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What Caused the Two World Wars?
World War I raged from 1914 to 1918 and was known as the “Great War,” or the “War to End All Wars ” The rigidity of the various world alliances is often cited as the primary cause of the war.
The Austrian government was worried about its national security because of the increase in territory claimed by the Serbs as a result of the Balkan wars of 1912 and 1913, fearing that Russia would back Serbia in the latter’s attempt to annex the Slavic areas of Austria. Then, on June 28, 1914, Franz Ferdinand, who was heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, was assassinated in Sarajevo by a Bosnian Serb student. As a result of this, the Austria-Hungary alliance, with German backing, demanded that the Serbian government do a number of unrealistic things. The Serbians would not comply with all of the demands, and so Austria–Hungary declared war, at which point the Russian government, who had pledged to uphold Serbian independence, mobilized its forces.
Germany consequently demanded that Russia demobilize and, when she would not, declared war on her and then on her ally France. German forces invaded Belgium on August 4, which prompted Britain, who had guaranteed the independence of Belgium, to declare war on Germany.
World War II, meanwhile, was a global war that began in 1939 and ended in 1945, the cause of which is rooted in the outcome of World War I, as well as the Great Depression of the 1930s. On their defeat during World War I, the German leaders were compelled to sign the Treaty of Versailles, which saw their country lose most of its territories and have its military restricted, while the country was also forced to make war reparations. As a direct result of this, Germany entered a period of severe unemployment, a time of social unrest that saw the rise to prominence of the Nazi Party under Adolf Hitler, who united the country under a nationalist banner and later formed an alliance with Italy’s fascist ruler
Mussolini.
Hitler defied the conditions of the Versailles Treaty and rebuilt the German military before embarking on a program of expansion for the German Empire, occupying the demilitarized Rhineland bordering France. At this point, France and Great Britain used appeasement and diplomacy to maintain peace, but Germany went on to annex Austria and then Czechoslovakia. When Hitler’s forces later invaded Poland on September 1, 1939, the Allies declared war. Japan eventually entered the war on the side of Germany, while the US entered in 1941 after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on the Allies’ side.
Why were Neckties Invented?
It is often questioned why such a seemingly useless item of apparel as the necktie was ever invented. It is thought by some anthropologists that it might have been the first item of clothing ever worn, taking the form of a strip of fur around the necks of our ancestors. However, the earliest evidence of the wearing of neckties was by the Chinese.
China’s first emperor, Shih Huang Ti, was afraid of death and commanded that replicas of his army personnel be laid to rest with him for protection He died in 210 BC, and when his tomb was rediscovered in 1974, the intricately detailed terracotta replicas preserved therein each wore neck cloths or ties.
Neckties were also present in Roman times In AD 113, after one of his victories, the emperor Trajan erected a marble column bearing reliefs that feature thousands of soldiers, many of whom are wearing neckties. It’s thought by some that these soldiers wore neckties to guard against cold weather or to absorb sweat.
While neckties have been around in one form or another for millennia, it was because of the Croatians in the seventeenth century that wearing them became a statement of
fashion.
After helping in a victory against the Hapsburg Empire, thousands of soldiers were presented to King Louis XIV in Paris, among them a regiment of Croatian marines, some of whom wore colorful cravats. These embellishments appealed to the French, who had never seen such an article of clothing and who were soon wearing similar cravats.
Until the French Revolution in 1789, the French maintained an elite regiment known as the Cravate Royale, and the word “cravat” itself is from the French word cravate, meaning “Croatian ”.
It wasn’t long before the wearing of neckties spread In 1660, Charles II returned to England from exile and reclaimed the throne that he lost during the English Civil War.
He was followed by aristocrats who brought the cravat to England, whereupon it developed into the necktie, became popular and spread throughout Europe, then the US and then the rest of the world.
Are Cats and Dogs Colorblind?
Historically, it has been thought that both cats and dogs are colorblind. For the last one hundred years, extensive tests have been carried out on the color vision of these animals, generally geared to determining how responsive they are to colors of food. Both animals were found to be unable to distinguish between colors that were signals for food and others that were not, which led scientists to the conclusion that cats and dogs are indeed colorblind.
Evolutionists supported these findings by saying that distinguishing colors wasn’t an important survival instinct for dogs or cats, which generally hunt at night and developed heightened senses of smell and hearing to compensate for the deficiency. Recent studies, however, have contradicted these results. Again using experiments with food and color, it was found that dogs could easily distinguish colors from both extremes of the spectrum (i.e. reds from blues), as well as being able to differentiate between blues and greens, although they weren’t as good at identifying the various colors at the red end of the spectrum. The scientists concluded that dogs aren’t colorblind, as was previously believed, but that they suffer from deuteranopia, a condition whereby only two of the three types of cones (photoreceptors) in the human retina are present—in the case of dogs, those that pick up blue and red light.
Cats, too, were found to have only blue and red photoreceptors in their retina, indicating that they, like dogs, can see certain colors. Scans of their brains have also indicated that their eyes respond to different wavelengths of light (i.e. colors), while other studies indicate that cats can learn to distinguish between colors, although this takes a considerable amount of time.
Is Red Bull Dangerous?
Red Bull is the brand name of a canned soft drink that is marketed as an energy source and stimulant containing sugar, vitamin B, glucuronolactone, caffeine (around the same amount as in a cup of coffee) and a compound called taurine, which gives the drink its name.
In the early part of 2000, a number of people started questioning whether the drink was dangerous to human health, as there was a suggestion that one of its ingredients, glucuronolactone, was an artificial stimulant given to U S troops in Vietnam in the 1960s to boost morale.
It was said that the drug produced brain tumors and death in some of the soldiers, although there is no scientific evidence supporting this suggestion. However, in 2001, the drink was investigated by the Swedish National Food Administration after being connected to the deaths of three people.
Some experts are concerned about the inclusion of glucuronolactone and taurine in the drink. Glucuronolactone is a natural carbohydrate produced by the human metabolic system, but the amounts contained in each can of Red Bull are high enough to worry some people.
A recent study found that more testing was needed to assess the dangers of glucuronolactone and taurine, but many think that high quantities could be dangerous to people. Experts are also concerned about the levels of caffeine in the drink, especially
when it’s mixed with alcohol, as it often is.
The sale of Red Bull as a normal soft drink is now prohibited in Denmark, France and Norway
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