding to how owning a certain amount of land, or a certain amount of money while being a citizen was putting you on the line to be called upon defending your own land)\n\nSince many Italian soldiers died during the war, and since many of them were away from their lands for too long and had to sell them and move to the city (due to poor care of the land ETC) Many rich land owners, who themselves also profited even more from the arrival of many thousands of slaves, had the opportunity to buy more land and make easy money.\n\nFollowing this, Money became something else, as the urban population grew astronomically in Rome (Naples population growth was also notable) and since ritch people grew Ritcher, You can just imagine what happens next.\n\nFancy products are being cultivated more in more in Italy, leaving less place for grain production, wich would have already been in need since the urban population was growing bigger as well.\n\nI can't explain this proprely without writting a 100 pages, but I hope it gives you the imagination to understand the problem that Italy faced. Grains from North Africa (Today's Tunisia and Algeria, mainly), Gaul, and mainly Egypt, has been very important for Rome. And if you do a little bit of research, you'll find that Egypt kept being an important feeding state for Constantinople when the power shifted from Rome to the future byzantine Capital(Old Byzantinium and future Istanbul, wich is tought to mean \"towards the city, since the name constantinopolis was banned by the conquerors).\n\nI could also add that the grain was relatively cheap, as Egypt was under Rome Protection before envetually conquering the territory. Rome always knew the importance of the city and most (if not all) historians compare egypt to the \"Oil countries\" of today. Because controlling egypt was very strategic. Just read a bit of Marc-Antony's politico-military egytian fiasco that caused rome a bit of food trouble shortly before he lost his final battle at sea(and then commited suicide)\n\nI shall leave my comment that way... otherwise i'll go on for ever.\n\nEDIT: I'm curious about what made you ask this questions? \nI'm suprised you learned about antique Roman Geography/geopolitics and all without having your question answered.\n\nEdit 2: Francy products were, of course things such as : olive oil, wine, etc.\n\nEDIT3: Tiako's information is also valuable and differant. If you are working on a paper, I suggest putting numbers like he/she did. I always lacked doing that during my university years. It's always \"pertinant\"(can you say that in english?)",
"Most of the important bits have already been stated, but to add to the agricultural sense of it. Egypt and parts of North Africa are constantly being re-silted from annual flooding or the Sahara, large scale grain production is harsh on the land and worse still they were on a two field system of agriculture -using one field for grain and another in fallow. This leaves up to 50% of your possible land unusable for a growing season. Later during the Medieval period, they would move to a 3 field system. \n\nWine, Olive products, and Cork are all great Mediterranean products that the peninsula would have produced commercially, but as most of the estates were owned privately it's unlikely they would have produced such an extensive surplus for much more than supplying their own ends in terms of grain."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[],
[],
[],
[]
] |
|
20qmdr
|
when doing a multiple choice test, is it better to choose 1 answer for when you have no clue, or to make your guesses random?
|
Is it a better testing strategy to vary what your random guess answer is, or to keep it the same (Like "The answer is always C")
|
explainlikeimfive
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/20qmdr/eli5_when_doing_a_multiple_choice_test_is_it/
|
{
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"William Poundstone actually talks about this very thing in his book \"Rock Breaks Scissors\". His findings from research conclude (this is paraphrased and not directly quoted):\n\nThere are, in fact, approaches one can take if the correct answer is not known in a multiple choice test. Two things to keep in the back of your mind: 1.) the correct answer distribution could be either truly random or \"randomly chosen\" by a human. 2.) the test questions and their answers were devised by a human (at this point, even if the test answer distribution is random, there is still information you can use to your advantage).\n\nIf the correct answers of the test were distributed \"at random\" by a human:\n\nIn a 4-choice multiple choice (A,B,C, or D) B has a slight advantage over the other choices coming in at 28%.\n\nIf there are 5 options (A,B,C,D, or E), E has the advantage of 23% and the middle choice, C, is the least favorite at 17%.\n\nIn a 4-choice test, the likelihood of two correct answers in sequence (like 1. A, 2. A) is 19% vs expected 25%. In a 5-choice sequence, it is 18% vs 20%. A test taker can gain the advantage on an unknown question just by avoiding the previous choice.\n\nThis part would apply to both randomized and non-randomized tests:\n\nRemember how I said no matter the randomization source, all questions and answers are made up by humans? In any multiple choice (4+ answers) test, \"none of the above\" or \"all of the above\" are much more likely to be correct (52%). These answers are particularly strong choices because the other answers are designed around them which creates a bias against randomizing none/all answers, possibly because of the input effort on behalf of the test writers. If the answer includes both, you should be able to rule one out.\n\nAnother human test writer element is the length of the answer. Because the answers have to be absolutely correct, the test maker input effort on the correct answer will have a bias towards extra qualifiers in the text. There is a slight advantage in choosing the longest answer to shorter ones.\n\nAnother check, though this one is much less likely to show up on standardized tests, is looking for grammar continuity. If you find an answer that has an \"a\" where there should be an \"an\" there is a chance the writer had the correct answer in his/her head when composing the incorrect answers. For example: say the answers as written are\nA) \"a orange\"\nB) \"a kiwi\"\nC) \"an apple\"\nD) \"an avocado\"\nSince A) should have been written out \"an orange\", this tells you the correct answer could very well be B) \"a kiwi\". The writer likely was subconsciously thinking about the correct answer \"a kiwi\" when drafting the test and made the grammar mistake.\n\nImprovements over random guessing:\nChoosing none/all of the -- 90%\nPicking B on 4-choice questions, E on 5-choice questions -- 11%\nAvoiding previous choice: -- 8%\n\nOther summarized strategies:\nYou can boost the \"avoid previous choice\" success rate a bit by also avoiding the following questions correct answer (assuming you know it).\n\nIf you can rule out answers on a question, but can't rule out a \"none\" or \"all\" answer, pick it. It's very likely the right answer. Otherwise use the \"option B\" and \"avoid sequential same letter answers\" rules.\n\nA working example of employing these strategies to make a guess with one answer ruled out of the question (test \"randomized\" by a human writer) is this:\n\nYou don't know the answer to #2, but you're sure \"C\" is incorrect. This leaves three possibilities for #2. \"B\" is most often correct (28% of the time) for a 4-choice question, so that's 1 vote for \"B\". You know the correct answers to the neighboring questions #1 and #3 are \"C\" and \"D\" respectively, so you can rule out \"C\" and \"D\" for #2 as that would violate the sequential answer rule, resulting in 1 vote for \"A\" and 1 vote for \"B\". This gives 1 vote for A, 2 votes for B, 0 votes for D, and C was ruled out by your own knowledge. \"B\" is the best guess. When voting leads to a tie, pick any of the tied options.\n\nThere are other, more complicated reduction logic techniques to use on standardized tests like, when finding a set of three similar and one odd answers, assuming the correct answer is among the three similar and not the outlier (reverse psychology on the test writer). Narrowing that down further, of the tree answers, if two are so similar as to be unambiguously indistinguishable that probably means the other one is the right answer.\n\nTechniques that involve getting into the heads of test writers are hard to remember on test day. Hopefully you get a test that is \"randomized\" by human selection, but if it's a standardized test then best of luck. To complicate random guessing, as others have said, you are incapable of being able to truly randomize your own guesses without the help of a random number generator. And after all, a guess of higher probability is better than your own \"random\" guess, so use these techniques and increase your overall odds.",
"assuming no knowledge of the test, it does not matter.",
"For a sufficiently large number of questions, assuming your choices are truly random, there would be no difference; any of the answers is, in theory, equally likely to be correct. Since you would be unlikely to choose truly randomly, it would be best to go with a single answer. If you tend to favor, say, B, you're going to get a disproportionate number wrong; if you always choose B (out of A-D), you'll get 25% right. Again, this is only true for a fairly large number. For only a few questions, there isn't a significant difference."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[],
[]
] |
|
4dgi1y
|
What was Taiwan's role in World War 2?
|
I was watching a [Chinese drama on spies](_URL_1_) during the World War 2 period and it got me thinking about [traitors and collaborators](_URL_0_), specifically as to their treatment after the war was over. Then I read about the [Sook Ching](_URL_3_) which was about how the Japanese tried to eliminate Chinese elements in Singapore that were detrimental to their occupation.
Taiwan was already under Japanese occupation for almost 50 years till WW2 ended. I have Taiwanese friends whose grandparents spoke mainly Japanese.
In the midst of the war, what was Taiwan's role in World War 2?
I know a little about their POW camps and how the Japanese sent POWs into their [Kinkaseki copper mines](_URL_2_). Did the Taiwanese try to fight the Japanese during WW2? Did they send soldiers to fight the PRC and aid the Japanese? Did China consider complicit Taiwanese as traitors even though they were already occupied for years?
|
AskHistorians
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/4dgi1y/what_was_taiwans_role_in_world_war_2/
|
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"Firstly, a couple of points. Taiwan was formally ceded by the Qing Dynasty to the Japanese in 1895, so while it was not technically \"occupied\" having been \"lawfully ceded by treaty,\" some people still considered it an occupation. Secondly, the PRC was not established until 1949. China was ruled by the Republic of China (ROC) until their defeat in the Chinese Civil War which forced the ROC to evacuate to Taiwan. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP, or CPC) then established the People's Republic of China thereafter. As such, the main belligerents in WW2 in the China theater were the ROC and the Japanese Empire.\n\nNow that we got that bit out of the way, we can focus on your question. As part of Japan's changing colonial policy, the Taiwanese (known as Takasago) were given strong incentives if not outright pressure to assimilate to becoming Japanese. Adapting a Japanese name in Taiwan was rewarded with increased rations and benefits, more so if a member of the household enlisted in the military. Many also volunteered for military duty out of a sense of Japanese patriotism, although the improved familial rations were also a key factor in this. In the later stages of the war, the Japanese introduced full conscription in both Korea and Taiwan, so as a result, hundreds of thousands of Taiwanese served in the Japanese military, although for the most part they served in garrison duties on Taiwan itself. A significant amount served overseas as well, either in Japan or in front-line duties. \n\nA notable Taiwanese unit was the Takasago volunteers, which were Taiwanese aborigines specifically cultivated as commandos because of the Japanese belief that they were skilled at jungle warfare, which would be necessary for their later operations in the Dutch East Indies. \n\nThe Taiwanese did not conduct any major resistance against the Japanese during WWII. This was due to the Japanese policy which carefully manipulated existing ethnic tensions (between Han Chinese and the aboriginal Taiwanese, for example) against each other and away from the Japanese. While the assimilation policy was of questionable effectiveness it was successful in staving off dissent. The Japanese had been somewhat more liberal in their inclusion of Taiwan than in Korea and so there was some limited autonomy on the part of the Taiwanese, including some representation in the Diet. Many Japanese also had settled in Taiwan, although they typically did so in separate towns segregated from the rest of the populace. \n\nIn the opening stages of WWII, Taiwan was used as a Japanese airbase to support attacks on the Phillipines. The 11th Air Fleet of the Japanese Navy had several squadrons based in Tainan and Kaoshiung, for instance, and was responsible for the initial assault on Clark Field. These air groups migrated south to support assaults on Malaysia, Indonesia and later the Guadalcanal campaign. However, Taiwan's strategic location along the logistics route between the resources of Indonesia and the Japanese home islands made it an active military location to scout for submarines and to support the war effort in China. \n\nDuring the later stages of the war, while Taiwan was heavily bombed by Allied aircraft, it still remained a massive fighter base and could have potentially sent aircraft to interfere in the US invasion of the Philippines in 1944. As a result the US raided the island to suppress and destroy the aircraft capacity in a massive aerial battle that decimated the air corps of the area and left them in no position to participate in the battle of Leyte Gulf. The Japanese had been anticipating an invasion of Taiwan and had prepared a large amount of aircraft in Taiwan and Okinawa to intercept and destroy the Allied invasion fleet. However there was no invasion, and at this point the Japanese aircraft were inferior in both quality and quantity, and the end result was to be expected. \n\nThe last event of note was a large bombing raid on Taipei itself, which was virtually unopposed and did significant damage to both industrial, military, and civilian areas. Taiwan's airbases were essentially suppressed at this point and would not pose a threat to Allied forces in the region for the remainder of the war. \n\nAfter the war, Taiwan was returned to the Republic of China. The Japanese were expelled from the island and many of the Taiwanese who had served in the Japanese army were considered traitors. A famine caused by the Japanese departure combined with corrupt and mishandled Taiwanese administration contributed to the 2-28 incident, which were bloody riots and suppression caused by the resulting tension, and led to the White Terror of KMT agents imprisoning or executing suspected dissidents, of which former-Japanese troops were a large factor. "
]
}
|
[] |
[
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanjian",
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Disguiser",
"http://www.powtaiwan.org/archives_detail.php?THE-KINKASEKI-COPPER-MINE-13",
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sook_Ching"
] |
[
[]
] |
|
1seky4
|
How exactly does one prove the existence of a new species?
|
What exactly is required of the scientist to prove that a newly-discovered organism is in fact a new species? Does it depend on the type of organism? (e.g. a bacterium vs. a mammal) How much significant evidence is required?
|
askscience
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/askscience/comments/1seky4/how_exactly_does_one_prove_the_existence_of_a_new/
|
{
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"With sexual organisms, you can always just try pairing them up with closely related organisms and see what happens (in fact, some species have been discovered when people found out that two organisms that appeared to be the same species couldn't breed; these are called \"cryptospecies\").\n\nWith asexual organisms (and sexual organisms to a lesser extent), the term \"species\" is really just a kludge that divides organisms into populations that are of a manageable size. "
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[]
] |
|
54zj22
|
the difference between object oriented programming and structured programming in computer science?
|
Thanks!
