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Did Vikings or pirates ever develop moral codes limiting what they could do to their victims? | A very curious bit of Viking morals: it's wrong to steal, but it's right to take by force. One of the Icelandic sagas tells of a Viking raid in the Baltic, where the Viking party manages to steal stuff from a farm under the cover of darkness without the occupants realizing what's going on. Halfway back to the boats, th... |
Do you favour the "Dark Matter" hypothesis, or do you feel that the statement "Perhaps we simply don't understand gravity well enough" is a more plausible solution? | So we haven't ruled out alternate gravity theories, but the majority of astronomers are definitely in the WIMP dark matter camp. There are alternate gravity people, but it hasn't really caught on at all. But yet, in the general public people seem to think of dark matter as some sort of weird phlogiston theory, and that... |
Was oral hygiene, or lack thereof, ever a deterrent for people to kiss before contemporary methods became available? | I am not knowledgeable enough on historical oral hygiene practices to answer the first part of your question.
However, I can answer your second question:
> Has kissing always been a part of people's love lives?
Well, prior to written history, we have a hard time concluding whether or not people kissed. There are va... |
why do some antennas such as the kind for tv have such a rail-like design? | The series of parallel elements are called directors, and they, in effect, focus the signal.
A simple wire, sticking up, will have a sensitivity pattern which is circular with is centre around the wire, but this isn't much use for receiving faint signals and shutting out interfering signals. The [Yagi-Uda antenna](_U... |
Did the USSR have any kind of attempt to appeal to the youth similar to how Captain America got big in the US? | The kinds of figures that were lauded by Soviet propaganda were "everymen" who, because of their love of their country etc. etc., rose to do incredible things. The case in point here is Alexey Stakhanov, of the Stakhanovite movement. It would have been at odds with Soviet ideology for science-manufactured supermen to b... |
Why did the Catholic Church seem to be opposed to lay people reading the Bible? | Not exactly true. Catholic Church does not opposed lay reading Bible. In fact, reading of the Bible is part of the Mass and regular attendee of the Masses will hear a large portion of both Testaments in span of few years.
Given, that Catholic rites formed in the period of nearly universal illiteracy that alone shows t... |
Why are there so many volcanic eruptions recently? Are they somehow connected or is it a coincidence? Or is it just new media coverage? | The current level of activity is normal. On average, there are usually ~20 volcanoes in some stage of erupting at any given time. The recent news worthy eruptions (e.g. Hawaii and the recent one in Guatemala) are not connected. So the short answer it's just the coverage and/or the fact that these two eruptions are happ... |
how did "cheater boxes" (cable descramblers) allow you to watch premium tv channels for free? | Way back when, television was an analog signal. More accurately, it was a *series* of analog signals that your 100%-analog color television could use to produce a picture. You have three signals for color (your TV only looked at one if it was black-and-white) and a "timing" signal that indicated when it should start dr... |
Why can't I remember a smell or taste the same way I can an image or a sound? | Psychology undergrad here: The big problem with your chemical senses (especially with smell) is that you can't properly assign a specific perception of an aroma to a certain stimulus. You know very well which porperties a stimulus for your eyes must have for you to perceive it as "blue" or "red", but what properties do... |
Why did the Constitution specify March 4 (the date) for the start of the new president's term? Why did FDR specify January 20 (the date) as the new date in the 20th amendment? | To answer the first part of your question:
The Constitution did **not** specify March 4, or any other date, as the beginning of the new President's term. It stated only that the length of the President's term was four years. And, while the Constitution gave Congress the power to set the date for the selection of Ele... |
In many medieval movies such as Braveheart there are often scenes with military commanders shouting motivational speeches to entire armies on the battlefield without using voice amplification of any sorts. In real life, were they really able to hold speeches like that and is this how it was done? | The answers are further back in time than you're asking about here, but while you're waiting this thread might interest you:
[*Do the speeches we often see before a battle in most literature and visual performances have any historical basis. Did the kings and generals leading an army ever give a speech to rally the tr... |
What's a piece of knowledge from your area of historical study that you enjoy telling people about, and why? | 'Pirates' helped finance the first Episcopal church in Rhode Island, Trinity church. The church denies this (and are technically correct), as none of the men were ever convicted of piracy, or they were under a Letter of Marque at the time (making them privateers).
This little factoid allows me to begin the long and fa... |
Are there any disagreements between English and U.S historians on any facts/aspects of the American Revolution? | Hi there!
