Questions answered by Worp
(Expert Rank: 1266)  |
 |
How many humans have lived on earth since the beginning of mankind? |
| Question found in Genealogy |
 |
|
According to 'Discover' magazine it is estimated that 100 billion people have died since humans inhabited Earth. So, depending on when you read this Neal, add the current population of Earth and there you have it. Worp |
 |
| click to see other answers to this question |
| Discuss Answer |
 |
|
The Lake District in Cumbria is renowned for being the wettest place in the UK. Why is this? |
| Question found in Meteorology |
|
|
One reason could be that the prevailing westerlies are no longer intercepted by the island of Ireland when you get that far north on the British mainland, and Cumbria includes some of the highest topographical features in Britain. Therefore the airstream which has traversed the north Atlantic slowly gathering moisture is suddenly forced upwards into a thinner, colder atmosphere - this is usually a recipe for precipitation - and clouds release their moisture which arrives as rain at ground level and, holy cow, it's raining up there in Cumbria again. Worp |
 |
| click to see other answers to this question |
| Discuss Answer |
|
|
Did aborigines and settlers benefit from cross-cultural contact? |
| Question found in Cultures In General |
|
|
Aboriginal people always seem to have come off worse from the time of first contact. There were mutual benefits but Whitey always tends to obtain the greater benefit. He is confronted with what is usually an unexploited environment, there for the taking, rich in grazing land and mineral and all kind of other resources, and he will brook no impediment to his exploitation of a new land - especially given the newcomer's inevitable superiority in weaponry, equipment and ultimately, numbers. It can be shown some aboriginals benefited from contact by, for instance, access to modern and efficacious medical expertise. On the other hand, thousands of aborigines died from common European diseases they had no resistance to. There are still some lands where the 'separate development' policy is pursued - North America for instance, the 'land of the free', where 'Indians are financially and prejudicially persuaded to remain in 'reservations' and out of Whitey's sight - and where their lives are generally uninspired and their traditions are allowed to gradually slip away through apathy and from perceptions of inferiority inspired by disdainful treatment by Whitey. Much of what is now seen as aboriginal culture is a pale and distorted aberration of the original. Some of it is a deliberately recasting to suit Whitey's taste - to suit Whitey's own distorted concept of what aboriginal culture is. The white mans coming has indisputably been a generally bad thing for all indigenous peoples, and for the newcomers' moral and religious standing in a civilised world. Again, there are exceptions. I hope your question is subsequently answered by a person of aboriginal descent too. I would like to hear it straight-from-the-horses-mouth from one at the sticky end of things. Worp |
|
| click to see other answers to this question |
| Discuss Answer |
|
|
Do any lizards have spots? |
| Question found in Pets In General |
|
|
The famous (infamous?) Gila Monster has spots - more irregular blotches really - and there may be great variation in the pattern between specimens and, more especially, between species of different habitats. The bright and therefore noticeable colouration of the animal is presumed to be a warning of its dangerous venom. The warning, of course, is not intended to benefit humans and potential predators, but to benefit the Gila Monster in avoiding interference by displaying a clear and unequivocal signal of its lethal potential were you to incur its wrath. Worp |
 |
| click to see other answers to this question |
| Discuss Answer |
|
|
What is the strongest factual evidence to date to suggest that ghosts really do exist? |
| Question found in Paranormal Phenomena |
|
|
Ace High - Factual evidence isn’t all its cracked up to be. This especially applies to visual data. The Innocence Project investigates cases where it appears a wrongful conviction has occurred. DNA evidence has played a major role in these verdict reversals. In the first 130 exoneration's an analysis of causes of wrongful conviction found 101 out of the 130 were due to mistaken identity. What does that tell you? It was evidence that was not really evidence of anything – except the frailty of human perception. The eye may collect visual information but it is the brain that analyzes and interprets it. Simply put we are in the hands of our brains and brains cannot be trusted. If a tree falls in the woods and there is no creature to hear it, is there any sound? No, there is not. Shock waves are generated and these would be converted to sound were there an ear and a brain to