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May 26 Information
At least the second publicized soccer player to die this way
There's too little known to speculate usefully here. Are you wondering how someone presumably athletic couldn't surface (how do we know she knew how to swim, or that someone whose body is so muscular might not float), or how come there was no visible struggle (there often isn't in sudden drowning), or what else may have happened (shallow-water blackout, medical emergency, intoxication, hit her head)?
DMacks (
talk)
02:00, 26 May 2021 (UTC)reply
Shallow water blackout is interesting. This victim was observed to be hanging onto a swim board before entering the water. That physical exertion may have led her to breath more rapidly than she should've and built up CO2 while she exhausted herself. Both cases also occurred in cooler regions.
Imagine Reason (
talk)
17:34, 26 May 2021 (UTC)reply
Also there is the 'ran out of fuel' in the cold problem. People are basically completely inexperienced when it comes to recognizing and taking appropriate steps when they begin to suffer from hypothermia. The ultramarathon runners died like flies, presumably when they used up all their blood sugar. Abductive (
reasoning)11:14, 26 May 2021 (UTC)reply
In addition to the above, I'd also be curious as to the makeup of the lake. My wife had an acquaintance who was a certified scuba diver who drowned swimming (no scuba) in a lake when her leg got tangled on underwater vegetation. --
OuroborosCobra (
talk)
14:33, 26 May 2021 (UTC)reply
There are many drowning deaths throughout history involving notable people. Australian Prime Minister
Harold Holt was a more than competent swimmer, and he
disappeared while swimming, and was presumed dead. He was in the company of friends, swam out too far, and was witnessed to be caught by a rip current. Singer
Jeff Buckley drowned while swimming in a channel of the Mississippi River in Memphis in the company of friends; he was likely caught up in the wake of a passing boat. Singer
Whitney Houston drowned in her own bathtub. Truck driver and political activist
Rodney King drowned in his swimming pool. Musician
Brian Jones drowned in his swimming pool. Singer
Dolores O'Riordan drowned in a hotel bathtub. Beach Boys drummer
Dennis Wilson drowned in a marina after diving off his boat. These are just ones I remember off the top of my head. Several probably had intoxication of various sorts as complicating factors, but not all of them. It remains that drowning is a major source of accidental death (according to the source above, the third most common cause of accidental death). It happens often enough that two soccer players drowning in short succession, while an interesting coincidence, is not anything that needs further study nor explanation. --
Jayron3220:17, 26 May 2021 (UTC)reply
Your own article directly answers your question in the same paragraph that the prices are listed. Hospitals had been buying Covishield vaccines from the government, while they are buying Covaxin directly from the pharmaceutical manufacturers. The manufacturers are charging the hospitals more for the vaccine than the government had charged them. This is why I asked if your own source had answered your question; it did. You just didn't read even the same paragraph that the prices were listed. --
OuroborosCobra (
talk)
11:46, 29 May 2021 (UTC)reply
Are East Asians more similar to prehistoric humans than Europeans?
As
mentioned here, the longer Neanderthal DNA fragments in East Asians compared to West Eurasians implies a longer generation interval for East Asians, by about 20% since the split between East Asians and West Eurasians, about 40,000 years ago. This means that on a common family tree, East Asians living today would appear at the same level as an ancestor of West Eurasians who lived about 8000 years ago. Does this mean that East Asians today look more similar to Europeans who lived 10,000 years ago than modern Europeans?