If you've come to the thread and are wondering why there's no answer yet, please be patient: [we have found](_URL_4_) that it takes an average of 9 hours for a good answer to appear on a popular thread - properly researching and writing an answer takes time. Additionally, it's currently well past midnight o... |
Why "666" for the beast? Without a base-10 positional representation system, this number wouldn't look particularly remarkable. | I can't tell you much about the numerological implications of the number and the interpretation of Johannes, but I'm going to say something about Roman numbers that might be helpful:
Roman numerals don't use positional notation, but they still represent base-10 - there are symbols for the decimal powers: I, X, C, CD ... |
How exactly was the French Revolutionary Army able to defend France from being invaded by a coalition consisted of every European country, and also end up expanding French territory? | I'd like to point to [this post I made a few days ago](_URL_0_) for reference.
Notably this bit:
> All men between the ages of 18 and 25 were to be forcibly conscripted for military service -- all men. Men into their 30's would also regularly volunteer or be called upon as well though. If you were fighting your fi... |
what is motivation? i mean what is going on in the brain when somebody gets motivation or has motivation? | A popular model of motivation requires two things: an incentive (something of value), and the belief that you will get that thing. So, what is going on in your brain is an appraisal of value (I want that thing) and an assessment of your ability to do what is needed to get that thing.
Goal-setting plays a large role. Y... |
why does hard cheese which has been maturing for years have a sell-by date of only a few weeks? | It's been cut.
As long as the outside of the cheese is entirely the outside of the cheese (the rind), the cheese will have a substantial shelf life. As soon as you cut it, opening up the more moist interior to oxidation, mold, and bacteria, it has a shelf life. That being said, some cheese (like parmigiano reggiano) w... |
if you start off completely awake and energized but then start dozing off during a boring class or a study session, what exactly is happening physiologically to cause this ? | Your brain notices that there's nothing of interest going on at the moment, and tries to shut down to conserve energy. Your studying might be important to you in a higher-function way, but at a core animal level, it's not food, sex, stimulation, or entertainment, and so you're just wasting energy and calories (and ther... |
What is the longest "unbroken" chain of royal or dynastic succession in known history? | Japan has the oldest continuous, hereditary monarchy in the world -- and would, I believe, even qualify as oldest if we included non-hereditary or interrupted-hereditary successions. The Japanese royal family is still in the Yamato Dynasty, which took over the Japanese throne (according to legend) in about 660 BC under... |
why do most websites have character limits for passwords while at the same time they force you to have an upper/lowercase letter, and a number to make your password more secure. wouldn't removing the character limit and allowing much longer passwords make them more secure than 16 characters? | Convention.
There is no technical strength to doing so. Users who will use insecure passwords without the restrictions will use insecure passwords with the restrictions, and cracking these cases isn't all that much more demanding. Meanwhile, increasing password length does substantially increase security. It would be... |
if redbull lost a lawsuit over their "gives you wings" slogan, how do the current commercials still include the slogan without a small disclaimer included? | Actually, that law suit (for $13.5 million) was not because of the tagline "give you wings" (which is clearly understood as humor).
The law suit was over the fact that Red Bull oversold the drink's ability to improve concentration and energy, specifically, it did not provide any scientific evidence to support their cl... |
Do satellites travel with the rotation of the earth or against and if they go both ways would two identical satellites going opposite directions at the same altitude have to travel at different speeds to maintain orbit? | Most satellites are in prograde orbits, meaning that they orbit in the same direction that the earth rotates. This is because retrograde orbits, which orbit opposite the direction of the earth's rotation, require more fuel to launch.
Think of it like this. If you're in a car going 5 mph and you want to get a projectil... |
why does the burn of putting your leg in hot water seem to come a second or so after it’s been pulled out? | So there’s ‘two’ nervous systems that usually work together. This is an example of where one takes over first.
- CNS = Brain. It controls the actions you think about so it takes longer to work.
- PNS = No Brain. Controls reflex actions, ones you don’t have to think about, so it’s faster.