collect and interpret the effect, but if none are present, then no sound ensues, just steadily diminishing shock waves permeating outwards from the source of the disturbance. Our brains gather information from other than the 5 senses too. Such information as telepathic, precognitive, premonitory, etc. is well attested despite sceptics derisive dismissals of such phenomena. For centuries sceptics derided and dismissed tales of the mythical giant squid. Then look what happened – the giant squid moved to centre stage and without any apologetic gesture, the sceptics disappeared into the woodwork. I have experienced the phenomenon of precognition many times myself – mostly in dreams. I have also experienced an apparition – it was very clear and detailed, was 3-dimensional, and it persisted for maybe 20 seconds. Whether it existed in reality or only in my brain there is no telling. Convention says no, my brain says yes. But it looked no less well solid and well-defined and 'real' than that tree over there, that dog, or those shoes. We tend to believe what fits our belief system and disregard the rest – even if it appears equally real. Plenty of people believe in God – an invisible, all powerful being who moves around the universe a force for good – how dotty is that? I am told a buttercup is evidence of God, and that God made us and we are not simply the product of a process of evolution, because evolution is too long-winded and complicated to be true (rather like me), well God help the accused innocent if 'normal' people will gladly settle for evidence of that calibre. Many people believe in God (they say) simply because the bible tells them it is so. However they go on to selectively disregard bits of the bible that appear too extreme or don’t fit their personal philosophy, or in instances where one part of the bible contradicts another. People believe what they are comfortable with and turn their backs on whatever causes them psychological discomfort. Ghosts – 'it is all in your head' – well sure it is, everything is. Our every experience is generated within and by our brain. Tyrell, in his scholarly work 'Apparitions', said: it isn’t until they come to examine the true nature of apparitions that most people are ever confronted with the stunning realisation they have absolutely no direct contact with anything outside themselves. My brain tells me that a flower exhibits a certain selection of colours. A bee's eye is designed to collect information from parts of the spectrum our eyes cannot reach. What the bee 'sees' is different to what we do. So, is the bee right in what it sees, or are we. What is real here? If there is colour there, because the bee can see it, yet we can't, what we are seeing cannot be real – or is at least deficient. We just see (and accept) within our limited capability of seeing and understanding – but all the time the smart ones among us know there is much more to it all than meets the eye. About the bee. The only reality is the way the flower IS. What the bee, a human or any other creature or machine detects are the nature and appearance of the flower is entirely subjective and therefore not wholly unreliable - there is always more to be known than we are equipped to discover. Worp Comments :  Cheers Worp, I sort of see where you are coming from. I have certainly witnessed something very strange, and still have not come up with any logical explanation as to what it was. I would of questioned myself if I had witnessed this event on my own, but I wasn't I was with a friend.
|
|
| click to see other answers to this question |
| Discuss Answer |
|
|
What is the most cost effective way of getting my already developed negatives scanned and put into a digital format? I need them to be of extremely high resolution. I am not looking for printing services. Just the digitization. It is not worth buying a drum scanner, I am looking for CHEAP but effective. Ritz offered to do a roll for $25 and I found that to be outrageous. P |
| Question found in Photography |
|
|
Hi, I have scanned thousand of 35mm negs on a HP Scanjet with TMA attachment. Very good results. With the neg scanning attachment fitted (ie plugged in) it automatically scans negs as positive images. It holds a strip of up to 5 negs and scans up to 4 frames at a time (I just scan one at a time for better control)). In some cases the neg strips are bowed sufficient to touch the glass of the flatbed and cause Newton's rings (they date fro the 1960s), in this case I can simply reverse the neg strip in the holder, so that the scanner looks through the neg image from the 'wrong side' so to speak, and I simply hit 'mirror image' to correct the image handing. The scanner will scan up to very high resolutions - so high the images consumes many megs of memory and are almost unmanageable. I generally restrict my 35mm neg scans to 1200dpi (1 to 1 neg image to scanned image), or so that the images come out at around 300dpi on a standard book page. Email me if you need to know more. Worp |