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/54zj22/eli5_the_difference_between_object_oriented/
|
{
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"Structured programming was invented in the 1950's as people started writing the first programs that were thousands of lines long. It basically means to organize your program into pieces and use functions and loops, rather than \"go to\".\n\nObject-oriented programming was invented in the 1970's as people started writing the first programs that were millions of lines long. The idea is to encapsulate both pieces of data, and the code that operates on that data, together.\n\nOne of the most important things to understand is that neither structured programming or object-oriented programming make it possible for computer programs to do anything they couldn't do before. Rather, they're tools to allow programmers to work with larger and more complex programs without getting hopelessly lost trying to understand it all at once.\n\nNeither of these are new or controversial ideas anymore. They're taught in the very first introductory programming class at every university and in one of the first few chapters of virtually every book on programming.\n"
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[]
] |
|
1hs3xg
|
What could be considered "History's most awkward moment?"
|
AskHistorians
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/1hs3xg/what_could_be_considered_historys_most_awkward/
|
{
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"text": [
"Removed. See our rules against poll questions."
]
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|
[] |
[] |
[
[]
] |
||
f7fhjf
|
Rules Roundtable III: No Example Seeking or Poll-Type Questions
|
On [/r/AskHistorians](_URL_2_), while we police answers closely, we aim to place as few limitations as possible on the questions themselves. Although this does mean that some questions may have a false premise, or be supremely uninteresting to many, we want to put as little as possible in the way of honest inquiry. The two main limitations we have in place are the "No Example Seeking" and "No Poll-Type" Questions rules, which read as follows:
> Our guiding principle is that if a thread can be summarized as "tell me random stuff about X" then it falls into this category. Questions likely to be removed are those asking about all history and all places at once or an extraordinary range. If a question isn't reasonably limited to a specific time and/or place, it likely will be removed. If your question includes the phrase "In your area of expertise", "examples of \[X\] throughout history", or "What are some facts about \[X\]", strongly reconsider posting it, or else spend some time to narrow the scope of what you are asking. Your question may be a good one, but given the limits of Reddit and our ability to moderate it, we cannot allow this category of questioning because of the stress it adds to the mod-team.
>
> "Poll"-type questions aren't appropriate here: "Who was the most influential person in history?" or "Who was the worst general in your period?" or "Who are your Top 10 favourite people in history?" If your question includes the words "most" or "least", or "best" or "worst" (or can be reworded to include these words), it's probably a "poll"-type question. These questions do not lend themselves to answers with a firm foundation in sources and research, and the resulting threads usually turn into monsters with enormous speculation and little focused discussion - and, as such, are banned here.
### Pragmatic Necessity
As noted at the start, we try to have as few barriers to asking a question as feasible. It just doesn't suit the mission of the subreddit, and we don't want to punish people for not even knowing enough to ask a question about something they don't know about! As such, what few rules we do place on the asking of questions are limited mostly to pragmatic necessity, and reflect not a poor question in of itself, but rather a style of question that through long experience we have found to not create an outsize amount of problems for moderation to the standards we expect here.
As we'll go into more detail for each one below, these two types of questions, when they *were* allowed many moons ago, created a very outsize headache in terms of moderator resources, and as a result their prohibition reflects not the impossibility of answering them, but the likelihood that they will attract bad answers, and the amount of focus they would require from the mod team to keep up to standard. They are both rules which have gone through revisions in the past as well, as we do our best to keep them as narrowly defined as possible to ensure the minimum impact possible from their existence.
### No Example Seeking
Example Seeking questions are prohibited because the general result is to create disjointed threads, which don't call for a cohesive response. In many cases, it is obvious what kinds of questions fall afoul of the rule - "What are some things that Kings named Henry did?" - but in other cases it can be borderline. Often a question that is removed under this rule isn't because it can't be expressed cohesively, but because it hasn't been in this case. The best way to avoid a removal under this rule is to consider what the core question you are asking about might be. So while *"What are examples of 19th century science and medicine that has been disproven?"* would be removed under this rule as it just asks for disjointed examples, *"How recognizable would the scientific method of the 19th century look to a modern scientist?"* would be approved, as it takes the same underlying concept - the nature of scientific study in the 19th c. - while asking it cohesively.
We realize that in many cases these are questions that can be answered, but that of course is part of the problem. They are questions which might have 10, 20, ... 50 answers. We have enough on our plate moderating questions with one. A classic example from many years back of a thread which wasn't removed quickly enough is a thread about "No longer popular names", [which can provide a glimpse of what these kinds of threads routinely would devolve into](_URL_0_). As such, we simply don't allow them currently.
### Poll-Type
Poll-Type questions can lead to a similarly disjointed thread, but usually for a different reason, since in this case they essentially call for value judgement in a way that isn't well suited to this space. They also come in two tiers, so to speak.
For the first tier, questions like 'Who is your favorite General?', aside from being *also* Example Seeking, are just opinions, and there is some saying I vaguely recall about how everyone has one. Even expecting some level of comprehensive support behind it, there isn't any good way to moderate a question like that in the manner we expect for [/r/AskHistorians](_URL_2_).
The second tier also calls for opinion, as while "Worst" or "Most Influential" isn't *quite* as personal a choice, they nevertheless are answers which can vary greatly from person to person as everyone can frame it differently in their mind, and weigh contributing factors differently. These are even harder to moderate too, of course, since while your favorite if your favorite, answering "Best", or "Worst" comes into contention with any other attempted answer. And while we love to see earnest and friendly academic debate in this space, that isn't the ideal way for it to be framed, especially from a moderation perspective.
As with Example-Seeking questions, the best way to evade this rule is to consider the underlying question you're asking. If you want to ask "Who was the best Soviet commander of WWII?" ~~How is that even a question?~~ consider asking "How did the performance of the main Soviet commanders compare during WWII?" Both questions asks for evaluation, but while the former leads to picking a *winner*, the latter calls for a discussion which can explore the strengths and weaknesses, and rather than simply giving you a listicle, it gives you the information to weigh and make your own judgments with in the end.
### Alternatives
Sometimes, a question just can't be reworked, and sometimes, your question is simply *exactly* what you intended to ask. We get that, and there are a few alternatives, depending on the precise nature:
* First off, of course, we do make mistakes, so don't feel like you have to inherently accept our decision. A short, polite Modmail stating your case can sometimes result in reinstatement, or at the very least someone on the Modteam may be able to help you reword the question.
* [/r/History](_URL_3_) and [/r/AskHistory](_URL_1_) exist as alternatives to [/r/AskHistorians](_URL_2_) and for the most part, allow questions of this kind, so you can always try there.
* Pretty much any of these questions, and especially the pure opinion ones like "Favorite", are perfectly fine to ask in the weekly 'Friday Free-for-All' thread, so feel free to post there!
* In some cases, especially Example Seeking questions, they may also be suited to the 'Short Answers to Simple Questions' thread which goes up every Wednesday and is stickied most of the week. You can learn of a few examples of what you ask there which can in turn provide the basis for a more narrowly defined question afterwards!
|
AskHistorians
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/f7fhjf/rules_roundtable_iii_no_example_seeking_or/
|
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"You may recall this post from last week - [Why are there so many \"First\" churches, and so few (if any?) \"Second\" and \"Third\" churches?](_URL_0_)\n\nI noticed the example-ness of it, when I was doing my research because to answer I basically had to get like 50 examples of a \"second baptist church\" and \"second methodist church\" then read about them (The pest part about religion is they all keep really good records of their origins), and I happened to find enough good info and a couple other secondary sources talking about it and drawing the same conclusions that I was confident in my answer.\n\nBut I liked the question despite that - it's problem was, as u/crrpit said both on the post and in this thread, the question is simply impossible to answer in a way that complies with the rules (when I posted I was pretty sure I'd made it passable, but wasn't as confident as I usually am before posting).\n\nSo is there a way we can ask that question in a better way? Even something like \"how do new congregations of an established church get named\" is still too example seeking of a question, because basically every denomination is going to be doing it differently.",
"If you ever have a burning question but just can't figure out phrasing, feel free to shoot us a message asking for help. We can offer some advice on wording the question to fit, perhaps be more attractive to experts, and help you stay on the right track.\n\nAlso really feel free to take advantage of the Friday Free For All threads! That's a great place for some more casual questions. Not that long ago we had a chat about Epic Rap Battles of History, or other fun topics.",
"One thing that I think sometimes gets lost when these kind of questions get removed and users receive our standard explanation is that they often aren't actually bad questions at all (though, to be fair, ~~some really are~~ some showcase the need for this kind of history education outreach). Our basis for removing them is not a judgement on you for asking what can actually be quite an interesting or thought-provoking question, just a judgement whether an answer that complies with our rules is possible. \n\nThe first question I ever asked on the sub a couple of years ago was removed for being example-seeking. It put me off asking more questions for quite some time, because I didn't appreciate this distinction between the worthiness of a question and the possibility of an answer. So if you do get a message on this from a moderator in the future, please do take our motives as sincere - particularly our offer to discuss and workshop the question so that it does comply with our rules.",
" > So while \"What are examples of 19th century science and medicine that has been disproven?\" would be removed under this rule as it just asks for disjointed examples, \"How recognizable would the scientific method of the 19th century look to a modern scientist?\" would be approved, as it takes the same underlying concept - the nature of scientific study in the 19th c. - while asking it cohesively.\n\nThese seem like two different questions, not simply a rephrasing of a question into a more acceptable format.\n\nConsider the answers both would receive if they were allowed.\n\nThe answers to the former would refer to discredited science like the aether theory, phrenology or lamarckism.\n\nThe answers to the latter would be about falsifiability, peer review and improvements in statistical analyses.\n\nI think a better example would be something like \n\nBad - \"What foods did people eat in the past?\"\n\nGood -\"What was the diet of pre-Roman celtic peoples?\"\n\nBoth questions ask for examples, but the key difference is the specificity of the question in time and place.\n\nThe latter is precise enough that answers will remain closely centred on a single topic and there's no room for discussion of eating habits in Elizabethan England or Ancient Egypt.\n\nI'd argue that the original bad question should be allowed if it were more specific to scientific field.\n\n\"What medical knowledge from 19th century Britain was later disproven in the 20th century?",
"I tend to ignore this rule a little bit. Questions relevant to the stuff I know are pretty rare, so I answer vaguely framed ones fairly often. I see why it's done, and often what I have is not really what the questioner was looking for at all, but some imprecise questions are good to me."
]
}
|
[] |
[
"http://i.imgur.com/QwIMjNw.jpg",
"https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistory",
"https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians",
"https://www.reddit.com/r/History"
] |
[
[
"https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/ffv6u6/why_are_there_so_many_first_churches_and_so_few/"
],
[],
[],
[],
[]
] |
|
ctgthc
|
Do you burn more calories than normal in the days subsequent to a heavy workout?
|
The days after a heavy workout would you burn more calories than if you hadn't? Given your muscles are healing and trying to repair them selves. Or are you still burning the same amount?
|
askscience
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/askscience/comments/ctgthc/do_you_burn_more_calories_than_normal_in_the_days/
|
{
"a_id": [
"exnmoxm"
],
"score": [
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"text": [
"Yes - there is a process called excess post-exercise oxygen consumption (EPOC). Your body is consuming more oxygen than it otherwise would to restore your body's homeostasis, such as building up reserves of ATP, repairing damaged muscles through protein synthesis and removing metabolic waste product buildups (eg lactate). These processes all consume ATP (your body's main energy currency), which is most efficiently produced in the oxygen-consuming process of aerobic respiration (the major input is carbohydrates). So elevated oxygen consumption post-exercise is indicative of increased usage of \"calories\" to produce energy for tissue repair."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[]
] |
|
14gdcm
|
How much, in modern dollars, did it cost for Columbus' first expedition? How did it compare to the costs for the Moon landing?
|
Additionally, did Columbus get all the funding from the Spanish crown? Any idea on what percentage of the Spanish budget this was by comparison to the amount of US funds used?