The leg in hot water reaction... |
why do egg-whites foam when we whisk them and do not when there is just a very tiny amount of egg yolk in it? | The foam form the whites is formed by proteins from the protein-rich egg-white. The yolk contains fats that destroy the protein foam (also called an emulsion). You can try this by mixing in a tiny amount of cooking oil into the egg-whites: it will have the same lack-of-foam effect as a tiny amount of yolk. |
why old film clips, like ones of ww2 almost always seems sped up faster than 1x? | As you probably know, the speed at which motion picture film runs through the camera determines its frame rate, given in frames per second (fps). When run through a projector (which you can think of as a backwards camera) at the same speed, the movement looks natural to us. If turned more slowly or quickly, however, it... |
where and how does all the energy created by power plants get stored? or is the power being generated as it's needed? | The latter, mostly. In the case of plants that use some sort of fuel, the energy is *already* stored in whatever fuel that is being used. Generating energy from the fuel first, and then storing it back inside something else to be extracted later is a *huge* waste of everything. When you have too much power, you use les... |
Why did the vice president switch from being the second place finisher in the US presidential elections to a ticket with the president? | The most obvious answer is the election of 1800, but the election on 1796 had some impact on the 12th Amendment as well . The way the constitution was originally structured, electors from each state had 2 votes each with no distinction for president and vice president. It was also the case that many states decided to a... |
Alexander the Great marched all the way to India. How did he supply his army? | So Alexander the Great's great cause he conquered the Achaemenid Persian Empire. Until he passed over the Indus, all the lands he had conquered had either been Persian satrapies or at least within the Persian orbit. This included everything from Thrace, the Levant, Egypt, Babylonia, Assyria, and Persia itself, all high... |
Could polar bears and penguins be introduced to their respective opposite poles (south, north) and survive? | Its unlikely that they would survive. [Polar bears](_URL_5_) are adapted to eating seals, but its very hard to hunt them in the open water so they hunt on land. Two common ways of catching seals include: crashing through the ice using their paws and kill the seals in their dens or stalking air holes and kill seals as t... |
The rate of universal expansion is accelerating to the point that light from other galaxies will someday never reach us. Is it possible that this has already happened to an extent? Are there things forever out of our view? Do we have any way of really knowing the size of the universe? | Yes, there are galaxies from which we will never receive any light at all. (Any galaxy beyond a current distance of about 65 Gly.) There are also galaxies whose light we have already received in the past but which are currently too far away for any signal emitted from us *now* to reach them some time in the future. (An... |
Why are batteries arrays made with cylindrical batteries rather than square prisms so they can pack even better? | First of all, some packs are made with prismatic cells. The pros and cons of cylindrical vs prismatic cells themselves are more important than packing efficiency. Notably, cylindrical manufacturing is more mature, and cylindrical cells tend to be better (in energy density and cost per kWh) at lower capacities, which mo... |
Back in the days when people believed witchcraft was a real thing and prosecuted people for being witches, how could they on one hand believe in malevolent magic and yet believe they could arrest, imprison and execute a "witch" and the witch would not escape/take revenge with their magic? | The answer lies in our conception of magic. To most people in the modern world the first image that comes to mind is Harry Potter making things fly around the room, shooting big, violent spells everywhere. Historically, this is not how witches were seen.
Magic was almost always related to a relationship with the Devi... |
I'm a young Macedonian man in the Hellenic period. Why would I follow Alexander the Great to the edge of the known world knowing that death was certain? What was life like for me during Alexander's conquests? | This is a great question and a fascinating one. It's always difficult to tell what the average person's life was like in antiquity. If you ever study Alexander's life in depth, you'll run into many unanswered questions and conflicting accounts. If a figure as famous as Alexander remains mired in ambiguity, imagine how ... |
When the mars rover went to mars were they able to remove all bacteria and small life from it? If not could any of the bacteria be able to live in the harsh conditions of mars? And how do they obtain soil samples looking for bacteria if it could possibly be from the rover itself? | Anything that is sent to Mars is thoroughly inspected, cleaned, and sanitized {[_URL_1_](https://_URL_1_/msl/mission/technology/insituexploration/planetaryprotection/)}. There are some microorganisms that can still survive a trip to Mars, such as a well-known [Tardigrade (Wiki)](_URL_0_). That's the main reason rovers ... |
(Math) Do we know everything there is to know about math? Or are there new discoveries being made in mathematics? | No, we don't know everything there is to know.
One good way of getting a quick view of recent advancements in mathematics is to read the list of winners of the [Fields Medal](_URL_1_) and the [Abel Prize](_URL_4_), paying attention to the citations. In general, though, recent advancements in mathematics are very diffi... |
In the 1970s UK sitcom Fawlty Towers, a few guests are shown to live permanently at the hotel. Was this common during this time? What factors led people to choose life in a hotel, and did this have a long history? | Hotel living has a *long* history--the *Eloise* books by Kay Thompson are probably the most famous example. I can talk a little bit about some of the earlier history, specifically, hotel living in Paris!