|
| click to see other answers to this question |
| Discuss Answer |
|
|
Who were the British natives, what language was spoken at that time and has Britain ever been invaded successfully, how many times and by who? |
| Question found in Cultures In General |
|
|
If you mean the aboriginal people(s) - the ones who spread widely across the British Isles in the period immediately following the retreat of the glaciers (at a time when the land of Britain was still contiguous with continental Europe), we do not know what they called themselves. These people are simply known by vague descriptive labels like the Windmill Hill people, or from aspects of their culture - the Corded Ware people. Much earlier evidence of inter-glacial settlement of Britain comes from the Swanscombe and Boxgrove sites. The more-or-less complete male skeleton of an early Briton (dated at approx 9000 years before the present) was found in the Cheddar Caves in Somerset early last century and a scientific analysis of the remains in recent years identified a local teacher, whose family had (obviously) lived in the area for centuries, as a direct descendant of Cheddar Man by DNA. This evidence of this persistent genetic strain has been used to demonstrate the earliest inhabitants of Britain were not wiped out by subsequent invasions. Elements of the language of a pre-Celtic culture are said to survive in certain existing place names, such as Allendale. There is a natural tendency to equate physical traits with cultural traits and language when considering ancient peoples, and this can often give a false picture. Some evidence of the extraordinary accomplishments of the pre-Celtic people of the British Isles survive in, for instance, the New Grange passage tomb, with its huge proportions, corbelled roof and light-box carefully designed to capture the winter solstice sunrise and funnel it down the passage to what might be an altar-stone. Worp |
|
| click to see other answers to this question |
| Discuss Answer |
|
|
Which three Canadian cities are in a climate region that lets them guarantee that there will be snow on December 25? |
| Question found in Education In General |
|
|
Jessica - no absolute guarantees of snow, but last Christmas Day Dawson City and Yellowknife both experienced a high of -7.5C (18.5F), Whitehorse saw a high of -3.3C (26F) and Iqaluit's high was a bracing -21.3C (-6.3F). Yes, I know there are four cities here, but I didn't know which ones were most geographically suited to your purpose. Worp |
|
| click to see other answers to this question |
| Discuss Answer |
|
|
How many names does GOD have and what are they? |
| Question found in Religion & Spirituality In General |
|
|
Mr., there is a short story by Arthur C. Clarke, the scientists and SF writer, in which a traveller had arrived at a remote religious establishment high in the mountains. The establishment has been here for hundreds of years but, ominously, the monks are preparing to leave. Enquiry determines the monks have been long engaged in compiling a record of all the many and varied names of God. They consider their task to be complete. The story is actually called: 'The Nine Billion Names of God'. The traveller looks up into the night sky and realises the stars are being snuffed out, one by one. So be warned, Mr. |
|
| click to see other answers to this question |
| Discuss Answer |
|
|
Which British sea side resort was voted No 1 in a poll of the most popular places to retire to? |
| Question found in Tourism & Travel |
|
|
Pam, from a report of 30 March 2005: Skegness is the most popular place in Britain to retire to, according to a new study. Southend-on-Sea in Essex came second in the research by over-50s magazine Yours followed by King's Lynn, Norfolk, Spalding in Lincs and Llandudno. Top 10 choices included Fakenham in Norfolk, the Shetland Islands, Exmouth in Devon and Poole in Dorset. Sixty locations were judged on house prices, hospital waiting times, crime rates, council tax and ease of access. Skegness topped the poll despite its connection with the "bracing" winds of the North Sea Coast. In October 05, 2005, a poll found Blackpool was the most popular seaside resort in the United Kingdom - but not for retirement. In May 2006, a new poll found Brighton was the the UK's best seaside resort - again, not again specifically as a retirement destination. Skegness is incomprehensible to me. Too cold in the winter for one thing. Some quiet warmish place within a few minutes of the sea in Cornwall or Devon for me - supposing I could afford it, that is. Worp |
|
| click to see other answers to this question |
| Discuss Answer |
|
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||
| Top of Page | • | Terms and Conditions | • | Privacy | • | Disclaimer |
© Simply Explained