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3bq5zy
|
if the shortest distance between two points is a straight line between them, then why do airplane trajectories appear curved when view on a screen ? does the earth's curvature make it appear this way or do other factors play in on this ?
|
ELI5: If the shortest distance between two points is a straight line between them, then why do airplane trajectories appear curved when viewed on a screen ? Does the earth's curvature make it appear this way or do other factors play in on this ?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3bq5zy/eli5_if_the_shortest_distance_between_two_points/
|
{
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5
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"text": [
"The easiest way to answer this question is with a globe and a piece of string. Get both and see what happens.",
"Sometimes it does just appear they are curved. Such as going across the pond, it looks more curved because the earth is round. If you could flatten it out(without warping) it would be straighter.\n\nAlso, winds play a part in the route as well. The most direct route is always a straight line, but that doesn't mean it's always the fastest or most fuel efficient route. Headwinds play a major part. I've planned flights where going a less direct route saves 30 plus minutes and a bunch of gas.\n\n\nSource: I am a flight planner. \n\n\nEDIT: words"
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[]
] |
|
4vleaj
|
are we sure all elements heavier than iron are made in supernovae?
|
I was watching a show on high energy physics, and I realized we build particle accelerators to simulate cosmic rays basically...
Now, we make artificial elements like Californium by bombarding a relatively large nucleus with smaller ones hoping that some stick together long enough to measure
Wouldn't the same process occur naturally in space? Given the amount of radiation wouldn't this result in a significant portion of heavier-than-iron atoms being a result of this? Are we really star stuff? Or rather are we more like the gold on the inside of nuclear reactor lead lining?
|
askscience
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/askscience/comments/4vleaj/are_we_sure_all_elements_heavier_than_iron_are/
|
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"text": [
"Whilst not a direct answer to your question, it is worth noting that the claim that all heavy elements are made in supernovae is wrong. See [this answer from our FAQ](_URL_0_) for some in-depth details on the main sources of heavy elements, with the s-process in particular being somewhat similar to your proposal (albeit not due to interstellar radiation).",
"Absolutely not. [See this earlier comment of mine for many of the doubts](_URL_0_)\n\nIn the [paper which proposed the r-process in 1957](_URL_1_) supernovae were brought up as a possibility, but only very loosely. It was essentially thrown into the ring as a possibility and at the time there were no other real ideas. It has never been strongly shown, and in the mean time neutron star collisions have emerged as a viable alternative."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[
"https://www.reddit.com/r/askscience/comments/1l99tx/how_did_elements_heavier_than_iron_form_given/"
],
[
"https://www.reddit.com/r/askscience/comments/1l99tx/how_did_elements_heavier_than_iron_form_given/cbx18lh",
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B2FH_paper"
]
] |
|
1rftay
|
Did sailors/pirates really walk bare foot on wooden ships? Wouldn't they get stubbed toe's and splinters very fast, especially after and during battles?
|
AskHistorians
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/1rftay/did_sailorspirates_really_walk_bare_foot_on/
|
{
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"text": [
"Shoes were expensive, and sailors were supplying their own clothing. In the British Royal Navy sailors had pay deducted even for canvas pants. So there was a real incentive to keep shoes for special occasions (such as exchanging them for rum at a tavern). \n\nSoles of the feet can become calloused and somewhat impervious to splinters pretty fast. ",
"Yes they would go without shoes.\n\nThe decks on a ship were quite well worn, sanded, pitched and sealed. Additionally, bare feet also were good for climbing rigging as well.\n\nAs for worrying about stubbed toes and splinters. You're thinking very modern first world....\n\nFeet that aren't protected by nice thick socks and leather or rubber soled shoes callous up quite well, allowing one to walk over sharp gravel, glass, coral, hot sand, on and on. The bottom of the feet quickly take on the feel and toughness of the pads on a dogs paw. You can easily run a pin through the callouses with no pain or bleeding.\n"
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[]
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||
1rzsis
|
Seattle set decibel record. Why are multiple people louder than a single person?
|
Last night (December 2nd) [Seattle took back the Guinness World Record](_URL_0_) for crowd decibel level. What makes a group of people louder the more individuals contained in that group? Is there a limit to how loud a crowd can get given no limit to the number of individuals?
|
askscience
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/askscience/comments/1rzsis/seattle_set_decibel_record_why_are_multiple/
|
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"text": [
"Because sound waves obey the [superposition principle](_URL_0_). Two waves are added on top of each other to produce a new wave with a larger or smaller amplitude. In the case of uncorrelated waves, the spatial average of this effect is that the squared amplitude of the total disturbance just scales linearly with the number of people, like you'd expect. \n\nThe sound would not increase indefinitely by adding more people. If you imagine an infinite number of screaming people on an infinitely large field, the sound pressure field would behave exactly like the electric field in the vicinity of a [capacitor](_URL_1_), since both follow an inverse-square law. The loudness would reach a limit, but interestingly enough if you add enough people the noise levels you'd detect would not depend appreciably on your height above the field! (EDIT: didn't read the linked article - this doesn't count in a stadium of course!)\n\nThere is a second reason why the sound levels would be limited, which is that there is a theoretical maximum amplitude for sound waves at atmospheric pressure, which occurs when the minimum of the wave hits zero pressure. You would never actually run into this, since it happens at roughly 194 dB."
]
}
|
[] |
[
"http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nfl-shutdown-corner/seahawks-back-guinness-world-record-crowd-noise-137-030804215--nfl.html"
] |
[
[
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superposition_principle",
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capacitor"
]
] |
|
3998rk
|
what happens when a ski lift breaks down? how does everyone get off safely?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3998rk/eli5_what_happens_when_a_ski_lift_breaks_down_how/
|
{
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"text": [
"Well when it happened to me, we just sat there annoyed until it was fixed. But a ski lift is essentially a giant conveyor belt, so there's probably a way to rotate it mechanically without power. "
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[]
] |
||
tboho
|
What happens to a frictionless pendulum that is set swinging in a vacuum?
|
My flatmate and i have been discussing (arguing) this for some time and all google results seem to conflict each other.
So, would the pendulum come a vertical rest or swing indefinitely?
Note, I understand the idea of a frictionless pendulum is laughable...
|
askscience
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/askscience/comments/tboho/what_happens_to_a_frictionless_pendulum_that_is/
|
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"text": [
"If it's actually frictionless, it will oscillate into eternity.",
"Given no force acts on the pendulum, it will continue to oscillate forever. \nAs it swings back and forth, its energy is transferred from kinetic energy to potential energy. If no force acts on the system, the total energy will remain constant, and it will continue swinging.",
"Wouldn't planetary orbits be about as close as you can get to having a frictionless pendulum in a vacuum?",
"Are you assuming there is no gravity? Because gravity is the force that keeps it in motion. If there is no gravity and it is frictionless, the end of the pendulum will stay where you put it. If you push it yourself it would continue spinning around the center. "
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
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|
1s6x2h
|
The form of astrology seen in present-day newspapers was invented in 1930, but "astrology" in general is much older than this. What was astrology like in Europe in 1900? In 1500?
|
The form of astrology seen in most daily papers today was invented in August of 1930 by Englishman R H Naylor. He wrote a horoscope for Princess Margaret to celebrate her birth; it was published in the *Sunday Express* and garnered so much interest that Naylor started writing a regular column for the public. His method was imitated the world over and spawned the (still current) fad of sun-sign astrology.
[More info on Naylor here.](_URL_0_)
But "astrology" in general predates 1930, surely. How was it practised in the immediate 100 - 500 years before Naylor came along? How popular was it? Etc.
Note: I'm aware that "astrology" comes from Babylonia and was filtered through Ptolemy, etc. I just want to know what everyday astrology was like immediately before Naylor's invention of the current type.
|
AskHistorians
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/1s6x2h/the_form_of_astrology_seen_in_presentday/
|
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"Well, I can't tell you what day-to-day astrology was like for the average person, but I can tell you *something* about astrology in the 17th century. [This](_URL_0_) is a nocturnal. Basically, you can use it to tell you what time it is using the stars, and a rough idea of your position.\n\nThat particular nocturnal is from *La Belle*, a French ship of new world colonization. On it, there are the zodiacal constellations, set up for astrology rather than navigation. There are references on a couple other French nocturnals to lucky and unlucky days to voyage, and it may be that that's why *La Belle*'s nocturnal has the astrological calendar on it. In any case, it was important enough to the navigator that commissioned it to have it included on their custom-designed navigational equipment.",
"Personal horoscopes already existed in the 1500's. Astrology was a big driver for advances in astronomy.\n\nMy favorite example is when Tycho Brahe wrote a huge (I think some 70 page) horoscope for the newly born danish prince. The first 20 pages were the exact star charts, and position of the planets in constellations at the moment of Christian's birth. And therefore the reasoning behind the following horoscope.\n\nThere was also a disclamer that if the royal clocks were as much as eight minutes off the whole thing was just a useless paperweight.\n\nJohannes Kepler was also known for his accurate horoscopes. In addition to personal ones, when he was the district mathematician of Graz (exact title may be different) he added a horoscope for the town in his yearly almanac. Things like when/if and from where the Turks would attack that year, crop failure, harsh/mild winter, that kind of thing. Which was more akin to ancient Babylonian astrology (who did not have personal horoscopes and had interesting ways of side-stepping negative predictions. Their horoscope could be personal in the sense of the king, but usually was regarding the people as a whole, battles, crops etc.)\n\nKepler was noted in his youth as giving good horoscopes, so I infer that people gave personal horoscopes. I see it as more as a hobby/party trick (speculation on my part, sorry.) The \"professional\" ones were reserved for members of the various noble courts and expensive.\n\nAgain I think it's fascinating to note that astrology was a driver for astronomy (more exact observations, optics, better tools,) not vice versa. Navigation didn't have nearly that effect as a driver for precision in star charts. The only other driver that comes close was for data gathering to fit one theory or another (Kepler's elliptical orbits, heliocentricism etc.) if you have sloppy data more mathematical theories \"work\" (like geocentricism, wrong theories of planetary motion, what a supernova is, etc.)"
]
}
|
[] |
[
"http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/196242/Horoscopes-Tales-of-the-expected"
] |
[
[
"http://nautarch.tamu.edu/cmac/reports/report2/images/image303.jpg"
],
[]
] |
|
7fdmdk
|
how do tv commercials work?
|
Is there a guy in a room somewhere picking them? Why do some only last a split second? Why are there sometimes 2 or three in the same break? How is the length normally set? Who picks them ? Etc
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/7fdmdk/elif_how_do_tv_commercials_work/
|
{
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"text": [
"Basically companies pay the channels to place their ads. However (I don't know the exact rates) but the cost is dependent on the length of your ad, and the time it shows. So an ad that runs at a time where the channel generally has a lot of views could cost a lot more than an ad of the same length running at like 1am. Anyways different companies have different advertising budgets so that explains the different lengths. And in terms of who places the ads in their different time slots, I think that's also paid for by the companies. \n\nBasically companies pay to fill in the blank spaces on a channels schedule.",
"TV commercials are bought and placed into \"slots\" during regular programming. For instance, Doritos or Pepsi or whoever can choose to buy a slot that's open in the middle of a broadcast of CSI or whatever show. Typically companies do a lot of demographic research to see what their target consumer watches (sugary cereals usually slot their ads into kids TV shows, that's an easy example). \n\n\nLikewise, length varies, but ads can be a few seconds up to 15 or 30, typically. The \"split second\" ads that only blink on your screen are probably just glitches, bits and pieces that didn't quite get slotted in correctly OR it's interference from another channel. \n\n\nEDIT: regular network TV shows are generally a half hour or a full hour - a \"half hour\" show is typically 21-23 minutes while a \"full hour\" is roughly 48 minutes. This is standardized so networks can consistently produce their shows. Whatever time is left, that 7 or 9 or 12 minutes, is broken into 3 or 4 ad breaks, and those breaks can be split into segments of 15, 30, however many seconds and then sold to advertisers."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
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|
229wwk
|
What exactly happened in Waco in 1993? Why was the incident so controversial?
|
AskHistorians
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/229wwk/what_exactly_happened_in_waco_in_1993_why_was_the/
|
{
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"text": [
"It was a government raid that ended up with many civilian deaths including women (some pregnant) and children. The ATF and FBI were heavily armed with military equipment (Helicopters, tanks, .50 caliber sniper rifles) and it seemed to some people that they had intended to kill the Branch Davidians at Waco. \n\nThey were there to affect a warrant for weapons charges. The Branch Davidians fought to keep them at bay and a fire started on the compound. The government claimed that the cultists started the fire themselves. \n\nWhatever you believe, 76 people died which is tremendous when you think about it. There's never really been a law enforcement raid that's been so badly botched before. It really shook a lot of people's faith in the government. "
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[]
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||
225qxr
|
Why were the Jim Crow laws named after "Jim Crow"?
|
title
|
AskHistorians
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/225qxr/why_were_the_jim_crow_laws_named_after_jim_crow/
|
{
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"text": [
"The term \"Jim Crow\" originated from minstrel shows from the 19th century that featured blackface comedy. A song called \"Jim Crow\" was written by Thomas Darthmouth Rice, who was a struggling actor who became extremely popular through the simple composition. Other characters such as Jim Dandy and Zip Coon were inspired by this racist stereotype of the black people of American society.\n\nThe influence of the minstrel shows grew rapidly in Southern society but lost national popularity during the rise of radio. The racial stereotype of a \"Jim Crow\" black stuck around the time that Jim Crow laws were instituted, which was around the 1880's. The idea of a lazy, stupid, and inferior black man was a popular idea that was used to describe the harmful system."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[]
] |
|
6h29vb
|
Why are such a high percentage of Taiwanese Aborigines Christian (~70%) compared to Taiwan in general (~4%)?
|
AskHistorians
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/6h29vb/why_are_such_a_high_percentage_of_taiwanese/
|
{
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"text": [
"[This Chinese language article from Fu-jen University on the history of missionary work in Taiwan](_URL_0_) answers the question well. I'll list the main points of the article below.\n\nMissionary work in Taiwan began as early as the 16th century by both Catholic and Protestant missionaries. Spanish missionaries began arriving from the Philippines in 1619 but in 1626 Spain established a foothold in the north of Taiwan and started converting the local population. The Dutch arrived at about the same time and were active around the Tainan area, in the south. The Dutch drove the Spanish out of Taiwan in 1642, but were themselves driven out by Koxinga in 1661. Most converts at this time were plains aborigines, nations which no longer exist, having been destroyed or assimilated into the Han population that started arriving with the Europeans as labourers and later with Koxinga. We have surviving copies of the Siraya translation of the Gospel of Matthew from this period, made by the Dutch.\n\nLater Taiwan was annexed by the Qing Empire, and a second wave of missionary activity began after the Opium Wars that opened Qing China to Western missionary activity. That continued throughout the period of Japanese rule (1895-1945), and during the RoC era.\n\nCatholic conversion rates grew steadily after WW2, from 10900 Catholics in 1945, to over 300 thousand in 1968, but slowed significantly after that (it was still around 300 thousand in 1997). The initial growth can be attributed to the arrival of Catholics from China with the KMT after the Nationalists' loss in the Chinese Civil War, as well as conversions of the newly arrived Mainlanders and, most importantly, the Formosan aboriginal people embracing Christianity, who represented a third of all Catholics in Taiwan despite constituting only 2% of the total population.\n\nLikewise, the Protestant conversion rates were high from the end of the war until the mid 60s, but did pick up somewhat after the mid 70s, growing to a total of 422 thousand believers spread across 52 different denominations, with the Presbyterian Church and True Jesus Church being the biggest. The Protestant churches concentrated their missionary activity in the mountains (Formosan aboriginal nations territory) from 1945-1960, and after that started working mostly with the Min-nan majority (missionary work among the Hakka was largely unsuccessful).\n\nThe comparative lack of converts among the Min-nan and Hakka peoples is explained by a very strong connection to Sinitic and Buddhist religious tradition and their stable position in Taiwan, as well as a growing trend of urbanization. Aboriginal people, on the other hand, were marginalized, had disparate religious beliefs (there are 16 officially recognized nations now, and most had their own religious traditions before converting), and lived in remote mountainous areas. Proportionally speaking, a very large number of two main minority groups converted to Christianity: the Formosan aboriginal peoples and the Mainlanders (who came to Taiwan with the KMT in 1949 or after). Conversion rates slowed down significantly in the 60s because by then the largest pool of new converts -- the Formosan aboriginal nations -- were already largely Christian.\n\nEdit: grammer."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[
"http://scholar.fju.edu.tw/%E8%AA%B2%E7%A8%8B%E5%A4%A7%E7%B6%B1/upload/037680/content/981/G-9050-17693-.doc"
]
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||
7c5uaa
|
; does fibromyalgia really have a cure?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/7c5uaa/eli5_does_fibromyalgia_really_have_a_cure/
|
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"[Disciplinary Actions against Michael Platt, M.D. \n](_URL_0_)\n\nHe isn't a doctor anymore due to \"negligence, incompetence, and inadequate record-keeping\". So I'm just going to disregard his \"alternative medicine\" views on fibromyalgia.\n\nIt is bullshit.",
"It's definitely an oversimplification. The cause of fibromyalgia is not known but doctors generally agree that it is a combination of genetic and environmental influences. It is not exclusively caused by anger, but also stress and depression, lack of sleep, or poor diet. Some of these things can be fixed, some can not very easily. The cause varies with people, and so do the treatments. Some people may be helped with this natural medication and anger management, while others may benefit more from pain relievers, some may benefit from cognitive-behavioral therapy. If only we could just get of the sources of anger in our lives, wouldn't that be a thing.",
"This doesn't exactly fit with the ELI5 sub. Short of a response directly from one of the authors, I don't see how anyone can directly respond to the paper explaining the authors hypothesis.\n\nThat being said, my opinion is that it's snake oil. My wife has FM, and she doesn't harbor any anger at all. She's stressful all the time, sure, but no anger. \n\nFibromyalgia is hard to diagnose, simply because no direct test exists. The doctor has to eliminate all other known causes they can test for before resulting to a diagnosis of fibromyalgia.\n\nYou may also want to do some background research on Michael E. Platt, MD. Seems like he has surrendered his medical license after a few lawsuits accused him of medical malpractice."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[
"https://www.casewatch.org/board/med/platt/complaint.shtml"
],
[],
[]
] |
||
7afy8x
|
Why were early probes - namely Pioneers 10 and 11, Voyagers 1 and 2, as well as the more recent New Horizons - not placed in an orbit around their target bodies and instead performed only a fly-by?
|
I can understand the the desire for an interstellar mission or two passing through the solar system first, but why did NASA officials not want to use those probes around Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto in the same way that Juno is to Jupiter and Cassini was to Saturn?
If I had to venture a guess, I would guess that either the spacecraft was not designed to orbit a planet, either lacking the scientific or the mechanical capability. Also, the amount of propellant required to "slow down" to a parking/science orbit from the large amout of delta-v required to reach the planet in the first place would be too large.
|
askscience
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/askscience/comments/7afy8x/why_were_early_probes_namely_pioneers_10_and_11/
|
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"At that distance, you have to worry about how much fuel you would have to bring to execute a parking maneuver as you mentioned, but also how much power you are going to have. Solar panels aren’t gonna cut it that far away from the sun. So, with what power you have, you can grab a little data from a lot of planets, or a little more from just one. Plus, with all these flybys, you can build up an incredible amount of speed to get to those planets farther out, which is afaik, how we get objects past Jupiter.",
"Mostly the last point, propellant is heavy. Plus the mentioned missions often had the aim to explore multiple planets, so slowing down and reaccelerating was not really feasible within the technical constraints.",
"New Horizons was sent to Pluto at a very high speed so it would get there within a reasonable amount of time. All that excess speed means it would have had to carry at least an order of magnitude more fuel than it had to decelerate into an orbit of Pluto. I did the math once and I don't remember the actual amount but it was astonishingly high. It could have done it with much less fuel if it took a much more leisurely pace to Pluto but then it wouldn't have arrived for something like 30-40 years, when all the scientists who designed the mission would probably be retired or dead.",
"As the others said, it's hard to both get to the outer planets fast and carry enough propellant to brake once you're there.\n\nHowever, in the Voyagers' case the point was also to put into good use the rare alignment of the giant planets in the 70s and 80s which allowed a single probe to fly by and study *all* of them in a row -- the so-called Grand Tour. Voyager I ended up only visiting Jupiter and Saturn because it was directed to do a close flyby of the hitherto-mysterious Titan even though that maneuver would slingshot it out of the plane of the ecliptic."
]
}
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[] |
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[
[],
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|
jjwwu
|
why did they use biplanes then switch to
monoplanes?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/jjwwu/eli5_why_did_they_use_biplanes_then_switch_to/
|
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"Biplanes had double the wing span and therefore had (almost) double the lift. However, they also had a lot more drag (wind resistance). Back when engines were weaker, you'd need two wings to achieve lift at lower speeds. However, engines became stronger, eliminating the need for the second wing. Removing the second wing also made the plane more efficient as it had less drag.",
"Biplanes were a common design choice in early planes because the box structure of the two wings was stronger, given the materials available at the time. However, the second wing did not produce a lot of extra lift, and caused extra drag. When the materials and engineering got better, the second wing was no longer needed. \n\nSee: _URL_0_",
"In WW1, they actually pioneered tri-planes. \n\nThey were actually stupidly nimble aircraft(Biplanes), able to climb and manuever well beyond the capabilities of all but the most modern aircraft. They were just ungainly slow. \n\nA WW1 bi-plane can outmanuever a WW2 P-51 mustang. Unfortunately, is is so slow in comparison, that by the time if turns, the faster plane would be well beyond the effective range of it's guns.",
"Biplanes had double the wing span and therefore had (almost) double the lift. However, they also had a lot more drag (wind resistance). Back when engines were weaker, you'd need two wings to achieve lift at lower speeds. However, engines became stronger, eliminating the need for the second wing. Removing the second wing also made the plane more efficient as it had less drag.",
"Biplanes were a common design choice in early planes because the box structure of the two wings was stronger, given the materials available at the time. However, the second wing did not produce a lot of extra lift, and caused extra drag. When the materials and engineering got better, the second wing was no longer needed. \n\nSee: _URL_0_",
"In WW1, they actually pioneered tri-planes. \n\nThey were actually stupidly nimble aircraft(Biplanes), able to climb and manuever well beyond the capabilities of all but the most modern aircraft. They were just ungainly slow. \n\nA WW1 bi-plane can outmanuever a WW2 P-51 mustang. Unfortunately, is is so slow in comparison, that by the time if turns, the faster plane would be well beyond the effective range of it's guns."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cantilever#Aircraft"
],
[],
[],
[
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cantilever#Aircraft"
],
[]
] |
||
28kv32
|
Why did they put coins on the eyes of the dead in the old west?
|
You see this in movies and westerns. After the gunfight, the town coroner will prop the body upright in an open casket and put coins on the eyes. Did this actually happen and if so what purpose did it serve?
|
AskHistorians
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/28kv32/why_did_they_put_coins_on_the_eyes_of_the_dead_in/
|
{
"a_id": [
"cibw5ll"
],
"score": [
5
],
"text": [
"There are a lot of websites on this but none is definitive; [this one is of interest](_URL_0_). In general, we can say that the practice is widespread, functionally, as a means to keep the eyelids from snapping open after death. The coins are often fused in the popular mind with the coin placed in the mouths by the ancient Greeks, providing payment to the ferryman to cross the river into Hades. That connection may or may not be valid. What is clear is that other cultures did this before the settlement of the Old West. "
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[
"http://forums.catholic.com/showthread.php?t=441848"
]
] |
|
en1kmh
|
Do ripples travel slower upstream?
|
If I throw a rock into a calm-surfaced stream, will I see a Doppler effect in the waves produced? Will the waves going upstream move slower than the ones going downstream (and cross-stream ones)?
|
askscience
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/askscience/comments/en1kmh/do_ripples_travel_slower_upstream/
|
{
"a_id": [
"fdz3006"
],
"score": [
3
],
"text": [
"It works like you would expect. Water and sound waves propagate through a medium as atoms collide with atoms.\n\nTry the same things with light or radio waves and [you'll get some famously strange results.](_URL_0_)"
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michelson-Morley_experiment"
]
] |
|
2oc1zw
|
how come when we first mishear a lyric, it is so engrained in our minds, but once we read the correct lyric the connection is completely lost and we can't hear what we originally thought.
|
explainlikeimfive
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2oc1zw/eli5_how_come_when_we_first_mishear_a_lyric_it_is/
|
{
"a_id": [
"cmlrdm9",
"cmltprg"
],
"score": [
2,
2
],
"text": [
"I'd really like an answer to this. I have many examples of this:\n\n\"I'm balls-deep in muddy water,\" is probably my favorite.",
"Human brains try to make sense of chaos, and are highly suggestible. But once shown what is really occurring, they can follow the real pattern.\n\nTo show the level of suggestability, this clip is often used. _URL_0_\n\nIts reallyjust noise, but if you've heard it your brain picks it straight back up"
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[
"www.youtube.com/watch?v=ca6k7i8p9Oo"
]
] |
||
3p1eee
|
why are dogs not intimidated when a human snarls and shows their teeth?
|
When one of my dogs annoys the other dog, the other dog shows its teeth and growls to show him that she means business.