Basically just curious how two exploration moments compare in costs and who footed the bill.
|
AskHistorians
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/14gdcm/how_much_in_modern_dollars_did_it_cost_for/
|
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"Since I have it on my desk, I will point to Phillips and Phillips, *The Worlds of Christopher Columbus* pg 134. In summary, the voyage cost 2 million maravedis in total. Columbus brought a quarter of that to the table. He borrowed it from financiers outside of Spain. The monarchs put up 1.14 million and the town of Palos covered the rest. This does not count the various loans and grants awarded to Columbus by the Spanish monarchs and other institutions to develop a plan of action and acquire specialized personnel. Since the Spanish monarchs were forced to pay 24 million maravedis to the Moors in order to get them to leave Granada, the treasury was not doing so well. \n\nThere is an excellent article on this: Look for Satava, \"Columbus's First Voyage: Profit or Loss From a Historical Accountant's Perspective\" in *The Journal of Applied Business Research* Vol 23, Number 4, 2007. \n\nSorry if I didnt answer your question completely, but it is difficult to convert this into modern dollars. It might be better to think of it as a percentage of budget. If you go that route, then the cost was moderate but there was the expectation of returns on it as an investment.",
"The first voyage of Columbus was small and only partially funded by the Spanish Monarchs. The 1.14 million maravedes does not compare to the $744 million dollar budget for NASA in 1961. The Space Program was a large and ever growing part of the US budget, peaking in 1966 at 5.933 billion dollars or 4.41% of the US federal budget. NASA spent more than five billion in 1965 and 1967, since those were the years the Saturn V rocket was designed and tested. By 1969, NASA's budget was down to 4.251 billion and just 2.31 % of the Federal spending that year. The number of people who were employed directly by the Apollo project was several orders magnitude larger than the number of men on Columbus' first voyage. \n\nHis second voyage, which had seventeen ships and 1400 men, probably had an impact on the Spainish royal budget in 1494 similar to Project Mercury on the 1961 US budget. Yet, overall the Spanish crown did very little direct investing in their Colonial empire. They granted charters, but the actual explorers or conquistadores had to take all the risks, and foot most of the bill. ",
"As a followup question, what was the funding needed for Magellan's considerably longer expedition?\n\nFrom what I've heard, the Spanish crown were in a bit of a financial bind to begin with, and were looking to turn that around. But what about the Portuguese who, as far as I'm aware, had no such issue.",
"I can't answer the first question, but for the second: \n\n > How did it compare to the costs for the Moon landing? \n\nGreat question, but I think you're confused. They're very different scenarios: \n\n * Moon landing - completely new tech, arguably a completely new way of transportation. \n\n * Columbus - take 3 existing ships like 10s of thousands others in existence and sail them in a direction no-one had tried before. \n\nAnyone could have done what Colombus did. It was just the cost of 3 ships/crew/supplies - of which again, 10s of thousands existed in the world at that time. Not a big deal cost-wise (relatively speaking)\n\nWhatever the modern-equivalent cost, Columbus' expedition costs will end up being such a small fraction of a % of the moon landing, to be insignificant. Is it .0001% or .0000001%? Or possibly I need negative exponents to express it decently well, etc. \n"
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[],
[],
[]
] |
|
y28nm
|
Is there a possibility of Ancient structures/lost civilizations lost to the advancement of the Sahara Desert
|
This question comes from a ted talk i saw awhile ago. It basically said that the region that the sahara desert is in goes through dramatic climate shifts every some thousands years. The region shifts from tropical to desert and back due to external factors. It is a widely held belief that this climate shift does occur. So my question is what could be buried underneath the sand dunes? Another Giza Plateau? Something that could rewrite history? Does the technology exist to peer through the depths of the dunes? Just a question I have.
|
AskHistorians
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/y28nm/is_there_a_possibility_of_ancient_structureslost/
|
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"text": [
"I believe they have found ruins in the sahara, and many theorize that it was a grassy plane 3,000 years ago.",
"Do you mean something similar to [this](_URL_0_)?",
"Aside from teaching a couple of units to year 7s on Egypt, history this old really isn't something I've read much about... \n\nHowever, there are archaeological sites in the Sahara, in the east, there are stone circles that align with the stars:\n\n_URL_0_\n\nAccording to wiki:\n > During the Neolithic, before the onset of desertification, around 9500 BC the central Sudan had been a rich environment supporting a large population ranging across what is now barren desert.\n\nHowever:\n > 3400 BC, the Sahara was as dry as it is today\n\n_URL_1_\n\nStill, that leaves quite some scope and time frame, but from quite some time ago... Although deserts might keep the evidence pretty well...\n\nI seem to recall that there are also records or instances from ancient Egypt about trading partners from the west, and possibly south too? Also, there were a few movements of people into Egypt from these areas, however its not something I've read about or studied, and there are plenty of Egyptologists on here who would know more...",
"There is already evidence of some relatively extensive cultures that existed (or continue to exist) in the Sahara. The [Garamantes](_URL_0_) were an urban culture located in modern day Libya that existed around 500 BCE. There is also the Berbers (they still exist as a cultural group) who have a very long history, although not very well documented compared to Egypt. There has been some [speculation](_URL_1_) about a supposedly 15,000 year old Berber town found in Morocco. Whether that is actually the case or not, it does illustrate how little we know about the deep past of the region. In fact we know very little about many much more modern African Empires and civilizations. So in other words, there is a possibility. However, I would guess nothing quite on the scale of Egypt because someone would have written about it (in trade or tax records somewhere at least, accountants are a blessing to historians).\n\nAs for the technology to scan under the sand dunes, and probably deeper than that as the dunes are constantly moving, yes we can do that. In fact that is how some paleontologists and probably archaeologists do initial work at some digs. However it is cost prohibitive and time consuming. So you kind of have to know roughly where you want to dig first.",
"Most of the desertification took place at times when large permanent centers weren't the norm. So you have what others point out--ceremonial sites or bits of Neolithic settlements--especially when you get towards the last areas with perennial water, which would be the Ahaggir or Tibetsi mountains. Indeed, you can find carved (!!!) rock art in those mountains showing giraffes and other creatures that lived in the area between 6000 and 10000 years ago.\n\nThat said, we do know that historically some areas have been lost to desert in the last thousand years; Iwalatan, former terminal city for the empire of Wagadu, is in an area that can't support itself any more in terms of food. It is at best a shadow of what it was. Other towns in Wagadu were even further into peri-desert or desert areas today, and so may remain unlocated. So it's possible, but unlikely that we'll discover entirely unknown monument-building societies in the Sahara. For those, you'd need areas where prior conditions were right for it, but changed (rising sea level, shifting rivers, etc). The former Aquatic cultures of the Niger basin would be a good candidate.",
"Do you have the link to that TED talk? It sounds interesting, I definitely want to know more about it!"
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[
"http://news.discovery.com/history/lost-egyptian-pyramids-found-120810.html"
],
[
"http://www.colorado.edu/APS/landscapes/nabta/index.htm",
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sahara#History"
],
[
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sahara#Urban_civilization",
"http://www.abc.net.au/news/2004-08-20/prehistoric-desert-town-found-in-western-sahara/2028740"
],
[],
[]
] |
|
1fhhf7
|
"The Bomb Didn't Beat Japan... Stalin Did" - Opinions on this article ?
|
Hey, people from r/AskHistorians
So, I've stumbled upon [this article](_URL_0_), and found it really interesting. But I'm not sure what to think about it, mostly because it contradicts the "mainstream theory" without a lot of facts or sources to back it up, and also because it forgets one of the biggest arguments about the bomb, which is that Japan thought that the USA had a lot of more atomic bombs at their disposal, which would explain their surrender.
Basically, I found the argument of the article convincing, but I'd like to have the opinion of experts.
|
AskHistorians
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/1fhhf7/the_bomb_didnt_beat_japan_stalin_did_opinions_on/
|
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"You might try x-posting this to our Saturday Sources post, which is on the front page at the moment.",
"So the argument that the Soviet invasion was more important than the bombs originally* comes from another scholar, Tsuyoshi Hasegawa, whose book, _[Racing the Enemy: Stalin, Truman, and the Surrender of Japan](_URL_7_)_, was published in 2005. So it's new but not _so_ new. I'm kind of perplexed that Wilson doesn't give Hasegawa at least a name-drop in this article; even if he did come to this conclusion completely independently, Hasegawa's work is _not_ obscure amongst historians of the bomb, even if this particular historical argument (like so many) has not penetrated much into the general public.\n\nHasegawa's book is very well done. He has managed for the first time to really put together a cohesive, persuasive argument about the end-game machinations in Japan, the United States, and Soviet Union. The other historians of the bomb I know are pretty convinced at least to the point that the Soviet invasion was more influential on the Japanese than the bombs. Not all of them think the bomb was of no influence, or that it would have ended without using them, though Hasegawa himself is apparently convinced of this, from what I've read. \n\n(Personally, I am on the fence to the degree that I just don't see how we can disentangle the atomic bombs from the Soviet invasion as fully as would be necessary to say this with authority, but I am convinced that the Soviet invasion mattered at least as much, if not more, than the atomic bombs.)\n\nSo that's your place to look for facts and sources. Hasegawa bases his work on Soviet, Japanese, and American sources, including American intercepts regarding Japanese communications to their ambassador in Moscow. It is thoroughly cited and carefully done.\n\nNote that the question of whether the bombs \"worked\" or not is a completely separate one from whether the people who used them were justified in doing so according to what they knew at the time. People tend to think that the former implies a moral argument about the latter, but it is an entirely separate issue regarding motivation and \"the decision.\" (Note that even characterizing the use of the bomb as being the result of some large moral deliberation, or some sort of invasion vs. bombing tradeoff, [is kind of anachronistic](_URL_3_).)\n\nAs for the question of whether Japan thinking we had more matters — I'm not sure there's any reason to suspect that was a major role. They had already had similar damage done [to 67 other cities due to firebombing](_URL_5_). Having big chunks tore out of their cities was not a new thing; they already could not depend against fleets of B-29s so the \"only one plane\" aspect is, if anything, just a psychological aspect rather than a practical one. Note also that the US probably _would_ have kept atomic bombing, and firebombing, up until a possible invasion of the Japanese mainland (scheduled for November 1945); it was a bluff, of a sort, to claim they had more, but not _so_ much of a bluff (they'd have had another by the end of August 1945, and [a production system that was slated to produce three more bombs per month](_URL_6_)). \n\nAs for the rest of it, I need to go over it more closely than I have so far. I think the argument at the end and in the subhead, that US nuclear policy is based on a misunderstanding about Hiroshima and Nagasaki is sort of silly. And I'm not sure what it gets you — is the argument that people should have thought nuclear weapons were less important than they were? How does that _not_ increase the chance of their use? American nuclear strategy and nuclear thinking has always been more complicated than the legacy of WWII, and the weapons themselves _rapidly_ evolved since then. (Consider that in less than a decade after the end of World War II, the US was testing weapons that were [750 times more explosive than the Nagasaki bomb](_URL_2_), and capable of [radiologically contaminating many thousands of square miles of land](_URL_0_) in one go.)\n\n(For the history of nuclear strategic thinking in the US, the standard text is Lawrence Freedman's [_The Evolution of Nuclear Strategy_](_URL_4_).) \n\n*I feel a little compelled to point out, as an edit, that the argument was also made very early on by the Strategic Bombing Survey in 1946 ([\"Based on a detailed investigation of all the facts, and supported by the testimony of the surviving Japanese leaders involved, it is the Survey's opinion that certainly prior to 31 December 1945, and in all probability prior to 1 November 1945, Japan would have surrendered even if the atomic bombs had not been dropped, even if Russia had not entered the war, and even if no invasion had been planned or contemplated.\"](_URL_1_)). However their argument has been more or less discounted by historians; there was a lot of politics behind their making it. Hasegawa is the first person to put it on very strong grounds.",
"That view held sway when I studied history and political science at CU Boulder many years ago. Russia had long wanted the [Kuril Islands](_URL_0_), so when they entered the war in the Pacific, Japan feared that they would not stop with those northern islets and would move on to Japanese territory further south. They figured that the US would be less likely to keep their land.\n\nSorry no citations, this is from my college history studies through 1981."
]
}
|
[] |
[
"http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2013/05/29/the_bomb_didnt_beat_japan_nuclear_world_war_ii"
] |
[
[],
[
"http://nuclearsecrecy.com/blog/2012/08/03/enough-fallout-for-everyone/",
"http://www.anesi.com/ussbs01.htm#jstetw",
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castle_Bravo",
"http://nuclearsecrecy.com/blog/2013/03/08/the-decision-to-use-the-bomb-a-consensus-view/",
"http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0333972392/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0333972392&linkCode=as2&tag=0000123-20",
"http://nuclearsecrecy.com/blog/2013/05/31/bombers-over-japan/",
"http://nuclearsecrecy.com/blog/2012/04/25/weekly-document-the-third-shot-and-beyond-1945/",
"http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0674022416/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0674022416&linkCode=as2&tag=0000123-20"
],
[
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kuril_Islands#Human_settlement_history"
]
] |
|
1r19pr
|
elvis presley, particularly why he was so influential and significant
|
explainlikeimfive
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1r19pr/eli5_elvis_presley_particularly_why_he_was_so/
|
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"text": [
"IANA Elvis expert, but this is what my grandma told me. \nWhen Elvis first arrived on the \"scene\" her generation was in a more prim and proper time, and had been for quite sometime. (This followed the \"roaring twenties\") There were very strict generational guidelines going on and he challenged that in a way that was unique. In his musical selection, his dancing, etc. He was a good boy with a bad boy splash. He was a unique blend in that the older generation liked his gospel, good boy side and the younger generation couldn't get enough of his bad boy side. To top it off, he was a fine looking man which made for good television and movies and IMO some of his songs show a vocal skill that few have ever had. Elvis was a transitional moment in time, when the old was going out and the new was coming in. ",
"Well, he made black music accessible to white people, and got rich and famous by doing so. That's about it."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[]
] |
||
7ndl27
|
- what is a “bus” (or what is “bussing”) in audio and how is it utilized in live vs studio audio?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/7ndl27/eli5_what_is_a_bus_or_what_is_bussing_in_audio/
|
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"text": [
"I was a live sound engineer a while ago, we used sends instead of busses but it is basically the same thing.\n\nYou can send a signal along a bus and it is basically a copy from when you send it. \n\nSo audiosignal comes in and you send it and audiosignal keeps going to where it is going, but you can send audiosignal_a somewhere else and do different things to it without affecting audiosignal.\n\nLike making a copy of a document then editing the copy.\n\nNever worked in a studio so I can't say what they use it for but in a live situation the mix out the front is equalised and has effects added so it sounds good out the front, and the bussed or auxilliary signal is sent back to the stage with a different set of processing so the band can hear themselves and it doesn't feedback in the monitors (screech).\n\nHope that helps, this is my first ELI5 and I haven't worked in the industry for more than 10 years.\n\nJames",
"Bus is short for busbar which is an electrical connection with multiple connections on it. A mixer bus can have multiple input channels assigned to it. The bus can then be treated as a single signal. It can go to a group fader, or be sent to an external device like a recorder or effects box. \n \nI'm more of a mixer repair guy than an operator, but in a studio, you can send busses to a multitrack recorder. \n\nIn live, a bus can be used to create a mix-minus output. That contains all the program except for one source. That is useful for feeding on-air people who need to hear the program, but don't want to hear themselves in their earpiece. ",
"I've done a fair amount of live and studio sound alike, and here's my best crack at an explanation:\n\nA \"bus\" is any place in which multiple signals come together. In the simplest case, if you have a few microphones, etc, you are mixing them together onto the \"mix bus\", which feeds your PA system.\n\nIn a more involved situation, you may want to create submixes first, apply processing to those, and then mix the final results together onto the mix bus (which could be into your PA system or a final mix of your song in the studio.)\n\nFor example: If you have 12 backup singers, it's pretty common to mix them all into a stereo bus. This would set the panning and relative levels for all 12 signals, and give you a nice stereo pair (just two channels) to work with. Now, you can control the overall level of backup vocals, or the overall EQ of them, with just a single stereo channel on your real or virtual mixer.\n\nSame goes for drums, guitars, etc. By submixing in this way, you are able to make micro-level changes using the original tracks and how they contribute to the submix, and macro-level changes by riding the master bus faders.\n\n"
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[],
[]
] |
||
6ibhvh
|
Why do antibiotics like doxicillin work against acne?
|
How I thought pimples formed: pore gets clogged (with oil/sebum), oil is no longer able to escaoe, inflammation.
