Any Questions?....Any Answers?

[Margot]

Here is a new thread! It is here as a type of lets ask 'auntie  and uncle' type thing! Anyone with questions about literally anything from day to day aspects of life to things about a variety of issues may be asked and hopefully answered here! We are such a diverse and eclectic mix of posters that from amongst our ranks, I am pretty sure there will always be someone who can answer a question no matter how topical, unusual or obscure!

For example, you may want to know a full proof recipe for a Hollandaise sauce or what the best solution to dealing with tricky social occasion may be! How to remove grease marks from a favourite blouse or pair of trousers, or maybe how to deal with other issues! It could be anything from 'Where  on the East Coast can you buy that particularly wonderful olive oil you discovered on a trip to Europe last year' or 'Where in London would be the best place to stay the night on a budget! I know we have had lots of these type of threads scattered about the forum before, but I just thought it might be easier to keep it all together! It would be a free for all and we could all share advice!

This thread is here to try and help.....Fire away at will......

[Lucien]

For an "auntie" and "uncle" type of thing we already have the FA,for all other suggestions by you,we have GDElla & Alixz.

Ask 'm 

[Constantinople]

ok let's get the ball rolling
Why is the sky blue?

[Margot]

Thank you Constantinople for kicking us off with one of those questions we all asked as child!

The blue color of the sky is due to what is referred to as 'Rayleigh scattering'. When light travels through the atmosphere, the majority of the longer wavelengths pass straight through. A very small percentage of the red, orange and yellow light is affected by the air.

But, most of the shorter wavelength light is absorbed by the gas molecules. The absorbed blue light is subsequently radiated in different directions. It gets scattered all around the sky. Whichever direction you look, some of this scattered blue light reaches you. Since you see the blue light from everywhere overhead, the sky looks blue.

I hope this makes sense!

And don't ask why is the grass green, it's because it contains the pigment chlorophyll!

[Robert_Hall]

For a real challenge, try describing colours to a person who is blind! I worked with several blind people and they often ask about what colour their xmas sweaters were or  whatever. Naturally,  Each was a different situation, like all people,  but some could envision  the colours, other had never seen them. I learned a lot from that experience.
 As for questions.... I have many, but none are relevant here. I usually  find the answers before I would even ask. However-  why is the sea grey?

[Margot]

The sea's 'surface' colour is basically a reflection and refraction and scattering of light particles through water as it does through air. As Blue light has the the shortest wavelength  the sky and sea will more often than not appear blue at the same time as blue light scatters more easily and quickly because it is shorter. But because blue light has to penetrate through water and its contents, the perceived surface colour of water is not just a simple reflection of the shade of the corresponding sky. Grey seas are the result of a similar situation with a corresponding grey sky! It is not really  that simple though, because it is generally accepted that water is colourless and that it only appears blue when blue light has penetrated to a minimum depth three metres. Another point to note, is the contents of various seas such as the composition of mineral emulsions and the levels of salinity also alter the scattering of wavelengths. That is why some bodies of the sea appear more blue than others. For example the Atlantic is more generally seen as more grey-blue than the Mediterranean which is regarded as more blue.

I can not believe we are doing these type of questions! These can be answered on the internet in seconds! I thought this would be more about unusual, quirky and difficult to be specific type queries rather than general knowledge or mini science class!

[Robert_Hall]

I know, Margot. I just asked to keep the thread going!
 So, here goes another one-  how many people were employed at Versailles? [I know the answer] Find THAT on the internet!

[Margot]

Now that will require some expert knowledge...Good one Mr Hall!

Wow I suppose we could assume that to include members of every royal domestic office within the Household? Hmmmm we need ancien regime expertise here! Great one!

[Robert_Hall]

Yes, I know Margot.  I did the research when I was a student, long before the internet.  I ordered books from the library loans. Almost wish I had kept them, but....that would have not been nice.
 Here is another one, which I do not have an answer to-  which Popes were chosen BEFORE they were actually priests ?  Arcane at it's best.

[Naslednik Norvezhskiy]

Since this thread has gone off in an arcane direction already:

Dear aunties and uncles, I am sure you easily can answer this question:
Were Russian morganauts like the Counts and Countesses Osternburg, Zarnekau, Merenberg, Hohenfelsen etc. styled Сиятельство, just like Russian Counts, even though they were created by German sovereigns like the Grand Duke of Oldenburg, the Prince of Waldeck and Pyrmont and the Prince-Regent of Bavaria? (And thus probably actually held the lesser style of Hochgeboren, высокородие, like all non-mediatized German Counts.)
:-)

[Naslednik Norvezhskiy]

And of course there is this question, which recently popped up in Mandie's fan fiction story "Lizya & Georgie ~ Love, Power and Tragedy" in the Having Fun section:
NB the dramatis personæ are a young Russian grand duchess and a young Bavarian prince:

“Sie sprechen Deutsch, Herzogin (You speak German, Duchess)?” Georgie informally asked in his native tongue. (And a very stupid question too! - Tom added).