Yet when my son imitates the same thing, the dogs don't seem to care and just look as happy as always.
Why does the teeth bearing and growling not seem to "work" in this instance?
(Edit/Note: Child was advised that challenging either wild or domesticated animals to a duel is a poor decision)
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3p1eee/eli5_why_are_dogs_not_intimidated_when_a_human/
|
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"Dogs are hard wired to recognize the body behavior of other dogs, not humans (they do come closer than any other animal at recognizing and taking cues from humans but it still isn't as good as their ability to do so from other dogs). Also, there is a lot of other body language going on (ear position, tail position, arch of the shoulders and back, etc) besides just the noise and teeth baring at work that humans are physically incapable of reproducing.\n\nEdit: holy crap, make a quick half added paying and 24 hours later it explodes.\n\n1. I did not mean to imply that dogs are incapable of reading human visual and auditory cues. What I meant was simple snarling and barring if teeth is likely to subtle fur the dog to recognize unless they have been trained to recognize it. And remember, not all training is deliberate. For those of you where just snarling and barring teeth work you probably trained then to recognize it at some point, maybe by using more recognizable cues the first few times such as aggressively approaching, hitting, etc.\n\n2. Yes, other animals can recognize aggression in other animals. But the signs are always a lot more involved than just noise and facial expression. Physical posture, smell, movement (I.e. coming forward rather than backing up) all contribute to signaling aggression. Unless humans are truly being aggressive and subconsciously exhibiting these same cues, the dog is unlikely to recognize it.\n\n3. Yes, dogs are the best animal at recognizing human cues. Maybe cats too but cats don't care where dogs are hard wired to please humans. But they still have to be trained to understand what we mean. Unless trained (again, not all training is conscious and deliberate) they have no idea what we mean when we try to mimic their behavior.",
"I'll add that a lot of other commenters are bringing up the whole \"alpha dog\" theory of dog behavior which has [been debunked](_URL_0_) and was based on the observation of gorups of unrelated captive wolves artifically broght together in close quarters and extrapolated this aberrant behavior to apply towards all canids. Not even wild wolves behave this way, let alone domesticated dogs. Sorry so called Dog Whisperer, alpha dog theory is bunk.\n\nEdit: if I have time I'll find some real studies Monday and post them here for posterity.\n\n1. Yes, all social animals will establish some sort of hierarchy. But the alpha dog theory assumes that all canids do so through fear and intimidation. This is the part that is bunk.\n\n2. Ceasar's approach to training does work. However it works through fear and intimidation and in extreme situations is less reliable than positive reinforcement based training. So why terrorize your dog if there is another way that works better.\n\n3. Police and guard dogs may be a special case because they are trained to be dangerous. I don't know if positive reinforcement alone is enough to train a dog to attack. I'm mainly referring to pets.\n\n4. To train out negative behavior you go into training mode, introduce a situation where the dog will do the negative behavior and reward then for not doing it. Repeat, gradually rewarding for longer periods of not doing the bad behavior. I successfully trained food aggression out of my dog this way. Post to /r/dogtraining for more advise. A positive reinforcement trained dog will immediately start trying things as soon as you get the clicker out because they know you are training for new behavior. I saw a rescue trained to stand in a box on command after two sessions with clicker training. This is also the technique used to train dolphins and whales and it works with cats too. \n\n5. One general comment. With any training technique, you have to reward (or punish) within the seconds of the behavior or the dog will not make the connection.\n\n6. Generic studies of wild wolf packs have shown that it is not just the alphas that breed.\n",
"all these answer are wrong. they do. I used to work at a kennel, dogs will react to that if they don't know you. I've had dogs get mad at me for doing that to them, some dont care, some do. ",
"As a child I used to growl while walking on all fours circling our family rottweilers. They always appeared intimidated. Now, when our dog begs me while I'm eating I will growl at him. He'll turn the other way but watch me from his corner of his eye. If I keep growling he'll go away. ",
"It is about intent. A dog knows when you mean business and when you are bluffing. They are like us in that they don't want to be hurt and if you can make them believe that you are going to do more damage to them than they can do to you, the dog will back down.\n\nYour son probably doesn't have the ability to show intent behind his actions yet. It's like the difference between walking up to your dog and saying \"get on your bed\" and actually meaning it in such a way that the dog knows that if it doesn't listen, shit is gunna fly. ",
"Seriously? I'm pretty sure humans can intimidate a dog this way, but you need the right, aggressive body language. You have to act like you mean it. Are you sure your son was acting in a way that presented something a dog would recognize as serious?",
"They actually freak out and jingle away when someone can do a really convincing growl/snarl/bark combo. But shown teeth--no. Probably because humans can't tear them to shreds with them unless they're on bath salts.",
"*sigh* Okay. I have two labs and a beagle. The beagle is a little shit. Like straight up walks under happy lab's nose and eats his food. Happy Lab needs his food. He's skinny. And he's my bro. So, swatting shit beagle's snout is ineffective, putting her in a submissive position doesn't work. Spraying water doesn't work. Shrieking like pee wee Herman doesn't wotk. Snarling and showing my teeth.....works. leaves Happy Lab alone while he eats. ",
"try it with a cat, hiss, yowl and make spitting sounds...it freaks them right out. Different wiring? \n",
"I've read that you're never supposed to smile at a dog that you are trying to get to leave you alone, because they see teeth (even in humans) as a sign of aggression.",
"If I do a low growl to my dog she stops whatever behaviour she's displaying and quickly retreats to her cage. As did the male I had before her. Both South African Mastiiffs so big powerful dogs. \n\nIt's all about action and consequence. You can easily teach them that you mean business too. \n\n(and just to avoid misunderstanding, none of this was accomplished by beating the crap out of either of them) \n\nHow old is your son? If he's still young they see him as a pup and don't take him serous. This is a good thing. If he's older you should teach him to not randomly show dominant behaviour to the dogs and if he does make sure he follows through and they accept his higher place in the pack. I'm happy. To elaborate how we accomplish this with out kids if you're interested. ",
"Because they understand human behavior quite well, actually. What would you think of a human who did that to you? You'd think they'd look playful, or confused, right? Your dog probably thinks the same thing. Now if you started flexing your muscles, sighing loudly, and speaking with a frustrated, angst filled, or angry tone, they will pick up immediately.\n\nYour dog probably also isn't as intimidated by your son as it would be of a fully grown adult male, depending on how old your son is.",
"dogs are extremely good at reading body language. they can very easily tell if you're faking or authentic. they're also experienced enough with humans to understand that humans don't normally snarl and growl. they expect human behavior from humans and know that humans imitating dog behavior is just a show and not an authentic gesture.",
"Probably because the teeth do not look in the slightest bit menacing. Dogs are probably laughing at the silly human pup. \n\nHow old is your son, by the way? You probably already know and do this, but you should encourage him to avoid simulating aggressive behaviour to dogs. ",
"Is your son under 8 years old?",
"I did this to my dog with one of her toys a couple of times. The first two times I did it she took off terrified and confused (I'm assuming). It doesn't have an impact anymore. I'm guess that I don't give off enough of the other signals or confuse other body language enough that it doesn't effect her anymore. ",
"The dogs understand perfectly well that your son is not serious and does not mean business.\n\nHumans can and do intimidate dogs.",
"You have to commit to the entire body language of it.\n\nAlso, dogs are pretty good about ignoring puppy aggression in much the same way they ignore your child. ",
"Puppies snarl and bare their teeth during play too, my 1 year old dogs play that way all the time. So dog body language is a little more complicated than that. \nThat being said, dogs can learn several different human ques and words. \nFor instance, a dog may know that a furrowed brow and serious tone from their owner means they're in trouble. Or jump when you say 'walk'. Dogs recognize our body language by our actions associated with them.",
"i'm a courier and sometimes i have to intimidate aggressive dogs so i can get to the front door to leave the package. For what my experience is worth, 99 percent of dogs, even the ones that seem aggressive, will turn tail and run when a human doesnt give in to their tactics, and instead rushes them.\n",
"I think it's more that your dog knows your son and doesn't take him as a threat. Would you take a young family member snarling at you seriously? ",
"My Shiba does, I wouldn't use the word intimidated and he won't do anything if you just snarl at him randomly. The trick is you lock eyes with him when he's really chippy, ready to play energy. You can't show your hand too soon, stay locked with his eyes. Then pull the corner of your upper lip up just a little, almost so little someone looking at you wouldn't notice, then put it down. Furrow your eyebrows a bit, give him just a flash of a snarl again, then stop. Twitch your upper right lip like you're about to snarl is the sweet spot. \n\nThe whole idea is anticipation, if you hop right into trying to act like a dog and show your teeth/growling he won't do anything. But if you're really subtle and build a little bit more and more over a minute or two eventually he'll start showing his teeth, and if you keep doing it eventually he'll start barking at you and do his breakdance I want to play stance.",
"How old is your son? Puppies growl at each other when play fighting, it's possible that your dogs are just recognizing that the youngest pack member is trying out his growling skills. Dogs seem to treat children differently.",
"Um, they are. I've sure as hell intimidated several dogs by doing so. Have you considered that your son is just not intimidating? ",
"I was so stoked to get my dog as a puppy and whenever I'd see him I would smile with a huge grin of teeth. \n\nLater, he started mimicking this whenever he'd get excited meeting anyone. People were often tentative because he'd be showing his teeth, but I would have to explain that he was just smiling, and happy to see them...",
"I've looked through the top comments, and haven't seen one I would rely on. Dogs have a very keen sense of social order, and are one of, if not the only, animals that can fit in with human families. Cats I suppose, but they really only tolerate human families.\n\nBaring teeth between dogs is a challenge, but it can be part of play as well. I have two large dogs, and they can play struggle over a toy and you would think they were ready to tear each other's throat out. I would never worry about reaching in between them though.\n\nDifferent dogs and dog breeds react differently to humans they don't know and I would never growl and show my teeth to a dog I didn't know. That can be interpreted as a threat and they can react defensively.",
"Intention and consequence. A snarling human won't get much response from a dog until they snarl first, then show teeth, then start biting and chasing the dog. \n\nDogs are adapted to our body language and we don't snarl. However, if we get angry, the dog will pick up on it. If you're anxious, the dog will pick up on it. If you're fearful, the dog will pick up on it. \n\nYet if you smile with your teeth showing, the dog doesn't get the wrong meaning. If you cough, the dog doesn't get the wrong meaning. If you look the dog in the eye, it doesn't get the wrong meaning and these are all things and sounds that would show dominance or aggression coming from another dog. \n\nSome things do translate though like crouching down looking the dog intently in the eye, you're playful or am about to do something with the dog and dogs also get low and maintain eye contact when they are playing around. We don't have tails and our ears don't move so a lot of dog expressions don't work with us. \n\nI would imagine we are pretty funny looking to dogs. We stand upright. Our eyes are bright white and you can easily see where we are looking which is dazzling and an intense gaze. We don't have the right body language and we move our mouths and eyebrows and hands, instead of our ears and tail. \n\n",
"I agree with the posts referencing body posture and implied intent. If you make a quick snarl/growl at your dog while also exhibiting the correct posturing, they will know something is wrong and often assume a minimally submissive position (usually sitting). ",
"Speaking from experience from when I was a teen, if you get face to face with a dog and start growling with teeth showing, you may get bit in the face.",
"They are, if you're an intimidating human and sound like you mean it. They can tell when it's just a pup playing at it, even when it's a human pup ",
"Dogs can recognize facial expressions of humans, they just view different categories of people differently. For example, my dog DOES respond to adults snarling, but not young kids under say, 7. They can recognize the facial cues, but only recognize larger kids and adults as superior, and the kids as inferior / not scary. If yourr an adult and have a big dog, your dog may only be intimidated by say, a snarling body builder.",
"What age is your son? Your dogs probably know he's just a baby and pups tend to do that playfully.",
"I don't know what you're talking about. Dogs that know you (pets and such) aren't going to attack. But try it with one who has never seen you before then watch out.",
"Well, humans are the only ones who smile when they're happy and other animals only bare their teeth to show anger. So I think dogs have gotten use to us doing it while we're happy, making them think you're amused by whatever they were doing.",
"My dogs are definitely intimidated by this. Maybe it's not intimidated because your son is small and not intimidating.",
"They've evolved alongside us for tens of thousands of years, and have learned to recognize our facial expressions. ",
"Yeah I tried growling at my dog, he just looks at me like wtf are you doing. He understands when I am mad, but he doesn't understand when I am mad so I try to portray that by acting like a mad dog. I guess he understands humans and dogs but not humans acting like dogs. ",
"Yeah, my cousin's three-year-old did that to my mom's rescue Pomeranian, and got bitten in the face. Don't let your kid growl at dogs.\n\nHe was fine, by the way, just a tiny red mark on his cheek and crocodile tears. We'd told him repeatedly to stop harassing the dog, and he ignored us, so he got no sympathy from us.",
"Why aren't dogs intimidated? No idea. I can tell you that monkeys are DEFINITELY intimidated. Source: I laughed in front of a Rhesus Macaque in India and it attacked me...",
"Top comment is incorrect. \n\nDogs evolved TO understand human body language. We had a symbiotic relationship in evolution. Your dog sees your son not as a threat because he isn't actually displaying the body language of something the dog should fear.\n\nIf your son genuinely was angry at the dog. Yelled at him and postured himself properly as if he would punish the dog then it would respond more submissively. Your son doesn't want to actually punish the dog though and it shows in body language. ",
"They can be. I was chased by a dog once, and just barked at it and scared him off. You've got to really mean it though, or they aren't fooled. I doubt your son is convincing the dogs. ",
"Its not the dogs, its you.\n\nYou need to owork on your form. \n\nTry practicing on babies when their mother is distracted. \n\nGood luck!!",
"Dogs can get genuinely scared of us, but not if we try to imitate their behaviour. If you've ever seen one of those Youtube videos where the owner is showing the dog what its done wrong and uses a really accusatory tone of voice, you often see the dog baring its teeth and trying to turn away. It recognises this tone of voice as a hostile form of human behaviour",
"I'm real late here but sometimes I make owl noises out my window and watch my chickens go on lookout.",
"Dogs are domesticated, which means they know way more about human body language than you think they do. ",
"Sometimes my tummy growls, and peanut, my 3 month old chihuahua, gets nervous and hides underneath the coffee table.",
"Explain it like you're five? Because we are not dogs.",
"I suspect a human showing its teeth to a dog will trigger a similar thought pattern in dogs equivalent to Dundee's \"That's not a knife\" scene",
"dogs are highly reactive to their environment and the energy around them. i think they are very keen at picking up intent based on human actions. depending on the situation i think a dog would definitely pick up on a human bearing their teeth at them. the human would probably also have to display other traits of physical dominance that are common in the animal world. basically they know your son isn't posing any kind of threat ",
"He's not doing it right. It's not just the sound and the visual of teeth. It's the body language, pheromones, unyielding movement. Your son probably came off as a kid with a toy gun yelling, \"BANG!\" to the dog.",
"I growl at my dogs when they misbehave and they absolutely react appropriately. They know I'm the alpha."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
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[
"http://www.whole-dog-journal.com/issues/14_12/features/Alpha-Dogs_20416-1.html"
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|
12rk18
|
DAK of any quality sources/information regarding the reasons for the Vandal migration out of Europe and into North Africa?
|
According to Procopius the Vandals came to Africa on invitation by Bonifacius, however just about all the articles I'm finding agree that this is false. Also according to Wikipedia (sorry, I know) the Vandals were harassed by a Roman legion in 422 that caused their migration to Africa. Also if there are any superb sources for overall Vandal history would be awesome. Thanks a ton guys!
|
AskHistorians
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/12rk18/dak_of_any_quality_sourcesinformation_regarding/
|
{
"a_id": [
"c6xotby"
],
"score": [
2
],
"text": [
"The Vandals are an extremely interesting topic, but they are basically now in the process of a scholarly reassessment, so I don't think there are any good popular press works that deal solely with them that aren't entirely outdated. However, you can find discussions of them within larger works that deal with the fall of Rome as a whole, such as Bryan Ward-Perkins' *The Fall of Rome and End of Civilization* and Adrian Goldsworthy's *How Rome Fell*. The latter focuses more on narrative, the former on archaeology."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[]
] |
|
3ri33x
|
Exactly how heavily were the Japanese influenced by China?
|
I know that the Japanese eventually adopted the Chinese system of writing, but my professor mentioned that they were influenced by the Chinese in many different ways. I'd always thought the Japnese had a pretty distinct society compared to the Chinese. Can someone elaborate?
|
AskHistorians
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/3ri33x/exactly_how_heavily_were_the_japanese_influenced/
|
{
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4,
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"text": [
"Part of it is that the Japanese didn't just see the Chinese system and think it looked good; adopting Chinese writing meant they adopted the Chinese Classics, which meant importing Confucianism and its accompanying network of ritual practices and artistic forms into Japan. The arts of the cultured Chinese gentleman gained prominence in Japanese court life; being able to write poetry in the Chinese style was a highly prized skill, many Japanese instruments (such as the biwa) are adapted from Chinese counterparts, and the board game Go was adopted from China, where it was called Weiqi. This extends to architecture as well; the ancient capital of Heian-kyo was modeled on what is today Xian in northwest China, then the capital of the Tang Dynasty, and for a period, the Japanese regularly sent envoys to China, and many Japanese students studied and took the civil service exams in China.\n\nThis is a huge topic, and this is just skimming the surface, but while yes, Japanese culture is very much distinct from that of China, there are thousands of years of cross cultural exchange between the two.",
"Chinese influence was pretty significant in Japan from a very early stage. The clan that would become the Imperial family took as a model the idea of the Chinese \"Celestial Sovereign\" already during the early 7th century, and with it, it imported political, philosophical, and artistic structures. The organization of the court copied that of the Chinese one in its ranks and ministries, although with some differences, and Chinese became the official language for Estate matters. In the (maybe 6th century but probably later) 17 Article Constitution that inaugurated the first big Imperial reform in Japan we can already see pretty big Confucian and Buddhist, that is, continental, influences. Look at this excerpts from the two first articles.\n\n > 2. The three treasures, which are Buddha, the (Buddhist) Law and the (Buddhist) Priesthood, should be given sincere reverence, for they are the final refuge of all living things. Few men are so bad that they cannot be taught their truth.\n > 3. Do not fail to obey the commands of your Sovereign. He is like Heaven, which is above the Earth, and the vassal is like the Earth, which bears up Heaven. When Heaven and Earth are properly in place, the four seasons follow their course and all is well in Nature.\n\nCulturally speaking, too, Chinese was omnipresent for centuries, especially in court culture. It is true that around the 9th the *kana* phonetic system was developed to the point of allowing people to write poetry and prose, but this was regarded as way less respectable than works in Chinese. They did not only read and imported Chinese works on poetry, the composed Chinese poetry themselves, they wrote records and personal diaries in this language, and the Emperors commissioned anthologies and treatises. That remained the case even after the Japanese court cut ties with China in the late 9th century and stopped sending embassies. *Kanbun*, as this Chinese kind of writing is called, kept being used at least until the 19th century, and not only by Imperial courtiers. \n",
"It is extremely difficult to quantify a cultural influence exactly, mostly because it is not just \"we do like China does\" with an exact copy, but an adaptation of Chinese cultural elements to the preexisting Japanese elements. Therefore with my answer I will try to give elements of pure Chinese influence over Japan until early Heian era (after that, the influence of China diminished a lot), but instead of listing with some descriptions, I mainly want to describe the alterity of Japanese society to answer to the \"question\" about how distinct Japan and China are.\n\n\nOne example is religion. Japanese brands of Buddhism mostly come from China through Korea. Still, Japanese Buddhism adapted to the pre-existing religion by adding the Kami to its pantheon, mostly by claiming that the kami are actually Bodhisattva and that Budhism is the best way to worship them. It is why there are Shinto shrines in many Buddhist temples, and in ancient times there were shinto priestess associated with Buddhist monk, each one of them doing different things, while \"officially\" the only religion was Buddhism. And it was true, it was a sort of combination of the two into something new. So how Chinese is this?\n\n\n\nThe other example is administration. In Tang China (Japan has, for a long time, been fascinated by Tang China, even centuries after the Tang dynasty failed), there was a very bureaucratic administration, aristocrats were included in the administration, and your placed in the administration was obtained through an examination (I sum it up very quickly, even though I could write more about it probably, I don't feel like I'm fluent enough in Chinese history to detail it according to the standards of /r/askHistorians ). Japan, in its process of centralisation, adapted this bureaucratic system, with its ranks, ministries, inspired from the Chinese name, but with a twist. In Japan were very powerful clans (you might have heard of some of them, such as the Nakatomi, that got a name-change to Fujiwara later). These clans held power alongside the Emperor of Japan. It is inherited from pre-Asuka Japan, where each fonction was done by a clan. The Chinese administrative system would be in conflict with the traditional clanic system of Japan so there were bureaucrats, imperial examinations, possible progression in rank for the bureaucats, the clans were integrated into the Japanese bureaucracy but the highest positions were \"locked\" in favour of the most prestigious clans, and the real rules of the bureaucracy was more something that applied to the middle and low ranking bureaucrats that came from less prestigious clans. So, similar question, is it a Chinese system, or can we consider it distinct? \n\n\n\nAlso, very important, is the title of the Emperor. In Japan the Emperor is the Tennô, wich means \"Heavenly King\", of course inspired from the Chinese imperial system (Japan also used the Chinese title \"Son of Heaven\", which is Tenshi in Japanee, but Tennô is the most common title), but at the same time, it was specifically used to show that Japan was independant from China. To understand why, we must look at Chinese cosmology. In China, the Heaven is ruled by a bureaucracy, with an Emperor at its head, and bureaucrats under it, and the earthly administration must be shaped similarly to the heavenly administration. So the Chinese Emperor, the son of Heaven, is the ruler of everything that is \"Under heaven\" (Tianxia in China, Tenka in Japanese), and the other kings, or dukes, or lords, are under the Chinese Emperor. By calling himself the Heavenly King, or the Son of Heaven, the Emperor of Japan described himself as the equal of the Son of Heaven of China, which could not be accepted by the Chinese administration.\n\n\n\nNow you can find other elements, probably more trivial, everywhere in the culture, such as literature (for long two types of poems coexisted in Japan, \"Kanshi\", that were poems written in Classical Chinese following the rules of Chinese poetry, and \"Waka\" that were poems written in Japanese not following the Chinese rules at all), clothing, the various types of kimono being inspired from Chinese clothes, food, ... But each time it has been adapted and modified to suit the Japanese culture.\n\n\n\nFor my sources :\n\n\n- *A History of Japanese Literature, Vol. 1: Seeds in the Heart — Japanese Literature from Earliest Times to the Late Sixteenth Century* by Donald Keene\n\n\n- The Cambridge History of Japan Volume 1 and 2\n\n\n- *A History of Japanese Buddhism* by Kenji Matsuo\n\n\n- *The Buddhist religion : A Historical introduction* by Richard H. Robinson, Willard L. Johnson, Thanissaro Bikkhu\n\n\n- *China: A new history* by John K. Fairbank"
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[],
[]
] |
|
2vclw2
|
Has skepticism towards scientific discoveries always been present in societies, or has it changed over time?