Yesterday my brother started taking antibiotics for his acne (it's really bad)
Where do bacteria come into play? If acne is a result of oil and clogged pores, how do antibiotics help?
|
askscience
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/askscience/comments/6ibhvh/why_do_antibiotics_like_doxicillin_work_against/
|
{
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"Pimples aren't just pores with oils. They are caused by bacteria. Pores with oils are great growing places for them. Antibiotics attack/kill the bacteria so the pimples will vanish. \n\nThe puss that comes out if pimples are dead white blood cells, they died because they attacked the bacteria. The bacteria responsible for acne is Propionibacterium acnes.",
"Although bacteria may play some role in acne, it is noteworthy that oral isotretinoin, the most effective acne treatment, is not antimicrobial. The bacteria hypothesis is an interesting one that is not proven. \nOne should note that certain antibiotics including doxycycline have substantial anti-inflammatory activity. The most widely used antibiotics for acne are in the tetracycline-class of drugs which all share the ability to decrease the kinds of inflammation found within acne spots. One should note that in a related condition, rosacea, doxycycline is active below that antimicrobial threshold. This has not been tested as well in acne.\nSo, the relative contribution of antimicrobial vs anti-inflammatory activities of these agents is unknown.",
"Check the dose he's using. Dermatologists are starting to use subantimicrobial doses.\n\nSome antibiotics have anti-inflammatory effects at lower doses. So for instance, you would take doxicillin at 200 mg for is anti biotic effect, but at 20 mg for iis anti inflammatory effect.\n\nSee\n\n_URL_0_"
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[],
[
"http://dermatologytimes.modernmedicine.com/dermatology-times/content/tags/acne-treatment/derms-slow-embrace-subantimicrobial-dose-concept"
]
] |
|
3s147t
|
After the advent of massed gunpowder weapons, what was the first example we have of bulletproof armour? When was it developed?
|
It seems that after gunpowder weapons became more commonplace, the armours of the medieval era fell out of favour and then personal armour seems to disappear until relatively recently. Were there any attempts to develop bulletproof armour, and when was the first effective bulletproof armour developed?
|
AskHistorians
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/3s147t/after_the_advent_of_massed_gunpowder_weapons_what/
|
{
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"text": [
"Pretty much immediately; while gunpowder weapons were an advantage against armored opponents, within decades of their introduction armorers would test their work by firing a pistol against the breastplate to 'proof' it; this is the source of the word 'bulletproof'. Armor and gunpowder weapons existed side by side for about 300 years; the arquebus was introduced in the mid 15th century, and infantry were wearing mass produced metal armor 200 years later in the 30 Years War, and heavy cavalry continued to wear cuirasses after the Napoleonic Wars. "
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[]
] |
|
11ktop
|
Could electrolysis of water efficiently provide fuel for a hydrogen fuel cell?
|
Well, I not quite sure how a hydrogen fuel cell works. However, I do know that the energy produced comes from the exothermic reaction of hydrogen and oxygen coming together to form water (I think it gives off about 55 kJ of energy per one mole O and 2 moles of H). But, wouldn't it take 55 kJ to decompose water into H and O? If this is the case, then it would take more electricity to make the hydrogen than would be gained from the fuel cell, since fuel cells are not 100% efficient. Or, am I just missing something about Fuel cells?
|
askscience
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/askscience/comments/11ktop/could_electrolysis_of_water_efficiently_provide/
|
{
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"text": [
"No, you're right. But that doesn't mean hydrogen fuel cells are worthless. Hydrogen Fuel cells are not energy creation devices, they are energy transportation devices. They are a way to carry energy, in a very dense way. \n\nWhy is this useful, you may ask? Let's look at a car, for instance. A standard V6 car is only about 13% efficient (aka- the exhaust is only 13% cooler than the flash point temperature of gasoline). A power plant, however, is upwards of 40% efficient. Thus, if we use power from a power plant to make hydrogen in order to fill up hydrogen fuel cells for cars, we still have a net gain (over 2x) of efficiency to propel a car. ",
"Yes, that's the first law of thermodynamics. The reaction of H2 and O2 to water takes the same amount of energy in both directions. But due to heat losses/the second law of thermodynamics, neither the fuel cell or electrolysis cells would ever be 100% efficient. \n\nSo there's little point in using electrolysis in producing hydrogen to put into a fuel cell, where your end goal is getting electrical power. But fuel cells can still be useful if you produce your hydrogen by some other means (for instance, directly from sunlight using clever chemical catalysts that we're currently doing a lot of research into). \n\nThe point here is that chemical compounds serve as very good forms of energy storage, and that fuel cells have the ability - in principle at least - to produce electrical energy much more efficiently from them than combustion does.\n"
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[]
] |
|
caxzlm
|
Are there any diseases that are more common in one sex than the other that aren’t genetic or genital related?
|
askscience
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/askscience/comments/caxzlm/are_there_any_diseases_that_are_more_common_in/
|
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"There are a LOT of examples of sexual and racial discrimination in diseases.\n\nTake rheumatic arthritis, an autoimmune disease (be it with a genetic compound, but definitly not a genetic disease like i.e. chorea huntington). Females are 3x more often affected then males.\n\nAnother example would be the endemic burkitt lymphoma, which primarily affects young african children with a 2:1 prevalence in males. EBV (eppstein-barr-virus) (and malaria) are risk-factors for this tumor.\n\nVery often you will see risk-factors for certain infections/diseases include sex/age/ethnicity.",
"There are many. A well-known example is breast cancer.",
"The risk of cardiovascular diseases (MI, stroke) are higher in men compared to premenopausal women of same age due to protective effect of oestrogen. However, the risk is even in postmenopausal and men. Hormone replacement does not provide the same protective effect.",
"Women tend to be more prone to autoimmune diseases than men. An exception to that is ankylosing spondylitis, an autoimmune arthritis that is more common in men.\n\nWomen are also more prone to vasospasm than men. It's theorized that this is why we are more susceptible to migraines than men.\n\nMen tend to have more clinical manifestations of X-linked genetic diseases than women. The reason is very simple. In many cases, these are recessive genes. If you have a second normal X with a normal gene, you won't display the issue, though you can pass the defective gene to your offspring. Women are XX, men are XY, under normal circumstances. Men, not having a second X, don't have a normal gene, so the condition is displayed. (The X chromosome is larger than the Y chromosome, so it carries more genes. This is why you don't see many Y-linked diseases - and if you did they would only affect men, as we ladies don't have a Y.) In order for a woman to have a clinical X-linked recessive disease, she would have to have an affected father and a mother who was affected or a carrier. Examples of X-linked diseases include fragile X syndrome, red-green colorblindness, and some types of hemophilia (bleeding disorders)."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[],
[],
[]
] |
||
14bdmj
|
Do all people absorb the same amount/ratio of calories from an identical food source?
|
If an apple has nominally 100 calories, would my body absorb 100% of that, or a lesser percentage - and does this vary between people?
|
askscience
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/askscience/comments/14bdmj/do_all_people_absorb_the_same_amountratio_of/
|
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"text": [
"[This](_URL_0_) is a decent article on the topic.\n\n > Even if two people were to somehow eat the same sweet potato cooked the same way they would not get the same number of calories. Carmody and colleagues studied a single strain of heavily inbred lab mice such that their mice were as similar to each other as possible. Yet the mice still varied in terms of how much they grew or shrank on a given diet, thanks presumably to subtle differences in their behavior or bodies\n\n > ...\n\n > We also vary in terms of how much of particular enzymes we produce; the descendents of peoples who consumed lots of starchy food tend to produce more amylase, the enzyme that breaks down starch. Then there is the enzyme our bodies use to digest the lactose in milk, lactase. \n\n > ...\n\n\n > Each of us gets a different number of calories out of identical foods because of who we are and who our ancestors were.\n",
"No the body is not 100% efficent if it was feces wouldn't burn. Also the efficiency of the GI tract can vary by things like age, rate of food through the intestines, diet, etc. not to mention certain foods (cellulose) can not really be broken down and used for energy so that further affects the efficiency of the body to derive energy from breaking chemical bonds in food. ",
"It varies greatly!\n\nAs rm999 [pointed out](_URL_2_), the types and expression of digestive enzymes we produce varies among different populations, and that does have some effect. However, a much larger degree of the variation is explained by gut bacteria.\n\nThe makeup (species and particular strain) of your gut microflora has an **enormous** effect on how many calories you get out of the food you eat. As an example, this fairly recent article shows \"Gordon and colleagues' (2) group experiments: they noticed that germ-free mice (i.e., raised in the absence of microorganisms) had 40% less total body fat than conventionally raised mice, even if their caloric intake was 29% higher than that of conventionally raised animals\" ([source](_URL_0_)). This is completely due to the metabolism of foodstuffs in your gut by symbiotic (mutualistic, specifically) bacteria which are able to catabolize various molecules we, as humans, cannot. However, we can absorb the products of bacterial digestion (their metabolites), and utilize them as calories/nutrients. \n\nA very good example of this process exists because of our inability to digest a lot of beta-linked or non-glucose polysaccharides (in some cases this may be \"dietary fiber\", but not always). Various mutualistic bacteria common to human guts can digest these polysaccharides, and the product of their digestion/fermentation is short chain fatty acids. Our colonic epithelium (the cells in contact with digesting food) readily absorbs these fatty acids and they are used in our body as direct metabolic fuel. \n\nIn addition to simply providing us with a larger amount of calories (and therefore a more efficient digestion system), there is evidence that the metabolites produced by gut bacteria have a very direct and important effect on human health. [Here is](_URL_1_) a great article that talks about the metabolites of the polysaccharide metabolism I described above and how it directly benefits humans (lower oxidative stress, lower rates of cancer, healthier cells).",
"I saw a documentary about bacteria on TV. They referenced a study that showed that the bacterial \"fauna\" in your digestive system greatly affects the amount of energy and the speed at which that energy is absorbed from the food you eat. The differences were rather big, up to 30 % if I recall correctly. \n\nI can, unfortunately not find the study since I can't remember the name of any of the authors or the title of the paper.\n\nEdit: this is pretty much the essence of the documentary I saw _URL_0_",
"It absolutely would not. Some food is not broken down because it is either not accessible due to not enough break down occurring in the surrounding area such as not chewing up parts of the food enough and the body not being able to break through parts of the food. Chewing up food very well increases surface area that the body has access to enabling faster breakdown. Cooking food weakens the structure and makes it easier for the body to break down some parts of the food being eaten.\n\nThis logically means that it would completely depend on how the food was eaten and prepared. In addition it depends on if that person has the proper enzymes to break down or digest the food. Some people for example can not digest milk later in life because they do not have the mutation that allows other people to do so. The people with the mutation can get more energy out of the milk.\n\nIt is quite conceivable that some people may have less efficient systems either through environment or genetics or lack of proper bacterial fauna that are unable to break down some foods as well as others.\n\nEdit: What the heck is wrong with reddit today? I posted this hours ago and it only shows up now?"
