fiendishrabbit

fiendishrabbit t1_jefsxi2 wrote

Dinosaurs most likely had a Syrinx, just like their bird descendants. And a syrinx is much more capable of making a wide variety of noises (and it generally does not involve the hyoid bones) than the mammal larynx.

As for modern birds "chirping". Modern birds have a very wide variety of sounds they can make. Take an ostrich for example and google what kind of sounds they can make (make sure to google ostrich mating call since many results don't bring that up).

Or google lyre birds if you really want to know the capabilities of a birds syrinx when it comes to generating sounds.

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fiendishrabbit t1_jdunefw wrote

There are a lot better reasons for a water storage tank on the roof than "to not require huge pumps to meet demand when everyone is taking a shower at the same time".

Pumping into a tank means that the pump does not experience any water hammer effects (which can ruin the pump) and it means that water pressure from the tap is even (since the pressure is determined by the height difference between the water surface and the tap) rather than fluctuating as it would if it was actively pressurized by a pump.

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fiendishrabbit t1_ja26mcd wrote

Reply to comment by JackTrippin in Madonna 1980s by steroidamoeba

I'm personally not a huge fan of the Like A Prayer era Madonna.

Personal favorites would be either the Madonna of Who's that girl world tour (Who's that girl, True Blue) for young Madonna, or Madonna around the 2000s. The 2000s had some...questionable moments... but Madonna in her Frozen music video is a total goth smokeshow.

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fiendishrabbit t1_ja20oqh wrote

What happens depends on the country.

US law says expressly that nothing changes (US federal law, US Code Title 1, § 109. "Repeal of statutes as affecting existing liabilities") unless the law specifically states that it does (some laws have done so in the past). However, that's Common law (the fundamental principle of law as applied by states descended from the British empire).

If we instead look at countries which use Napoleonic code (law based on humanist principles), they use the principle of "Lex Mitior" (the milder law). Under the milder law any change in law is supposed to benefit the accused rather than the state. So in many countries that base their law on the Code Napoleon (notably France, but really most of the EU) when a law is repealed that triggers an automatic sentence review, and if it's no longer a crime "Hey hop, you're free to go".

P.S (maybe not so ELI5): "Hey hop, you're free to go" is in practice a bit more complicated than that. Many countries that practice Lex Mitior also practice "Socialism!". So before ratification (when it's signed by parliament/congress/whatever) and long before implementation (when the law goes into effect) the law is sent out for consultation. The prison system and social services get to say "Hey, no biggie. We can deal with this relatively quickly" or "uh. We're going to need X months to prepare for that, because this is huge". So on the day the law is ratified (signed) the bureaucracy gets to work. Sentences are reviewed, prisoners are scheduled for release, social services are notified so that they can set up the ground works (sending people out with no housing, no money and no social network would be a recipe for catastrophe) , relatives are notified etc so that when it's implementation day everything is set and people can be released in an orderly and humane manner.

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fiendishrabbit t1_j9tmiei wrote

Though not always. Had a colleague with hereditary PKD and an asymmetric progression (left kidney, non-functional and a huge amount of scar tissue. Enough that they had to remove it when transplanting. Right kidney had been pulling all the weight for the last few years and was now failing as well).

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fiendishrabbit t1_j97ia1t wrote

The half-life is due to spontaneous decay. They're kind of unstable so there is a chance of them just going "poof" and decaying. Half-life is the time it takes for half of the atoms in any given amount of material to undergo this spontaneous decay.

However, in a reactor we've arranged it so that there is a pretty big chance that when one atom decays the neutron (small sub-atomic particle) shoots out and hits another atom, which will cause that atom to split and shoot off more neutrons, which will hit other particles and cause a cascade effect. Compare it to just shooting a billiard ball on a pool table randomly vs stacking the balls into a pyramid (shooting a ball into that pyramid will cause a whole bunch of other balls to move around).