|
This is a question that I've found very interesting, and has implications with current affairs and what feels like a big rise in public skepticism in the internet age. However my minimal knowledge is also aware of religious objection to discoveries in Astronomy and Evolution for example. Has any work been done on investigating how widespread skepticism has been over different periods of time? Also has it been restricted to a few topics, or have we simply forgotten about skepticism towards discoveries that now seem unchallenged?
|
AskHistorians
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/2vclw2/has_skepticism_towards_scientific_discoveries/
|
{
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"cohn2aa"
],
"score": [
2
],
"text": [
"I'll answer them one at a time.\n\n > Has skepticism towards scientific discoveries always been present in societies, or has it changed over time?\n\nOne could argue that popular opinion towards scientific discoveries has shifted away from suspicion towards acceptance. Upto early modern times, things which could not be understood were often ascribed to the supernatural. There are plenty of accounts of people who were scared of the first trains, cars or even radio's. Because they did not understand how these things functioned, they would call them \"demonic\" or \"magic\". Scientific principles weren't at the forefront of their mind or education, as they are in our time. With mechanical objects permeating every aspect of life, the rise of educational levels, the improvement of long-range communication methods and finally the popular acceptance of scientific princples; mechanical objects or abstract concepts which could not be understood were now simply explained with the concept of \"science\". \n\n > Has any work been done on investigating how widespread skepticism has been over different periods of time?\n\nThere are works discussing suspicion towards specific inventions or discoveries, but you will be hard-pressed to find research discussing the level of scepticism throughout history. Why? It's considered to be bad historical practice or atleast too ambitious to research something that subjective and broad. You can't objectively assess the level of scepticism while still doing justice to the very specific circumstances of individual cases. That being said, you might be able to find some comparative research. For example a paper which compares multiple research endeavours with the reception of new inventions as their subject. That being said, the first part of my comment is mostly influenced by articles discussing the acceptance of scientific discoveries. So it's a fairly popular subject in general accounts of early modern or recent history.\n\n > Also has it been restricted to a few topics, or have we simply forgotten about skepticism towards discoveries that now seem unchallenged?\n\nThis is a very interesting question which more closely relates to my expertise. There are some historians who focus on the theoretical side of history who have pointed towards the existence of \"black boxes\" in our collective minds and even within academic practice. When a theory first arises, it's still being criticized and challenged. After some time, many theories become more universally accepted and might end up in a \"black box\". They become part of the foundations of our thinking and won't -or even can't- be challenged or criticized anymore. It's a lot more complex than this, but that's the jist of it. It's a fairly difficult matter, so elaborating might just be counter-intuitive. That's one reason why history is so important and why it's often a matter of principle for historians to keep questioning their own fundamentals."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[]
] |
|
ys6ma
|
why don't developed countries make their own clothing without child labour?
|
I noticed that a few of my shirts say "made in Mexico," and you just know child labour was involved at some point. So my question is, why don't we (North America) just buy the materials and fabrics from those countries and make our own clothes without resorting to child labour? I'd be shocked if we didn't have the factory technology to do so.
|
explainlikeimfive
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/ys6ma/why_dont_developed_countries_make_their_own/
|
{
"a_id": [
"c5yc0yg",
"c5yc3n9"
],
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14,
9
],
"text": [
"Because it's cheaper to have it made in other countries.",
"Its not the technology; remember, much of that technology was invented here in the US. Plain and simple, a shirt (and just about anything) from Mexico, Thailand, or Bangladesh is $2-3 cheaper wholesale than American made (in general. Source: former screen printing business owner). The general public says they don't care, but we vote with our wallets. Nobody wants to pay more. \n\nIf you don't like child labor to be involved in your purchases, be an active consumer and buy stuff made in the US or Canada. That's the only way to change it. "
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[]
] |
|
20hdkp
|
if the probability of landing on any one space on a monopoly board is equal, why do people land on boardwalk much much less frequently?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/20hdkp/eli5_if_the_probability_of_landing_on_any_one/
|
{
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"text": [
"Probability of landing on any one space in monopoly isn't equal at all. \n\nThere are actually a lot of studies on the subject. Given dice roll rules, cards and stuff that transport you around, rules that throw you in jail etc. \n\nbtw the most cost-efficient property to buy is orange",
"The probability it's not actually equal. There are cards that can send you right past it, plus there's the go directly to jail space right before it. Those factors add up to make it less likely to land on boardwalk than landing on the orange properties.",
"The main reason why Boardwalk is a harder spot to reach is because it is the last square on the board, and a lot can happen to prevent you from getting there. \n\nThe first thing that can happen is jail. Since the Go to Jail space is ahead of Boardwalk, there is a chance you will end up in jail before you pass Boardwalk. Another way to go to Jail is by rolling three doubles in a row. Since Boardwalk is the last space, you have more opportunity to roll three doubles. Finally, you can also go to jail by getting a go to jail card from Chance or Community Chest. As before, since Boardwalk is the last piece, you have a greater chance of landing on Chance and Community Chest and getting the card.\n\nThere are also other Chance and Community Chest cards that will bypass Boardwalk: go to Go, go to Illinois Avenue, go to St. Charles Place, go the nearest Railroad, etc. All these cards could potentially bypass Boardwalk. That being said, there is a go to Boardwalk card as well which improves the odds by a bit. Because of the is card, Park Place is probably the harder spot to reach.\n\n",
"They're not equal at all. GO and JAIL are the two most landed on spaces because of certain cards and yadda yadda yadda.",
"There are ways that you get sent somewhere other than what you roll, which is why the chance of landing on each square isn't equal. There are a lot of ways to get sent to jail, so the spaces roughly 6 to 15 spaces after jail are the most commonly landed on. There are also Chance and Community Chest cards that send you somewhere."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[],
[],
[],
[]
] |
||
5igbn1
|
why are sounds less annoying for those making them?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5igbn1/eli5_why_are_sounds_less_annoying_for_those/
|
{
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"text": [
"Are they? I'm not convinced. I'm guessing a person is very annoyed but wants others to be annoyed so that motivation to continue is enough. Decades ago in my high school there were fundraiser attempts by various class-rooms to try to compete with each other.\n\nThe winner: the guy went room to room making annoying noise with a tambourine but also yelled PAY ME MONEY TO GO AWAY and had a monkey mask.\n\nWinning tactic I have to say.",
"Control and anticipation.\n\nThe same reasons that people who habitually get car sick tend to be ok when they're the ones doing the driving. They know what's coming, and can prepare for it, and they can also mitigate the worst effects through their own actions.",
"Participation and anticipation. \n\nThe guy who has keyboard clicks on his phone SMS? He tunes them out because he's thinking of what he's typing. Me listening? I have no idea of context, so all I know is click click click click click click click clickclick click click clickclick click click click.\n\nCrunching an apple on the bus? You're enjoying the apple, so you're less invested in the noise. I'm not. All I know is crunch mouth-breathe masticate swallow gulp crunch mouth-breathe masticate swallow gulpcrunch mouth-breathe masticate swallow gulpcrunch mouth-breathe masticate swallow gulp."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[],
[]
] |
||
5zeact
|
why do humans seek privacy when performing sexual acts?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5zeact/eli5_why_do_humans_seek_privacy_when_performing/
|
{
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"dexemmx",
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27
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"text": [
"You are more vulnerable when having sex, you want to be somewhere you don't want to be interrupted or surprised. \n\nAlso, humans for the most part pair bond. Making sex a private matter enhances this bond.\n\nFinally, privacy during sex to the degree we enjoy it is a relatively new thing. For most of human history, families, even extended families would live in very close quarters, and sex would not be particularly private.\n\n",
"A lot of anthropologists and evolutionary psychologists are coming to blame agriculture for this. Agriculture and fixed city-states are a fairly new invention, about 10,000 years ago -- an evolutionary eye-blink. Prior to this, humanity operated in a hunter-gatherer clan-based society, where scarcity of resources demanded high degree of communal sharing, community shelters, multi-partner mating and collective child-rearing. Matriarchies dominated. Privacy was unknown. (Interestingly, this parallels bonobo society.) \n\nAgriculture brought resource abundance, but also the need to protect territories. Patriarchies, family inheritance, and private property were new concepts that forced all sorts of new practices and tensions. Women became more likely to select mates on the basis of family power and security than on genetic heartiness, and men wanted to ensure that their progeny were similarly equipped. Monogamy and lifelong commitment arose as the norm, and the new institution of marriage caused all sorts of grief with older biological urges and patterns. Sex became less a social instrument of peace-making and community and more about gaining and retaining economic power. The suppression of those hunter-gatherer norms about sex pushed it behind closed doors to the point where we don't celebrate sex openly. \n\nExcept on spring break."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[]
] |
||
3ahpe4
|
how do dictators actually make their money?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3ahpe4/eli5how_do_dictators_actually_make_their_money/
|
{
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"text": [
"They don't. They take it. They're the government, they tax the people and decide how the taxes are spent (and how much), including their salary.",
"By owning businesses, trading capital and goods, taxes, tariffs, theft, printing money, there are plenty of ways to make money when you own a country. ",
"Heres one example out of many. There exist company A, B, C. The dictator owns company A. Makes new law to cause problems for B and C. Forces certain government companies to buy products made by company A. Promotes company A. You get the point. \nLook at the Ukraine \"Rochen\" chain store. 800% increase in sales since the president (Owner) got elected. Why does a president have a business when he isnt allowed to by law? His excuse is \"I cant find a buyer for the company at its proper value\". "
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[],
[]
] |
||
1ocve3
|
Who was the wisest man before Socrates?
|
More specifically, before Socrates was born; who did the Greeks thought to have been the greatest sage?
|
AskHistorians
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/1ocve3/who_was_the_wisest_man_before_socrates/
|
{
"a_id": [
"ccqu04t"
],
"score": [
2
],
"text": [
"Thales of Miletus - many, most notably Aristotle, regard him as the first philosopher in the Greek tradition. According to Bertrand Russell, \"Western philosophy begins with Thales.\""
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[]
] |
|
63p6k8
|
Why is Andrew Jackson so low in the presidential rankings this year?
|
Ever since I've learned about him in 8th grade, all my American history teachers stressed that he's a great president due to how much he expanded executive power. I asked my APUSH teacher about earlier this year and he said with confidence that Andrew Jackson was one of the top 10 presidents (he checks the CSpan rankings every year so I was sure he knew what he was talking about). Today I checked the CSpan rankings for presidents because I was curious where Obama was placed, and I found Andrew Jackson all the way down at 18th place. Have all my teachers been full of hot air? Is there a reason that he's so low this year?
|
AskHistorians
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/63p6k8/why_is_andrew_jackson_so_low_in_the_presidential/
|
{
"a_id": [
"dg3nd87"
],
"score": [
2
],
"text": [
"in addition to my post see this post before the 2017 rankings came out featuring great comments by /u/Irishfafnir and /u/DBHT14\n\n_URL_0_"
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[
"https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/4fu543/historians_in_polls_have_consistently_ranked/"
]
] |
|
o16rg
|
Question about the big bang and dark matter/energy.
|
I read on wikipedia that the Big Bang started with an extremely hot and dense state. Given the new understandings of dark matter and dark energy that seems to give the universe a total energy of zero, does this require that the initial state was still extremely hot and dense or could the initial state be an unstable, cold nothing, that exploded to create matter, heat and leave negative energy?
Is there a good website for the new understanding of how the universe started, in simple language?
|
askscience
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/askscience/comments/o16rg/question_about_the_big_bang_and_dark_matterenergy/
|
{
"a_id": [
"c3dk387"
],
"score": [
5
],
"text": [
"Dark matter and dark energy are not 'negative matter' or 'negative energy'. The energy content of the universe is not necessarily zero."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[]
] |
|
77cdvv
|
what protects journalists from being interrogated by the government for information on illegal activity?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/77cdvv/eli5_what_protects_journalists_from_being/
|
{
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"dokqsxk",
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2,
4
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"text": [
"Some jurisdictions have specific journalist shield laws that allow a journalist to claim privilege over the sources of information. Some law enforcement agencies, for free speech reasons, have official or unofficial policies that make targeting a journalist difficult outside of certain circumstances (like the journalist is part of the crime). This can also be done as a way of helping police more generally, since it's better for reporters to be able to get stories that alert the police of a danger (there is a factory making drugs) then it is for there to be no story and less understanding of the facts. Some of the details you are asking for (like magnitude) are already going to be in the story. \n\nBut the real answer is that usually it's not worth very much to go after journalists like this. The drug facility might already have moved, or might have been staged in the first place. The subject of the reporting might not have allowed the journalist certain information or access, beyond what is already reported. And, even if they are holding information in confidence, having a hostile witness might not be that helpful. ",
" Unless you're being charged with a crime, they don't detained you for more than 24 hours. And there's no requirement to answer their questions. And then later you can file a complaint and Sue the dept. \n\nSo all that paperwork and investigation and negative press coverage for the PD with no information gained. So why would the police even bother to bring you in?",
"Everyone is protected from being forced to talk to law enforcement, whether the local police or the FBI. The only time you can ever be forced to talk about anything is if you receive a subpoena. Say you were in a gas station getting a gas station taco and you witnessed a guy come in and rob the place. If for whatever reason you didn't want to cooperate, that is your right. They can't charge with obstruction of justice or anything else like you've seen on a police TV show. (If you lie to the police, intentionally deceive or stall them so the robber can get away, give any kind of aid to the robber whatsoever, or destroy evidence that's a different story, those are crimes)\n\nEven if it was a murder, you could say to the police \"I'm not going to speak with you\" and there is nothing they can do. Now if that robber is caught without your help and put on trial, and the judge signs a subpoena saying you're a witness, you are then obligated to come to court to testify. \n\nSo all of this generally applies to journalists in the same way. Sometimes journalists have special privileges, but often they don't. They are never obligated to speak to law enforcement but if they refuse to testify in response to a legal subpoena that says they must identify their source, they sometimes do refuse and are jailed for contempt of court. "
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[],
[]
] |
||
96oiec
|
why concrete roads (and sidewalks) have seams but asphalt is laid in a seamless stretch?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/96oiec/eli5_why_concrete_roads_and_sidewalks_have_seams/
|
{
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"text": [
"Because asphalt is bendy and stretchy, elastic, so thermal expansion isn’t that much of an issue, but concrete is very brittle (breaks and cracks easily) so it needs expansion joints",
"The concrete is a harder material. It behaves different to asphalt when the surrounding temperature changes.\n\nYou literally *need* to have seams here and there because if you don't the natural, temperature induced expansion will make the tiles expand towards each other. And eventually crack, because there is no room for more expansion.\n\nThen, of course, the concrete slabs can be manufactured in a factory and transported to the construction site.\n\nIt's just like when you build a path in your garden. You buy concrete tiles and place them in a nice fashion all the way to your front door. Exactly the same principle with a road, except the tiles are huge in comparison.\n\nBut, seriously though. Concrete roads tend to be built with fully automated machinery that pour concrete into a mobile molding form that is in slow constant motion all the time. Even then, it's important to \"break\" the tiles now and then so that the road won't immediately crack itself the first year.",
"Why are sidewalks not made of aspahalt, then there wouldn't be seams right?",
"Concrete is a rigid pavement. As the ground below the pavement expands and contracts it will move whatever is on top of it. In the case of concrete, you need to put expansion joints in it or it will break apart.\n\nAsphalt is a flexible pavement and will move with the pavement below. If the underlying base is moving a lot you can see cracks in the asphalt but due to the materials flexibility they can self heal.\n\nHot mix asphalt is dirt cheap ( 2c/lb) and if the road design has been done correctly should last 20 years ",
"Civil engineer here. Two things I've learned about concrete: It gets hard, and it cracks\n\nAs others have said, concrete cracks due to shrinkage after placement and in response to fluctuations in ambient temperature throughout is design life (thermal expansion and contraction). The first cracks typically show up within 24 hours of placement as free water is lost to the hydration process (how concrete gains strength).\n\nJoints are an effort to tell the concrete where to crack by creating a plane of weakness. Depending on the joint type you may have additional reinforcement or smooth steel rods to allow the panels to expand and contract.\n\nMeanwhile asphalt has more elasticity meaning it has a greater ability to deform under load (i.e. thermal expansion/contraction) and return to its original size and shape more or less. Its ability to do this decreases as the pavement ages. \n\nAsphalt tends to be less durable than properly placed concrete and has a greater susceptibility to fatigue stress. Rutting in asphalt at stop lights or in parking stalls are examples fatigue distress due to repeated loading/unloading.\n\nEdit: grammar",
"Concrete has great compressive strength (ability to be pushed down), but poor tensile strength (ability to be stretched out). As temperatures rise and fall, it expands and contracts, and eventually one large slab of concrete will stretch itself until it cracks and breaks into smaller pieces.\n\nBy cutting in expansion joints, you are essentially telling the concrete where to break. If done correctly, the concrete will crack beneath the expansion joint, where you cannot see it. This also causes less stress on the slab as it expands and contracts.\n\nWell made concrete slabs can easily stand for upwards of 40 years, requiring very little maintenance, whereas asphalt needs to be replaced (or at the very least maintained) far more often.",
"Not mentioned anywhere is noise. Tarmac without expansion joints is a lot quieter than concrete. Every gap in the concrete is a another “thudunk” don’t want to live near that.",
"In Michigan, it's for the plow drivers to get a hold of and rip a good chunk off when they're pushing snow. ",
"I explained this to my 5 and 7 year old this morning! \n\nConcrete is rigid - it needs room to expand and contract or it will crack so gaps are cut into it. Asphalt is flexible - it can (usually) absorb stress without cracking so it doesn’t need expansion joints (seams). \n\nEach has its place depending on the application. "
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[]
] |
||
22p3xo
|
How powerful was the Venetian navy around the turn of the 16th Century, and how was it organized?
|
I know that they were in fierce competition with the Ottomans over control of the Eastern Mediterranean, but I can't seem to find anything concrete about the size, composition, or organization of Venice's war fleet.
|
AskHistorians
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/22p3xo/how_powerful_was_the_venetian_navy_around_the/
|
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"While I cannot answer your question, I can offer some great further reading. \"City of Fortune: How Venice Ruled The Seas\" written by Mediterranean scholar Roger Crowley is a good book that discusses the history of Venice, and other subjects such as it's relationship with powers like Byzantium and Later the Ottomans, it's trade disputes with Genoa, and most importantly to your specific question, information regarding the fleet itself."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[]
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|
8frwv8
|
Can I get an explanation for a case that a friend claims exemplifies a link between vaccines and autism?
|
I want to preface this first by saying I'm not an anti-vaxxer, and I believe that they represent ignorance and a genuine threat to public health. Rather, this is about a close friend of mine with an autistic brother who claims vaccination is to blame.
The story she gives is as follows: She says her brother was "normal" as a toddler, walking and talking, and, to her and her parents' judgement, exhibiting nothing hinting at a developmental disorder. He later got his vaccinations, which she claims coincided with a sharp fever, requiring hospitalization, after which he was diagnosed with low-functioning autism (he cannot speak and needs constant living assistance). I know fevers during pregnancy are linked to developmental issues, including autism, but as I understand he was anywhere from 2 to 4 when she says he developed autism.
Is there any actual scientific basis that corroborates this story? Truthfully, the only reason I ask is because she is an extremely intelligent person that is also aiming for medical school in a few years. She claims not to be an anti-vaxxer either, but presented this story to me as sort of a "cautionary tale." She cares very deeply for her brother, and this is an extremely touchy subject for her, which is why I'd rather not bring it up with her directly. Obviously, I'm incredibly skeptical of the idea that vaccines could be the cause, which is why I'm hoping someone here can give me a clue as to what's going on.
|
askscience
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/askscience/comments/8frwv8/can_i_get_an_explanation_for_a_case_that_a_friend/
|
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" > He later got his vaccinations, which she claims coincided with a sharp fever, requiring hospitalization, after which he was diagnosed with low-functioning autism\n\nOne of the reasons the suspicion that vaccination is linked to autism persists, is that the age at which autism symptoms begin to emerge coincides with the age for getting vaccinated:\n\n > [the most obvious signs of autism and symptoms of autism tend to emerge between 12 and 18 months of age. Some infants and toddlers begin to develop normally until the second year of life](_URL_0_)\n\nThis doesn't disprove that there is a link, many other studies do that. But this is an explanation for why there appears to be a link.",
"Most concisely: anecdotes are not evidence. Coincidences happen, and statistical analysis is the backbone of science.\n\nPretty much every infant has a high fever at some point.\n\nGoing to a hospital is a good way to get diagnosed. He might very well have been diagnosed the same if he had gone in for an ear infection or an ingrown toenail.\n\nPeople like to have something other than themselves, or unknown causes, to blame. Even the smartest people are not immune to cognitive bias and compartmentalization.\n",
"The first thing to note is that memory is amazingly pliable, and we all self-edit our memories. There is a decent overview [here](_URL_1_), but the short story is that there is good reason to expect that what your friend says is not how things actually happened. \n\nGenerally speaking, to figure out causes, we look to proceed from correlation to causation to mechanism.\n\nWhat your friend is describing is a correlation between administration of vaccines and the appearance of autism symptoms. Correlations are what we start with, and they are often indications of an interesting area of study.\n\nIf we are investigating we next want to look for evidence of causation and start hypothesizing about mechanism. We look for causation with epidemeological trials, though those can be problematic because of their observational nature, and randomized trials if possible. We look for mechanism because mechanism is the smoking gun; if you have causation and mechanism, then you're pretty much done.\n\nThe best attempts to find causation have been unsuccessful and there aren't any good hypotheses around mechanism.\n\nA nice summary here:\n\n_URL_0_\n\n",
" > Is there any actual scientific basis that corroborates this story? \n\nI can tell you right away that the vaccine did not cause the child's autism. That is not in question.\n\nThis case seems unique, I cannot speak to the specifics but if the child was suffering from a systemic illness, malnutrition or some pre-existing condition prior to this, it could have made him susceptible to the typical post-vaccination issues (fever, nausea, fatigue, etc.) in a greater way than normal.... but this wouldn't have 'caused autism'. That's just not how that works.\n\nNo. The issue is that due to things like improved diagnostic techniques coinciding with the rise of grand-scale vaccination, it appears that there is a direct correlation between the two. In this case we have a more direct example of vaccination coinciding with detection, but it seems to me that he probably was not observed as closely UNTIL he suffered that sharp fever at which point, they detected the issue and to your friend, it appeared to be a direct cause.\n\nWe know that correlation does not equal causation, and more importantly , there is no evidence that vaccines have any physiological mechanism that would lead to autism of any type.... or if there is evidence, I have never seen anything that could justify making the argument that these are directly linked.\n\nThere isn't much else that can be said. She is making connections where none exist.",
"Essentially people just want something to blame.\n\nThe association between vaccination and autism has been refuted by any well designed epidemiological study, so you could bring up some of that evidence.\n\nThere's also the fact that there isn't a probably mechanism for how vaccines could cause autism. Many people cite preservatives like paraformaldehyde, but neglect to mention that the amount of PFA in any given vaccine is nearly 100 times lower than the amount you'd find in a typical Pear that could be fed to a child. An immunoreaction from vaccines is also an improbably cause as any inflammation would be unlikely to affect the brain directly (fevers and headaches are in the vasculature around the brain, but the brain is really good at keeping that crap out to protect the neurons).\n\nIf she's looking for something to blame, exposure to things like air pollution during pregnancy or lead soon after birth (if there's lead in dust or paint in the house) is generally a more logical thing to blame as those will actually get into and disrupt the developing brain directly.",
"Gonna say this as loud as I can for the people in the (metaphorical) back. Correlation does NOT equal causation. If I stub my toe and then a few hours later get a sore throat, did stubbing my toe lead to me getting a sore throat? Of course not. Just because 2 events appear to be related does not mean one causes the other.\n\nAs for your friend's story, it's possible (although rare) that one of the vaccines her son received caused a fever, but neither fevers nor vaccines cause autism. It's also just as likely that he happened to get sick after the vaccine and the fever was entirely unrelated. Just because one preceded the other does NOT mean one caused the other. One of the reasons anti-vaxxer's ideas continue to propagate is because diagnoses of autism is about 4 years, when children are still getting vaccines. It's easy to blame one on the other, especially if you don't want to accept that your child has a developmental disorder, but every study tells us that vaccines do not cause autism, and one anecdote does not disprove that. ",
"Correlation is not causation. A genetic condition whose effects become detectable at about the same age that vaccinations are first administered does not mean that vaccinations cause it (or that it causes vaccinations, for that matter).\n\nWhen investigating any kind of coincident phenomenon, the first step is to identify the plausible mechanism of action; there is none for vaccine 'causing' developmental deficiencies.\n\nLast night, my TV turned off at the exact instant I opened a drinks can. Should I now believe that ring-pull cans control electronics or generate an pulsed infrared signal?"