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[
"http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/guest-blog/2012/08/27/the-hidden-truths-about-calories/"
],
[],
[
"http://care.diabetesjournals.org/content/33/10/2277.long",
"http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0006759",
"http://www.reddit.com/r/askscience/comments/14bdmj/do_all_people_absorb_the_same_amountratio_of/c7blvy9"
],
[
"http://www.uchospitals.edu/news/2012/20120827-microbiome.html"
],
[]
] |
|
9xaje1
|
How were poisoned arrows made?
|
Were they pre-poisoned a head of time, with something dry yet toxic, or did they dip it in something right before shooting?
|
AskHistorians
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/9xaje1/how_were_poisoned_arrows_made/
|
{
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"e9rnkkj"
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"text": [
"Poisoned arrows depend on multiple factors: bow and arrow construction, toxicological knowledge, access to resources, etc. Poisoned ranged weapons from antiquity were very different than what Native Americans used. It's also impossible to pinpoint the \"first\" poison since a lot has been lost to time, and there were probably tribes who used all sorts of methods that went unrecorded. However, thanks to a project I recently finished I have some knowledge of arrow poisons spanning early history in different parts of the world.\n\nPerhaps one of the first, most wide-spread source of arrow poison comes from snakes. Africa, Asia, and the Mediterranean had a myriad of poisonous snakes and vipers which Greco-Roman writers noted were in use by a variety of groups including the Gauls, Persians, Getae, Slavs, Armenians, Parthians, and Dalmations. The famous Greek geographer Strabo wrote about a poison from the Soanes of Caucasus so volatile that the fumes were toxic, and Silius Italicus listed various groups in modern Northern Africa that use 'em. Early serpent poisons were made by dipping the arrowhead in the venoms, which were sometimes heated together with secondary components. One of these secondary components was strychnos, a poisonous tropical plant that grew in Africa.\n\nIn China, the ancient poison of choice was Gu, a process that was less than scientific: a whole bunch of venomous animals were dumped together into a pot, uncooked. The animals ranged from scorpions to snakes to frogs to spiders. Then they'd open the pot after a day or so, and whatever animal was left alive last was considered the most lethal. Often the remaining animal had eaten some/all of the rest, so it had a myriad of poisons in its body. Then it would be processed into usable poison. This also required dipping darts and arrowheads into the solution.\n\nNot all poisons were dipped, however. Poisons around Assam / Burma in East Asia used a variety of plants like antiaris, strychnos, and strophanthus with other berries and clays to make a smearable paste. This paste was then applied *behind* the arrowhead, instead of coated all over and dried. These toxins were exceptionally lethal and had a long shelf life—the Pitt Rivers Museum discovered a poison used in Burma against the Karen tribe as lasting up to 1300 years.\n\nAnother famous poison is \"curare.\" Basic internet searches will try to give curare a singular definition, but it is in fact a catchall term for poison that was misunderstood for centuries by Spanish Conquistadores during their campaigns in South America. Curare meant *any* poison from that region, but there were in fact dozens of different kinds. Pinpointing with accuracy is difficult, as stuff published by the Spanish (eg. Raleigh's *Discovery of the Large Rich and Beautiful Empire of Guiana*) is often fraught with self-aggrandizement and outright fiction. However, other explorers that came later managed to find subdivisions in curare, like E Bancroft who wrote \"Essay on the Natural History of Guiana and South America\" in 1747. In it, he details the Woorara poison made by the Ticuna tribe:\n\n* Bark of Woorara (6 parts)\n* Bark of Warracouba Coura (2 parts)\n* Bark of Couranabi (1 part)\n* Bark of Baketi (1 part)\n* Bark of Hatchy Baly (1 part)\n\nThese raw materials were mixed together over an open fire into a pitch. The tribe used palm leaves to scoop up the mixture and smear it on arrow and spearheads. As time went on, the term took on more specificity, but even Rudolf Boehm's attempt to define the term in 1895 led to three major categories: bamboo curare, calabash, and pot.\n\nFinally, William McKnight detailed a Native American process for making poison arrows. They would leave out animal livers to decompose, then fill the rotting pouch with rattlesnake venom. The decomposing animal organ would add bacteria and the venom added the poison. I don't know the symbolism by using livers specifically, because McKnight doesn't elaborate.\n\nMaybe someone else can shed insight on *when* the arrows were made. I don't know if they were made the night before, weeks in advance, or hours before conflict. I'm sure that varied by region and place in history's timeline, too.\n\n & #x200B;\n\ntl;dr\n\nMost poisoned arrows were dipped into toxic solutions made by whatever poisonous plants or animals populated the nearby area. Pastes were less common, but they did exist (and weren't specific to East Asia). The term curare doesn't refer to a single poison.\n\n & #x200B;\n\nSources:\n\nGray, TC. \"The Use of D-Turbocurarine Chloride in Anaesthesia.\" (1947). *Ann R Coll Surg Engl*. 191-203.\n\nBancroft, E. *Essay on the Natural History of Guiana and South America* 1769, pg 281.\n\n\"Poisoned Arrows from Assam and Burma\" *Victoria and Albert Museum*. Web. [_URL_2_](_URL_2_)\n\nLeafloor, Liz. \"Poison: The Good, the Bad, and the Deadly\" *Ancient Origins*. 4 Oct 2014. [_URL_0_](_URL_0_)\n\nMayor, Adrienne. \"Chemical and Biological Warfare in Antiquity.\" *Science Direct*. Republished from \"History of Toxicology and Environmental Health\" 2015. Web. [_URL_1_](_URL_1_)\n\nMcKnight, James W. *Jefferson County Pennsylvania, Her Pioneers and People 1800-1915*. J.H. Beers and Company, 1917."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[
"https://www.ancient-origins.net/ancient-technology/poison-good-bad-and-deadly-002165",
"https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/medicine-and-dentistry/arrow-poison",
"http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/p/poisoned-arrows/"
]
] |
|
5nmsa2
|
how can someone be lost at sea with all of the technology and satellites we have now?
|
I saw the post earlier about a man and his daughter who have been lost at sea for about a month finally landed in Australia. Maybe it's because I watch too many sci fi movies, but I find it hard to believe that with all the technology we have now we could not pick them up on a satellite or something. Are we not as technologically advanced with satellites as I assume we are?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5nmsa2/eli5_how_can_someone_be_lost_at_sea_with_all_of/
|
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"Oceans are huge, that's basically the answer. A major aspect though is that acquiring temporary use of a satellite costs millions of dollars, something that's not viable for search and rescue. So, helicopters can be sent out to look, but again, the ocean is huge. \n \nIf the people lost at see bought an [expensive satellite phone](_URL_0_), they could call someone and give them their location (cell phones would still have a GPS signal). ",
" > ...pick them up on a satellite...\n\nSatellites don't have any special abilities to \"sense\" where people are.\n\nMost satellites aren't cameras, those that *are* cameras are in use by spying agencies and they cost a trillion dollars.\n\nIf those lost people were floating around the Indian Ocean spotting them with a spy satellite would be like spotting a tick on a dog from a mile away.\n\nCompounding that, the ocean is full of floating garbage. Miles and miles of it.\n\nIts not a matter of technology, but scale. ",
"Oceans are huge, and most GPS technology only *accepts* information from satellites; it doesn't talk back or relay any information back to the satellites, so no one sees or hears anything.\n\nAlso, did I mention that they oceans are huge?",
"I think the main answer is Oceans are huge, but also in the specific story you mentioned they were harder to find because they told people they were heading to the Bay of Islands and ended up heading to Australia instead... and they didn't have a radio or any means of communication on board their vessel.",
"Sci-fi TV/movies paint a pretty amazing picture, lol - they just dial up a satellite, cut to the shot of it spinning into position (cue low rumble), snap a couple pictures, enhance, and oh look! Facial recognition says that's our bad guy :)\n\nMost satellite imagery that you see on the news or Google Maps is captured from Low Earth Orbit (LEO) and therefore has a pretty narrow field of view, 8-12 miles wide in the case of the [WorldView](_URL_1_) satellites. The resolution is 1 pixel per 18inches at best, so detecting a face is out of the question, maybe a body, a boat is reasonable.\n\nImagine trying to find a single flea (and that's ridiculously large as compared to a human, heck even a boat, in a 100sq-miles of ocean) on a carpet square 45ft x 45ft, taking pictures 1-inch by 1-inch, and you can only take a 1-inch wide row of pictures every 90min (on average the time of one orbit around the earth at ~380miles up). It would take you over a month to photograph the whole thing. Let's hope the flea (or the boat) didn't move.\n\nNow somebody's going to nitpick my numbers, but I fudged a lot...point being, it's just not practical to visually scan an ocean from so close, and the ones that are sitting at Geosynchronous Earth Orbit (GEO, 22000 miles up) don't have that kind of resolution - they're meant to look for hurricanes, etc.\n\nHowever, [NOAA](_URL_2_) has been operating the [Search and Rescue Satellite Aided Tracking (SARSAT) System](_URL_0_) and it has rescued almost 4000 people since 2001, but that only works if the vessel or person is carrying an emergency transponder.",
"Not nearly.\n\nThe sea can wipe out any ability to notify anyone of anything. Searching at random across the ocean would take all the lifetime a person would ever have in decades and more."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[
"https://satellitephonestore.com/"
],
[],
[],
[],
[
"http://www.sarsat.noaa.gov/",
"http://www.satimagingcorp.com/satellite-sensors/",
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Oceanic_and_Atmospheric_Administration"
],
[]
] |
|
2dfwjr
|
What would Earth be like if life never got started?
|
askscience
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/askscience/comments/2dfwjr/what_would_earth_be_like_if_life_never_got_started/
|
{
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"text": [
"Some rock types just would not exist or be radically less abundant, notably carbonates and phosphorites. Hydrocarbons wouldn't be there either. A lot of ore deposits wouldn't be there either (VHMS for instance), or be greatly reduced (the incipient formation of these sulphide deposits seems to depend on turbulence induced by a bacterially-controlled growth of sulphate creating a venturi effect).\n\nBut the greatest change would be the erosion rates, which would be far greater. This would in turn fiddle with the sediment supply rate of fluvial systems (hence less meandering systems and more braided ones). It would also affect the topography and surface geology, as greater erosion of mountain belts would be isostatically compensated by increased uplift and exposure of deeper rocks. Also, there would probably be less emerging land as most of the smaller islands (I'm looking at *you* Polynesia) and Atolls would simply be eroded away.\n\nThe atmosphere would be completely different as well, with almost none of that sweet. sweet free 02, and a different mix of gasses (water, CO2, nitrogen, traces methane, sulphate ans possibly others). I'm pretty sure that would have implications for surface temperature (hence glacial processes and glacial erosion and peneplanation), but I'm not sure which way it would go - might be a runaway iceworld, might be a runaway hothouse, might be close to current temps...\n\n"
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[]
] |
||
3ne2a8
|
how did 9/11 change the world ?
|
What major impact did 9/11 have on the world ? what would be different if it didn't happen?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3ne2a8/eli5_how_did_911_change_the_world/
|
{
"a_id": [
"cvn6v40"
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"text": [
"9/11 created the War on Terror. Without the War on Terror, the U.S.-led wars in Afghanistan and Iraq wouldn't have happened. The Patriot Act wouldn't have happened. The NSA's PRISM program wouldn't have happened. ISIS wouldn't have happened."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[]
] |
|
153uvr
|
why some sites such as cracked split all their articles into 2 pages instead of just putting everything on one page
|
explainlikeimfive
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/153uvr/eli5_why_some_sites_such_as_cracked_split_all/
|
{
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"c7j10zw",
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"text": [
"Double the views for the ads",
"Every little ad that shows up on your screen earns sites like _URL_0_ money - it's their way of making money off of writing all of these articles that are completely free for you to read. By giving a little bit of your screen space to these advertisements, Cracked makes money in return for giving you content to read.\n\nEvery time one of those shiny little advertisements appears on your screen, Cracked makes a tiny amount of money. If three ads show up on your screen, Cracked makes three times as much money off of that pageview. If an article has, say, three pages, and each page has three ads, Cracked makes nine times as much off of that single article as they would if they only showed you one ad on one page.\n\nThis is also the reason Cracked has the three 'relevant articles' at the bottom of any article you read. If you get drawn in to another article, that's more revenue from a single user.\n\nSo, while you enjoy all of these lists of assorted facts and stories that the Cracked authors wrote and put up on their website, they make a living. All the while, you never have to pay with your own money - you just have to let these moving pictures (which you're welcome to ignore) sit around on your screen. Not a bad deal, if you ask me.",
"Cracked is not the worst of it. A lot of sites present things as slideshows for this very reason. It is really annoying. "
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[
"Cracked.com"
],
[]
] |
||
f3rlly
|
How was the nuclear binding energy measured?
|
Specifically how was it seperated from the coulomb force? To break apart a nucleus you need to overcome this force. So after a fission you dont know how much of the required energy did work against the coulomb force and how much of it worked against the nuclear bidning energy. At least I do not see how you can seperate this, except for the application of mathematical models, which is not not an empirical method.
|
askscience
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/askscience/comments/f3rlly/how_was_the_nuclear_binding_energy_measured/
|
{
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"fhkj6j3"
],
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"text": [
"Nuclear binding energy is not “separate from the Coulomb” energy. Coulomb repulsion makes a negative contribution to the binding energy of the nucleus.\n\nBinding energies are measured by measuring masses and taking differences between them. The binding energy of a nucleus (Z,N) is the difference between the mass of Z free protons plus N free neutrons, and the bound nucleus."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[]
] |
|
2t1phe
|
why are panty lines taboo?
|
So I admit, I show panty lines, especially when I go to the gym. I really don't see what the big deal is. Everyone (hopefully) wears drawers, so wouldn't it be natural to have lines?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2t1phe/eli5_why_are_panty_lines_taboo/
|
{
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"text": [
"It's simply a style/fashion thing, like wearing maroon and red together. Yuck. In this case, yuck, you're showing your underwear. You either want to go stylishly modest or stylishly sexy. Showing panty lines is neither.\n\nStylishly modest: The clothing over your underwear is thick enough or loose enough to not show your panty lines through it.\n\nStylishly sexy: If you're wearing something that is tight enough to show your underwear through it, then you still dont want to \"show off your underwear\". You want to show off your butt instead, so you go buy a \"no panty lines\" style of underwear (thong, or the really flat seam kind).",
"I don't see the big deal either. I've never said, \"Did you see the panty lines on Susan? What a stupid bitch!\""
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[]
] |
|
3b48dp
|
if college education at public institutions became free of charge (to students) what happens to private institutions?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3b48dp/eli5if_college_education_at_public_institutions/
|
{
"a_id": [
"csiolkg"
],
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"text": [
"Realistically, not much.\n\nCost to attend is rarely the barrier that prevents people from going to college; student loans are easy to get (though the true \"cost\" of these is an entirely different discussion). Moreover, in-state tuition for most public universities is very low - [UT Austin is only $10k a year in-state](_URL_0_) - making cost even less of an issue.\n\nPrivate institutions have always justified their higher price tags with their prestige and alumni networks. That doesn't get devalued if state schools are suddenly free."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[
"http://www.collegefactual.com/colleges/the-university-of-texas-at-austin/paying-for-college/tuition-and-fees/#"
]
] |
||
b2egbo
|
Books on Ancient Societies' Political, Social, & Economic Structures
|
See the title. I am not necessarily looking for a fully generalized source. Books dedicated to specific societies (i.e. Mesopotamia, Egypt, India, or China) and/or areas of interest (politics, society, or economics) would be of interest too. I would prefer non-textbooks, simply due to price. However, more rigor is appreciated.