*(This is adapted from several of my earlier answers with some new stuff thrown in).*
Paris is the City of Lights.... |
Does the electromagnetic spectrum abruptly stop at gamma rays.. or are there higher energy/shorter wavelengths out there? | No, there is no sharp cut off, though we don't have a standard term for super-high energy photons. Typical gamma rays from nuclear have energies of 10^(5) to 10^(7) eV. Astronomical sources can yield energies around 10^(13) eV, indicating that they coming from processes other than radioactive decay. If you can find ... |
how is downloading movies/books online any different than going to your local library to check out movies/books for free? | First sale doctrine applies to libraries, video rental outfits, etc.
From [Wikipedia](_URL_0_)
> The doctrine allows the purchaser to transfer (i.e., sell, lend or give away) a particular lawfully made copy of the copyrighted work without permission once it has been legally obtained. This means that the copyright ho... |
why does putting the air conditioner on 25°c in a cooling mode feel different from the same 25°c in heating mode? | In cooling mode, the thermostat will wait until the temperature goes over 25°C and then turn on the AC until it falls back under 25°C. This produces a 'spike' of cold air when the AC is on, followed by the temperature slowly drifting up toward warm.
In heating mode, the thermostat will wait until the temperature goes ... |
how was space x able to build better rockets than nasa having less budget and experience? | They haven't really.
1) They utilized all of the science that NASA learned thus they "had" the same experience level as NASA.
2) NASA has never had a massive budget. Even during the Space Race their budget was relatively small. Companies like Space X's budgets are comparable in size.
3) NASA stopped designing new... |
4 continuous hours in the sun results in a sunburn, but 4 hours broken up into 15 minutes chunks does not. | Light is radiation. Radiation is like a really tiny bullet that can shoot through important stuff in your cells (like your DNA). Damaged DNA can cause cancer. When your body detects that the DNA in a cell has been damaged, the cell kills itself for the greater good of the body. No cell, no potential cancer.
Now think... |
Was Russia/Stalin truly hoping to share the Europe with Germany/Hitler or was Stalin playing a waiting game? | First of all let me say that Stalin didn't leave a diary so we can't exactly say what his emotions or personal thoughts were with confidence. That said, he was probably neither of those things.
The idea that he locked himself in a room for 3 days is certainly not true. We do have a record of his itinerary of the firs... |
How did Native Americans in Canada survive the massive snow dumps and -20/-30 degree weather? | 1. Could you please specify what era you're interested in? In 2006, 50.3% of people living in the Northwest Territories identified themselves as Aboriginal Canadians (First Nations, Metis, Inuit, or multiple/other Aboriginal identities), along with 20% of people in Yukon and 85% of people in Nunavut. Their methods of d... |
How did Nazi Germany a regime born out of the ruins of World War 1 have so much access to a diverse pool of top notch academics by world war 2? ( Rocket scientists, Gunsmiths, Cytologists/ciphers, Tank and aircraft engineers) | It seems to me that you assume that if there is hunger and some political chaos that all the institutions stop functioning? Germany before WWI was one of the most advanced countries on the planet, they won the most Nobel prices in the sciences up to that point. WWI was 4 years and after it was over the scientists or in... |
How did 0-60 become the standard by which a car's acceleration is judged? Why did 60mph become synonymous with "fast"? | Automotive journalist here.
Your question is intimately tied to the history of automotive magazines, and I’m not aware of a really good, academic history exploring that. I can tell you that the form itself dates back to the earliest days of motoring — Carl Benz filed his patent for the “vehicle powered by a gas engi... |
If I put a flashlight in space, would it propel itself forward by "shooting out" light? | Yes, very slowly.
Light has momentum, even though it is massless, so if you shoot a beam of light in one direction, conservation of momentum will push you in the opposite direction.
A reasonably powerful LED flashlight will use about 1-3 Watt, lets say 3 W. The efficiency of a LED is somewhere between 25% and 40%, so... |
What caused the United States to have the highest infant mortality rate among western countries? | The [Congressional Research Service](_URL_3_) investigated whether inconsistent recording of births could be the cause of our bad infant mortality rates (IMR) and found that it does not ~~really affect~~ fully explain the results. (There is some effect from the inconsistent recording, but it isn't significant to expla... |
Was the Sherman tank a name resented by US soldiers from the south during WWII? | If this question isn't relevant, feel free to remove mods.