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[
"https://www.autismspeaks.org/what-autism/faq"
],
[],
[
"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK223375/?report=reader",
"https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/am-i-right/201307/your-memory-isnt-what-you-think-it-is"
],
[],
[],
[],
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] |
|
7fvxaz
|
If Italy didn’t exist as a unified state until 1861, and each region had its own language, what exactly is the Italian language then? Is it an amalgamation of every regions languages? Or was Italian spoken in one part of the peninsula and then spread and declared the official language?
|
AskHistorians
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/7fvxaz/if_italy_didnt_exist_as_a_unified_state_until/
|
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"text": [
"Although there was no single Italian state, there was nonetheless a long back-and-forth between Italian intellectuals on the *miglior lingua*, or \"Better Language.\" I actually wrote [this answer](_URL_0_) about a month ago explaining how Modern Standard Italian is based on a modernized version of Tuscan dialect because of the enormous, lasting, and unquestioned popularity of Tuscan literature. That answer formed the basis of [this longer discussion](_URL_1_) framing the same question in the context of the Venetian dialect and its use relative to Tuscan. \n\nOf course, this shouldn't discourage other answers and/or discussion, including discussions about my overenthusiastic use of semicolons. "
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[
"https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/74vp2q/how_did_the_tuscan_dialect_develop_into_the_basis/do2g6bs/",
"https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/7alpb1/were_local_vernacular_dialectslanguages_of_italy/"
]
] |
||
bim3pz
|
why do you tend go to sleep later at night when you’ve taken a nap in the day? how does your body know that you’ve taken a nap and why does it take it into account?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/bim3pz/eli5_why_do_you_tend_go_to_sleep_later_at_night/
|
{
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"em1kuhq"
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"text": [
"Think of an hour glass that slowly fills with sand.\n\nYour body has chemicals that act the same way, slowly building up within your body...akin to sand slowly building up in an hour class.\n\nAs more \"sand\" builds up, the more tired you become. One way to push some \"sand\" back or get rid of some of the buildup is to sleep. It basically up ends the hour glass for a little bit. A nap will only upend the hour glass for a small amount of time and wont completely reset it.\n\nYour body does this naturally with chemicals that slowly build the longer you are awake. Sleeping stops additional buildup and will slowly reverse that chemical buildup."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[]
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||
2u42mh
|
why do products sold on infomercials require four to six weeks for delivery?
|
Can't most businesses process an order in a day or two, and does it really take more than a week or so to send something anywhere on the planet?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2u42mh/eli5_why_do_products_sold_on_infomercials_require/
|
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"The 4-6 weeks gives the seller time to manufacture or buy as many units as are sold in any given period. This cuts down on cost, as inventory doesn't have to sit in storage before it is sold.",
"A lot of infomercials are for products that are just starting out and don't have the revenue to maintain constant production and have large inventories. Therefore a lot of manufacturing companies are on a make to order business and thus do not have stock to fulfill your order immediately.",
"A lot of times they don't actually have thousand or tens of thousands of units already made. They take your order, then wait a couple of weeks for the money to get to their account, then they place an order with the manufacturing company to make and deliver the units.\n\nIt takes maybe a week for the money to get from your account to their account, another week for them to place the order with the manufacturer, another two weeks for the order to get made and delivered to the salesman, and another week for delivery. Depending on how many units are ordered the time can take longer or shorter. \n\nIt wouldn't be cost effective if the info-salesman had a bunch of product just sitting around. He'd have to store it, provide security, pay for a space, and then he would have had to put up a lot of his own money to build the stuff in the first place.\n\nIn short, it takes that long to build and deliver whatever you're buying, which is required because they don't have the goods in inventory.",
"Interesting responses. It was my understanding that the delay was to put delivery beyond your credit card billing cycle so you couldn't dispute the charge when the product turned out to be crap. ",
"Another possibility is that they make money the same way your bank does, they delay the money and invest it during that time. Banks make huge profit by doing that and they are only delaying it a few days..."
]
}
|
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[],
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|
by882h
|
how do sea captains "fight" a storm?
|
On shows like Deadliest Catch, when there's a storm, the captain is showing struggling to keep the ship afloat and (I assume) in the same position. What is he actually doing at the controls to make this happen?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/by882h/eli5_how_do_sea_captains_fight_a_storm/
|
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"There are a few strategies. Usually they revolve around keeping the bow (front) of the ship pointed toward the waves. A wave on the side can much more easily roll the boat. If you've ever seen surfers paddling out through waves it's a similar concept. Nose on the ship is designed to cut through water. Anyways the seas can come at odd intervals and directions and keeping the boat lined up can be difficult work.",
"Ships are long and narrow, and a large, steep wave will \"push\" a ship. Since ships are designed to sit on the surface of the water, as a wave rolls towards a ship on its side, imagine seeing it from the rear: the low part of the wave gently \"pushes\" the beam, or side, of the boat, tilting it slightly as the ship's hull attempts to \"climb\" to the top of the wave (again, they float.) If the wave is small enough, this happens easily and the ship rolls over it, though significant rocking occurs. If the wave is large enough, however, you may be able to picture the ship being tilted so far on its side as it tries to climb the wave, like a skateboarder or snowboarder in a halfpipe, and the ship can capsize, which is one of the two worst things to happen to a ship (hull breaking in half is the other one.)\n\nIf, however, you point the ship straight into a wave, now view the ship from the side (\"beam\"). A ship's bow (the nose) is pointed and sharp. It literally breaks the surface tension of the water as the ship moves around, and this is the first line of defense against larger waves. A big wave may push the ship's hull up at first, but the wave's energy is literally split by the bow, greatly reducing how much force subsequently pushes the ship up as the wave continues. The ship *is* pushed up, but it has already broken the surface a little bit more than if the wave had come from the side, and now you can see also that any non-circular or non-square object is harder to \"flip\" or rotate around its longer side. Think of how easy it is to roll a pencil, but it won't flip from the tip to eraser nearly as easily. Same with a surfboard or a boat.\n\nSo because of the length of the boat, it takes a lot more force to flip it over that way. Even a very steep wave might terrify a crew as a ship seems to go vertical, but a proper, sea-worthy ship may survive a much steeper wave than our intuition tells us. They are still extremely dangerous, and even the largest steel ships, both merchants and Navies, will track and avoid the largest storms. That being said, pointing the ship *into* oncoming waves is the best way to keep the ship floating and right side up once you start hitting heavy waves. Wind and uneven waves themselves can make this difficult, as they may change directions so that not all of the waves are coming exactly in a straight line one behind the other. The wind can also push around the superstructures (the \"sail area\", all area above the waterline) of larger ships, causing them to drift and point in different directions than what the current is pushing on the hull. Both of these matter, and it can be confusing to try to determine if the wind or the water is having more of an impact on a specific angle of the ship. Water is far more dense than air, so generally has more force, but for some ships there is quite a bit of superstructure (\"sail area\") and they can push it around quite a lot.\n\nFinally, a ship captain must be aware of all 3 movements of a ship: Yaw, Pitch and Roll. Roll is the easiest to remember, it is how much the ship rotates if it were like a rotisserie, or a pencil; pitch is the angle from the bow to the stern (front to rear) relative to a flat, calm sea (or tangent to the ocean floor, since the earth is round); and finally yaw is the compass rotation of the ship looking down from above. If the ship is yawing to one side it will \"crabwalk\" through the water. So there is quite a lot to consider when in truly big waves.\n\nSource: I was an officer in the Navy.",
"Several good comments have talked about survival by heading into the swell, but if you’ve lots of open oceans and are not worried about getting to a destination on time, another strategy is to Run before the Storm - that is, turn the ship around, have the wind coming in over the back and (if not a sailing ship) speed up to approximately the speed of the waves, if you can (not a significant issue if you can’t). It means you essentially surf with the storm.\n\nThe advantages of this if you can do it are that it’s a lot more stable and a lot more pleasant for everyone on board. With the wind behind you, the relative wind over the deck(ie the wind you feel on your face) is much less, and provided there’s no cross swell (waves coming at random angles) the boat doesn’t move around as much.\n\nThe disadvantages are that unless you’re in the open oceans, you can run out of sea fast! \n\nSource: sailed a lot as a kid. Of course, the best tactic in a storm is to go and sit in the pub/bar/tea shop. Why be there at all, if you can possibly avoid it? As you can see, I was a fair weather sailor!\n\nEdit: punctuation.",
"As a Bering sea Fisherman I can add to this. The waters we fish in the northern latitudes not only bring about some choppy and rough wave action, but the approach the captain must take to each buoy (boo-e) depends on the tides (current) and the wind as well. Our bags that are in the water are easier to pull up onto the boat with the correct approach. I have fished in 30ft+ waves with winds up to 60-70mph. With a favorable approach it's possible for us to keep fishing. With an unfavorable approach it is deadly and almost impossible. \n\nTLDR; Captains don't \"fight\" the storm, they have to go with flow."
]
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|
8jwrb1
|
is it standard practice for manufacturers to retain one copy of every product made for archival? and if yes, how is this managed, especially for technology products that change quite frequently?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/8jwrb1/eli5_is_it_standard_practice_for_manufacturers_to/
|
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"Not really, but it depends on the product (food for example, bakeries don't keep a box of 20 year old cookies). I'd say most companies build a product and then ensure they have sufficient quantities of spares on hand. What spares means for a product depends on what it is. A car for example needs 10 years of spares, but they typically produce near identical cars for a few years, and some parts can be used multiple generations and on multiple cars. So they keep a small number of spares in storage for sale/warranty repairs, and then keep building it as needed. When they are going to finish production of a part they build extra and stock it (so usually a 10 year supply of spares). They are on hand, but it's really to cover warranty repairs and for sale.\n\nSmaller devices they might just word the warranty so that if it breaks you get the latest model (so Samsung probably isn't stocking spare cell phone chargers, they just always make them and are willing to sell whatever they make now).\n\nThere are other reasons for keeping copies, and I know companies like NVIDIA keep a few video cards of every model hanging around and they use them to test their drivers, many companies will have prototypes and production run devices hanging around in labs and offices. Depends on the company, sometimes they keep the for some specified period, sometimes they get used and then just left somewhere when not needed and eventually thrown out when they decide it's ancient and they need the space. These items are not for \"archival\" purposes, they are for engineers to provide customer support, and generally they are not needed when the company stops supporting the product (though maybe some employee takes it after that point as a desk toy or it goes into the display case at the lobby).\n\nI work on military stuff for example, we build extra spares to sit in a warehouse to replace broken systems, and we maintain a working system of all the versions we support plus what we are building somewhere. So we can run tests on it before sending it to the users, and help them if they find a problem.",
"I suspect that this was more common in the past than it is now. \n\nI know of one old-line manufacturer that would keep decades worth of production samples (often, but not always, the first regular-production unit off the line for each model) for its engineers to refer to. This was in addition to old prototypes, and samples of their competitors's products. They had rooms full of shelves of products, tagged with their production dates and serial numbers.\n\nThey have since outsourced most of their manufacturing, and when they were closing their plants, they scrapped most of their archives."
]
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f6vjx
|
Self: Question about the International Space Station
|
If one were to attach engines, would it be able to handle the thrust and torque necessary to achieve a Hohmann transfer orbit (or an approximation of one) that would bring it to the moon? I've been reading a story in which this is done. Maybe send it to Mars? It seems like it has been over-engineered, and I wonder if it could be the first interplanetary manned spacecraft.
|
askscience
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/askscience/comments/f6vjx/self_question_about_the_international_space/
|
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"I would imagine that such a thing is possible, but not very feasible. Something that is designed from the ground up would probably be cheaper, so there isn't any reason to do it that way.",
"Yes it could be done over many transfers. Thats because I don't think you'd find any one willing to strap a high-thrust device to it to make it move quickly. I think its also difficult to get any real numbers on if it can take 5-10gs of a rocket thrusting it to Mars. Strapping an ion thruster to get it to slowly climb is something that could be done to get it 10-100kms higher. Its too valuable as it is to risk shipping it elsewhere. Also, its quite large. Bringing up the fuel to get it up to escape velocity would be quite expensive. It would be cheaper to just send multiple 'supply' ships to ready a base then send people. A lot of the mass on the ISS is experimental equipment that may or may not be useful on Mars. ",
"It would crumple like an umbrella in a strong wind. It takes something on the order of 3 kilometers per second of delta-*v* to go from low Earth orbit to a lunar transfer orbit. There's no point on the ISS structure where you could apply sufficient thrust to make that delta-*v* without the structure snapping like the limbs on a dead tree.",
"There are two issues with this; first is the ability of the structure to withstand thrust, the other is the radiation and thermal environment. ISS is designed with the ability to perform limited thrusting for reboosts of the orbit which are required at regular intervals. The engines used are usually those of visiting vehicles such as the Progress, ATV, or Shuttle. I don't know the details of the Progress or ATV, but the Shuttle reboost is very gradual, adding a change in the orbital velocity (dV) of only 5 feet per second over about half an orbit. \n\nThe reason it's so gradual is that the ISS structure is quite fragile. There is a huge amount of analysis that has to be done to ensure that disturbances to the system caused by events ranging from docking to robotic operations all the way down to astronauts exercising don't exceed structural load limits at the module, truss, and solar array interfaces. \n\nAs RobotRollCall mentioned, the dV required to enter a transfer orbit is much, much higher than this. If we assume 3 km/s required, then using the Shuttle would require the equivalent of 2000 reboosts. At 45 minutes each, it would take 187 days of continuous thrusting to leave earth orbit. However, we'd run out of fuel early in the first day.\n\nWhile it could be done if you accelerated slowly enough, the ISS wouldn't be habitable once you left orbit. Its cooling system is designed for the thermal environment in low earth orbit, where it gets shaded for a portion of each orbit (most of the time). Leaving the protection of the Earth would cause dangerously high temperatures from the constant solar exposure. \n\nAnd then there's the radiation. None of the modules are shielded sufficiently for travel through and above the Van Allen belts. The ISS, like everything on the Earth below it, relies on the Earth's magnetic field to shield it from solar radiation. Leaving this protection would be unwise."
]
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123nfd
|
Is it possible for you to burn in direct sunlight while in space?
|
Most movies seem to depict people being jettisoned from a space-craft and then freeze. If you were in space directly facing a star, how close to it would you have to be in order to burn?
Alternatively: would it be possible to be the correct distance away to only feel warm? (Aside from being torn up by the vacuum of space.)
Edit: The title should be more along the lines of "At what distance would burn".
|
askscience
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/askscience/comments/123nfd/is_it_possible_for_you_to_burn_in_direct_sunlight/
|
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"It depends on what you mean exactly by \"burn.\"\n\nIf you mean get a sunburn, i.e. skin damage (possibly severe) arising from radiation damage to the skin, then yes, of course. Indeed, with no atmosphere or ozone to mitigate the radiation, you'd get a pretty nasty sunburn pretty fast. \n\nBut I'm guessing you mean burn in a more... catastrophic sense. Puffadda is correct that you'd need atmosphere around in order to get flames (flames are just gas heated enough that the molecules glow according to a blackbody spectrum). So if you mean \"flames\" when you say burn, then that wouldn't happen until you got to the surface of the sun. \n\nBut what about burn as in just getting really hot. Say, vaporizing the water in your body (not technically burning, but still falls in the category of things a non-scientist might mean when they say \"burn\"). That's a harder question. The sun radiates roughly 10^23 J per second (over all 4*pi* steradians). If you are a distance d from the center of the sun (with d > R the radius of the sun), then you intercept around A/(4*pi*d^2 ) percent of that 10^23 J, where A is cross sectional area of the human perpendicular to the radial direction. Let's say this is around a square meter, roughly, for a human. So the energy that hits you per second (or the power, in watts) is roughly W= 10^23 /(4*pi*d^2 ). 4*pi* is around 12, so this gives roughly W=10^22 /(d^2 ). But how much of that energy do you absorb? To know that we'd need to know the emissivity of a human (since we're not perfect blackbodies). But let's just say that we are close to a perfect blackbody, since we're making approximations left and right anyway, so let the emissivity e =100%. \n\nThen you absorb roughly 10^23 /(d^2 ) W. So what temperature do you end up at? We need to figure out what temperature you would have to be to emit that amount of energy (then you are absorbing and emitting the same amount of energy so your temp remains stable). For this we use the Stefan Boltzmann law, P=cAT^4 , where c is the Stefan Boltzmann constant c=5.6x10^-8 W m^-2 K^-4. A this time is the radiating surface area (not the cross section like in the previous equation). Let's say it's roughly 2 m^2. T is in Kelvins. We want boiling water, which would be 100 C, or about 373 K. So we have \n\n10^23 /(d^2 ) = (5.6x10^-8 )(2)(373^4 )\n\nAnd we solve for d. This gives about 10^9 meters for d. (for reference, the average distance from the earth to the sun is 1.49 x 10^11 meters). Keep in mind you'd have to wait a while for the system to come to equilibrium. If you wanted to vaporize someone quickly, you'd have to get closer. \n \n\n**edit**: fixed math notation\n\n**edit 2**: Drat, I forgot to account for the fact that water boils at lower temperatures when the ambient pressure is lower. Let's just say that even though we're shoving someone out of our space ship to boil to death, we've kindly provided them with a pressurized (to 1 ATM) perfect blackbody space suit. "
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[]
] |
|
52ufau
|
Why was the Canadian Army chosen to liberate the Netherlands in WWII?
|
AskHistorians
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/52ufau/why_was_the_canadian_army_chosen_to_liberate_the/
|
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"Largely due to logistics and location. They weren't so much chosen to liberate the Netherlands, as their position in the line, made them the ones to do it.\n\nBasically since the capture of Caen the Canadians held the position of the left flank on the Allied front. Thus through the liberation of France the Canadians advanced along the coast. After the (primarily British) thrust toward Arnhem, the Canadians were tasked with clearing the Antwerp approaches, being the ones on that side of the line. When the time came to advance into the heart of the Netherlands, the Canadians were still there on the far left, where they had been since Normandy. So the Canadian First Army, being on the far left, was again given the left most target, the Netherlands.\n\n[This map](_URL_0_) shows the maneuvering of the Allied armies from the breakout of Normandy, until Operation Market Garden. You can see how the Canadians advance along the coast.\n\n[This map](_URL_1_) shows the Canadian advance into the Netherlands. You can see how they are given this because of their position in the line, which was assured due to the earlier line of advance through France. The British Second Army advanced toward Bremen. The US Ninth army advance to the right of them. Each army simply moved toward what was in front of them."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[
"https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/05/Persuit_to_the_West_Wall.jpg",
"http://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/UN/Canada/CA/Victory/maps/Victory-12.jpg"
]
] |
||
2q6kkv
|
how can any style be considered "modern" (like modern architecture)? wouldn't any style be considered modern during its time?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2q6kkv/eli5_how_can_any_style_be_considered_modern_like/
|
{
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"cn3bcys"
],
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"text": [
"There is \"modern\" meaning contemporary and then \"[Modernism](_URL_0_)\" (or Modern) with a capital M referring to a specific artistic movement in the early to mid 1900s"
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modernism"
]
] |
||
18ryfn
|
Is energy "real" in the same way matter is "real", or is it simply a bookkeeping device?
|
I've read somewhere that energy is an invention of physicists used for certain "accounting" purposes... is this true, and if so, can you elaborate on it?
|
askscience
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/askscience/comments/18ryfn/is_energy_real_in_the_same_way_matter_is_real_or/
|
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"text": [
"Energy is a quantity that is conserved in systems that are time-invariant. This comes rigorously from Noether's theorem. I don't know if that meets your definition of real. You can't touch or see energy.",
"This is really a philosophical question, I think. What does \"real\" mean? Certainly, energy is something you can measure and manipulate. Is that enough to make it real? Is a chair an actual thing, or are only the quarks and electrons and so forth of which it is made real? If you have two different descriptions of nature that are equivalent but have different building blocks (as happens with dual theories, for example), are different things real in the two frameworks or not?\n\nPhilosophers address questions about things like this in the field of *ontology*.",
"Energy is a quantity which is conserved, i.e. we can shift it from one one form to another but the total quantity does not change. I suppose this could be called a bookkeeping device, but I wouldn't call it an invention so much as a discovery.\n\nI'm not sure how to address the subject of matter or energy \"being real\": we can also transform matter from one type to another under specific circumstances (nuclear fisson/fusion, radioactive decay, particle colliders), although there are certain quantities which are conserved according to current physics, namely lepton and baryon number*, which could be said to correspond to matter. That these are conserved is rather less fundamental than energy conservation though; it is expected that at some level matter (protons) do in fact decay, whereas something identifiable as energy conservation should exist in any system.\n\n\\* Strictly these aren't even conserved according to current physics but the non-conservation we are aware of is much smaller than the one believed to exist.",
"Energy is \"real\" in the same way \"length\" is \"real\"."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[],
[],
[]
] |
|
4yrhcf
|
how do security arrangements work when heads of state travel to foreign countries?
|
Do they just ship the leader off and say "keep him safe for us"?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4yrhcf/eli5_how_do_security_arrangements_work_when_heads/
|
{
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"text": [
"There has to be cooperation between the security groups of both countries. On the one hand, the visiting government has to trust that the host will provide adequate general security. On the other hand, the host has to be willing to give the visiting head of state's security team some latitude to operate and ensure that everything is to their satisfaction. If that mutual trust does not exist, then a visit can't happen until relations improve.",
"Generally, security teams for both heads of states are jointly involved in the security detail. They are both briefed on the travel itineraries as well as on contingency plans for many adverse events. Whether they are briefed in the same room or time is variable, but usually both sides know what the other one is doing."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[]
] |
|
ceofu3
|
Has anyone ever observed a star go out in real time?
|
This is kind of a silly question, you’re on earth, looking at the stars, and suddenly a star you’re looking at blinks and disappears after the light from its last moments reaches you. Has that ever happened?
|
askscience
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/askscience/comments/ceofu3/has_anyone_ever_observed_a_star_go_out_in_real/
|
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"I am not sure that we can really catch the \"last light\" from a star, because stars do not disappear all of the sudden. Most stars evolve to become white dwarfs and then fade over a timescale longer than the age of the Universe. More massive stars are expected to explode as supernovae, which are very bright for several weeks before fading. Some massive stars might collapse to form black holes and then become very dim very rapidly.\n\nI guess that seeing one of these collapsing stars or failed supernovae would probably be the closest thing to the scenario you are describing. As far as I know there is only one event that has been interpreted as a star disappearing in this way:\n\n[arXiv:1609.01283](_URL_0_)",
"Yes, Tycho Brahe became famous for this among other things. He noticed a new star in the sky, which turned out to actually be a supernova, making the very distant and otherwise dim star bright enough to be noticed. However, the process of \"going out\" isn't as fast as you may think - the supernova would gradually fade in brightness and eventually disappear throughout a couple of years."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[
"https://arxiv.org/abs/1609.01283"
],
[]
] |
|
1rvoi6
|
In Ancient Greece, how were the Greek Myths passed from one generation to the next?
|
Googling results in many Greek myths, not so much about retellings.