& #x200B;
I apologize if this question is too vague.
|
AskHistorians
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/b2egbo/books_on_ancient_societies_political_social/
|
{
"a_id": [
"eiso0um"
],
"score": [
2
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"text": [
"Well, social and economic history are kind of my thing :) I can't speak for dynastic Egypt, India, or China, but I can give you a start on some scholarship for ancient Middle Eastern studies, Greece, and Rome. \n\nBefore I start, I'd like to put in a quick note. Many scholarly books, especially those on understudied areas (such as the Ancient Near East), are subject to extreme price gouging. The major publishers, such as Cambridge and Routledge, put out their books for academic use, and as such, price them as if they're going to be sold exclusively to libraries. Which is dumb, in my personal, not-so-humble opinion, especially since the authours don't get a significant cut. **For this and other reasons, I highly recommend your local library**. Not only are librarians some of the most amazing people to ever walk the planet, but they'll often go out of their way to help you to find things. If you're in a town/city with access to an academic library (local public research libraries or universities), check them out as well. If the book isn't available locally, those libraries can usually ILL things for a reasonable price - free, if you're a student. Recommending things that are specialized/rigorous and cheap is can be....difficult, so I've taken the liberty of addressing price points in each of these notes.\n\nPossibly one of the most influential Eastern (When I say this, I mean Middle Eastern, from the Eastern edge of the Mediterranean to the Tigris and Euphrates) scholars today is Amelie Kuhrt, who helped to pioneer a radical shift in studies of the area (for her, especially the Assyrian, Babylonian, and Persian Empires). She's part of a group of scholars who began to focus their studies of Eastern history on the local evidence first and foremost, rather than the traditional method of relying on Greek sources. While that might sound obvious, there's a weird dichotomy of \"painfully little\" and \"literal warehouses overflowing with cuneiform tablets.\" Not many people can translate cuneiform, and those people aren't particularly keen on translating thousands upon thousands of what amount to nothing more than business transactions (X sold two sheep to Y for Z). For an example, [here's a small sample of the British Museum's collection](_URL_0_) that have been identified as \"Administrative texts.\" Note how many of them have actually been translated. The Greek sources are easily accessible for any Classics scholar, are quite narrative, and were long deemed to be rather authoritative on the topic. \n\nAnyway, so for book recommendations - Kuhrt's written a bunch, but her *The ancient Near East: c. 3000-330 BC* is quite good. It's two volumes, and isn't *absurdly* overpriced on Amazon (though it's a bit of a textbook). It covers an actually ridiculous amount of information, covering the Akkadians, Arameans, Assyrians, Babylonians, Egyptians, Elamites, Hittites, Hurrians, Israelites, Persians, Phoenicians, Sumerians, and Urartia in particular, and gives an overview of each of them over the stated time period. It's impossible for any one scholar to be an expert in all of these areas, but, perhaps most admirably, Kuhrt provides a readily mineable bibliography which is *very* impressive, and can take you on further rabbit holes (kind of like getting lost while reading Wikipedia - it's often how academics do their research). \n\nFor some other books, I'd highly recommend *The World of Achaemenid Persia: History, Art, and Society in Iran and the Ancient Near East.* This one's sadly another one that suffers from \"academic pricing,\" so see my note at the top. It's also an absolutely incredible book, with deep, much more specific discussion than the above, provides *thorough* bibliographies, and is surprisingly readable. While not necessarily recommending buying it, I would absolutely recommend the book itself.\n\nFor reading on the Seleucid Empire (again, go to your library for this one), Sherwin-White and Kuhrt have put out a book called *From Samarkhand to Sardis: A New Approach to the Seleucid Empire*. It's a solid, modern discussion of the Empire, that covers the wide range of different cultures within, even going so far as to discuss the cuneiform that was produced in the Hellenistic age. It contains some really fascinating info about how local polities regarded the overarching empire, down to the astronomical diaries of the Babylonians. \n\nFinally, for an actual affordable (haha) source (albeit one that's much more focused on economics), check out *The economy of Late Achaemenid and Seleucid Babylonia*. While it's a specialized book, the price point isn't terrifically awful, and it's got some solid info. [Here's the table of contents](_URL_1_) for an idea.\n\nIf you're interested in more Classical stuff, I'd be happy to recommend sources on Rome for you, but that wasn't on your list of interests and I'm trying to stick (at least ostensibly) to your list above. Hope this helps! :)\n\n(And again - ignore Leslie Knope and use your local library. It's one of the best places in the world.)"
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[
"https://cdli.ucla.edu/search/search_results.php?SearchMode=Text&order=PrimaryPublication&MuseumNumber=bm+&Genre=admin",
"https://imgur.com/tnNHMyG"
]
] |
|
fjce84
|
what is ip routing?
|
Hi all,
I’ve read on IP routing from different sources and since I am not very tech savvy, I get even more confused.
As an additional question: Is there a difference between your typical at-home fiber cable router and an IP routing capable router?
Thank you!
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/fjce84/eli5_what_is_ip_routing/
|
{
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"fkm5oro",
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"text": [
"The router at your house has a pretty simple set of rules. Packets with the IP address assigned to your house by your ISP come in and all others are ignored. Any traffic it sees is forwarded to the ISPs routers, as there is no other part of the Internet that's at your house.\n\nA more general router, like the expensive ones your school or ISP buys, keep a more complex structure of which parts of the Internet are on which connections. If your ISP connects to three other ISPs, it has to sort all the traffic from all the users according to which destinations are served by each external ISP.",
"Routing - by definition - works with IP addresses. Some routers use fiber cable, and some use copper cables, but they generally do the same things. The differences between routers like you have at home and those super expensive cisco ones is the amount of stuff they can do aside from juggling IP addresses. There are \\*a lot\\* of these things, so to make it short, these IP routing capable ones you were thinking of are basically for any application that goes above \"one household wants to google cat videos\".\n\nAs for IPs and routing itself, it works almost exactly like postal addresses. You have an address and a zip code and the mail company has a database where all these addresses are noted down so the mailman knows where the mail has to go. And if you think about various postal offices and logistics centers communicating with each other to make sure each item is delivered to the right address, this is basically what routers ultimately do too."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[]
] |
|
72v3kb
|
how is supporting research for children's cancer different from supporting any other sort of cancer research?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/72v3kb/eli5_how_is_supporting_research_for_childrens/
|
{
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"dnlj49n"
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"There are many different types of cancer, and in some respects every single individual case of cancer is specific and unique, although there are likely to be some broad similarities. The types of cancers that are common in children are different from the types of cancers that are common in adults. Childhood cancers are also more rare than other types of cancer. There is selective pressure against mutations that cause childhood cancer because childhood cancer would prevent an individual from reproducing and passing on their genes, whereas genes that cause cancers that onset after reproductive age will not be selected against. "
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[]
] |
||
ko9q7
|
Remotes use infra red light, right? How come I could point the remote upwards on my old TV and it would still work?
|
The ceiling was not reflective, and pretty much any direction would work.
|
askscience
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/askscience/comments/ko9q7/remotes_use_infra_red_light_right_how_come_i/
|
{
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"First, you can not claim that the ceiling was not reflective because you have no way to prove that it was, or was not, reflective in the IR spectrum (in fact, you pretty much proved that it was reflective).\n\nBasically, the IR LED in the remote is not coherent (it is not a laser) so just like a light bulb, the light cone grows in size.\n\nThen you have reflection - many things that are not reflective in the visible spectrum are reflective in the IR spectrum. \n\nSo basically, it was a nice powerful IR LED and your TV received the reflection from various objects in the room.\n\nKeep in mind that the LED produces a cone of light - so all you need is a small portion of that hitting something that reflects, and reflects, and reflects, until it hit the TV.\n\nEdit: If you ever watch those ghost hunting shows on Sci-Fi channel - and you see them using IR pyrometers to find 'ghosts'... and they point it at something and say \"WOW, look how the temperature drops at that point\" - guess what, they found an IR black body - some paint or other surface that is absorbing the IR light - rather than a ghost. That gives you an idea as to just how reflective most things are to IR light.",
"First, you can not claim that the ceiling was not reflective because you have no way to prove that it was, or was not, reflective in the IR spectrum (in fact, you pretty much proved that it was reflective).\n\nBasically, the IR LED in the remote is not coherent (it is not a laser) so just like a light bulb, the light cone grows in size.\n\nThen you have reflection - many things that are not reflective in the visible spectrum are reflective in the IR spectrum. \n\nSo basically, it was a nice powerful IR LED and your TV received the reflection from various objects in the room.\n\nKeep in mind that the LED produces a cone of light - so all you need is a small portion of that hitting something that reflects, and reflects, and reflects, until it hit the TV.\n\nEdit: If you ever watch those ghost hunting shows on Sci-Fi channel - and you see them using IR pyrometers to find 'ghosts'... and they point it at something and say \"WOW, look how the temperature drops at that point\" - guess what, they found an IR black body - some paint or other surface that is absorbing the IR light - rather than a ghost. That gives you an idea as to just how reflective most things are to IR light."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[]
] |
|
aty60s
|
Best or Most accurate Civil War memoirs.
|
I am currently learning about the civil war for 1) my own entertainment and 2) a Civil War project for school. I have already read Sam Watkins' "Company Aych" and am currently reading Elisha Hunt Rhodes' "All for the Union" and have Gen. Grant's bought as well. What other personal accounts can you recommend. I am open to all suggestions. Thank you for your help!