Count Iblis (
talk)
20:55, 26 May 2021 (UTC)reply
Phenotype is very hard to predict using these methods. What someone may have "looked like" millions of years ago, especially things like skin tone, eye shape, hair color, and other small (but noticeable) details of their appearance is basically impossible to determine from piecing together bits of fossil neanderthal DNA found in modern human populations. We can say things like "such and such of an ancient population may have shared X% of their genome with this other population" in VERY broad terms, but being able to say "Would so-and-so a person from such-and-such a population look like someone else from a different population" is way outside of the realm of what we can do with
Human evolutionary genetics.--
Jayron3223:00, 26 May 2021 (UTC)reply
The question seems to have an implied assumption that two lineages with a shared ancestor follow some kind of parallel course, such that descendants at the same generation number (along different lineages) will resemble each other (even more than they resemble their own descendants or shared ancestor). I don't see why that should be true. --
Amble (
talk)
23:26, 26 May 2021 (UTC)reply
And as a matter of fact, we know that all human lineages are becoming more gracile than our robust ancestors, and Asians are more gracile on average. Abductive (
reasoning)15:08, 27 May 2021 (UTC)reply
Pyramids at centre of the Earth
I've often seen it claimed that the
Great Pyramid of Giza is situated at the exact geographical centre of the Earth's land mass.
Is this true?
How is such a point determined? Would it not imply a knowledge of at least the Americas, Australia, Greenland, and Antarctica, which were supposedly unknown to ancient Egyptians? --
Jack of Oz[pleasantries]21:18, 26 May 2021 (UTC)reply
That article links to
The First Rediscovery, 1864, about the calculations of
Charles Piazzi Smyth which did indeed locate the geographical centre at Giza. However, Smyth also "claimed that the measurements he obtained from the Great Pyramid of Giza indicated a unit of length, the pyramid inch, equivalent to 1.001 British inches, that could have been the standard of measurement by the pyramid's architects... Smyth claimed that the pyramid inch was a God-given measure handed down through the centuries from the time of
Shem (Noah's Son), and that the architects of the pyramid could only have been directed by the hand of God". So perhaps more wishful thinking than accurate science.
Alansplodge (
talk)
11:11, 27 May 2021 (UTC)reply
Charles Piazzi Smyth is highly regraded for his work in the fields of meteorology and astronomy, not so much for his pyramidology.
HiLo48 (
talk)
07:42, 28 May 2021 (UTC)reply
Welcome to the Wikipedia Science Reference Desk Archives
The page you are currently viewing is a
transcluded archive page. While you can leave answers for any questions shown below, please ask new questions on one of the
current reference desk pages.
May 26 Information
At least the second publicized soccer player to die this way
There's too little known to speculate usefully here. Are you wondering how someone presumably athletic couldn't surface (how do we know she knew how to swim, or that someone whose body is so muscular might not float), or how come there was no visible struggle (there often isn't in sudden drowning), or what else may have happened (shallow-water blackout, medical emergency, intoxication, hit her head)?
DMacks (
talk)
02:00, 26 May 2021 (UTC)reply
Shallow water blackout is interesting. This victim was observed to be hanging onto a swim board before entering the water. That physical exertion may have led her to breath more rapidly than she should've and built up CO2 while she exhausted herself. Both cases also occurred in cooler regions.
Imagine Reason (
talk)
17:34, 26 May 2021 (UTC)reply
Also there is the 'ran out of fuel' in the cold problem. People are basically completely inexperienced when it comes to recognizing and taking appropriate steps when they begin to suffer from hypothermia. The ultramarathon runners died like flies, presumably when they used up all their blood sugar. Abductive (
reasoning)11:14, 26 May 2021 (UTC)reply
In addition to the above, I'd also be curious as to the makeup of the lake. My wife had an acquaintance who was a certified scuba diver who drowned swimming (no scuba) in a lake when her leg got tangled on underwater vegetation. --
OuroborosCobra (
talk)
14:33, 26 May 2021 (UTC)reply
There are many drowning deaths throughout history involving notable people. Australian Prime Minister
Harold Holt was a more than competent swimmer, and he
disappeared while swimming, and was presumed dead. He was in the company of friends, swam out too far, and was witnessed to be caught by a rip current. Singer
Jeff Buckley drowned while swimming in a channel of the Mississippi River in Memphis in the company of friends; he was likely caught up in the wake of a passing boat. Singer
Whitney Houston drowned in her own bathtub. Truck driver and political activist
Rodney King drowned in his swimming pool. Musician
Brian Jones drowned in his swimming pool. Singer
Dolores O'Riordan drowned in a hotel bathtub. Beach Boys drummer
Dennis Wilson drowned in a marina after diving off his boat. These are just ones I remember off the top of my head. Several probably had intoxication of various sorts as complicating factors, but not all of them. It remains that drowning is a major source of accidental death (according to the source above, the third most common cause of accidental death). It happens often enough that two soccer players drowning in short succession, while an interesting coincidence, is not anything that needs further study nor explanation. --
Jayron3220:17, 26 May 2021 (UTC)reply
Your own article directly answers your question in the same paragraph that the prices are listed. Hospitals had been buying Covishield vaccines from the government, while they are buying Covaxin directly from the pharmaceutical manufacturers. The manufacturers are charging the hospitals more for the vaccine than the government had charged them. This is why I asked if your own source had answered your question; it did. You just didn't read even the same paragraph that the prices were listed. --
OuroborosCobra (
talk)
11:46, 29 May 2021 (UTC)reply
Are East Asians more similar to prehistoric humans than Europeans?