|
AskHistorians
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/1rvoi6/in_ancient_greece_how_were_the_greek_myths_passed/
|
{
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"text": [
"Well, aside from the literary ways (such as Homer, or Hesiod, or any of the Athenian playwrights such as Sophocles, Aeschylus, etc.) there was always oral tradition, which was in fact the origin of something like 'Homer' (it's really debated to what extent Homer is one person. Not my specialty, suffice it to say I think that a different single person wrote the Iliad than wrote the Odyssey, BUT that they were each put into their more or less final form by an actual person working at the end of a long, maybe many century old, oral tradition that dates back to the Greek Dark Ages).\n\nOral tradition though is the main thing--and you have to understand that very city had more or less its won set of myths that often overlapped with the myths of other cities but occasionally differed in the details. Once you get into the Hellenistic world I think literature becomes much more important, in that you start getting it at all, but for the longest time the myths were just told by bards."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[]
] |
|
8ozse6
|
since chemical weapons were not used in ww2 out of fear of retaliation why would it be different for nuclear weapons?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/8ozse6/eli5since_chemical_weapons_were_not_used_in_ww2/
|
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"In WW2 they were used because the US was the only country to possess them, they were a top secret super weapon\n\nAfterward, that’s exactly why they were not used. Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD) was the policy between USA and Russia in which they both understood a first strike would result in certain destruction of both powers",
"The hope is that it *wouldn't* be different, and that no one will ever use nuclear weapons because they would in turn be attacked by them. Rationally, you would never do something that might result in a nuclear-armed nation being so mad at you they'd use their nuclear arms. Most nations only develop nuclear weapons with the thinking \"now other (nuclear-armed) nations will think twice before attacking us.\"\n\nThe worry is that this isn't a guarantee, and it only takes one fuckup somewhere for things to get really really awful for a lot of people. There have already been [a few cases](_URL_0_) where a nuclear-armed nation thought it *was* under nuclear attack and almost retaliated. What would Hitler have done if he'd had nuclear weapons as an option when it was clear WW2 was lost? Might he have bombed the USSR and the UK in despair? What if new fanatical regimes like the Nazis appear in a nuclear-armed nation, and wind up in that situation? Or what if, say, a terrorist group had managed to acquire Soviet nuclear weapons during the collapse of the USSR and the wars and chaos of the 90s?\n\nNuclear weapons and mutually assured destruction have likely contributed to the reltaive peace we've seen over the last 70 years, but 70 years isn't very long on the human timescale. So it's a fair thing to worry about IMO.",
"The thing with chemical weapons is that their only real value is with surprise, once that is gone and the other side retaliates you really only hinder your own forces from that point on. For Germany in particular this would have hurt them disproportionately due to their heavy reliance on hoses for their logistics.\n\nIt should also be noted that chemical weapons were used by the Japanese in China and the Germans a few times in the Crimea.\n\nBritain had planned to gas the beaches in the event of a German invasion and the US had detailed plans to use a large amount in the invasions of the Japanese home islands - one estimate for Operation Downfall was for five million civilians alone were going to die from chemical weapons."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanislav_Petrov"
],
[]
] |
||
1szoui
|
why companies still buy microsoft products despite linux and open-/libreoffice being easy, functional and completely free?
|
It seems like an unnecessary overhead cost that could easily be averted. I could understand companies being reluctant to switch to Linux, but using a Windows-like distro could probably ease the growing pains a fair deal for Windows users. What I don't understand is why Microsoft Office still sells so well. It seems to me OpenOffice does pretty much everything that Microsoft Office does, save for some Outlook integration - but is that really worth the cost?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1szoui/eli5_why_companies_still_buy_microsoft_products/
|
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"Office provides a lot of teamwork & integration features that the free solution doesn't. If you're working on a term paper by yourself, it's probably not a big deal. When you've got a dozen people revising a project proposal & want it tied into your SharePoint system, it becomes more important.",
"1) cost of switching\n\n2) the cost isn't actually that high for high. Business listeners for Microsoft products are really cheap, so per employee, you're not paying all that much. \n\n3) people are familiar with windows/office. If you switch, you either have a much smaller hiring pool to work with, or have to train a good portion of your employees in the new software\n\n4) windows is more common. If you have cliens, it's easier to use a Microsoft program, because it's just about guaranteed your client will be OK with it. \n\n5) Microsoft offers some programs that many others do not, and their version a are usually better\n\n6) Microsoft has better network integration, which is good if you have a lot of employees on 1 project ",
"Because its what they and their employees are used to using. For someone slightly tech savvy, it wouldn't be a tough transition. But betty over in sales can barely use word, now you want her to use a new operating system, a new office suite, with everything in slightly different places and sometimes slightly different names. It would be huge overhead to make the switch itself because it would require lots of training, and that's lost time, and as they say, time is money.",
" > save for some Outlook integration - but is that really worth the cost?\n\nYes.\n\nPeople will pay a lot of money for very specific features. Specialty software can easily cost thousands of dollars per user, so cost is relative.\n\nSpeaking of cost, support is an important factor, especially for a large enterprise. This is why many businesses opt to pay for Red Hat Enterprise Linux, instead of any of the other free versions of exactly the same code; they're paying for the support and it's important.",
"I think sometimes it is because payware is supported while freeware isn't...if you need a fix asap, you're not gonna get it for freeware. If you are paying for a big support contract, maybe they will write an emergency patch for ya",
"It really because you cant run that many programs on linux,apple, or chromebook.\n\nThats why i buy windows. ",
"Linux is free if your time is worthless. ",
"A 10,000+ employee company of less-than-technical users highly dependent on custom software that's only written for Windows, heavily invested in a Active Directory network. That's not something you go to your board of directors and say, \"We're going to tear the whole thing down because Joe in IT thinks we should use Linux instead\". "
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[]
] |
|
2rp195
|
Do we use the same nerves for all sensations?
|
Our hands, for example, feel a lot of stuff. Temperature, texture, pressure, etc. Are all those sensations sent together then sorted by the brain, or what?
|
askscience
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/askscience/comments/2rp195/do_we_use_the_same_nerves_for_all_sensations/
|
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"We have different sensors and different accompanied nerve fibers for different applications. For example, even different qualities of touch, like pressure amount, pressure change, tension, vibration and so on are sensed by different sensors and nerve fibers that are localized all throughout the body. Temperature has dedicated sensors/fibers for detecting temperature within a specific bracket, while temperatures outside of the bracket are detected by yet another different set of sensors that detect damaging stimuli (and cause the sensation of pain). \n\nEvery nerve fiber transmits a specific aspect of information. The nerve fibers (which are extensions of nerve cells) get bundled in a larger structure called nerve, but the different nerve fibers within a nerve keep their information (similar to if you bundle a couple of cables, you get larger bundle of cables while each cable still transmits its own information). The same nerves most commonly lead nerve fibers that are both afferent (sensible information *for* the central nervous system) and efferent (information for muscle movement *from* the central nervous system). Shortly before the nerve enters the spinal column and the spinal cord (and with that the central nervous system), the afferent and efferent nerve fibers gets splitted; the afferent (sensible) information enters the back of the spinal cord, the efferent (motoric) information leaves the spinal cord at the front. Within the spinal cord, the fibers leading different qualities of sensation get sorted in different tracts leading upwards to the brain. Calculation and utilization of the information then begins partly within the spinal cord (for spinal reflexes), but mostly in the brain stem, cerebellum and cerebrum.\n\nEven other sensory systems that don't interact with the spinal cord have similar sortition methods. The optical nerve of the eye (which doesn't enter the spinal cord... or well, not directly) has different nerve fibers for different aspects of vision: color, movement, brightness and so on, which are sorted in different fiber systems even in the retina, all of which are bundled in the same nerve and same tract within the brain. Calculation of the information mostly begins in the visual cortex of the brain."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[]
] |
|
q9knx
|
How long can a single thread of spider silk get before it breaks under it's own weight?
|
Omw into the gym this morning I saw what appeared to be more than 50ft (15.24m) of spider silk with dew collected on it holding strong. _URL_0_
EDIT: Assume no wind, no water droplets on the silk, and only gravity acting upon it. Looking for an answer within the context of a single strand of silk between two points X feet apart. How large can X get before the silk breaks? Another consideration is if it's just hanging straight down - how long could it be?
EDIT: You might look here anyway so here is a link: _URL_1_ To be more specific, this appears to be "major-ampullate (dragline) silk"
|
askscience
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/askscience/comments/q9knx/how_long_can_a_single_thread_of_spider_silk_get/
|
{
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"Wikipedia says the breaking length of spider silk is 109km (_URL_0_).\n\nThe breaking length is the length of a uniform wire (thread) of a given material which breaks under its own weight. By tapering the thread (thicker higher up and thinner further down) you could of course get a longer thread."
]
}
|
[] |
[
"http://i.imgur.com/x4SnY.jpg",
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spider_silk#Mechanical_properties"
] |
[
[
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Specific_strength"
]
] |
|
4qnrg2
|
- how is it scientists are finding links between meat and cancer when humankind has always existed on meat and vegetable diet?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4qnrg2/eli5_how_is_it_scientists_are_finding_links/
|
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"Just because we've always done something doesn't mean that it wouldn't cause cancer. We've always lived under the same sun, but sunlight is a cause of cancer.\n\nHumankind has more cancer now than ever before *primarily* because we're living longer than ever before. When your primary causes of death aren't childbirth, starvation, exposure, or preventable disease, you start seeing more late-onset disorders than before.",
" > ELI5- How is it scientists are finding links between meat* and cancer when humankind has always existed on meat and vegetable diet?\n\n*processed meat\n\nAlso it's a correlation, not a causation. Many variables play a role in risks such as total calorie intake/obesity, exercise (or lack of), lifestyle factors (stress for example), etc.\n\nEdit: Also lowering overall \"protein\" intake also seems to have a role in reducing cancer risks (from a \"growth factor\" point of view).\n\n",
"First, all of these kinds of studies have to be taken with a big grain of salt because cancer is linked with a bajillion different things in the world and it's really hard, if not impossible, to control for all of them. Personally, I don't give any of these \"cancer is linked to....\" type studies any credence until the same results start popping up in a lot of different studies because, no matter how good the experimental design was (and they sometimes suck. Methods sections are important, ya'll), the very nature of the question is a bugaboo. \n\nHowever, that said... Prehistoric peoples probably ate a lot less meat than we do today since they had to run it down and kill it themselves and often their hamburgers managed to escape. In contrast, modern hamburgers are notable for their relative lethargy. They almost never get away from us anymore, making it possible for modern humans to eat burgers at a considerably higher frequency.",
"One major reason: because cancer isn't something that is an issue until you're old, usually.\n\nConsider that for most of human history, most humans died before they were 50. Cancer only starts to be an issue for most people after 40; which means that even doing all of the most cancer-risky things you can possibly do might take as much as 15 years off of your life (if you die of cancer at 35 instead of 50).\n\nBasically, until the 1920's (maybe as early as the 1880's), the fact of the matter was that cancer was just so unlikely to kill you it was lumped in with \"old age\"; which was basically unpreventable.\n\nHowever, over the last 3-5 generations, more and more people are living long enough to get cancer; to the point where we can actually study it and what contributes to it. And at the same time, we're actually looking at what used to be called \"old age\" actually means, and how to delay each of the individual conditions: conditions including heart attacks, Alzheimer's, cancer, and other disorders and diseases.",
"Short answer that highlights another aspect of your question than the longevity issues pointed out by other users...historically speaking human diets were very different at different points in time and across regions than they are today. A meat heavy diet is a result of industrialization, urbanization, and modern economic policies.\n\nSouth Korea is a great example of how this change happened very rapidly in a non-western setting.",
"Humans have always been capable of getting cancer, no?",
"Humans have also been dying of cancer the ENTIRE time.... Cancer did not just come into being in the past 100 years ya know...\n",
"I believe that people are over emphasizing meat and forgetting the real villain- PROCESSED meat, specifically nitrites.\n\n_URL_0_",
"The average life expectancy in hunter gatherer societies on the savannah was about 25 years and most cancer happens after 70.\n\nThe common causes of death was infectious disease, teeth related problems and man-on-man violence iirc.",
"Your assumption that humans have always lived on a \"meat and vegetable diet\" is not true. Our prehistoric ancestors probably ate mostly vegetables, fruits (remember humans only left sub-saharan Africa a few tens of thousands to hundred thousand years ago - not long enough for anything more than minor evolutionary changes) insects, and tubers/roots (when we started using fire). Meat was relatively rare up until humans moved to colder and drier climates where suitable plants and insects weren't as common. As a result, our physiology is poorly adapted to digesting it, and so we have issues properly dealing with all of the substances that are found in flesh. "
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
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[],
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[],
[],
[],
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"https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/2015/11/03/report-says-eating-processed-meat-is-carcinogenic-understanding-the-findings/"
],
[],
[]
] |
||
c4jnjj
|
Can DNA Polymerase 1 create Phosphodiester Bonds between nucleotides?
|
Does DNA Polymerase 1 have the capability to build phosphodiester bonds between the DNA nucleotides or pits down? I assume that Polymerase 3 does, as the replication on the leading strand is continuous.
|
askscience
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/askscience/comments/c4jnjj/can_dna_polymerase_1_create_phosphodiester_bonds/
|
{
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"Yes, any DNA polymerase has to create those bonds. A polymerase creates a polymer of a subset of smaller units, and nucleotide subunits are bound through a phosphodiester bond."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[]
] |
|
3ts2rz
|
current, voltage, amperage, etc. i learned it in school, but it still hasn't clicked.
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3ts2rz/eli5_current_voltage_amperage_etc_i_learned_it_in/
|
{
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"text": [
"Current is the flow of an electric charge, like water through a pipe. Voltage is like the water pressure in the pipe. Amperage is how much electricity is used, or how much water is going through the pipe. Watts is amps time volts, which gives the amount of work per second the electricity does, say the amount of watering that can be done with a hose."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[]
] |
||
ccfthv
|
if ethernet cable can transfer so much data, why not use this instead of hdmi and other cables for data.
|
In physics class I remember using Ethernet cables to connect two “gates” used to measure speed for objects. I also know that Line 6 guitars use an Ethernet cable to connect your guitar to your guitar processor. We also use an Ethernet cable to power our LAN phones at work.
So why is the Ethernet cable not the master cable of electronics?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/ccfthv/eli5_if_ethernet_cable_can_transfer_so_much_data/
|
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" > So why is the Ethernet cable not the master cable of electronics?\n\nYou actually hit an idea that has been getting traction off and on for a decade or so. Basically, you CAN use Ethernet for all sorts of other purposes, including replacing an HDMI cable. Ethernet (twisted pair) could replace a whole bevy of different cables. Twisted pair wires work really well for a lot of stuff, they are cheap, and durable, and go long distances. It's a pretty good option.\n\nThe problem... well, it just doesn't work as good for certain special things like a specialized cable like HDMI does for video. HDMI is purposely built to deliver very high bandwidth uncompressed video, to achieve the same with Ethernet, you'd need a pretty robust system, heavy shielding, and likely more than one connection (i.e. two Ethernet cables). Side note: HDMI actually can transport data as well (much like Ethernet), but there has been basically zero consumer implementation of this in devices.\n\nBut could we replace a lot of \"generic\" cables with twisted pair (ethernet)? Yeah, we probably could, but there really hasn't been much interest to do so, and that the [RJ-45 jack](_URL_0_) is fairly large, makes it quite impractical for smaller devices, especially ones that may need several ports.",
"well, usb 3.2 with type c connectors seem to be becoming the \"master cable\" you speak of. I think that throughput is just better, and most importantly, it's really small.",
"There's one crucial reason that hasn't yet been addressed: the end user.\n\nLet's say that, as an experiment, a motherboard manufacturer decided to do this very thing, and replace all the ports with RJ-45 ports.\n\nThe most obvious and glaring problem with this is how would you determine where to plug in any given cable just from looking at the I/O panel? It'd be an absolute nightmare.\n\nThe physical shape of the jack and port tells us a lot about what the cable is supposed to connect to and what data it carries.",
"It's not really so much data. Video is incredibly bandwidth intensive.\n\nThe current HDMI specification allows 48 gigabits of bandwidth.\n\nMost consumer Ethernet hardware is Gigabit Ethernet with occasionally 10 Gigabit. Much less than HDMI.\n\nWhile there exist higher speed Ethernet standards (25/50 and 40/100), they're rare outside of datacenters, the former only uses fibre optic cable, and the latter is brand new and the hardware barely exists. 40/100 also requires the fancy new category 8 Ethernet cabling and can't operate on older category 5/6/7 cables.",
"* **Ethernet** is actually a system for transferring information. It happens to use Category 5 or 6 cable (known commonly as CAT5 or CAT6)\n* You can do lots of stuff with CAT5 cables that has nothing to do with ethernet like your physics class and your Line 6 guitar.\n* There already are products that use CAT5 and CAT6 to get things like audio and video signal from one place to another.\n* BUT! The reason we have HDMI is because the movie studios wanted a technology they could control. \n* In order to make an HDMI cable, or a device that has an HDMI connector, you need to pay a license fee and agree to a legal contract that says you won't design your device in a way that lets people make illegal copies of protected content. \n* Back when DVDs were the main way you could watch movies at home, they forced everyone to switch their DVD players and TVs to HDMI.\n* Laptops went along with it and now basically everything relating to consumer video is HDMI."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[
"https://imgur.com/D4AO7BW"
],
[],
[],
[],
[]
] |
|
3lvm49
|
When did Proto Germanic languages transform into Modern German?
|
[deleted]
|
AskHistorians
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/3lvm49/when_did_proto_germanic_languages_transform_into/
|
{
"a_id": [
"cv9z8i1"
],
"score": [
4
],
"text": [
"super-tl;dr - around the time of Martin Luther, sixteenth century\n\ntl;dr - With good knowledge of modern German, you would be able to recognize thirteenth-century Middle High German texts as German and grasp chunks, but you might struggle to put together the overall picture depending on the type of text (narratives are easier). You would be able to read through early fifteenth-century MHG texts by highly educated authors without too much difficulty, but would struggle mightily (even with a dictionary of local terms) with poems and letters by less-educated lay people. In the early sixteenth century, a few words in Martin Luther's Early Modern High German might trip you up, and you'd definitely notice some spelling differences and word order fluidity. But while the people writing letters to Luther might sometimes be a bit harder to understand, you'd feel like you were reading fluently at this time. Finally, a series of orthographic conferences around the turn of the twentieth century ushered in some of the spelling standardizations that you know today.\n\n~\n\nLanguages evolve over time; you can't take two texts written in subsequent years and say, \"Aha! THIS is where Old English ends and Middle English begins.\" So although linguists and historians will talk about different stages in the transformation of a language, there is a lot of flux. Additionally, there was much more regional and educational-level variation in vernacular (non-Latin) languages across Europe before the printing press and the need for people in one town to understand texts purchased in or borrowed from another gradually helped \"fix\" one dialect as standard. With all those disclaimers in mind:\n\nThe language we know as German evolved out of the West Germanic language group that also includes the ancestors of English, Low German and Dutch. This pre-written language would have been spoken around the final years of the Roman Empire, through the fifth or sixth century AD. At this stage, the ancestors of German and English are very close, so you can picture one step more primitive than *Beowulf* for an idea of what this era of German might have sounded like. By the time of the earliest full texts written in German (there are some earlier brief inscriptions), 8th-9th century or around the time of Charlemagne, the regional differences in the West Germanic languages have deepened to the point scholars mark out Old High German, Old Saxon, and Old English (Anglo-Saxon), but regional dialects ebb and flow into each other. I know how we feel about Wikipedia around here, but Wiki's [illustration of the dialect difference with the Lord's Prayer](_URL_2_) illustrates really nicely both the importance of dialect and how far we are at this point from a language immediately legible to modern German speakers. ([Here's the modern version.](_URL_1_))\n\nAlthough the few people who are writing around the turn of the millennium are doing it mostly in Latin, a handful of German texts survive that point to a simplification in spelling: unstressed vowels get switched to 'e'. So all those -en infinitive verbs and -e, -en plurals? That's when that shows up. Scholars figure this development is as good as any point to say that OHG has evolved into Middle High German.\n\nThe later twelfth and thirteenth centuries are when the vernacular languages in western Europe, including German, start to attract authors (especially women, who have less access to Latin education than men) and flourish. MHG grammar, such as pronouns, noun/adjective declension, and verb conjugation in a lot of ways is recognizable to modern German speakers, but there is a LOT of different vocabulary. Spelling differences and an utter lack of spelling standardization also mean that someone coming to a medieval text with no MHG experience will be utterly reliant on a dictionary, but can probably muddle through thanks to the grammar similarities as long as you know a few key tips like extra negatives make the negative emphasis *stronger*, they don't cancel it out like an English double negative. See what you can make out of the MHG version of Mechthild of Magdeburg's [*Flowing Light of the Godhead*](_URL_3_), a mystical text often viewed as foundational in the development of written German.\n\nWhere MHG ends and Early Modern High German begins is kind of fluid. The most educated clerics writing in dialects close to Central German/Saxon are probably recognizable as EMHG around the time of the Black Death, ~1350. Basically, some weird MHG diphthongs (uo, iu) have started to go out of fashion, and the spelling and vocabulary feel more comfortable in general. In the fifteenth century, to me at least there is a *striking* difference between reading highly educated people writing in a Saxon-esque dialect, versus works by less educated lay people in more southern/western dialects (Bavarian, Alemannisch). It's the difference between reading, and reading through cobwebs.\n\nIn the early sixteenth century, Martin Luther and his Bible translation traditionally get a lot of credit for their role in standardizing EMHG around one dialect. Modern scholarship, however, generally accepts that Luther specifically chose the Saxon dialect to work in *because* he thought it was the most \"average\", comprehensible to most High German speakers, and already gaining ground as a common choice of printers. (In England, Chaucer's relationship with the standardization of Middle English is similar, albeit occurring earlier). You can see in, for example, [Luther's translation of the Gospel of John](_URL_0_) (\"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God\") that we've arrived at a language reasonably close to modern German and easily comprehensible, with some fairly standard spelling differences.\n\nA good hallmark of the evolution of medieval into early modern version of languages is probably that modern publishers find a market for *translations* of Middle English and Middle German texts into the modern form of the language (Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, Wolfram's Parzival). You are most unlikely to find a massive demand for modern German versions of Luther's letters or an English update of Anne Askew's Examinations.\n\nAs to the 19th-20th century standardization efforts and spelling reforms, I'll defer to the modernists here.\n\nSources: Honestly, I don't even know at this point. A lot of this is firsthand observation from working with MHG/EMHG texts, reinforced with the introductions to countless linguistics books/dictionaries while trying to track down an obscure word or its possible roots. A solid English overview of the history of German, and a cool way to go about seeing the changes for yourself, is Thomas Gloning and Christopher Young, *A History of the German Language Through Texts.*\n\nETA: To clarify on \"you are not a source\" grounds--if necessary, I'm happy to provide documentation to footnotes expressing other scholars' frustration with the thick dialects and, shall we say, lack of linguistic sophistication in the texts I'm basing my \"reading through cobwebs\" comments on. I hope the note about modern translations versus simple editions also serves as evidence to back up personal anecdotes."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[
"https://de.wikisource.org/wiki/Das_Newe_Testament_Deutzsch/Joh",
"https://www.ekd.de/glauben/vaterunser.html",
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_High_German#Samples",
"https://archive.org/details/offenbarungende00mechgoog"
]
] |
|
59asgw
|
why did having summers off become standard in education?
|
All across the country and all across the world, it seems the standard is for the school year to be Fall/Winter/Spring with winter off, but how did this become so?
I know some school systems (e.g. California) do track scheduling, where students will go to school for X weeks on, then X weeks off and go for the full year, but that's not really standard and (afaik) is done to deal with the student density load.