Given the nicknames M3 Lee, M3 Stuart, M3 Grant, and M4 Sherman, why were Union and Confederate general names given to tanks, or any modern weapons for that matter? |
why are smartphones $500-700+ while laptops with the same or better specs are considerably less? | Designing electronics when you have no, or relaxed space constraints is **much** easier and therefore cheaper. Also, the specific parts, while maybe less powerful, are likely more efficient with regards to power (this is highly variable, of course). So even though your particular processor or whatnot is *slower,* it ... |
what's wrong with the word 'negro'? how is 'black' politically more correct than 'negro'? | Apparently words that have a neutral definition can become slurs if they are constantly used to describe someone we don't like. Negro, just as a word outside of any context, is completly neutral; it's the Spanish word for black. However, because it was previously used to name people that we oppresed, the word is now ... |
how do free mobile games make money when all the ads in the game are from other free mobile games? | In game purchases are the primary income stream for that kind of game. Advertising is a thing too - last quarter [Zynga reported 18% of revenue in advertising](_URL_1_) - but it's not what the business is built on.
It's worth remembering that a large portion of the income in this kind of in game purchase comes from... |
if working out is just damaging and repairing muscle tissue, couldnt we just mechanically damage the tissue and recouperate saving time and energy? | You can actually build muscle with electro stimulation. By putting electrodes on your skin in the right place the muscles will contract with each pulse of electricity. It's not a pleasant feeling. My roommate had a stimulator for his back muscles when he was injured and to fuck with me he just threw the contacts on me.... |
why are services like uber and airbnb considered by some to be disruptive to the economy? | Hotels and cab companies are regulated and taxed, they have to follow certain rules in order to keep their operating license. If I rent you my house for a short stay or pick you up and drive you around the government doesn't get any tax revenue from that and I'm not bound by the same licensing requirements. Because the... |
why do most foods, drinks etc have to be refrigerated after one use? what happens to the contents after just one use? | For some products, they are packaged in a environment and method so that the package is sealed, and pathogens are not present. This results in a product with a long shelf life when unopened. Once the package is opened, it is no longer sealed from the environment, and it is possible that bacteria may come in contact and... |
During the Waco standoff in 1993, why did large segments of the American population rally around the leader of a doomsday cult who was sexually abusing young girls, rather than their own government? | You said during, so I'll try to keep the focus as contemporary as possible to the siege. Nevertheless, I only found one opinion poll taken from before the lethal ending to the Waco Siege and that only polled Waco residents, a small and obviously not-representative sample of the US population. Further, in [this series o... |
How and when did the Star and Crescent become a symbol of Islam? What exactly does it represent? | This is primarily trying to answer another question, but it touches on the question you’re curious about:
* [Why didn't the Turkish Republic change its flag?](_URL_0_)
I’m afraid, though, that I come at this as someone who’s interested in the Early Turkish Republican era/the Late (19th century) Ottoman Empire, so I ... |
How and when did pepperoni become the default topping for pizza in the U.S.? | We've had to remove a number of posts with people sharing what they like on their pizza instead of pepperoni and/or challenging the OP's assumption. Please, if you want to discuss your favorite pizza, that is for another subreddit.
As for the fact that Pepperoni is the default topic, "default" is up for debate, I agre... |
why does my cat retain the ability to bound at 30 mph and jump vertically 5ft if he sleeps all day? | I assume your cat, like almost every cat, likes to jump up on things and tends to go bat-shit crazy in the middle of the night and run around like a maniac sometimes. This is its exercise.
Compare that to a reasonably fit human that works out regularly - not a gym nut or anything but just a guy who works out like twi... |
Why did elevated beds arise in some cultures while others use beds low to the ground? | **EDIT: /u/extesser is right, it's mostly dominated by heat conduction and not a temperature gradient. I'll leave the post untouched for the history books, since it sparked some interesting replies!**
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I can only speak for the Vikings in Norway. Temperature is ... |
How do lakes deep underground maintain an ecosystem with no energy input from the Sun? | Underground aquifers could support primitive microbial life-forms if they were adapted to living off the minerals, and hydrogen seeping into the water from the surrounding rock. They may also adapt similarly to deep sea life that lives off of/near hydrothermal vents if they're present in the underground aquifer |
what happens to caterpillars who haven't stored the usual amount of calories when they try to turn into butterflies? | Edit: This is an incorrect answer to the original question and could be misleading. This is an example of what could happen if the caterpillar cocoons early due to disease or infection NOT say climate or environmental pressure.
They generally don't survive once they are out. The body will usually form but wings and l... |
Where do stereotypical "redneck" names like Bubba, Skeeter, or Cletus come from? | LIke many Colloquial things, the etemology of these names is tough to trace because their use is rarely documented very well.