|
AskHistorians
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/aty60s/best_or_most_accurate_civil_war_memoirs/
|
{
"a_id": [
"eh5q2su"
],
"score": [
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"text": [
"I recommend What this Cruel War was Over: Soldiers, Slavery, and the Civil War by Chandra Manning. It’s not a memoir but it is filled with various letters and newspapers from lowly Civil War combatants which really paints a picture of how the common people felt. "
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[]
] |
|
3z4u4q
|
"citizens united" court case ruled corporations as "people", so how come they can avoid taxes on income made in other countries while us citizens living abroad have to pay taxes on all income made abroad?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3z4u4q/eli5citizens_united_court_case_ruled_corporations/
|
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"Citizen's united did not rule that corporations are people. More that corporations are made up of people who all have a right to free speech, and can exercise that right through the corporation. \n\nThere are still big differences between a corporation and an individual from a legal perspective. One of them is liability, which is the whole point of incorporation. Another is taxation. There are also different forms of regulation and regulatory bodies (police vs. the SEC for example). \n\nAnd on top of that, you only pay taxes on income made abroad as an individual if you're in the top tax bracket. This is to discourage highly paid individuals from leaving the country. Furthermore, you still get the benefits of being a US citizen even if you live and work abroad, such as free movement between many countries and protection from the greatest military power on the planet. \n\nSo really it's apples in oranges. Not to mention corporate taxes are really bad in the long term, and if you look at places like Germany that reduce those corporate taxes you get all those foreign holdings back within your borders.... the problem isn't corporations avoiding taxes so much as it trying to squeeze money out of corporations when they can just hire people and open offices next door. ",
"There's a flaw in your question. Citizens United vs FEC did *not* rule that \"corporations are people.\" This is a gross oversimplification that the media made (call it their ELP2 [explain like the public is 2 years old]).\n\nThe First Amendment has always been construed to provide individual rights to free speech. Citizens United said, basically, \"hey court - a corporation is nothing more than a group of citizens\" (more subtle than that, this is the ELI5 version)...\"why can the court deny the right of free speech for a group of individuals who happen to be united around a political and/or a business issue?\" The court said that, with respect to free speech rights, an association of individuals should have the same rights as individuals. \n\nOne other quick point - tax laws for corporations are different than for individuals. The unintended consequence of the corporate tax law as it stands is that companies are pretty much encouraged to make/keep their money overseas because they're not taxed on it. Corporations, and their boards of directors and officers, have a legal responsibility to their investors to do *what is best for the investors*. Being patriotic and supporting American jobs is all well and good - but if my company has $10M in profit in the US, it will get taxed whereas money earned overseas won't. \n\nIf we really want American companies to keep jobs at home, then let's give them a financial incentive to do so. ",
"This is grossly simplified, but seeing as this is ELI5:\n\nUS Corporations do pay taxes on income regardless of whether the source is foreign or domestic.\n\nUS corporations don't pay taxes on income earned by foreign subsidiaries until that income is somehow 'passed up/back' to the parent.\n\nI think a lot of the confusion comes from the fact that generally speaking a lot of this 'tax avoidance' people talk about comes via the use of foreign subsidiary corporations. That is, a US corporation 'owns' another corporation in a foreign country. It's often much more complicated than that (corporations owning corporations which in turn own more corporations). The avoidance in question is generally the result of the US corporation not 'taking up' or 'recognizing' the income of it's foreign subsidiaries. If they did, they would be subject to US taxes.\n\nUS corporations can generally bring the money back just as soon as they want to (via convoluted licensing agreements, transfer pricing agreements etc) they just choose not to, because they don't want to pay US taxes. \n\nIt's different for an individual - The US taxes individual income regardless of where you live. But, if the family in NZ you were referring to owned an NZ corporation, that corporation would not be subject to US taxes until the individual owners recognized income from that corporation (let's say they were paid a dividend or similar)",
"Simply put, it's the concept that a group of people maintain the same rights as they do as individuals. ",
"Your question has a faulty premise--it assumes that corporations can do something that humans cannot do. That is not the case.\n\nThe reason that corporations don't pay US tax on overseas prodits is that the overseas profits are made by an active non-US business conducted by a non-US subsidiary of the main corporation. The main corporation doesn't pay US tax until the non-US subsidiary pays a divisend to it.\n\nA human being can also own stock of a non-US corporation. If that non-US corporation engages in an active business outside the US, then the US human doesn't pay US tax on those profits until the non-US corporation pays a dividend to the US human, same as with the corporation.\n\nSo, since the main thing going on in your question is a faulty premise, let me ELI5 that concept: if you ask for the result when you add 5 to potato, no one can give you a meaningful answer because the question itself is broken.",
"Everyone is hammering on the \"Corporations are people\" thing. You were wrong about Citizens United talking about it, but you are right that courts have a long history of applying the 14th Amendment of the Constitution to Corporations. From Wikipedia:\n\n\"In Santa Clara County v. Southern Pacific Railroad (1886), the court reporter included a statement by Chief Justice Morrison Waite in the decision's headnote:\n\nThe court does not wish to hear argument on the question whether the provision in the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution, which forbids a State to deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws, applies to these corporations. We are all of the opinion that it does.[122]\n\nThis dictum, which established that corporations enjoyed personhood under the Equal Protection Clause, was repeatedly reaffirmed by later courts.[122] It remained the predominant view throughout the twentieth century, though it was challenged in dissents by justices such as Hugo Black and William O. Douglas.[123] Between 1890 and 1910, Fourteenth Amendment cases involving corporations vastly outnumbered those involving the rights of blacks, 288 to 19.[124]\"",
"1. Citizens United did not rule corporations to be people. \n\n2. If anything, it affirmed the *centuries-old* principle that corporations have \"legal personhood\" - that is, a distinct legal personality that can sign contracts, take out loans, etc... They are not, and have never been, considered natural persons.\n\nThis is not a new concept. It's been around in some form for at least 4 centuries - it basically came about as a way to fund exploration, trade and infrastructure projects. Investors wanted to shield themselves from liability, and the Crown needed the private funds for suchprojects, so the \"corporate veil\" came about. \n\n3. A US-incorporated company does not carry out business abroad in its own name. A US company will incorporate its overseas businesses in the relevant jurisdictions. So you have Parent Company X, with Subsidiaries A, B and C incorporated in Japan, Canada and Mexico, for instance. \n\nRelated, the corporate tax rate is different from the individual tax rate, which makes sense if ine understands corporations are not people in the \"natural person\" sense. There is also the policy consideration that corporations, as employers, investors, etc.. generally require a separate set of tax considerations. \n\nEdit: Several countries' courts have also ruled corporations have the fiduciary duty to act in the best interests of shareholders. As someone already pointed out, keeping profits in lower-taxed subsidiaries is the prudent course of action. \n\nSource: lawyer. \n",
"I worked at a brokerage firm for a bit. Regular people do this as well, it's all about finding the correct \"tax shelter\". These can be in the form of bonds or CDs, and they serve the same sort of purpose as the overseas money laundering our favorite corporations use. ",
"I am constantly astonished by the number of people who will defend a system that allows corporations to get away with murder (sometimes literally) on the backs of human beings.",
"Simple answer: citizens United has nothing to do with the law of taxation, which is written by congress and interpreted and enforced by the IRS.",
"Sucks to be an American.\nMove to another country - pay that countries taxes AND US taxes.\nI'm surprised any yanks can afford to work outside of the US.\nSuch a strange system."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[]
] |
||
5g15l4
|
how is the data in an mp3 file translated into the sound coming through my headphones?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5g15l4/eli5_how_is_the_data_in_an_mp3_file_translated/
|
{
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"text": [
"First let's talk about a .wav file. Take a sound and capture it with a microphone (or a bunch of them, or their equivalent input devices). The microphone converts the sound (vibrations of the air) into [electrical voltages](_URL_1_) that vary (quite quickly) with time. Use an Analog to Digital Converter (ADC) circuit to convert that time-varying voltage waveform into a series of numbers. For example, 0000 could represent 0 volts; 0001 could represent +5 millivolts, 0010 could represent +10 mV, etc. Stick that series of numbers into a computer file and you've pretty much got a .wav file. (Not exactly, but close.) \n \nDepending on how often your ADC [sampled](_URL_0_) the waveform and how fine the voltage steps are (the \"number of bits of resolution\"), your .wav file could get kind of large. So you use some special techniques to compress the file and make it smaller. One major technique is to analyze the sounds and remove high frequency components that humans can hardly hear. The mp3 algorithm applies a bunch of tricks like that to make the computer file quite a bit smaller. (It also degrades the quality of the sound somewhat in the process...mp3 compression is \"lossy\", meaning that when you reverse the process, the file you get back isn't quite the same as the one you converted in the first place.) \n \nTo turn an mp3 file back into sound, reverse the process. Reverse the mp3 techniques to create a .wav -type file, send those numbers to a Digital to Analog Converter chip (DAC), and send the resulting voltage waveform to a speaker (probably using an amplifier first to make it louder). Voila!",
"Sound is moving (oscillating) air, moved by a speaker. The speaker is moved by an electromagnet driven by an amplifier. The amplifier gets it's signal from a digital to analog converter. The the audio file is a series of digital numbers that feed that converter. \n\nAt each step, it's a pretty direct translation. The alternating current electricity drives the speaker position to the same magnitude and frequency. The sound file stores those series of positions.\n\nThe whole thing works in reverse for recording from a microphone. Hope that helps"
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[
"http://valleyadvocate.com/blogs/gallery/Digital%20sampling.jpg",
"http://www1.icsi.berkeley.edu/Speech/mr/images/PZM_waveform.gif"
],
[]
] |
||
212s40
|
How much do we really know about the Roman Kingdom (and the founding of the city)?
|
I've seen articles calling Romulus, Numa Pompilius and the other kings 'legendary'; how much do we know (or rather, suspect) about the Kingdom of Rome? Did a man called Romulus probably exist, was the Rape of the Sabine Women real or a myth, and was the expulsion of Tarquinius Superbus an actual event? Most importantly, beyond Livy, what are our most extant sources on the period?
|
AskHistorians
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/212s40/how_much_do_we_really_know_about_the_roman/
|
{
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"EDIT: [Much more detailed response](_URL_0_).\n\nThis is very much an open question. Twenty years ago, at least in English language scholarship, the answer would have been practically nothing, or at least nothing worth mentioning. However, my understanding is that in the past decades scholars such as TJ Cornell in his *Beginnings of Rome* have done a great deal to argue that legitimate historical information could have been passed down to the Republican annalists, and thus to Livy, through oral tradition, temple records, dedicatory inscriptions and the like, and focusing on institutional development. The argument is academic in the most mind numbingly literal sense of the word, and I may as well note that I lean skeptical.\n\nArchaeology can fill some gaps but it asks and answers fundamentally different questions than history. The sixth century sees a great development in urbanization and extra-communal exchange, including a great deal of Hellenic material. Rome's introduction to Greece is often given to the mid Republic, but in reality it was part of Italy and thus part of its emerging interconnectedness with the wider Mediterranean. But absent an inscription saying TARQUIN WUZ HERE it is unlikely your questions will get definitive answers.",
"The two main sources that provide us with the backbone of the “traditional” narrative of early Roman history are Livy and Dionysus of Halicarnassus, two historians of the 1st century BC. We might want to add Plutarch's *Lifes of Numa Pompilius* and *Romulus*. A speech of the emperor Claudius also retains other kernels of tradition. Intensive efforts of *Quellenforschung* have shown that they probably had earlier sources, but that these sources were still remote from the events they purported to describe; Claudius, however, may have taken into account Etruscan traditions that could have been less biased than Roman ones. Therefore, a very important element we have to take into account is the very strong tendency of oral tradition to be utterly reshaped, even in a short period of time; keeping trace of legendary and historical elements over the course of one century is all but impossible; it becomes almost preposterous over at least two (?) centuries (if we admit that later accounts are faithful reproductions of the earliest possible accounts, such as that of Diocles of Peparethus; it is obviously not the case, unfortunately, since there are differences between the versions of Livy and Dionysus). Another problem is Greek meddling: Greek historians and Greek historiographical tradition have influenced Roman history at a very early stage, and contamination by alien considerations is quite likely. Then we have, of course, archæology; but it has a tendency not to answer the same questions as the literary material.\n\nThere is probably not much we can salvage about Romulus himself; his very name is obviously etiological, i.e. it was made up to explain Rome's name, not the other way around. However, the *elements* of his myths correspond to beliefs held by the people who “created” them (then of course, to return to my preliminary objection, if these people are Greeks, the information becomes less useful). For instance, the “rape of the Sabine Women” is a myth of intermarriage; for the Graeco-Romans in general, saying that two people had intermarried at some point in history was a way of explaining what they perceived to be cultural mixity. Undoubtedly, the Romans acknowledged some Sabine contributions (for instance the god Quirinus, even though this is doubted by some modern historians on the basis of linguisitic considerations) to their culture. What does it mean in practical terms? Well, we don't really know: it may just have been that the Romans felt more Sabine/Umbrian than other Latin people because of trade… or something that we cannot even suspect. The same can be said of the idea that Rome had an Alban origin. Some more “literal” interpretations tried to see in Romulus' story the vestige of *ver sacrum* foundation (*i.e.* a sacred migration of young men, practised in the Umbrian world); though I don't think many historians would endorse it today, some may acknowledge that it was a literary influence. I am not telling you that any of these possibilities is better than the other (not that I have the authority to do so); the important thing is to understand the process through which scholars can try to identify that something is legendary, then why *this* legendary motif was chosen, and which reality it could, maybe, have represented.\n\nThe same can be said of the kings in general: depending on how you choose to treat the remaining evidence, your views on this period of the history of Rome may be very different. Was there really a Tarquin dynasty? Or maybe they were just *condottiere* among others. Did Servius Tullius really reform? Maybe—but did he do everything he is said to have done, or have, as is often the case, later changes been grafted on a “catch-all” figure? In fact, with regard to the literary material of this type, guidelines tend to be the same: is something too “good” to be true? (i.e. seven kings ruling for 250 years) Then it is probably invented. Does it have a clear literary, political purpose? (i.e. the fact that Rome was founded on a single occasion) Then it should be doubted. Is something explained awkwardly because it does not fit with the whole picture? (i.e. Servius Tullius' servile birth) Then it may be true, or at least have some truth in it. The only problem is that of course, depending on your readiness to believe these accounts, your answer may be very different. However, be reassured: historians feel just the same.\n\n/e /u/Tiako definitely has a gift for clarity and concision.",
"It's really hard to say because we do not have that much factual evidence from the early founding of the city. What we have instead are mostly legends and stories. However, from these we can sort of piece together what is actually fact. Two good sources for this are Livy and Dionysius. Both go into detail of some of these legends. Livy, especially is especially key to look at because he makes note that some of these stories may not be completely correct and that there are different version of the same story. Pretty much, every story and legend has to be taken with a grain of salt and can not be considered completely factual, although some aspects may be true."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[
"http://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/212s40/how_much_do_we_really_know_about_the_roman/cg96chd"
],
[],
[]
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|
lkqis
|
- what essentially is going on with the nba lockout?
|
Information regarding present status of the lockout, also past articles/information would be helpful to put a timeline on the events.