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/59asgw/eli5_why_did_having_summers_off_become_standard/
|
{
"a_id": [
"d96xzpy",
"d975dpe"
],
"score": [
2,
5
],
"text": [
"Summer is when the most farming work had to be done. Schools had summers off so the children could help when farm labor was needed most. This isn't true anymore for most children, but there are parts of the US where it still is. Also, summer is useful for extracurricular activities, travel, and just having fun. ",
"The thing about kids needing to work on the farm is a nice anecdote, but not wholly true. In reality, it was the lack of air conditioning. \n\n_URL_0_\n"
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[
"http://mentalfloss.com/article/56901/why-do-students-get-summers"
]
] |
|
42nuzj
|
Why does sour cream tone down the spicyness of hot food?
|
If a curry is too hot I always add sour cream to it and it tastes less spicy, why?
|
askscience
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/askscience/comments/42nuzj/why_does_sour_cream_tone_down_the_spicyness_of/
|
{
"a_id": [
"czd0uw7"
],
"score": [
7
],
"text": [
"Spiciness will be determined by the concentration of free [capsaicin](_URL_0_) that reaches the nerve endings in your mouth. Capsaicin and other similar molecules bind and interact with the pain receptors on certain neurons, and it prefers to stay bound to the receptors than to remain in solution. Capsaicin is a \"hydrophobic\" molecule - it prefers to associate with things other than water, so it will stay bound to the receptors on the surface of your mouth rather than remain in solution. The higher the concentration in the water phase, the more ends up reaching those receptors. \n\nBecause capsaicin doesn't want to remain in the water phase, it will move into a non-water phase if given the chance. This can be the places on the surface of your mouth where it can find the receptors, but can also be a lipophilic, or oily phase in the food if present. Adding sour cream you're adding a bunch of fat that then soaks up the capsaicin, keeps it from entering the water phase, and then keeps it away from the receptors where it triggers the response. The sour cream \"decreases the effective aqueous concentration\" of capsaicin in the food. This means you taste it less, but it will still enter your system and eventually be released as the fats are broken down. I'll let you imagine what happens at that point. \n"
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capsaicin"
]
] |
|
bt8czn
|
how come tv shows cover up brand names on products (like food or toiletry packaging) but youtubers can show brands and review them all day long?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/bt8czn/eli5_how_come_tv_shows_cover_up_brand_names_on/
|
{
"a_id": [
"eout6k3"
],
"score": [
2
],
"text": [
"Tv shows that do that don't get paid by companies. So they don't show any names. \nBut there are also clear cases when TV shows are paid to do commercials. \n\n_URL_0_"
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[
"https://youtu.be/oQYwFND7rHE"
]
] |
||
3mq3op
|
why is finding water on mars such a big deal to the general public?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3mq3op/eli5_why_is_finding_water_on_mars_such_a_big_deal/
|
{
"a_id": [
"cvh6hal"
],
"score": [
2
],
"text": [
"Because a scientifically-illiterate mass media took a report of modest scientific interest and sexed it up. \n\nNASA kinda egged the deception on by holding a press conference to announce the findings like it was some major, Earth-shaking thing. And I'm *sure* the fact that they're announcing this in the same week that the NASA-boosting film The Martian opens is TOTALLY a coincidence...\n\nThe liquid water flows they have found evidence for are:\n\n--Very small.\n\n--Very short-lived and seasonal.\n\n--Possible only because the water has a very high concentration of perchlorates, which makes them toxic to life as we know it.\n"
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[]
] |
||
169pjn
|
How do whales create oil out of a plankton diet? Can't we replicate this process instead of mining our limited fossil fuels?
|
askscience
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/askscience/comments/169pjn/how_do_whales_create_oil_out_of_a_plankton_diet/
|
{
"a_id": [
"c7u13zm",
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"c7u1dib"
],
"score": [
10,
6,
3
],
"text": [
"There is an entire field of biology interested in, among other things, engineering organisms to produce useful chemicals. See here: [Synthetic biology](_URL_0_)\n\nGross oversimplification: basically, you take or modify biochemical pathways that already exist in nature and put them together in a lower organism (e.g. bacteria) so they produce some desired product. In this day and age, you can imagine that fuel is a pretty popular thing to produce, but this can also be done with antibiotics, etc. I haven't read anything about this in a while, but I know that there are a lot of companies trying to commercialize this technology to produce various kinds of fuel. It works well enough in the lab, but producing enough to actually make it worth the time in the real world isn't easy.",
"_URL_1_ \n_URL_0_ \n\nWhale oil has a very different composition that release way less energy when burned and really won't work in modern internal combustion engines.",
"The process is common to most living creatures including us and mainly involves fatty acid biosynthesis.\n\nWe have many methods of making liquid transport fuels from biomass including oil which we mainly get from plants for this purpose. A lot of people are also are trying to develop algae biorectors to make oil too. The great thing is that organic oil reacted with methanol can work in any diesel engine.\n\nIn addition there are a lot of ways such as pyrolysis and gasification of biomass followed by post processing to produce a lot of hydrocarbons which can fill in for petrochemicals. We can ferment lignocellulose derived sugars to ethanol to go in petrol engines too.\n\nThere is a lot of R +D in this area, big companies like Shell and BP are some big investors believe it or not, as well as government funded university research, business subsidy, and even the US navy. \n\nWhy are we not widely using these technologies? Petrochemicals have had a hundered years of development, deriving liquid transport fuels from biomass is still in its infancy and will require a lot of investment and development to become a viable business."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synthetic_biology"
],
[
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gasoline#Chemical_analysis_and_production",
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whale_oil#Chemistry"
],
[]
] |
||
4oh0xp
|
why is the code for league of legends considered "spaghetti"?
|
I've been playing the game for years and keep hearing this stated. What's up with their game?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4oh0xp/eli5why_is_the_code_for_league_of_legends/
|
{
"a_id": [
"d4chym0",
"d4chz4r"
],
"score": [
6,
12
],
"text": [
"Knowing nothing about lol, a game that becomes speggitti means that the game program has been edited tweaked upgraded countless times over the years with the end result being vastly diffrent then the original code, so it's a messy patchwork of fixes and changes where changing one thing over here for example hat color might break something way over there like how often your character has to use the restroom that you would never have assumed or planed to have connected if you wrote the program that way in the 1st place",
"Instead of being built in an organized fashion from the ground up, it has been built in tiny pieces all strung together. Very difficult to read, follow, and make changes to, since things are often connected in ways that don't make sense.\n\nFor example, let's say you wanted to update the color on the tree from \"light green\" to \"dark green.\" In a logical set up, you might go in to the textures, look for the correct code by searching for the phrase \"tree,\" and change the hex value for \"tree.\"\n\nHowever, in poor code, that color might be inheriting it's hex code from the grass texture, which is actually an image and not a value. So you have to hunt down which image that is to update it, but updating the color on the image would also change the grass color, not just the tree. Poorly designed spaghetti code."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[]
] |
|
j5nb1
|
Why is a gold nanoparticle suspension a different colour to bulk gold?
|
I understand it's to do with the colours of the visible spectrum that the gold scatters/absorbs. But I can't find out why the colour is different between the two.
I'm dealing with rich red colours of nanoparticle suspensions.
|
askscience
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/askscience/comments/j5nb1/why_is_a_gold_nanoparticle_suspension_a_different/
|
{
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"c29civr",
"c29cuvb",
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"c29cuvb"
],
"score": [
6,
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"text": [
"[Plasmon oscillations.](_URL_0_)\n\nSo gold as a solid has some very loosely-held electrons that can move around the block of metal very freely. They're so loosely held that we can think of the electrons as particles in a cloud of gas about the size of the gold particle. So these electrons will move some distance (couple hundred nanometers) before they hit something and have to change direction. This distance is known as the electron's *mean free path* and is much farther than the nanometer or two that electrons in most materials are free to move. \n\nNow something weird happens when the size of the cloud/particle is the same size or smaller than the mean free path of the electron. Instead of a whole lot of electrons with very similar energies as in bulk gold, the electrons set up more widely-spaced energy levels. The spacing of these energy levels is very dependent on the size of the particle (smaller particles - > bigger spacing) and when the particle is the right size (about 5 to 20 nm) the spacing of the energy levels is the same as a photon with a 510 nm or so wavelength, so it absorbs visible light and looks red. Usually gold just scatters light but when small enough it'll absorb very strongly. \n\nThe precise absorption of the particles is very dependent on particle size, shape, and stuff bound to the particle. This area has been an exciting field of research in the past 20 years or so. Colloidal gold has been known since the 19th century, but advances in research technology and interest in nanotechnology has grown the field tremendously. \n\n ",
"Is this what's up with gold [turning glass red](_URL_0_)?",
"[Plasmon oscillations.](_URL_0_)\n\nSo gold as a solid has some very loosely-held electrons that can move around the block of metal very freely. They're so loosely held that we can think of the electrons as particles in a cloud of gas about the size of the gold particle. So these electrons will move some distance (couple hundred nanometers) before they hit something and have to change direction. This distance is known as the electron's *mean free path* and is much farther than the nanometer or two that electrons in most materials are free to move. \n\nNow something weird happens when the size of the cloud/particle is the same size or smaller than the mean free path of the electron. Instead of a whole lot of electrons with very similar energies as in bulk gold, the electrons set up more widely-spaced energy levels. The spacing of these energy levels is very dependent on the size of the particle (smaller particles - > bigger spacing) and when the particle is the right size (about 5 to 20 nm) the spacing of the energy levels is the same as a photon with a 510 nm or so wavelength, so it absorbs visible light and looks red. Usually gold just scatters light but when small enough it'll absorb very strongly. \n\nThe precise absorption of the particles is very dependent on particle size, shape, and stuff bound to the particle. This area has been an exciting field of research in the past 20 years or so. Colloidal gold has been known since the 19th century, but advances in research technology and interest in nanotechnology has grown the field tremendously. \n\n ",
"Is this what's up with gold [turning glass red](_URL_0_)?"
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plasmon"
],
[
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stained_glass#Glass_production"
],
[
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plasmon"
],
[
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stained_glass#Glass_production"
]
] |
|
227zkq
|
(High Middle Ages) What kind of economic influence did rich individuals or families have?
|
Did people own multiple "companies", employed people? Did they invest? Where did they get money from and how could they expand their influence? What could they own?
Or was the concept of corporations and this kind of economy not yet present in these times?
(I apologize for this poor quality question, I really found it hard to express my question in words.. I tried to ask multiple questions to hopefully convey what I mean.)
|
AskHistorians
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/227zkq/high_middle_ages_what_kind_of_economic_influence/
|
{
"a_id": [
"cgkdiyy"
],
"score": [
3
],
"text": [
"A corporation is a legal entity. In the Middle Ages, the term might be applied to things like Universities or maybe monasteries where groups of people lived together for similar purpose. The corporation as a legally defined business came later.\n\nNow what did being rich in the Middle Ages actually look like? It depends on where the rich person lived and, to a lesser extent, whether they were Christian or Jewish.\n\nIn the city, rich people were mostly merchants and bankers. They were families that bought and sold items, especially items that had to be traded for or manufactured. The family might fund a large group of artisans to produce material, such as employing several different weavers to produce cloth, or they might just buy directly from multiple artisans. They would then either sell these goods within their own city, or take them to different cities to trade.\n\nJewish merchants were known to have especially large trade networks, and also to have trade networks that extended outside of Europe. This meant that they could import rarer goods, like gems, more easily than Christian traders. \n\nJews were also freer to loan money than Christians. There were strict rules governing what types of banking Christians could and could not do, and especially charging interest was forbidden (the sin of usury). Therefore, Jews were the go-to source for financial services. Eventually, Christians banking families like the Medicis would develop.\n\nHere are some suggestions for learning about cities and economics:\n\nLansing, Carol. *Florentine Magnates*. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1991.\n\nNicholas, David. *Medieval Flanders*. New York: Longman Publishing, 1992.\n\nNicholas, David. *Urban Europe 1100-1700*. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2003.\n\nKowaleski, Maryanne. *Medieval Towns: A Reader*. Toronto, Canada: Broadview Press, 2006.\n\nBotticini, Maristella. \"A Tale of \"Benevolent\" Governments: Private Credit Markets, Public Finance, and the Role of Jewish Lenders in Medieval and Renaissance Italy.\" The Journal of Economic History Mar 2000.\n\nIn the countryside, things were different, and they're what most people are more familiar with when they think of the Middle Ages. Wealth was consolidated through landholdings. Families amassed large areas of land, which they owned and controlled. The Peasantry owed certain things to the person who owned their land. This could mean taxes or rents, which could be either money or goods produced on their farms. Or it meant service, usually taking some time during the year, especially at planting and harvest, to work for the lord on the lord's own farms. How much they owed depended on whether the peasant was \"free\" or \"un-free\" or some degree in between.\n\nSources on the Rural Middle Ages:\n\nBiddick, Kathleen. *The Other Economy: Pastoral Husbandry on a Medieval Estate.* Berkeley: University of California Press: 1989.\n\nHanawalt, Barbara A. The Ties that Bound: Peasant Families in Medieval England. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1986. \n\nRaftis, Ambrose. “Peasants and the Collapse of the Manorial Economy on Some Ramsey Abbey Estates.” In *Progress and Problems in Medieval England: Essays in Honor of Edward Miller*, eds. Richard Britnell and John Hatcher, pp. 191-206. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996. \n\nHatcher, John and Edward Miller. *Medieval England: Rural Society and Economic Change, 1086-1348*. London: Longman, 1995."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[]
] |
|
28isab
|
Have there been any "great heists" similar to the one's we see in movies?
|
AskHistorians
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/28isab/have_there_been_any_great_heists_similar_to_the/
|
{
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"cibfniv",
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9,
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"text": [
"hi all! Just a reminder to prospective respondents that single sentences and/or links to Wikipedia are [not acceptable here](_URL_0_). A couple of quick excerpts of the rules:\n\n > Answers in this subreddit are expected to be of a level that historians would provide: comprehensive and informative. ...\n\n...\n\n > An in-depth answer gives context to the events being discussed so that someone who is unfamiliar with the area can understand. ... If you can contribute nothing more than your skills at using Google to find an article, please don't post.\n\n > Ask yourself these questions:\n\n > * Do I have the expertise needed to answer this question?\n\n > * Have I done research on this question?\n\n > * Can I cite my sources?\n\n > * Can I answer follow-up questions?\n\n > If you answer \"Yes\" to all of these questions, then proceed. If you answer \"No\" to one or more of these questions, seriously reconsider what you're posting.\n\n",
"This is fairly relevant, especially considering the timing of the question. The Jules Rimet Trophy, the original trophy received for winning the football World Cup was stolen and never recovered - after an earlier attempt in 1966 ended with a dog finding the trophy behind a wall.\n\nIn 1970, Brazil received the Jules Rimet Trophy permanently after winning the World Cup for a third time. In 1983, the trophy was stolen. It is believed, but unconfirmed, that the Jules Rimet trophy was stolen by three thieves and later broken apart and melted into gold bars.\n\nIt's never been found.\n\nSource: _URL_0_\n\nEdit: Grammar (I hate apeice as a word)",
"In 1963, a crew stopped a mail train in Buckinghamshire, England by turning the signal to red. They disconnected the last ten cars, and forced the engineer to continue on and then stop. They stormed the second car, which contained 2.7 million pounds (about $70 million in today's money) of currency being transferred to different banks.\n\nMost of the gang was caught, but the money never recovered. One participant, Ronnie Biggs, escaped prison and fled eventually to Rio de Janeiro where he eluded British police until voluntarily returning in 2001 for medical reasons.\n\nsource: [New York Times](_URL_0_)",
"Sorry, we don't allow [throughout history questions](_URL_1_). These tend to produce threads which are collections of trivia, not the in-depth discussions about a particular topic we're looking for. If you have a specific question about a historical event or period or person, please feel free to re-compose your question and submit it again. Alternatively, you may PM /u/caffarelli to have your question considered for an upcoming [Tuesday Trivia](_URL_0_) thread."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[
"http://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/wiki/rules#wiki_answers"
],
[
"http://www.theguardian.com/football/2014/jun/13/world-cup-mystery-what-happened-jules-rimet-trophy"
],
[
"http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/19/world/europe/ronnie-biggs-great-train-robber-dies-at-84.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0"
],
[
"http://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/wiki/features/trivia",
"http://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/wiki/rules#wiki_no_.22in_your_era.22_or_.22throughout_history.22_questions"
]
] |
||
9m6bqm
|
Why do we give so much shit to Germany when Japan was so much worse?
|
AskHistorians
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/9m6bqm/why_do_we_give_so_much_shit_to_germany_when_japan/
|
{
"a_id": [
"e7c8ghh"
],
"score": [
3
],
"text": [
"This submission has been removed because it is [soapboxing](_URL_0_.) or [moralizing:](_URL_1_) it has the effect of promoting an opinion on contemporary politics or social issues at the expense of historical integrity. There are certainly historical topics that relate to contemporary issues and it is possible for legitimate interpretations that differ from each other to come out of looking at the past through differing political lenses. However, we will remove questions that put a deliberate slant on their subject or solicit answers that align with a specific pre-existing view."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[
"http://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/wiki/rules#wiki_no_.22soapboxing.22_or_loaded_questions",
"https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/wiki/rules#wiki_no_political_agendas_or_moralising"
]
] |
||
2ftag9
|
A friend of mine claims Barbarian immigration is the reason for the fall of the Western Roman Empire, how true is this?
|
He claims that Rome could no longer stand against it's barbarian enemies because many Romans were German at that point. Were there other factors in Rome's fall?
|
AskHistorians
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/2ftag9/a_friend_of_mine_claims_barbarian_immigration_is/
|
{
"a_id": [
"ckckify",
"ckdf3u6"
],
"score": [
10,
3
],
"text": [
"Not being snarky or anything, but there are a lot of related questions [here in the wiki](_URL_0_). The point you make is technically true. All citizens of the empire were given Roman citizenship with the Edict of Caracalla in 212. A lot of these people were Germanic, so in some ways it's true that the Romans were Germanic at that point. However the theory you talked about really isn't accepted anymore . That comes from Edward Gibbon's *Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire* which is highly influential but outdated at this point. Gibbon was writing that when Great Britain was an Empire, so there's a lot of biases in that work to take with a grain of salt.\n\nAs for why the WRE fell, the wiki can probably answer that better than I can. But to list off a few points, the Crisis of the Third Century, and the repeated encroachment of Germanic tribes across the Rhine were two big factors.",
"It's a common argument. It's considered the \"classical\" argument, and is not entirely out of vogue, as evidenced by Peter Heather's recent books \"The Fall of the Roman Empire\" and \"Empires and Barbarians.\" However it's no longer the only argument, nor considered a monocausal argument. \n\nThe real problem lies in a few key words that need parsing within your question.\n\n1. What is a barbarian?\n2. What is immigration/migration?\n3. What is a fall?\n4. When was the fall?\n5. What is the Western Roman Empire?\n6. How do you ascertain \"truth\"?\n\nUnderstand that though it may seem pedantic/semantic to you, this parsing is actually very core to the last several hundred years of history and social science that has revolved around answering that most deceptively simple of questions, \"Why did the Roman Empire end?\"\n\nMost academic debates about the end of the Western Roman Empire hinge on multiple causes, or qualified causes within a suggested primary cause (like migration). But you know, especially given recent thought on the literary nature of history, no one has a monopoly on \"truth\" or \"plausibility\" with regards to answering the \"why\" question, though you should be aware that there will be varying degrees of social acceptance as to different theories, dependent upon prevailing ways of thinking at that point in time.\n\nBut if you're interested in a tl;dr of the insanity involved with regards to the possible factors as to Rome's fall, check out this infamous list of 210 (frequently contradictory) reasons.\n\n_URL_0_"
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[
"http://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/wiki/darkages#wiki_decline_of_the_roman_empire"
],
[
"https://www.utexas.edu/courses/rome/210reasons.html"
]
] |
|
68m7hn
|
What was the reaction of Europeans to the Persecution of Muslims in the then newly-indepedent states in the Balkans?
|
In 1800s, several ethnicities living under the Ottoman Empire in the Balkans rebelled and gained their independence with Greece as the first one in 1821. It is estimated that several million Muslims were killed or driven from their lands following these.
From 1821 to WWI and end of the Turkish War of Independence, what was the reaction of the European Great Powers to the policies of the newly independent states? Did they support it, ignore it or were against it?
|
AskHistorians
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/68m7hn/what_was_the_reaction_of_europeans_to_the/
|
{
"a_id": [
"dgznv2r"
],
"score": [
3
],
"text": [
"I don't have any answer, but your question is very, vary vague. Could you add some time frame?"
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[]
] |
|
8ljwcc
|
why is 4 beats per measure so common in music?
|
Why is it used so much more than 3 or 6 bpm and why is 5 bpm practically non-existent? What's so special about 4?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/8ljwcc/eli5_why_is_4_beats_per_measure_so_common_in_music/
|
{
"a_id": [
"dzg2lm9",
"dzg2q5f",
"dzg2ser",
"dzg3a6g"
],
"score": [
2,
7,
2,
7
],
"text": [
"Are you referring to time signature?",
"It’s a really good middle ground between having enough beats to explore the chord you’re on on the progression while also being a small enough number that our brains can easily keep track of it. It’s also really nice because it has clear subdivisions they are also small and convenient to use.\n\nThe problem with five is that it’s a bit long, so our brains don’t keep track quite as well with where we are, especially given the way that we use “down-beats” in music. We alternate between “down-beats” and the “back-beat” as a way of providing a sort of constant in the music to keep us grounded. This is the alternating between the deep bass drum and the snare in most rock. In 4/4, the length of time between the down and up beats will be constant (unless you’re fiddling around with the meter), which helps keep the music grounded. \n\nIn 3/4 or 5/4, there’s no way to, within a single measure, have an amount of time between down and up beats that is equal. Think of a waltz, which would be in 3/4, and how it has a down-up-up feel that gives it a nice airiness. \n",
" so I think 4/4 is pleasing to the ears and is a very simple time signature which the listener doesn't have to apply math to decipher. That's why it's the most common time signature. Its very easy to dance to as well. Even musically challenged people can easily follow 4/4.BTW 6/8 is very common in popular Indian music. ",
"Mostly cultural conditioning. In the west, we prefer 4/4 - and most pop music is written this way. But if you asked someone in another country or time period - a lot of music could written in 3's - which is a waltz. \n\nA lot of music is also 8/8 or 6/8 and although this is all divisible, it's *mostly* just a different way of writing and counting within a measure.\n\nThere are plenty of songs written in 5/4 - like \"15 Step\" by Radiohead and 7/4 like \"Money\" by Pink Floyd. Anything not a 2, 3 or 4 (and isn't divisible by them) is generally considered an abstract time signature and are naturally harder to follow. They're not as good for dancing.\n\nAs an FYI, BPM is beats per minute, not beats per measure, and refers to the speed of the song rather than it's time signature.\n\n"
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[],
[],
[]
] |
|
6zzqz8
|
why are some meteorites cut?
|
Cutting it just destroys its value, especially if you're fairly certain it's a meteorite.
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6zzqz8/eli5_why_are_some_meteorites_cut/
|
{
"a_id": [
"dmzas71",
"dmzb6xc"
],
"score": [
3,
3
],
"text": [
"I don't know about \"destroys its value\".\n\nSlices of meteorite are gorgeous, and if well polished make beautiful additions to someone's rock collection. As a result, they are worth a lot more money than a stoney metal rock.",
"Some meteors have very interesting crystalline formations inside, so cutting them most certainly does not destroy their value.\n\nAlso, meteors can be expensive, slicing them up gives more people the opportunity to buy."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[]
] |
|
8lvlx6
|
if meds are always eliminated in half by the body, how is it ever completely eliminated?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/8lvlx6/eli5_if_meds_are_always_eliminated_in_half_by_the/
|
{
"a_id": [
"dzir2j1",
"dzirh6k"
],
"score": [
2,
11
],
"text": [
"medicines have a half life, which isn't exactly the same as eliminated by half. But the answer is technically it isn't, but for all practical purposes it is. \n\nIf I through a billion grains of sand at you, and you got all but 3 off, you are pretty safe to say you got all the sand off, even if that isn't technically correct.",
"First, the half life of a medicine is more of a general rule to follow when considering dosages, and it's not like **exactly** half is left after each half life.\n\nAlso, unlike pure math, in the physical world an object can't be cut in half infinitely. Eventually you would get down to a single molecule and at the next half life, the medicine would be completely gone. Even if you continued cutting that single molecule in half (which isn't how it would work), how many molecules of that substance do you have? Zero, because a broken molecule isn't the same substance.\n\nIn general, after around 4-5 half lives, there isn't enough medicine to affect your body anyway. (100% > 50% > 25% > 12.5% > 6.25% > 3.125% > ...)"