That effect is used in a reactor, because when a whole bunch of little atoms decay quickly they release heat. In our normal powerplants they're stacked so that it happens very quickly (although our current generation is kind of inefficient and only a small percentage of the fuel is used up before the effect slows down or becomes too difficult to handle due to dangerous byproducts), and that generates a lot of heat which is used to heat water into steam and drive a steam turbine.

There is also something called a radioisotope thermoelectric generator, a nuclear battery of sorts. Basically a radioactive element that has been arranged to encourage it to just react a little bit faster. Not cascade, just generate enough heat that it can be used to generate power through the thermoelectric effect. Those batteries last a lot longer, so they're used on deep space satellites like Voyager (that travel far enough away from the sun that solar panels aren't useful anymore). Voyagers nuclear battery produced something like 60% of its original power back in 2001 (some 25 years after its launch) but theoretically a battery like this could be designed to last thousands of years.

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fiendishrabbit t1_j85llez wrote

Soy production is just as culpable. Soybean production is the second largest direct source of deforesttion in brazil and most likely the largest indirect source. For the last 20 years or so new soy farming methods (which allows soy to use previously unsuitable land) have taken over land that's previously been used for cattle grazing. After soy has been used to increase land fertility it's followed by other agricultural produce such as maize.

So targeting beef in particular when one of the big drivers is animal products in general (as soybeans are used as protein for animal feed)...

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fiendishrabbit t1_j6pcg2u wrote

I kind of imagine this as a ping-pong ball going up and down. The ping-pong ball always travels at the speed of light.

Now ping-pong ball is put on a ship, and that ship starts travelling. The ping-pong ball is still moving at the speed of light, but as the ship travels faster and faster the ping-pong ball is moving sideways. From inside the ship the ping-pong ball is going up and down (and time stays normal, but only from the perspective of the observer that's travelling with the ping-pong ball). From an outsiders perspective the ping-pong ball is going to move in a zig-zag movement. As the ship goes faster the zig and zags will be longer and longer, and so (since the ball always travels at the speed of light) it's going to travel up and down slower.

Now. This is applied to all reactions between particles. Everything is going to move slower and slower since their movement is capped at the speed of light and more and more of their movement is taken up by keeping up with the movements in realspace. Until, when the ship travels at the speed of light, time becomes infinitely slow.

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fiendishrabbit t1_j6jnu4y wrote

European conditions and regulations favor a cabover configuration:

  1. Shorter length. European countries have stricter overall length regulations.
  2. Better overview when in dense traffic.
  3. More urbanized and older road network also favors shorter and better overview as you have a better idea where the outer corners of your truck are (good when in tight spaces).

P.S: Meanwhile a conventional truck is more aerodynamic, it's easier to access the engine and it's a smoother ride since you're behind (and not over) the forward axle. So it's a favored configuration when you have longhaulers on long open roads (like much of the US).

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fiendishrabbit t1_j6hi39x wrote

A therapist is there to help you help yourself.

  1. Help you identify the problem and, if that problem seems too big and intimidating, help you see that it's a problem that can be solved.
  2. Help you come up with a coping strategy or finding a path healthier state of mind.

A big hurdle for therapy is that you have to genuinely want to change.

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fiendishrabbit t1_j3szofz wrote

Note that Byzantine grenades were more like Molotov cocktails than what we think of as grenades.

Main reason why grenades were used in a very limited fashion until the early modern era (16th century) is the lack of a reliable fuze. It wasn't until the gunpowder fuze that you could reliably light an enclosed and thrown explosive charge, early gunpowder weapons (outside China and India) used loose gunpowder to guide the flame to the main charge and that loose gunpowder would have been scattered when you threw the weapon.

We see the first traces of match cords In the mid 15th century

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fiendishrabbit t1_j1mphiq wrote

It's a bit more complicated, and Khomeini was more the "last man standing" after the Shah had used support from the US and British foreign intelligence services to de-organize and effectively weaken the democratic/liberal rebels (which were city based).

The religiously motivated rebels, who had the majority of their support in the countryside, were not as vulnerable to such tactics and ended up being the strongest rebel group. As such Khomeini gradually managed to sweep up more and more rebel groups under his banner.

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