The etemology of the word bubba has [reportedly](_URL_3_) traced to the german word "Bube." (meaning boy), or a similar sounding Gullah Word [BuhBuh](_URL_0_) meaning brother. - See also [... |
If you had a properly sized lens completely free of any imperfection, could you build a magnifying glass that could see atoms? | No, because the wavelength of (visible) light is longer than the distances between atoms, so they cannot be distinguished are the therefore non-resolvable. 1000x magnification is about as far as light can go, which allows you to see bacteria, but not viruses.
Electron microscopes are instead used because the waveleng... |
When they say that CERN achieved a heat record of ~5 trillion degrees, what does that actually mean/do? | It is a really, really small space with very, very few particles in it. So the real world effect is incredibly, undetectably small. The temperature is measured by looking at the energy of released particles, or by the spectrum of emitted thermal photons. That's why the article says they have to convert the energy measu... |
what gives soap operas that “low quality” feeling to them? is it the lighting? the dialogue? it’s very distinct, but hard to pin down. | It's the frame rate. Most soap operas are shot at 30 frames per second (technically 29.976 but that's irrelevant). Film is shot at 24fps. We have been trained by experience to see higher frame rate video as being lower quality. |
how are there enough cows to supply the over 15k macdonalds and burger kings in u.s. | First, a single cow produces an awful lot of hamburgers. A grown steer produces about 500 pounds of beef, which is 2000 quarter-pound hambugers.
Second, there are enormous herds of cattle on ranches in the rural parts of the US, which you generally don't see because they're not along highways, but the US is enormous ... |
how do we know counting rings in a tree is a definitive "1 year"? | In places with seasons, trees go through a predictable growth-dormant cycle that produces the distinctive ring pattern.
Since most of these seasonal trees go dormant regardless of what the actual winter temperature was that year (they're timing the day lengths, not responding to unpredictable temperature swings) a rin... |
When and why did the US stop allowing (literal) boatloads of immigrants to just show up at a port and begin living in the US? | It wasn't just one single law but rather a series of laws. The first was the Page Act of 1875 that primarily targeted Asians, particularly Chinese people, that were immigrating to the western United States to work menial jobs like railroads. Just like we see in the debates today about Hispanic people coming to the Unit... |
it is said that children are (almost) immune to motion sickness up to the age of 2. why? | The main reason for motion sickness is our body has trouble reconciling the visual cues for no movement with the physical sensation of movement. The difference causes our bod to freak out, and we throw up to expel whatever apparent poison we've consumed.
Children don't have the history to realize there is a discrepan... |
Has there been a higher peak than Mt. Everest on Earth throughout its history? | This is one of the most asked questions in the Earth Sciences category on this sub, for example, here are a variety of answers to this question (or flavors of this question): [1](_URL_13_), [2](_URL_14_), [3](_URL_6_), [4](_URL_12_), [5](_URL_15_), [6](_URL_9_), [7](_URL_1_), [8](_URL_8_), [9](_URL_2_), [10](_URL_16_),... |
What did it really mean to be released from a Gulag? Where would one be "dropped off" after serving their time in a camp? | The gulag was a massive system over a large period of time, so it's difficult to talk about it just as one thing. In fact, it was incredibly variable - that might have been its most defining feature in the end. So let's look at one particularly instructive moment - the 1945 amnesty. There is an absolutely fantastic art... |
how is that alcohol 70% is better than alcohol 90% as disinfectant ? | 70% alcohol has 30% water, and that water is necessary for the alcohol to interact at all with the cells it’s killing.
It’s like cooking pancakes. You know how when your pan is really hot and you put in pancake batter, it cooks the outside really fast? And then you can flip it, but it does the same thing to the other ... |
how can someone physically consume 74 hot dogs and what is the "aftermath" like? | For the consumption, practice. They need to eat progressively larger amounts of food or liquids per a period of time so their stomach can (somewhat) comfortably stretch to hold it all and they can get used to eating/drinking way past their body’s ‘I feel full’ point. I don’t know about the rest, it isn’t talked about m... |
A Song of Ice and Fire depicts medieval warfare as devastating the countryside, crop harvests, and peasant population with widespread abuses of non-combatants. Is this accurate of what warfare was really like during the War of Roses time period? | Yes, and for a much longer period than just the Wars of the Roses (ie. mid-to-late fifteenth-century). The encastellation of Europe in the eleventh- and twelfth-centuries made violent marches through enemy territory, known as [the chevauchée](_URL_3_), a highly popular and essential military tactic. The purpose of this... |
Were cannonballs considered "reusable" after being fired? or would they be deformed/ damaged after impacting a target. | **Occasionally, but typically under only specific circumstances.**
In the first centuries after the development of the cannon, stone shot was used in most cases. Stone is frangible; it tends to shatter upon impact, and even if a stone cannonball did not shatter, it was easily converted to peaceful use as building mate... |
when movies make horses fall, is it real, and if not, then how do they do it? | In the past, a device known as the "running W" was used to trip horses at a specific point, but it is now illegal. It is possible to train a horse to fall over on command in such a way that neither it not the rider are in much danger, and this method is used currently. As with any trick, teaching the horse to do this r... |
according to data we have discovered 14% of all organisms on earth. where does this number come from, if the other 86% of haven't been discovered yet (and therefore we don't know if they exist)? | Well it's a bit outside my area of expertise, but if I had to make such an estimate, I would look at the rate at which we're discovering new species, and how that rate has changed over time. That would allow me to estimate how many species we're likely to find in the future. If the number is much larger than the number... |
Did the 'Cult of the Feathered Serpent' play a significant role in the end of Mayan civilization? | No, not really.