I understand that the "Duchess" in question is a Russian Grand Duchess? In that case she is Großfürstin (Grand Princess) in German. I think that to a certain extent social equals can adress each other with titles in German as in Russian, but in German I have a feeling this is restricted to lower titles like Gräfin, Countess, i.e. the ones where the titles usually is preferred to the more uncommon predicate. But I think it would be more usual to add a Frau, or in the case of a young girl as here, Fräulein: "Sie sprechen Deutsch, Fräulein Großfürstin?" But I am not at all sure here - it is indeed a very interesting question: How did royals of equal age who didn't know each other intimately enough to use those well-known nicknames Ducky, Sandro, Vicky, Toria, Bertie, Nicky, Minny etc. really adress each other?

[Margot]

I have a really boring question to ask? I have just noticed that at the bottom of the normal AP screen with all the threads displayed on it, there are four funny little grey boxes that I am sure were not their until quite recently! (Maybe I have been really unobservant in the past....but....hmmm I am not sure!!!!) When you mouse over them they change to bright and visible! I haven't dared click on any of them as I do not know what they do and it might bugger something up if I do it, without knowing what those little tabs are actually there for! Can some please explain to me what they do please, as one of my mottos where computers are concerned is 'Better the devil you know.....' and another is 'Curiosity killed the cat' so I wont dare click on them until I have some idea of what they are there for? I get jittery and nervous otherwise!

Sorry to be soppy and a scaredy-cat but I just don't like risking things or poking around when it comes to being online! You never know what might bite you!!!!!

I probably didn't explain where those odd little tabs are properly did I? Well... it's nerves, angst and coming over a tad vapourish probably when something new looms up before me!!! But they are just above the Amber Gallery thingamy bob tab at the very bottom of the normal AP viewing page!

[Kimberly]

Well I just clicked on 'em haha.  They are just ads and stuff, didn't read through them though.

[Naslednik Norvezhskiy]

Question for any legal experts here:

I noticed in a Windsor Jewels thread that when Queen Alexandra died intestate, only her surviving children met to divide her jewels. Is it really like that in common law? If it's that arbitrary and unfair, then I better understand the Anglo-Saxon obsession with writing wills.

Because here in Norway, where the laws are Germanic- and Roman-based, it's different. § 1 of our Law of Inheritance says: "The children of the deceased inherit equally if specific legal rules do not specify otherwise. If a child is dead, his inheritance passes to that child's heirs of the body, with equal shares for each line."
And under Norwegian law, you cannot will away all your estate by testament: If you have heirs of the body, they are entitled to 2/3 of your estate (or if the estate is big: at least 170.000 US $ for each child or a deceased child's line), no matter what your testament says about disinheriting them.  And the Norwegian laws don't make a distinction between chattels and real estate either, unless it's allodial property. (See this thread for info on Norwegian allodial law.)

I also saw a Russian thread where somebody applied this common law principle to some members of the IF. Did this really apply in the Russian Empire too? Perhaps it did, if the whole "pre-eminence of wills" comes from Roman Law and the Russian Law at the time was based on Roman Law.  

[tatianolishka_1]

I have a really boring question to ask? I have just noticed that at the bottom of the normal AP screen with all the threads displayed on it, there are four funny little grey boxes that I am sure were not their until quite recently! (Maybe I have been really unobservant in the past....but....hmmm I am not sure!!!!) When you mouse over them they change to bright and visible! I haven't dared click on any of them as I do not know what they do and it might bugger something up if I do it, without knowing what those little tabs are actually there for! Can some please explain to me what they do please, as one of my mottos where computers are concerned is 'Better the devil you know.....' and another is 'Curiosity killed the cat' so I wont dare click on them until I have some idea of what they are there for?

You need not worry Margot... each of those little things represents what code is used in the design of the forum. For example, one of the boxes reads "CSS". What this means is that the forum has used CSS code (a picky code to work with, I might add), and the code is working properly. Same with mySQL, XHTML and PHP. All of them are the programming languages that allow you to post, PM, and even browse the website.