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[]
] |
||
5525q9
|
Why didn't Mao Zeodong try to take back Hong Kong from Britain after the PRC was created?
|
AskHistorians
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/5525q9/why_didnt_mao_zeodong_try_to_take_back_hong_kong/
|
{
"a_id": [
"d86ybpx"
],
"score": [
43
],
"text": [
"There's [an earlier instance of this same question you may want to start with.](_URL_0_) It's three years old, but I was involved in it. We may well have much better answers hanging out now among the many more recent Asia flairs, so there's always room for further discussion."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[
"https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/110ejz/why_didnt_the_ccp_attempt_to_retake_hong_kong/"
]
] |
||
69mefv
|
why aren't there more bacteria that thrive in warm temperatures, i would think that high temperatures would allow them to reproduce rapidly by absorbing more energy?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/69mefv/eli5_why_arent_there_more_bacteria_that_thrive_in/
|
{
"a_id": [
"dh7o7ac"
],
"score": [
5
],
"text": [
"At high temperatures the enthalpy (heat energy of the formation of bonds) of the intermolecular forces is overcome by the entropy (energy of being spread out) and proteins can no longer be held together in their tertiary structure and become denatured, similar to what happens when you cook eggs. A similar effect would also occur on the cell membrane and other cell features. "
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[]
] |
||
air45r
|
in us presidential elections, how do news channels "call" which state goes to which candidate so quickly? do they have people in each county counting the votes?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/air45r/eli5_in_us_presidential_elections_how_do_news/
|
{
"a_id": [
"eeptlv8"
],
"score": [
3
],
"text": [
"No, they are not counting votes.\n\nUsually they are doing exit polls, where a person with a clipboard asks every 20^th person \"Who did you vote for\" for a couple of hours. Those results, which might be lies after all, are an input into a model of how people have voted historically.\n\nWhen the uncounted votes are less than the uncertainty in their model, the statisticians suggest a call be made. The management team then decides what the talking-heads will say. It's all judgement, all the way down.\n\nThey aren't always right. [They have been wrong, off and on, for a long time.](_URL_0_ )"
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[
"https://www.trbimg.com/img-582620fc/turbine/ct-hist-00276876a-tribhistory24-jpg-20161111/750/750x422"
]
] |
||
jpcqr
|
Will we always use electric energy as a means to power our homes and electronics? Are there other types of energy we could utilize for the same purpose?
|
Are than any non-electrical types of energy that can be produced and distributed using a technology that may or may not exist yet.
Could we build new types of technology to run on it, refrigerators, phones, lights...etc?
|
askscience
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/askscience/comments/jpcqr/will_we_always_use_electric_energy_as_a_means_to/
|
{
"a_id": [
"c2e3gs0",
"c2e3gs0"
],
"score": [
2,
2
],
"text": [
"I've heard of some pragmatic Amish or Mennonites taking the electrical motors out of appliances like blenders and replacing them with pneumatic ones, then running air lines through their houses like you would in a machine shop. This is in addition to having machine shops full of air tools. This is inefficient because you run the compressor off of electricity so you get electricity - > mechanical motion of compressor piston - > more energetic compressed air - > motion of motor in tool. Then your second law of thermodynamics is eating into your efficiency. \n\nSo if you want to replace every motor in your home with a pneumatic one, go ahead sure. But you need a religious region for it as the normal advantages of pneumatic tools (easier to repair, faster RPM) probably don't apply to blenders. ",
"I've heard of some pragmatic Amish or Mennonites taking the electrical motors out of appliances like blenders and replacing them with pneumatic ones, then running air lines through their houses like you would in a machine shop. This is in addition to having machine shops full of air tools. This is inefficient because you run the compressor off of electricity so you get electricity - > mechanical motion of compressor piston - > more energetic compressed air - > motion of motor in tool. Then your second law of thermodynamics is eating into your efficiency. \n\nSo if you want to replace every motor in your home with a pneumatic one, go ahead sure. But you need a religious region for it as the normal advantages of pneumatic tools (easier to repair, faster RPM) probably don't apply to blenders. "
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[]
] |
|
2igr38
|
why is hydrogen not considered a "fuel" but rather a way to store/transfer energy?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2igr38/eli5_why_is_hydrogen_not_considered_a_fuel_but/
|
{
"a_id": [
"cl20vkw",
"cl20vv4",
"cl211f1",
"cl26il1"
],
"score": [
3,
2,
3,
2
],
"text": [
"Because hydrogen isn't found in its natural state anywhere on earth. You need energy from other sources to produce it. More energy than you get out of burning the hydrogen fuel",
"It is considered a fuel. Fuels are a way to store chemical energy. ",
"Hydrogen is the most abundant element in the universe by far, but it does not exist in large pockets on Earth (most is stored in stars and interstellar gas). To get hydrogen on Earth, we usually extract it out of water by applying a strong electric current to break down the molecular bonds, producing hydrogen and oxygen. Hydrogen then is combusted as a fuel to make water again. Because the combustion reaction is simply the reverse of the first, there is no energy gain - just a transfer of chemical potential energy into the hydrogen in the first step, and a release of that energy in the second. \n\nOther fuel sources, like coal, could be argued to be similar, but do not operate with the same, quick, reactions. Coal is formed from organic matter, which derives from carbon, oxygen, and hydrogen (for the most part). Burning it yields carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen, but to say that you could have a coal battery is nonsensical. Once it is burnt, it spent and the slow processes that make is a non-renewable resource have to reform it.",
"A fuel, like oil, natural gas, and coal, has an energy surplus in it from the time it is extracted. You burn it, energy appears, and everyone is happy.\n\nThere are no significant sources of naturally occurring free hydrogen on earth. So you have to take some other fuel and expend it to make free hydrogen, then transport the hydrogen to where you want to use it. \n\nThe advantage of hydrogen is it doesn't matter how you make it, and it can be used to store energy from more intermittent sources like wind and solar. The disadvantage is we aren't really good at storing it yet. "
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[],
[],
[]
] |
||
kgmoq
|
Why do people wake up when they have to use the restroom (usually) and what wakes us up?
|
askscience
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/askscience/comments/kgmoq/why_do_people_wake_up_when_they_have_to_use_the/
|
{
"a_id": [
"c2k4xbf",
"c2k4xbf"
],
"score": [
3,
3
],
"text": [
"Hrm. I don't know the ins and outs of it as we only care at a superficial level whether the animal can feel that they need to pee, so how it's sensed, I don't know. But my guess is that there're mechanoreceptors in the urinary bladder's walls and they react to stretch, so when they hit a certain threshold of activity, the signal is sent up the pelvic nerve (since it's parasympathetic and has GVA neurons) to the brain stem, through the thalamus, and to the forebrain, which would be the part that wakes you up. \n\nThe other possibility is that the mechanoreceptors are in the detrussor muscle itself, or the urethralis muscle. Either-or would do it. \n\nBut we only worry about forebrain and cerebellar lesions as far as micturition goes in vet med (unless you specialize in Neurology) because the former makes you incontinent and the latter makes you have to use the bathroom repeatedly in small intervals. \n\nEdit: Yup, according to Wikipedia that's how it happens: [Detrussor Reflex](_URL_0_)",
"Hrm. I don't know the ins and outs of it as we only care at a superficial level whether the animal can feel that they need to pee, so how it's sensed, I don't know. But my guess is that there're mechanoreceptors in the urinary bladder's walls and they react to stretch, so when they hit a certain threshold of activity, the signal is sent up the pelvic nerve (since it's parasympathetic and has GVA neurons) to the brain stem, through the thalamus, and to the forebrain, which would be the part that wakes you up. \n\nThe other possibility is that the mechanoreceptors are in the detrussor muscle itself, or the urethralis muscle. Either-or would do it. \n\nBut we only worry about forebrain and cerebellar lesions as far as micturition goes in vet med (unless you specialize in Neurology) because the former makes you incontinent and the latter makes you have to use the bathroom repeatedly in small intervals. \n\nEdit: Yup, according to Wikipedia that's how it happens: [Detrussor Reflex](_URL_0_)"
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urination#Storage_phase"
],
[
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urination#Storage_phase"
]
] |
||
2o2gz2
|
how can it remain profitable to continue to design and produce android tablets when there are so many and they retail for so little?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2o2gz2/eli5how_can_it_remain_profitable_to_continue_to/
|
{
"a_id": [
"cmj2rc5"
],
"score": [
2
],
"text": [
"A product is profitable if it can be sold for more than the inputs (physical components, assembly and sales labor, design costs, etc) cost. Android tablets can be made for a profit if the cost of their inputs fall faster than the price. "
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[]
] |
||
242dna
|
why is there confusion over adhd and aspergers being a real thing? shouldn't there be a concrete opinion on something so common?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/242dna/eli5_why_is_there_confusion_over_adhd_and/
|
{
"a_id": [
"ch2ylfh",
"ch2zwt2"
],
"score": [
2,
2
],
"text": [
"ASD is a broad spectrum of tangentially related disorders, and works rather like a scorecard, where if you exhibit x,y,and z, you're autistic. HOWEVER, you can exhibit x, x and y, x and z, or y and z, or whatever combination, and maybe also have ASD. X, y, and z are also thing found in lots of other disorders, things like self-stimulative behavior, communication disorders, perseverative ideations (\"obsessions\"), difficulty in social situations, not maintaining eye contact, all stuff that fits into ASD, and a dozen other disorders as well.\n\nIts like describing a dog to an alien. It has four legs, a tail, ears. Oh! Like that? No, that's a cat, nope, that's a rabbit, nope, a cow. How do you know a dog? Well, you, kinda, um, it's dog-shaped?\nWe know what ASD is, sort of, and can describe it with observations, reams of data, and gut feeling, but it's hard to say why it's a dog and not a cat. Incidentally, it doesn't matter much, good schools will use very similar techniques for both; ABA, extra time for tasks, modification of tasks, etc.\n\nIncidentally, disorder names were not originally meant to label, but as a sort of therapeutic shorthand, since people with similar issues will respond to similar therapies. Things like ASD, ADHD and such are more so your doctors, therapists and such know what areas are likely to need more focus, but that difficulties may pop up in other areas. Using it as your label really limits how you and others think about you, so maybe try to describe characteristics rather than labels? I.e: I have a hard time at parties, I get nervous about messing up when I talk to new people, I get really excited about math, etc. Makes you sound and feel like a person, rather than like a defect.",
"Doctors are quick to diagnose, usually parents are quick to diagnose as well, a problem with children. I teach. I have seen real cases of ADHD and autism, and I have watched parents with children who have relatively normal behavior fight for diagnoses for the perks of IEPS in the school. \n\nReal ADHD is a sad thing to witness because the child is impossibly distracted, so much so he or she may not even be able to do something enjoyable or miss something they've been waiting for. Medication helps, but has side effects that are sometimes overwhelming for the child. \n\nAs for autism, kids who are \"different\" sometimes are labeled as thus, but really the kid likes Greek mythology and cats. Nothing wrong with the kid, but he's a little weird compared to his friends or family and a lot of times the parents find that to be a tangible reason. The real cases I've seen, the full blown flapping, fixation, inability to socialize is much different. \n\nUnfortunately, the misinformation out there is great. If you go to your pediatrician and come home with ritalin, it wasn't a good diagnosis. Testing and evaluations are important to make sure the child is receiving the best possible treatment. I think cases like this give these two disorders a bad rap in the general public. When I notice over half of my students are on an ADHD medication, it makes me wonder what the world is coming to. "
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[]
] |
||
d256qm
|
How are medications manufactured to such precise levels?
|
When you see medications that include an insanely small amount of something – say 25μ grams – how do drug manufacturers measure and add such a small quantity of that substance to a single pill or dosage of liquid, like a vaccine?
|
askscience
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/askscience/comments/d256qm/how_are_medications_manufactured_to_such_precise/
|
{
"a_id": [
"ezt9r6t"
],
"score": [
14
],
"text": [
"If you need to make a very small dose, you mix a larger amount with the various binding agents or solvents and then divide it into smaller doses. For example, if you mix 1 gram of your active ingredient with just under 40 kilograms of binding agents, a 1-gram pill will have 25 micrograms of the active ingredient. This is all done in massive quantities, no one measures out and mixes up a single dose.\n\nOn another note, it is possible to weigh things down to a single microgram (and lower), but it requires a strictly controlled environment and isn't used for large-scale manufacturing."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[]
] |
|
brmgjh
|
It's the 25th of December 1991 - I am a Soviet enlistedman, my buddy is a political officer (commissa?), and my boss is a very high-ranking officer. We're stationed in a non-Russian city (Kiev, or Nur-Sultan), but all from different areas of the Union. What happens tomorrow, as the nation dissolves?
|
Edit - commissar*, sorry.
|
AskHistorians
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/brmgjh/its_the_25th_of_december_1991_i_am_a_soviet/
|
{
"a_id": [
"eofkcs1"
],
"score": [
20
],
"text": [
"You might be interested in this previous answer I [wrote](_URL_2_), but I will also provide some extra details for this specific question.\n\nFirst of all, it would be highly, *highly* unlikely that a Soviet enlisted member of the military would be buddies with a high-ranking officer. Outside of the fact that most militaries have issues with officer-enlisted fraternization, someone serving as among enlisted personnel would more likely than not be a two-year conscript, and even different classes of *conscripts* didn't fraternize - the older year of conscripts was notorious for its beating, hazing, and general horrible treatment of the newer, incoming year - this is the infamous *dedovshchina*, or \"rule of the grandfathers\", which has afflicted post-Soviet military personnel as well (ETA - this was a real, literal hazard: it's estimated that more conscripts died from this abuse - about 15,000 - in the last five years of the USSR than were killed in combat in the almost ten years of fighting in Afghanistan). In contrast, officers, especially higher-ranking ones, were career military servicemembers.\n\nAs far as political officers go, the position existed in the Soviet military to the end, but it's probably worth noting that \"Commissars\" as such only existed in the Civil War period, 1937-40 and 1941-1942 - the Soviet government repeatedly changed its mind about the need to have this position (I should also mention that confusingly \"People's Commissars\" existed until 1946, but this was the equivalent of a cabinet-level minister). It's also worth noting that by December 1991, the central organs of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union had been [banned](_URL_0_) and its property in Russia seized by the Russian government, so there wasn't a political orthodoxy to uphold in the military any more.\n\nAnyway, to distill that previous answer of mine about the Soviet military - the Union-wide military structure more or less existed *after* the technical end of the USSR, with the idea advanced by the last Soviet Minster of Defense (Marshal Yevgeny Shaposhnikov) that the military would report to all heads of state in the new Commonwealth of Independent States, which in December 1991 effectively meant all of the former SSRs except for Georgia and the Baltics. This would have been vaguely similar to how NATO has a unified command, but also would have been incredibly unwieldy. \n\nOne reason this plan was almost immediately scuppered is that first the government of Ukraine under Leonid Kravchuk and then the Russian government under Boris Yeltsin. Kravchuk had insisted on any officers on Ukrainian territory swearing an oath of loyalty to the Ukrainian state, and had also fired senior officers serving on Ukrainian territory and replaced them with allies. Every other CIS state except Russia established its own Ministry of Defense in this period, and eventually Yeltsin got tired of trying to maintain a CIS-wide institution at Russian expense - he organized his own Russian Ministry of Defense in March 1992, with himself as Defense Minister, and by May of that year had appointed a Shaposhnikov rival (Pavel Grachev) to the position, formally established a Russian Armed Forces, and required all military personnel on Russian territory to swear allegiance to the Russian Federation. The idea of a CIS-wide armed forces with Shaposhnikov as its head existed on paper until June 1993. \n\nIt's also worth noting that the situation of the Soviet military differed based on which republic one was in. The major units were in Russia, Ukraine, Belarus and Kazakhstan (out of some 130 manuever divisions active in 1991, 71 were in Russia, 20 in Ukraine and 10 in Belarus) - Ukraine in fact had some of the best-equipped military units, especially as these tended to be the Soviet forces that were most-recently withdrawn from Central and Eastern Europe. These units, as shown in Ukraine's case, fell under the control of their \"home\" republic's government, which made sure that these units were commanded by officers loyal to the new country. In other cases, the outcome was a little different: in Tajikistan, the Soviet military units remained effectively under Russian control and were directly integrated into the Russian military once that was established, but that country was already being torn apart by a [civil war](_URL_1_). Soviet military units in the Baltics and Georgia also wound up under Russian control, but were treated as occupying forces to be withdrawn. In Moldova, the Soviet military took sides with Transdnistrian separatists, and then stayed (as part of the Russian military) as \"peacekeepers\" - a similar process occurred in Abkhazia. \n\nSo in short: for someone in the Soviet military, the increasing institutional mess that had really started around 1989 really picked up pace in late 1991, but there were strong continuities into 1992 and even 1993. Probably your bigger issue would be the lack of or insufficiency of pay or housing, and trying to literally survive brutal treatment at the hands of older enlisted personnel and officers.\n\nPedantic end-note: there was effectively no Soviet military presence in the recently re-named Astana (Nur-Sultan) in 1991, which at the time was a provincial capital called Tselinograd. It wasn't the national capital of Kazakhstan until 1997."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[
"https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/9640ua/when_the_soviet_union_collapsed_what_happened_to/e3yfcdx/",
"https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/8zi6n5/what_were_the_causes_of_the_civil_war_in/",
"https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/9lna01/how_did_yeltsin_gain_control_of_the_armypolice/e788qwv/"
]
] |
|
10k0lk
|
How did the ancients maintain their weapons and equipment?
|
I mean, I guesssss you could use olive oil or animal fat on a weapon as a sealant/preservative, but it seems like neither of those would work all that well (and wouldn't animal fats have some salt in them? Wouldn't that be counterproductive to preserving armor and weapons?).
The Greeks made sea journeys with their armor and weapons. Wouldn't they have needed some way to preserve them? A light oiling every day with an occasional sharpening and a more intensive cleaning/oiling session on any hinged components seems like it would have done the trick, but what would they have used?
Also, I know bronze is pretty tough, but you're still going to have to perform some maintenance on your equipment, and it seems like later iron weapons would have been even more maintenance-intensive.
Any time period is fine with me, I'm just as curious about how an Italian duelist would have maintained his rapier as I am how an ancient Greek would have maintained his helmet.
|
AskHistorians
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/10k0lk/how_did_the_ancients_maintain_their_weapons_and/
|
{
"a_id": [
"c6e4top"
],
"score": [
13
],
"text": [
"I'm more of a Medieval and Napoleonic guy, but here's a few random facts:\n\n* Knights treated their shields like shit, mainly because they were disposable. Only designed to get you through one encounter, they'd be left in the rain. When too banged up to be reliable, straight into the fire. \n\n* squires and servants responsible for cleaning rust from armor (could happen very easily, be it from rain, ambient moisture in the air, or all the sweat rolling from the wearer) would scour it with a mixture of sand and urine. Maille was cleaned by letting it sit in a sack or barrel with the same mixture and rolling it around or riding with it all day. \n\n* Napoleonic soldiers shot black powder: normal cleaning would involve running scalding water through the barrel, followed with oiled patches to protect from rust. If a musket became excessively fouled in battle, falling out of line and pissing down the barrel was a common field-fix for the problem.\n\n* Ya know how British soldiers are always portrayed with powdered wigs and immaculate uniforms? Even the clean ones were pretty disgusting. Wigs/hair were kept white with flour, and looking smooth and immaculate with tallow. It was common to un-que (unbraid the hair) and clean out the insects in it. Cross-belts were kept white by smearing pipeclay on them. On campaign, lice in bedding and clothes were basically tolerated, if not appreciated. \n\n* It was also a common tradition (but not universal) for regimental officers to seek out an armorer on the eve of battle and tip handsomely for him to sharpen their swords. \n\n* During the Age of Sail (and before, I suppose) ships' rigging was kept against rot and drying out by liberally tarring it. Even the cleanest sailors had black streaks stained into their clothes from going aloft, and their hands would be stained black as well. The British Navy's salute actually hid the blackened palm when men gave it. \n\nThere's more, but that's just off the top of my head. "
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[]
] |
|
4fke19
|
Does anybody know where I can learn more about the RAF in the Far East during WW2?
|
I tried Wikipedia, and it led to some interesting first-hand reports (_URL_0_) but I was hoping to find something a bit more substantial by a historian.
As background: I am a Malaysian, and I know there were British planes stationed here during the invasion of Malaya (until the Japanese invaded), and more so that the RAF operated from India and Ceylon during the later years of the war and operated Spitfires. There's just so little information about this that I could find here.
|
AskHistorians
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/4fke19/does_anybody_know_where_i_can_learn_more_about/
|
{
"a_id": [
"d29mlps"
],
"score": [
5
],
"text": [
"Christopher Shores's *Bloody Shambles* trilogy ( Volume 1: The Drift to War to the fall of Singapore, Volume 2: From the Defence of Sumatra to the fall of Burma, and Volume 3: Air War for Burma: The Allied Air Forces Fight Back in South-East Asia 1942-1945) are good places to start. "
]
}
|
[] |
[
"http://www.warbirdforum.com/secret.htm"
] |
[
[]
] |
|
53s32k
|
Theoretically what would be the result of millions of atoms in a very small density all losing electrons simultaneously?
|
The title may be confusing, and I didn't know how to properly word it, so I'll provide an example.
I'm writing a novel in which, "magic" wielders essentially steal the electrons from an atom and transmute them to other forms of energy (Obviously not 100% scientifically plausible, hence "magic.") My question then being, what would be the consequences of a scenario where one of these "wizards" stole too many electrons in a very small area (~1 cubic cm of air)? If this isn't even close to a plausible scenario where one could produce energy, how would one go about harvesting electrical energy from positively charged ions "magically," and what would the consequences of such an action entail?