The "Feathered Serpent Cult" is a name that archaeologists and iconographers have given to a pan-Mesoamerican explosion of imagery associated with Quetzalcoatl/Kukulkan dating to the Epiclassic period (around the time of the Classic Maya collapse). It appears to be a larger religious movement associate... |
Is there a speed a cell phone can go to not receive wifi or cell signal anymore? | The frequency bands for both Wi-Fi and LTE are both reasonably narrow, so you will hit a point where the waves for the node you are trying to connect to are red or blue shifted to the point where your device will not be able to communicate on them
A long time before you get to that point, you will not be in range of t... |
If fusion power was as widespread as fission today, what would the worst case "meltdown" scenario be and how bad would it be compared to fission meltdowns? | Since fusion reactions take place only under very specific conditions (very high temperature and pressure), any disruption in the operation of the reactor would cause the necessary conditions for fusion to disappear, which would halt the reaction.
Unlike nuclear fission, which in many cases can be self-sustaining and ... |
does alcohol tolerance come from your body learning to metabolise it more efficiently, or your brain learning to function better whilst under the influence, or both? | Both. Alcohol is metabolized into its non-toxic (less toxic?) form by enzymes in the liver. Once your liver realizes that it is frequently encountering this thing, it starts producing more enzymes which allow it to break the substance down more quickly.
Furthermore, since your brain *technically* doesn't want to lose ... |
My mother and grandmother keep saying that living in the Soviet Union was way better than it is now because during then there was alot of food with cheap prices and i hardly believe that,was it actually true or am I getting brainwashed? | Adapted from an earlier [answer](_URL_0_):
You can poke around the internet and easily find graphs that claim that the average Soviet citizen had a higher caloric intake than the average American until the Soviet intake plummeted in 1991.
These generally come from FAO data, but an [examination](_URL_1_) of a number ... |
From Facebook: "Pineapples were a status symbol in 18th century England. They were so expensive that you could rent them by the night and take them to parties with you". Can I get more insight on this? | Collecting exotic plants of all kinds was quite a popular pastime for the landed gentry and aristocracy of 18th century England. By this I mean that people were devoting a great deal of time and energy to bringing back prized specimens to grow and cultivate in Britain. Such was the benefit of Britannia's increasing glo... |
Were Romans broadly aware of the First or Second Triumvirates at the time they were active, or would they have sounded like conspiracy theories? | There's a great deal of misinformation that keeps appearing and disappearing on this thread.
Yes, the Romans were aware of the Triumvirate, and of the agreement between Pompey, Caesar, and Crassus popularly called the "first" Triumvirate. In reality, there was only one Triumvirate, that of Octavian, Lepidus, and Anton... |
how can straight talk use the same towers as verizon and other top tier providers? | Mobile phone companies own a lot of spectrum and towers, generally more than they can use (for now, things are growing). They sell their excess capacity to other providers, such as Straight Talk to use unused portions of their mobile phone networks. It's making $0 while not in use, so they'd rather sell it then have i... |
if we die after roughly 3 weeks without eating, why do eat 3 times a day? | Eating three times a day is actually a modern invention (modern in terms of human history as a species). It wasn’t uncommon, or even unhealthy to eat once a day, or sometimes skip a day every few days. It still isn’t unhealthy to do that today, you are just so used to eating three times a day that it would be difficult... |
why do we say "on the plane", "on the train", but "in the car"? | Presumably in this case because a car is ours, so we're *in* our possession.
The others are open to the public, so we're *on* the service.
At least, that's how I assumed it works.