As
mentioned here, the longer Neanderthal DNA fragments in East Asians compared to West Eurasians implies a longer generation interval for East Asians, by about 20% since the split between East Asians and West Eurasians, about 40,000 years ago. This means that on a common family tree, East Asians living today would appear at the same level as an ancestor of West Eurasians who lived about 8000 years ago. Does this mean that East Asians today look more similar to Europeans who lived 10,000 years ago than modern Europeans?
Count Iblis (
talk)
20:55, 26 May 2021 (UTC)reply
Phenotype is very hard to predict using these methods. What someone may have "looked like" millions of years ago, especially things like skin tone, eye shape, hair color, and other small (but noticeable) details of their appearance is basically impossible to determine from piecing together bits of fossil neanderthal DNA found in modern human populations. We can say things like "such and such of an ancient population may have shared X% of their genome with this other population" in VERY broad terms, but being able to say "Would so-and-so a person from such-and-such a population look like someone else from a different population" is way outside of the realm of what we can do with
Human evolutionary genetics.--
Jayron3223:00, 26 May 2021 (UTC)reply
The question seems to have an implied assumption that two lineages with a shared ancestor follow some kind of parallel course, such that descendants at the same generation number (along different lineages) will resemble each other (even more than they resemble their own descendants or shared ancestor). I don't see why that should be true. --
Amble (
talk)
23:26, 26 May 2021 (UTC)reply
And as a matter of fact, we know that all human lineages are becoming more gracile than our robust ancestors, and Asians are more gracile on average. Abductive (
reasoning)15:08, 27 May 2021 (UTC)reply
Pyramids at centre of the Earth
I've often seen it claimed that the
Great Pyramid of Giza is situated at the exact geographical centre of the Earth's land mass.
Is this true?
How is such a point determined? Would it not imply a knowledge of at least the Americas, Australia, Greenland, and Antarctica, which were supposedly unknown to ancient Egyptians? --
Jack of Oz[pleasantries]21:18, 26 May 2021 (UTC)reply
That article links to
The First Rediscovery, 1864, about the calculations of
Charles Piazzi Smyth which did indeed locate the geographical centre at Giza. However, Smyth also "claimed that the measurements he obtained from the Great Pyramid of Giza indicated a unit of length, the pyramid inch, equivalent to 1.001 British inches, that could have been the standard of measurement by the pyramid's architects... Smyth claimed that the pyramid inch was a God-given measure handed down through the centuries from the time of
Shem (Noah's Son), and that the architects of the pyramid could only have been directed by the hand of God". So perhaps more wishful thinking than accurate science.
Alansplodge (
talk)
11:11, 27 May 2021 (UTC)reply
Charles Piazzi Smyth is highly regraded for his work in the fields of meteorology and astronomy, not so much for his pyramidology.
HiLo48 (
talk)
07:42, 28 May 2021 (UTC)reply