I know it's a wonky question, but I'm trying to create a somewhat physical interpretation of magic.
|
askscience
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/askscience/comments/53s32k/theoretically_what_would_be_the_result_of/
|
{
"a_id": [
"d7vvwqu",
"d7w8vf4"
],
"score": [
19,
5
],
"text": [
"You'd get something called [Coulomb explosion](_URL_0_). This can happen without wizards getting involved.",
"So, a cubic centimeter is something in the neighborhood of a milligram of air. That would contain somewhere in the neighborhood of 10^20 electrons zapped away, so the remaining air would have a total charge of about 100 Coulombs.\n\nA typical lightning bolt transfers about 15 coulombs of charge, although bigger ones can top 300. \n\nBut I'm at the end of my ability to analyze further here - how fast and how energetic the result is, I don't know."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coulomb_explosion"
],
[]
] |
|
22k0ou
|
Are there sexually dimorphic species for which male and female is a misnomer?
|
Even in species like chickens there are commonalities that can allow us to establish a sex as male or female. Are there species who's reproduction is so divergent that we can't even properly apply the ideas of male and female?
|
askscience
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/askscience/comments/22k0ou/are_there_sexually_dimorphic_species_for_which/
|
{
"a_id": [
"cgnkviz"
],
"score": [
12
],
"text": [
"Male and female are actually defined by the relative size of the gametes, not by anything else. In most animal species, there are 2 sexes that produce gametes of different sizes. The \"male\" is the one that produces the smaller gamete, the \"female\" the one that produces the larger gamete, by definition. What's interesting is how many other traits tend to be fall out consistently along with gamete size, right down to ornamentation, mating systems and mate choice. Usually the smaller gamete is the more mobile gamete and doesn't have much in the way of energy stores. The sex that produces the smaller gamete (males) is therefore investing less in each gamete than the other sex is, and this tends (speaking broadly) to make males evolve to be less choosy about mates, more likely to seek large numbers of mates, and more likely to evolve \"showy\" display traits (bright plumage etc) and competition traits (antlers etc). In contrast, the larger gamete has more energy stores and represents a greater investment, so, that sex (females) is often (again speaking broadly) more choosy about partners, less likely to seek large numbers of mates, and less likely to evolve showy traits and competition traits. Obviously there are some big exceptions, humans among them (we evolved a remarkably unusual display trait in females - breasts in nonlactating women). But that's the general trend.\n\nThen there are some species though that have equal-size gametes; there can still be \"mating types\" but they're not referred to as make or female. Yeast, for example. And there are some species that can produce both types of gametes (either simultaneously, or switching from one sex to the other). For example there are a lot of fish that can change sex. If Finding Nemo had been more accurate, to give a specific example, when Nemo's mom died, his dad would have changed sex to become female, and then Nemo would have become a breeding male and mated with the new female (his dad). For inexplicable reasons the moviemakers did not choose to portray this correctly. (btw yeast can switch mating types, too)"
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[]
] |
|
b1ovo5
|
there is so much Media today about what future technology might be, did ancient cultures such as the Romans ever speculate either through predictions or stories of what technology they thought might be created in the future?
|
AskHistorians
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/b1ovo5/there_is_so_much_media_today_about_what_future/
|
{
"a_id": [
"eiop6nc"
],
"score": [
4
],
"text": [
"[This comment](_URL_1_) by u/publiusclodius (from the FAQ) covers differing Roman ideas about what the future would look like.\n\nAlso, while it doesn't exactly address your question, you might be interested in u/mythoplokos's comment on [the Roman concept of technological progress](_URL_0_), which wasn't quite the same as ours."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[
"https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/46nea8/did_the_romans_have_a_concept_of_technological/d06ytd8/",
"https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/2hd6cj/did_the_romans_have_a_concept_of_the_future_for/cks65ml/"
]
] |
||
1l9myf
|
the difference between irish and black irish
|
I've hear people say they are Irish and others say they're black Irish. What's the difference
Sorry if its a stupid question.
|
explainlikeimfive
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1l9myf/eli5_the_difference_between_irish_and_black_irish/
|
{
"a_id": [
"cbx1y40",
"cbx9jyn"
],
"score": [
4,
2
],
"text": [
"Dark hair and eyes, and the self identification as black Irish. It's not a specific group, culture, or anything like that, though all sorts of false ancestry claims are made for them. \n\nThey are literally anyone of Irish descent with darker hair, eyes, or complexion. ",
"Black Irish are from County Tyrone."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[]
] |
|
4ry91w
|
the difference between a gas mask and a respirator.
|
I tried several "compare" sites and they were of no help. Are they actually different things or is it one of those "oh it's merely the British pronunciatioun chap" things?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4ry91w/eli5_the_difference_between_a_gas_mask_and_a/
|
{
"a_id": [
"d5539xx",
"d553efw"
],
"score": [
3,
6
],
"text": [
"A gas mask is designed to protect you from dangerous gases. A respirator lets you breathe while it protects your airways by supplying alternate air or forcing the air through a filter. Many modern gas masks are respirators, but not all of them. Nor are all respirators gas masks.",
"typical use of the term gas mask is for biological, chemical and nuclear warfare agents. the agent would attack soft tissue such as lips, mouth, eyes, nose to the point of irritation or incapacitance or fatally. \n\nwhereas respirator typically is used for civilian uses where its main purpose to protect against breathing in of chemical fumes from harmful but non lethal agents used in the industrial sector. \n\nwhere as a dust mask is for protection from breathing in airborne particles of typically non harmful but irritating agents like sawdust, construction dust, cleaning dust.\n\nboth respirators and dust masks do not protect the eyes against exposure. "
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[]
] |
|
1ttk2r
|
Why wasn't Japan split into pro-West and pro-Communist states? (unlike W/E Germany, N/S Vietnam, Korea)
|
AskHistorians
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/1ttk2r/why_wasnt_japan_split_into_prowest_and/
|
{
"a_id": [
"cebgm3j",
"cebj6dz"
],
"score": [
2,
2
],
"text": [
"German, Korea, and Vietnam were captured by multiple powers e.g. US and USSR. Japan on the other hand was occupied by the US. There were tons of US troops and very few or none (I can't entirely remember) from other nations. The USSR had officially declared war on Japan, but they barely had time to do anything before Japan surrendered after the use of nuclear weapons by the United States. The first troops to land were US occupation forces. The US maintained a major military presence on the Island through the Korean War where it was used as a staging ground and recreation area. The US dropped troop levels over time and eventually gave back control of Okinawa in 1972. It should be noted that the Soviets did manage to capture some northern islands in Japan that were more tenuously controlled. Regardless, it is essentially correct that Japan was not partitioned. \n\nGermany and Korea were both captured in \"halves\" by different powers that then held onto the areas they captured. \n\nVietnam was different, but went along related lines. Two separate but native governments were established. They were eventually supported by the powers that agreed most with their respective politics. The 1954 Geneva Conference officially partitioned Vietnam into Communist and non-Communist sections, but was not intended to be permanent.",
"Depending on how you assign the Kuril Islands it's as much as a 96%-4% split.\n"
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[]
] |
||
38nlzh
|
why do certain sites, like facebook for example, only allow me to deactivate my account rather than completely delete it?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/38nlzh/eli5_why_do_certain_sites_like_facebook_for/
|
{
"a_id": [
"crwc65d",
"crwcafl",
"crwci4v",
"crwiepl",
"crwmnpy"
],
"score": [
30,
14,
3,
4,
3
],
"text": [
"There is an option to completely delete a Facebook account, you just have to dig around for it. Then there's a two week cool down before it actually deletes. Many of these sites make money from selling user data, they use having a large number of users as a selling point. ",
"A possible explanation is that they just want to keep it for their own obscure purposes.\n\nAnother explanation is the technical one:\nThis kind of sites usually store a HUGE amount of data under heavy load of a really large number of users changing the data (by writing posts, comments, setting likes, adding friends/followers etc etc) every single moment. The data is very interdependent: every comment, for instance, depends on the info about the post this comment applies for, the user who wrote the comment, the one who wrote the original post, everyone who liked it etc. Removing a single element from this web might ruin the whole structure, effectively corrupting the database. That's why they want to deactivate things rather then performing a tremendous task of checking all the possible links in order not to break the whole website.",
"Lets say x site has 20 members and if you delete your account they will left with 19 members which will show the advertisers that they are loosing users and if you deactivate your account ..they still have 20 members.",
"Well, particularly for Facebook, it's because their business is to collect your personal information, (likes, dislikes, age, occupation), so if they have you deactivate it instead of deleting it, they get to keep your information for \"business purposes\" while still technically letting you leave the site.",
"Less cynical option : People delete their Facebook for a time, then come back. They expect all their history to still be there and it's not so they complain to Facebook. Facebook figures it's just easier if nothing is deleted anymore. \n\nSounds dumb, but I have heard people complaining about losing their history before."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[],
[],
[],
[]
] |
||
d4k2ag
|
why are calf cramps so common?
|
Often when waking in the middle of the night or in the morning, it’s a common reflex to stretch which feels great. However, it’s very common to have a calf cramp which is very painful. Can someone explain why? Ways to prevent? Ways to reduce the duration or pain during the event?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/d4k2ag/eli5_why_are_calf_cramps_so_common/
|
{
"a_id": [
"f0dcd16",
"f0dcn7y"
],
"score": [
2,
3
],
"text": [
"Generally they are caused by restrictions in the blood supply which can commonly occur in the legs and feet, since the calf is the largest muscle in the lower leg it often responds dramatically to low flows in blood with cramp - _URL_0_",
"Straighten leg and pull foot towards you to stretch the muscle is about the only cure I know of.\n\nI’ve also noticed that when I feel a leg cramp coming on I can often lessen the pain by doing the opposite of the above.\n\nI was once told cramping is a sign of dehydration but I’m not 100% on that."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[
"https://youtu.be/aieh2yn4Auw"
],
[]
] |
|
3ehjfs
|
why screenwriters and directors are given funding when their movies are typical bombs?
|
Look up Craig Clyde on IMDB. His writing career began in 1992, and his highest rated movies are Castle Rock (2000) at 5.8/10 and Storm Rider at 6.3/10. He's written 21 scripts and directed 17 films, and none of them have done very well. Yet, as recently as 2013, he's still getting scripts turned into movies.
EDIT - His highest rated movie on Rotten Tomatoes is Truth or Consequences at 33%.
|
explainlikeimfive
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3ehjfs/eli5_why_screenwriters_and_directors_are_given/
|
{
"a_id": [
"ctf7zzu"
],
"score": [
2
],
"text": [
"Your only listing the overall critical response to Mr. Clyde's films here, not their financial success, and quite frankly, financial success is a better barometer of sustained employment in Hollywood than critical approval ever has been and ever will be. As long as Mr. Clyde maintains a profitable track record, he's going to keep getting his films made. "
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[]
] |
|
tlhss
|
In books, human civilization technology is very stagnant for much longer than it was in human history. I guess I'm asking is it even plausible that might have happened in Human History?
|
I hope this isn't a violation of r/AskHistorians. I was just thinking that in most novels with settings in quasi dark age settings that they have been like that for thousands of years. I understand that humans did live in a long period that saw small increases of development before skyrocketing. (Like the exponential curve model shows). Are authors just trying to make books more interesting or is it a possibility that events could have happened that left us in the "dark ages" for much longer. In case anyone was wondering I'm thinking specifically of the world of in the Series: A Song of Ice and Fire and as my name implies Lord of the Rings. Again if this question isn't suppose to be here I'm sorry.
|
AskHistorians
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/tlhss/in_books_human_civilization_technology_is_very/
|
{
"a_id": [
"c4nn2qz",
"c4nv6tt",
"c4nxo9j"
],
"score": [
10,
2,
4
],
"text": [
"You're question makes me think of the very popular series \"a Song of Ice and Fire,\" in which the world has persisted in a state of feudalism for millenia. \n\nYou're question allows for an examination of different perceptions of history. When we think of history, we generally think of progress. For example, we believe that one hundred years from now the world will be a more impressive and desirable place to live than it is today. This is known as the Teleological view of history, and it is a product of western Renaissance and Enlightenment thought. \n\nThis is not the only way to look at history, however. The Chinese, for example, have long viewed history in the exact opposite manner. Chinese intellectuals hark back to a golden age during the Zhou Dynasty (1046-256BC, by at least one reckoning) and most all subsequent philosophical and political discourse has advocated various paths to return to this golden Age. In this way, Chinese perceptions of history begin with the apex followed by a decline that has persisted into the modern day. Admittedly, this is an oversimplification in today's world in which western conceptions of modernity have become so prevalent, but it was unquestioned throughout millenia of Chinese civilization.\n\nBuddhist and Hindu thought originating in India also have a unique view of history. They perceive history as cyclical, repeating itself an infinite number of times in patterns. This topic, however, is outside my expertise. \n\nYou're question, therefore, assumes the existence of only one true perception of historical development. In a very real sense, progress is not intimately tied to history. Societies rise and fall with occasional punctuation of brilliance and long stretches of relative stagnation and decline. Our perception that our modern, technologically advanced world demonstrates progress over the past is a value judgment, a partially artificial narrative of our culture's own creation. \n",
"I always thought it was due to either no centralized countries forming, magic destroying everything and requiring no advances past the current technological level or dragons destroying everything.",
"Something that has always faintly bothered me in fantasy novels is the complete inability on the part of the writers to have a sense of time scale (a nice exception to this is Steven Eriksson). It is not just a matter of technological development, but their political systems are far more stable than is plausible. Gondor in Lord of the Rings, for example, has lasted more or less unchanged for three thousand years (longer, in fact, if you include the kingdom in the Second Age). Now that's just silly. Human political system in a form recognizable to us are only about 2700 years old, and agriculture is only 10,000 years old! In *the Wheel of Time*, which makes a point of noting the instability and population contraction of their world, the political order had survived intact for about a thousand years!\n\nReally, I'm being a bit facetious here, because fantasy novels are not based on history, but rather legend and folklore. In folklore, the world never changes: Julius Caesar to the Middle Ages was a knight and an exemplar of chivalry, in the *Aeneid* Juno was basically a Roman politician, and Michelangelo's David expresses humanist virtues quite unfamiliar to ninth century BCE Judea. That's what makes fantasy novels no fascinating to a cultural anthropologist.\n\nAs for technology, unfortunately out sample set for how the development of technology progresses through history is basically one, so I can't comment."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[],
[]
] |
|
rjxx9
|
How many capacitors, or how far would technology have to advance to fully harvest the energy in a lightning bolt?
|
Is it even possible? OR do capacitors take to long to charge for a bolt of lightning to do anything?
|
askscience
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/askscience/comments/rjxx9/how_many_capacitors_or_how_far_would_technology/
|
{
"a_id": [
"c46hmnz"
],
"score": [
2
],
"text": [
"For the purposes of this discussion, a capacitor is exactly like a big tank of\ncompressed air, with pressure corresponding to voltage and mass of air corresponding to charge. Imagine another tank of compressed air (the cloud) comes along. Clearly you can't exceed the pressure of the other tank without a pump. So the best you can do is a tank of equal volume. Now if you join the tanks, the pressure is halved, and the mass is halved, so the energy is divided by 4. All that said, all the energy in a lightning bolt is about as much as there is in a tank of gasoline. In other words, not enough to bother about."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[]
] |
|
3bap96
|
how can an application or program get constant updates and still be the same size?
|
What happens in the update process? What happened to all the megabytes I just downloaded?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3bap96/eli5how_can_an_application_or_program_get/
|
{
"a_id": [
"cskf09b",
"cskff15",
"cskg3c5",
"cskhgb1"
],
"score": [
4,
2,
2,
2
],
"text": [
"a program is like a piece of cloth\n\noccasionally a hole is found\n\nso you put a patch on it\n\nbut the cloth remains the same size\n\nwhen you want to make a cloth a blanket\n\nthen you make it bigger\n\nthis is called bloat\n\n",
"Programming code doesn't really take up a lot of space. The chances are that your program *isn't* remaining the same size, but the increase is so miniscule you don't notice it. \nIn the case of programs, the things that take up the most space are things like image assets, e.g. the logo of the program in question. \nAlso the fact that an update isn't necessarily *adding* to the program, but merely replacing parts of it that were broken.",
"Apart from what was already mentioned, updates are often a lot bigger than what you would actually need, because they include many previous patches as well. \n\nSay you are still on version 1.0, but the newest is 1.5 - so there were a few updates you missed. \nYou could download 1.1, install it, then download 1.2, install it, and so on - each update would be pretty small, but it would be a hassle to repeatedly download and install and restart the application. So many (if not most) developers bring out a patch for 1.5, which includes all the things needed to get any version from 1.0-1.4 up to date. ",
"In case of bugfixes or non-content patches, existing stuff like libraries, functions, modules and so on get minor or major upgrades, maybe are replaced as a whole. Sometimes those get performance enhancements that can turn them even smaller, or old deprecated code gets removed.\n\nIn terms of content upgrades, there probably will always be an increase, because new content has to be stored somewhere. New routines to handle game logic, textures, graphics, ... "
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[],
[],
[]
] |
|
2cqjcg
|
when a company goes public, can an exec buy majority stock/how is the owner protected?
|
I searched and haven't found anything related to my question.
I wasn't sure how else to word the question. I shall explain.
I want to know how far a company's owner(officially titled CEO?) is protected in terms of initial shares.
Let's say I own Company X(random mom and pop shops..whatever minimum required) and will be going public. Now I understand there is a pre-IPO which means executives and other employees have a chance to get a certain amount of stock before it goes public. Is that correct?
Now how much shares are available at that time period(pre-IPO) and what would decide it? For instance, if Company X goes public with 25,000,000 shares...how many shares could have been given to employees/execs before the IPO? I used the word "given" is that correct or do the execs still have to BUY the shares pre-IPO?
Also, let's say Company X's CFO is a rich guy/girl. Would it be possible be for him/her to buy up majority stock pre-IPO(if the shares are not given) so that when the company goes public, they then become the "owner" and are essentially higher than the CEO? If not, then how limited are they?
Lastly, if in my example the CFO (or anyone) cannot do that then what exactly is it that protects the CEO/owner from losing complete power over their company and for how LONG? Once the company goes public, then the exec in question(or anyone) could buy up all of the shares or is that incorrect?
Oh and feel free to give in depth answers despite this being in the ELI5 section.
|
explainlikeimfive
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2cqjcg/eli5_when_a_company_goes_public_can_an_exec_buy/
|
{
"a_id": [
"cji1ieg",
"cji4ls1"
],
"score": [
3,
2
],
"text": [
"First of all, a CEO does not have to be the owner of a corporation. The owners of most small private companies tend to serve as the CEO, but the CEO of a large company like, say, GM, usually won't be the largest shareholder. The CEO is appointed by the board of directors, who are themselves appointed by the shareholders.\n\nFrom your question, you seem to be under the impression that shares are created when a company goes public, but this isn't the way it works. When a corporation is created, even if there is only one shareholder, its articles of incorporation will say how many shares there are in the company.\n\nFor example, if I want to create X Corp, my articles could say that the company has 50,000 shares. I could then issue 10,000 shares to myself and leave the rest unissued, meaning that no one holds them and they don't have voting power. When I want to go public, I decide how many of the remaining shares I want to issue. If I'm worried about losing control, I simply issue less than 10,000 shares, meaning I still have the majority of the outstanding shares and, therefore, majority control.",
"The owner of a company does risk losing control by going public - but they also stand to make a huge amount of money. That's a risk they need to evaluate before making that decision. If you want to maintain complete control, then don't sell your company. Going public is, by definition, the act of selling to the public.\n\nHowever, there are a variety of measures the mgmt can take to maintain greater control. For example, they may have two classes of stock, one for the public market, but another that is not public and has a greater degree of voting rights than the public shares."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[]
] |
|
2gw7a4
|
Biblical names like John,Paul,Gabriel or Peter have different pronunciations in other languages like Juan (John ,Spanish) or Paolo ( Paul, Italian). How were these names pronounced during biblical times?
|
AskHistorians
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/2gw7a4/biblical_names_like_johnpaulgabriel_or_peter_have/
|
{
"a_id": [
"ckn7aaq",
"cknhyrg",
"cknn2c9"
],
"score": [
14,
11,
3
],
"text": [
"Not trying to discourage any discussion here, but this question might be more fruitful if asked at _URL_0_",
"The New Testament names were written in the then lingua franca Koine Greek, so John was Ioannes and Paul was Paulus But Gabriel was from Hebrew, and Peter was Petros, which in turn was the translation from the original Aramaic name that Jesus gave him, Kephas, meaning 'rock'.",
"Jesus was Yeshua, Moses was Moishe. Isaac was Yitzak, Jacob was Yacov. "
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[
"http://www.reddit.com/r/linguistics"
],
[],
[]
] |
||
476ksi
|
Are any radioactive elements or isotopes no longer radioactive when part of a molecule?
|
askscience
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/askscience/comments/476ksi/are_any_radioactive_elements_or_isotopes_no/
|
{
"a_id": [
"d0ajxtm",
"d0asi24",
"d0b89ep",
"d0be7r4"
],
"score": [
23,
5,
2,
2
],
"text": [
"I think we can safely say that the answer here is no. The reason is that nuclear reactions and chemical bonds exist on vastly different energy scales. For example, a typical chemical bond is in the range of a few electronvolts (eV). On the other hand, when a nucleus decays, that can release several MeV of energy. The M there stands for mega, which means that you have a million times more energy! As a result, it is almost impossible for a chemical bond to somehow provide enough stabilization to prevent a nucleus from being radioactive. In fact, to a very good approximation the rate of nuclear decay can usually taken to be independent of the chemical environment.",
"Molecular bonds work to stabilize the energy of the electrons of an atom, while radioactive decay is fundamentally concerned with the nucleus (the protons and neutrons at the core of the atom). Forming new bonds is not going to strongly alter the stability of the nucleus, only the electrons surrounding it. \n\nWhile it's possible that you could slightly affect the decay in some way by strongly changing the environment of a nucleus, preventing decay altogether is a very tall order.",
"There are a few radioactive elements whose decay rates can change based upon their environment, however these tend to be in fully ionized atoms which wouldn't occur in a molecule.\n\n_URL_0_",
"No. The atoms are still radioactive if they were in the first place. This can actually be used as a trace when studying the distribution or reactions of a given molecule. You could (for example) replace some of the normal hydrogen atoms in a sample of some compound with deuterium or tritium atoms. \n\nThe molecule will behave in the same manner (most of the time) but now you can use the fact that it is radioactive to trace where it goes and what it does in certain situations."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[],
[
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radioactive_decay#Changing_decay_rates"
],
[]
] |
||
36kt2n
|
Fellow medievalists: Which historians would you vote into the Medieval History Hall of Fame? (Historiography)
|
Please excuse the flippant title. I figured it was an easily digestible way for me to initiate this discussion.
I am currently compiling a list of "must read historians" for a non-medievalist friend, and it occurred to me that other medievalists must have some opinions about the "classic" authors of the field. In other words, historians whose works have influenced the field (either of medieval history or of any measure of academia*) in some meaningful or significant way.
I'm thinking of historians like Charles Homer Haskins, Henri Pirenne, Georges Duby, Joseph Strayer, and so on.
\* As it happens, medievalists *have* had some significant influence on greater academia, which is why I thought this question would appeal to the general /r/askhistorians community, as well as to those who are interested in the Middle Ages. For instance Marc Bloch, the French historian who was famously executed by the Nazis, helped found the *Annales* journal, which later developed into an ideological school.
|
AskHistorians
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/36kt2n/fellow_medievalists_which_historians_would_you/
|
{
"a_id": [
"crf1fwy",
"crf7oc1"
],
"score": [
4,
3
],
"text": [
"I'd probably go with Michael Prestwich. For my field his work on both the logistics of warfare and Edward I are really quite important. He still has some of the best work on the changes to the composition and recruitment of English armies that happened over the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. \n\nI gather from another student at my university that he's also done some important work on English legal history but I don't know anything about that. ",
"For early medieval religious history: Peter Brown. He's on the cusp of medieval I guess (I mean, he more or less created the field of Late Antiquity), but there's none better if you want to delve into the intellectual and religious history of the Late Ancient/Early Medieval Mediterranean world as well as the origins of some of medieval Christianity's most enduring features: the cult of the saints, monasticism, holy men, etc. \n\nThe man also knows something on the order of 26 languages-- so if a list of hall of famers is *supposed* to make me feel inadequate...\n\nAnd of course, the Medieval History Hall of Fame would not be complete without Ernst Kantorowicz. *The King's Two Bodies* (1957) is the foundational work for our understanding of the political theology of medieval kingship. Not to mention the man's crazy story. Born to a German-Jewish family, Kantorowicz fled Germany in 1938 after refusing to sign a Nazi loyalty oath. He ended up teaching at UC Berkley, where he again resigned upon refusing to sign the oath of allegiance required of UC faculty during the Red Scare of the 1950's, after which he moved to the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[]
] |
|
evugxz
|
how do stuffed noses work? you can blow your nose and it can get stuffed right away or sometimes you aren't even able to blow your nose and just have to accept your fate
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/evugxz/eli5_how_do_stuffed_noses_work_you_can_blow_your/
|
{
"a_id": [
"ffy1j8i",
"ffy82th"
],
"score": [
4,
2
],
"text": [
"It's caused by inflammation, swelling of the tissue, that's blocking your airway, and incidentally the exit for the mucus that's building up. \n\n\nNasal sprays work by reducing or eliminating that inflammation.",
"Lets do this like you are really 5. \n\nWhen you have cold your nose releases some of the fluid from your body through it, that happens beacuse bateria or viruses make it inflamed and when your mucosa (that is like a skin in your nose) is inflamed it secretes that fluid.\n\nNo matter how much do you keep blowing your nose, it keeps on making new fluid as long as it is inflamed.\n\nThe feeling of being unable to blow your nose or that you havent blown everything from it happens beacuse sometimes inflamattion is heavier and your nostriles are more swollen, and their right and left part touch each other making your nose “closed”. That is what makes you feel like that."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[]
] |
||
6uf3eo
|
what causes transformers and other high voltage devices to emit a buzzing sound?
|
One if my coworkers asked me this the other day, and I've been pondering it. I assume it's some sort of vibration, since that's how sound typically goes. But I'm lost at how that vibration doesn't shake these old panels apart, and what actually causes it to vibrate in the first place.
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6uf3eo/eli5_what_causes_transformers_and_other_high/
|
{
"a_id": [
"dls9bnr"
],
"score": [
7
],
"text": [
" > I assume it's some sort of vibration,\n\nYep! The transformers are using the inductive interaction between coils of wire to change voltages, and as the current is transferred using \"Alternating Current\" the magnetic fields will be rapidly switching back and forth. The result is vibration from the stresses imparted to the structure of the transformers."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[]
] |
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