****
Edit: Giraffebacon has an awesome theory that it doesn't depend on possession, but **control**. If you control something, you're in i... |
How did the free peasant republic in Dithmarschen in the 15th and 16th centuries actually function? | I've basically covered this on a podcast, so let me start with that.
Your answer is in this episode:
_URL_0_
That show was actually about the region south of Dithmarschen. But the cause of their freedom was the same:
It's swampy and tough economics there. There were NOT actually independent on paper. They were under... |
5: why is it so hard to replace plastics with another material with similar properties? | Cost: plastic is extremely cheap to produce (also to recycle), currently nothing as cheap exists so companies will keep using what makes them the most money.
Properties: there actually aren't many materials with similar properties:
- recycled/compostable plastics aren't as maleable and mess up the recycling of norma... |
I've always wondered: if I am in an airplane that is traveling JUST under the speed of sound, and I sprint down the aisle, would I break the sound barrier? | No because the air that you're in is moving as fast as you are so your person is never near the speed in its immediate surroundings to break the sound barrier.
Now if you were on the wing or top of said aircraft somehow and could run against the wind, I hypothesize that you would break the sound barrier. |
Why is it impossible for objects weighing less than 0.02 milligrams to form a black hole? | A black hole of mass less than around .02 milligrams or so would have a Schwarzschild radius of around a Planck length or less. At this scale, general relativity cannot be trusted; we need a theory that incorporates general relativity and quantum field theory. Thus, at the very least, we can say that such a black hol... |
In one my my professor's lectures, he mentioned that Japan tried to surrender before Hiroshima, and the US rejected the proposal. After Nagasaki, they accepted a nearly identical proposal to the one they rejected. Is this true? | Like most stuff that gets introduced in lecture courses, it's mostly right, but more complicated.
Prior to the decision to drop the bomb, some members of the Japanese political leadership were working behind the scenes to try to negotiate a conditional surrender whose terms did (in many ways) closely resemble the unco... |
Did any of the ancient civilizations know they were one of the first human civilizations or have any understanding of the significance of that? | Hey all,
If you frequent the sub, you know the drill. If you're here from /r/all, or browse only occasionally, please be aware we have strict rules here intended to enforce the very high bar we expect from comments, so before posting, please read our [rules](/r/AskHistorians/wiki/rules). We remove comments which don't... |
what really happens when people die of "old age" or "natural causes" ? | what happens is the family and doctors agree it is not worth determining what the actual cause of death was.
actual cause is often heart failure, but frankly could be almost anything that isn't blatantly obvious from an external inspection.
edit: stroke is another common cause. may actually be even more common that h... |
if networks cancel a show mid-season and have filmed the rest of the season, why aren't the rest of the episodes released online? | Well sometimes they are, so there is no rule/law against it.
However the show makers often do not have the license / copyright to their own shows. So it´s not up to them to release the episodes however they want.
The network on the other hand who does have the rights, doesn´t really have an interest in releasing the ... |
why is the us police force becoming more militarized and more powerful? or is this a misconception? | I'm a cop. Its hard to argue that police isn't becoming more miltarized but I think its vastly over rated. Two agencies in my county have a bearcat (like a tank with no big gun) but it it rarely used and all the agencies borrow it when needed. Aside from a taser, I have received no new weapons since I started 15 year... |
Is it possible that dinosaur fossils played some role in the origin of dragon myths? | It is possible, yes, that fossils (not necessarily just dinosaur fossils) did play a role in the development of dragon myths. It's mostly all speculation, really.
Most fossils that people find are either recognizably some smallish organism, like a seashell or a small fish, or a disarticulated bone or piece of a bone.... |
what's all the fuss about megaupload? do that many people really need file storage? | Online storage is generally seen as the way of the future. If you have a fire at home and your hard drive is destroyed, what happens to your data? If you collaborate with people on many projects, how do you keep your files in sync? If you work at home and on the road and in the workplace, how can you keep your data in ... |
Have there ever been mafias/organized crime syndicates in the United States that were German, French, or Scandinavian? | There has been one case of plagiarism, several jokes, and a number of contentless posts offered up as "answers" to the OP's question.
This is AskHistorians. We ask that your answers be in-depth, comprehensive, and such that an historian might give. You should also be able to back your post with proper sources if reque... |
since essentially everything nowadays causes cancer, should we just assume that we still don't really know what causes it? | Here's the thing with cancer: at its most basic level, whether or not you get cancer comes down to statistics and randomness. Cancer happens when you get a combination of mutations that cause a cell to reproduce continuously, avoid cell-suicide, infiltrate other tissues, etc. All a carcinogen is is a substance believed... |
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