|
explainlikeimfive
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/lkqis/eli5_what_essentially_is_going_on_with_the_nba/
|
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"text": [
"players want 54 percent I believe, owners only want them to have 50. Fuck both of them they make too much money to be bitching anyway. I'm from Chicago and as soon as we start to have a championship caliber team the NBA goes outta fucking business. fuck that.",
"Owners are complaining that they lost $300M last year, even though the NBA overall had one of its best years ever. That makes them think they're on the short end of the stick.\n\nPart of this is happening because the owners are (by their own will and doing) overpaying players. There is a lot of competition within the league to land limited resource (i.e. talent) each off season - basic supply and demand. When a few mid-level talents come out as the best options for teams to upgrade in that particular off season (i.e. not the best player, but the best FA available at the time), they draw big salaries as a team's only choice to improve. This is how players like Rashard Lewis end up making more money than LeBron James, Dirk Nowitzki or Dwight Howard. Oh, they also get really long contracts which often leads to this pattern: first year of a contract = play hard and show you're worth it; middle 3-4 years = slack off, maybe get chubby; last year = play hard to get a sexy, new contract (see Baron Davis, Eddie Curry or young Z-Bo). This makes it even harder to swallow / manage a team around because, once a player under performs, teams go out looking for more talent to get them some wins, which means more crazy contracts on top of the crazy deal they just signed 2 years ago.\n\nSo, the NBA owners think player contracts are out of control and the owners are getting the short of the stick. NBA players think they're just not at fault because each off season, there's at least one idiot willing to give it to them. In negotiations, the player's job is to get maximum wage and the owner's job is to make sure they don't over pay or sink their team into one player's wallet. Players think their only fault is signing the crazy contracts that owners were offering. This leads to a lot of finger pointing because if someone is willing to pay you $10M per year, you're gonna take it - even if everyone knows you're actually worth about $4M. Now, the owners are looking for a new CBA to save them from themselves and the players are trying to make sure the market doesn't crash so their next contract isn't cut to half of their last one.\n\nSo, the owners think they players are making more than they should. This makes the owners look for other ways to compensate for the lost dollars, since they can't just erase Rashard Lewis' contract when they realize he's not worth it / not performing at a level that justifies the money. This is why there is a battle over who gets more of the ~50/50 revenue split. Owners want more because they're losing money on these crazy deals and think the players are taking advantage of them. Players want more because they bring in the money and feel they haven't done anything wrong. Even beyond the star players, the NBA is driven by faces, not helmets, so the individuals performing are important - and they know that. People will watch all-star exhibitions and Olympics games because the jerseys change but the individuals are still fun to watch.\n\nSo, now we have a lockout. You'll hear from the players that they want to keep playing ball but the owners have locked them out (the owners own the gym, equipment, training facility, etc so they can do that). In some ways, they're holding the league hostage until they get what they want. In other ways, they don't want to run a business that loses money. Unfortunately, they can't just extend the old CBA for one year and keep playing ball until this is worked out (great idea, Melo, really) so we have to deal with a lot of bickering and worthless chatter until it gets resolved.\n\nThe real downside of this, as an NBA fan, is that last year was AMAZING. Compelling story lines throughout the season. Great matchups regularly. Pretty much every playoff series was engaging. The Finals? Don't get me started. So instead of coming back to build on that momentum, we have this - a dead stop. People complaining about paychecks (for many people, the worst part of the sport) and Blake Griffin isn't dunking on anyone (for many people, the best part of the sport). It's a sad situation but hopefully it'll get worked out by Christmas and we'll have basketball after the NFL season wraps up.\n\n**TL;DR: Owners are writing crazy contracts. Players are happy to take the big money if it's being offered. Owners lost money last year because they overpaid players. Now the owners are trying to save themselves from themselves.**",
"players want 54 percent I believe, owners only want them to have 50. Fuck both of them they make too much money to be bitching anyway. I'm from Chicago and as soon as we start to have a championship caliber team the NBA goes outta fucking business. fuck that.",
"Owners are complaining that they lost $300M last year, even though the NBA overall had one of its best years ever. That makes them think they're on the short end of the stick.\n\nPart of this is happening because the owners are (by their own will and doing) overpaying players. There is a lot of competition within the league to land limited resource (i.e. talent) each off season - basic supply and demand. When a few mid-level talents come out as the best options for teams to upgrade in that particular off season (i.e. not the best player, but the best FA available at the time), they draw big salaries as a team's only choice to improve. This is how players like Rashard Lewis end up making more money than LeBron James, Dirk Nowitzki or Dwight Howard. Oh, they also get really long contracts which often leads to this pattern: first year of a contract = play hard and show you're worth it; middle 3-4 years = slack off, maybe get chubby; last year = play hard to get a sexy, new contract (see Baron Davis, Eddie Curry or young Z-Bo). This makes it even harder to swallow / manage a team around because, once a player under performs, teams go out looking for more talent to get them some wins, which means more crazy contracts on top of the crazy deal they just signed 2 years ago.\n\nSo, the NBA owners think player contracts are out of control and the owners are getting the short of the stick. NBA players think they're just not at fault because each off season, there's at least one idiot willing to give it to them. In negotiations, the player's job is to get maximum wage and the owner's job is to make sure they don't over pay or sink their team into one player's wallet. Players think their only fault is signing the crazy contracts that owners were offering. This leads to a lot of finger pointing because if someone is willing to pay you $10M per year, you're gonna take it - even if everyone knows you're actually worth about $4M. Now, the owners are looking for a new CBA to save them from themselves and the players are trying to make sure the market doesn't crash so their next contract isn't cut to half of their last one.\n\nSo, the owners think they players are making more than they should. This makes the owners look for other ways to compensate for the lost dollars, since they can't just erase Rashard Lewis' contract when they realize he's not worth it / not performing at a level that justifies the money. This is why there is a battle over who gets more of the ~50/50 revenue split. Owners want more because they're losing money on these crazy deals and think the players are taking advantage of them. Players want more because they bring in the money and feel they haven't done anything wrong. Even beyond the star players, the NBA is driven by faces, not helmets, so the individuals performing are important - and they know that. People will watch all-star exhibitions and Olympics games because the jerseys change but the individuals are still fun to watch.\n\nSo, now we have a lockout. You'll hear from the players that they want to keep playing ball but the owners have locked them out (the owners own the gym, equipment, training facility, etc so they can do that). In some ways, they're holding the league hostage until they get what they want. In other ways, they don't want to run a business that loses money. Unfortunately, they can't just extend the old CBA for one year and keep playing ball until this is worked out (great idea, Melo, really) so we have to deal with a lot of bickering and worthless chatter until it gets resolved.\n\nThe real downside of this, as an NBA fan, is that last year was AMAZING. Compelling story lines throughout the season. Great matchups regularly. Pretty much every playoff series was engaging. The Finals? Don't get me started. So instead of coming back to build on that momentum, we have this - a dead stop. People complaining about paychecks (for many people, the worst part of the sport) and Blake Griffin isn't dunking on anyone (for many people, the best part of the sport). It's a sad situation but hopefully it'll get worked out by Christmas and we'll have basketball after the NFL season wraps up.\n\n**TL;DR: Owners are writing crazy contracts. Players are happy to take the big money if it's being offered. Owners lost money last year because they overpaid players. Now the owners are trying to save themselves from themselves.**"
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[],
[],
[]
] |
|
u22qr
|
and new to reddit, what is circle jerk?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/u22qr/eli5_and_new_to_reddit_what_is_circle_jerk/
|
{
"a_id": [
"c4rocj5",
"c4roocn"
],
"score": [
11,
6
],
"text": [
"A circle jerk is when a group of guys get together in a circle, and jerk off the guy next to/in front of them. Everyone is jerking someone else off.\n\nA reddit circle jerk would be a sub-reddit where members post the same tired un-original content but everyone upvotes everything. Everyone jerks each other off by passing karma around even though it is often lacking content.\n\nMany people would say /r/atheism is a prime example.",
"Are you asking, what is a circlejerk in general, or what is /r/circlejerk ?\n\nPeople seemed to like the ELI5 explanation I gave here to the answer of what a circlejerk is: _URL_0_\n\nAs for /r/circlejerk, it's a place where you post parody threads that are phrased in such a way as to gain a lot of upvotes by playing into Reddit's biases. Right now, for instance, there's a thread in /r/circlejerk called \"I know I'll be downvoted for this, but could I have some upvotes for an opinion that I share with the majority?\" This is because many Reddit posts seem to try and curry favor by saying they feel they might get downvotes, and of course a Reddit post that endorses the majority opinion has a good chance of getting upvoted."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[
"http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/sx8si/eli5_what_a_circlejerk_is_and_why_its_bad/"
]
] |
||
eqgcnr
|
Does anybody know what kind of military jacket this is?
|
AskHistorians
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/eqgcnr/does_anybody_know_what_kind_of_military_jacket/
|
{
"a_id": [
"ferytdo"
],
"score": [
5
],
"text": [
"That’s a German military uniform jacket, circa 1900. There’s a [reference](_URL_0_) to it being specifically for a Württemberg military court counsel."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[
"https://www.alamy.com/an-officers-uniform-jacket-military-court-counsel-uniform-jacket-for-a-wrttemberg-military-court-counsel-of-fine-dark-blue-cloth-with-red-piping-circa-1900-the-collar-and-cuffs-with-silver-braid-and-green-velvet-lining-silver-buttons-straps-for-epaulettes-loops-for-orders-clasps-tailor-tag-deutscher-offizier-verein-berlin-dark-green-silk-lining-minimally-used-and-in-beautiful-condition-wuerttemberg-wurttemberg-wrttemberg-southern-germany-the-south-of-germany-south-german-object-objects-stills-clipping-clippings-cut-ou-additional-rights-clearance-info-not-available-image247673290.html"
]
] |
||
10cze0
|
Not including today, where and when would be the best place to live historically in terms of living conditions and general well-being?
|
AskHistorians
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/10cze0/not_including_today_where_and_when_would_be_the/
|
{
"a_id": [
"c6celq3"
],
"score": [
7
],
"text": [
"Any European court during the mid 1700s was extremely comfortable, especially Versailles. If you were born c. 1700 then Versailles was guaranteed to offer a full life of worry-free spending, gambling, partying and generally being cut off from the peasantry. That, and the fact the Enlightenment had a lot of sway and you could easily be conversing with philosophers whenever you wanted. "
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[]
] |
||
1aczg9
|
why do video's filmed in 720p looks so much better viewed in 360p than video's filmed at 360p do at the same resolution?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1aczg9/eli5why_do_videos_filmed_in_720p_looks_so_much/
|
{
"a_id": [
"c8w88l7"
],
"score": [
3
],
"text": [
"It's called oversampling. Basically, if you capture way more digital data than you need, then throw most of it away with math, you end up with a much nicer result than if you only captured as much data as you intend to keep in the first place."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[]
] |
||
fbg8bl
|
we can inject fat and silicon into body parts like lips, boobs, and butts to make them bigger and fuller; why can’t we do the same for penises?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/fbg8bl/eli5_we_can_inject_fat_and_silicon_into_body/
|
{
"a_id": [
"fj43yhy",
"fj47vtx"
],
"score": [
3,
3
],
"text": [
"Boobs are mostly fat, not functional tissue. The actual milk producing parts don't make up much of the overall size so when you want to add size, you just add filler. Butts are the same way, it's mostly muscle and fat so just add more filler.\n\nThe penis however is mostly blood. The reason a penis gets hard is because your body pumps blood to it and then regulates how easy it is for the blood to leave, thus swelling up. Because the majority of the penis is this type of tissue (the spongy body and the cavernous bodies) you can't just add filler to make it bigger.\n\nIf the penis was mostly fat with the urethra in the middle we could do exactly what you're saying, but in that case it couldn't ever get hard, it'd just be the consistency of boobs.",
"I’ve seen a video on a nsfw sub of some dude who did this. Literally it was so messed up man. Apparently he was like a “sub” to this dude who’s known for making people submit to him and they’ve died because of him, it’s a whole story but I forgot the name"
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[]
] |
||
ditrxo
|
Did anyone challenge Henry Tudor for the Lancastrian claim to the English throne?
|
Henry Tudor's claim to the English throne is famously weak, and was obviously opposed by the House of York, but was there any opposition to him from Lancastrians? And more specifically, as it seems to me the Lancastrian claim should have passed to Philippa of Lancaster's descendants, was there any push for a member of the Portuguese royal House de Avis to take the English throne?
|
AskHistorians
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/ditrxo/did_anyone_challenge_henry_tudor_for_the/
|
{
"a_id": [
"f400pnm"
],
"score": [
5
],
"text": [
"The answer is a pretty straight forward no. By the time that Henry Tudor was making his play to take the throne from Richard, he was the senior legitimate claimant from the House of Lancaster following the death of Henry VI and his children, was invested in the conflict, and was backed by France and most of the remaining Lancastrians both in exile and in England. Simply put, there was really no one else for Lancastrians to rally behind anyone else. Though technically the claims from the House of Aviz or the House of Trastamara (Castile) were stronger, neither of them were in any position to make good on those claims when Henry did. Portugal and Castile had engaged in a war in the latter half of the 1470s and Isabella of Castile was far more focused on consolidating her throne, reforming her kingdom, and completing the Reconquista than pursuing potential conquests in England. She was also already married, leaving her without the prospect of a marriage to a British noble to further secure any potential control over the throne in the event of a military conquest. Similarly, John II of Portugal was too concerned with bringing his own nobility in line and expanding the overseas holdings of Portugal in Africa to turn around and attempt to make good on the English throne. Its doubtful John II would'v even had the necessary resources and/or clout to rally the Lancastrians and follow through with an attempt at conquest without seriously jeopardizing the position of Portugal. Not to mention that neither Isabella or John were actually English, which would've made it even harder for them to rally the Lancastrians, especially when someone like Henry Tudor still existed. \n\n\nSources:\n\n**Henry VII; The Maligned Tudor King** \\- Terry Breverton \n**Elizabeth of York; The First Tudor Queen** \\- Alison Weir \n**A Short History of Henry the Seventh** \\- James Gairdner"
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[]
] |
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