Month: May 2019

The Reason Hurricanes and Thunderstorms Form

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Hurricanes are caused by clusters of thunderstorms consolidating together, developing over warm, tropical seawater, typically in late summer. These storms merge together into a spiral shape to form a hurricane. Because intense pressure draws in warm, moist winds towards the center of the storm, this wind spiral upwards and spin faster and faster. The rapidly rising air then cools, forming towering storm clouds and torrential rains. Thunderstorms form in large cumulonimbus clouds which carry water vapor high into the atmosphere where it condensed into hail and ice. The movement of hail and ice in thunderclouds causes an electric charge to build up which zaps down as lightning

Disneyland’s Opening Day

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On the opening day of Disneyland on July 17, 1955, only a select few were invited to experience the parks grand opening. Despite this restriction, over 20,000 people showed up with counterfeit tickets

Chinese Business Practices Designed to Stimulate the Planned Economic Growth of China

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The Chinese government have started a policy referred to as “forced technology transfer” which means that “in order to do business in China, foreign business interests must give up some of their technological innovations and protected secrets”. The Chinese government refers to this process as an “indigenous innovation policy”, to ensure that Chinese companies, state owned or otherwise, remain or become the most powerful and influential industry leaders within various world economic sectors. The short version of this policy is that if a foreign company wants to work with a Chinese corporation or do business in China (e.g. selling U.S. made products in China), they must agree to do so through joint ventures with Chinese firms, and allow propitiatory technology to be shared with Chinese corporate interests and the Chinese government to encourage growth within Chinese industry as a whole. The World Trade Organization has laid out rules stating that this practice is inconsistent with what it deems fair and legal business practice, however the Chinese government has repeatedly ignored requests for these practices to halt. The Chinese state has issued statements claiming that there are no official laws in place forcing foreign companies to comply with such practices, however this is evidently untrue as multiple U.S. corporations have provided evidence to the contrary

The Japanese Replica Home of Beatrix Potter

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Beatrix Potter’s work is highly popular in Japan as her stories were translated into Japanese relatively early on with the first translation released in 1917. Potter’s stories were used to teach English primarily but also served to entertain young children which is why her works are considered culturally important in Japan. A replica of Potter’s English countryside home has been erected in Tokyo, Japan upon the grounds of a children’s zoo situated near Daito Bunka University. The replica home is of Potter’s former home, Hill Top Farm and is exactly 33% larger than the actual home Potter lived and worked in

The Decaying Sewage Infrastructure of Calcutta, India

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Kolkatan sewers were once the envy of the world, built during the Victorian era and spanning 90 kilometers below the city. Because the Kolkatan sewer system is now 130 years old, it no longer functions as it should, especially when accounting for the increasingly large modern day population of Calcutta, India. Due to this, teams of workers with buckets enter the sewers every night all over Calcutta to shovel and remove excrement so that blockages don’t occur. Workers typically work 11:00 PM – 5:00 AM because this is when the least amount of people are awake to use the bathroom. The problem is becoming increasingly worse as time progresses, being that more and more people are now connecting into the central city sewage line as incomes and quality of life increases throughout India

 

The Importance of Facial Symmetry and Beauty Within South Korean Culture

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Facial structure is incredibly important in South Korea and professionals are available who specialize physiognomy, the practice of reading facial features the same way palm readers read the lines of the palm to determine ones supposed fortune (e.g. the forehead supposedly represents luck, up to the age of 30, as well as a person’s parents luck and the nose represents oneself in their entirety and can also be indicative of wealth). The facial reading process is a pseudoscience similar to phrenology of the 19th century. The practice of facial queue reading is actually quite commonplace with top employers like Samsung, LG, and Kia using facial reading experts to help decide who the company should hire for various positions. The body is also accounted for in this reading, but on a much smaller scale. Facial readers claim to be able to predict and decode a persons fortune, career, and wealth, not only for the person being examined, but also of their parents. This process is referred to in Korean as “gwansang”

The Mathematical Inventions of Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi

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The mathematical concept of algorithms were developed by and subsequently named after Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi (pronounced “moo-ham-mad ih-bin moo-sah al kwar-iz-me”), an Islamic scholar who lived during the 8th century. The concept of algorithms arrived in Europe in the 12th century and al-Khwarizmi’s name was translated to Latin which is where the term “algorithm” is derived. al-Khwarizmi also introduced the western world to the decimal system and introduced reduction and balancing methods (e.g. like and unlike terms) causing al-Khwarizmi to become referred to as the ”father and founder of algebra”. The term “algebra” is derived from the Arabic term “al-jabr” which means “reunion of broken parts”. al-Khwarizmi invented and used algebra to solve quadratic equations and it has been stated throughout history that the ideas that al-Khwarizmi developed, helped usher in the European Renaissance during the 14th, 15th, and 16th centuries

The Abhorrent and Racist U.S. “Loyalty Examination” of World War II Designed for Japanese Immigrants and Japanese American Citizens

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The U.S. War Relocation Authority created a supposed “loyalty examination” which was provided to young Nisei Japanese males of draftable age. The term “Nisei” means “second generation” in Japanese. Question 27 asked “are you willing to serve in the armed forces of the United States on combat duty wherever ordered?” and Question 28 asked “will you swear unqualified allegiance to the United States of America and faithfully defend the United States from any or all attack by foreign or domestic forces, and forswear any form of allegiance or obedience to the Japanese emperor, or any other foreign government, power, or organization?”. These questions were met with confusion and resentment within the population of Japanese and Japanese American internment prisoners of war. A yes answer was designed to prove unwavering loyalty whilst answering no was designed to entrap and prove malintent towards the U.S.. Some detainees answered no to both questions which lead to the term the “no-no boys”, a slanderous term designed to segregate Japanese and Japanese American citizens from their American counterparts. Question 27 was at its most fundamental roots designed to ask if a person was willing to serve in the U.S. military and Question 28 was designed to ask whether a person swore allegiance to Japan or not. Many prisoners did not know how to answer these questions, including both immigrants and American born citizens of Japanese descent. Those who were unsure and answered “I don’t know” or something similar to this with a cross out and the answer yes written in afterwards, were denied early clearance from detention and were subject to possibly being relocated. Those who passed were often permitted to leave detention upon the promise and agreement that they would not return to the west coast

The End of the Universe and the Big Crunch Theory

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The likelihood of a Big Crunch in which the universe expands to the point that it then collapses inward upon itself is not very probable as mathematical calculations demonstrate that there simply isn’t enough mass in the entire universe to be able to revert into into an enormous compaction. The idea of the universe folding in upon itself can be visualized by imagining a person throwing a ball in the air. The Earth has enough mass to bring a thrown ball back down to the ground but if thrown faster than the speed of escape velocity which is 11.186 kilometers per second, a thrown ball would never come back down, in fact, it would travel an infinite distance over an infinite timespan before the Earth mathematically had enough time and mass to pull the ball back to its starting position. The universe is represented by the Earth in that it acts as a force upon other objects and the ball represents all matter throughout the universe in this thought experiment

The Advent of Colorism During Slavery in the U.S.

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During the period of slavery in the U.S., slave owners would segregate their slaves into separate groups consisting of dark skin slaves and light skin slaves. Darker skinned slaves would be forced to work in the fields whilst lighter skinned slaves would be required to work within the home. Racism which involves discrimination based upon the shade or hue of skin tone is referred to as “colorism” and is often perpetrated by people of the same race, but with different completions. Colorism often occurred throughout the U.S.’ long and complicated history with slavery, and continues to occur within modern day families as well, as many American. families have different skin tones among the various children born into it because of different genetic variations in both parents genealogical history