Spazzy- McGee

What was the cultural significance of Abrahamic religion/tradition in the region Muhammad came from? How did it influence Islam? The only Abrahamic religions/traditions at the time were Judaism and Christianity, correct?

P.S. - My Yahoo account has been messed up for years and I may not be able to choose a Best Answer. Sorry! :(

P.P.S. - Please don t take offense to any of my wording. I just want to understand the topic a little more.

Simply out of curiosity, since dogs have such high cancer rates due to selective breeding over the years do dogs of mixed breed (particularly mixes several very different breeds) have lower cancer rates?

Again, this is just out of curiosity. I have no intention of breeding dogs.

Looking at the big picture, it seems horribly inefficient to require every individual human on the planet to stop what they are doing and wash their produce when it could all be washed before final sale.

The big fears are bacteria and pesticides, and though an assembly line cleaning couldn't get rid of every single bacteria it could at least take care of 99% of the pesticides. Or is produce already washed beforehand and all this pesticide fear little more than a myth?

What type of star has the most stable energy output, has the fewest "hiccups"?

Red dwarf stars live the longest, but are they as stable as our Sun?

"Degenerate" existed as a word before its use in quantum mechanics, so what is the connection? Why do we use the word "degenerate" for degenerate states?

Steady Sugar Intake VS Sugar Spike

For equivalent amounts of sugar and fat, what is the greater risk: a steady stream of junk all day or single spike? Will a spike of sugar at the end of every day put me at a particular risk of diabetes no matter how I eat overall?

My diet:

Breakfast: Oatmeal or Granola cereal.

Brunch: Handful of Almonds.

Lunch: Asparagus, Spinach, Broccoli, Carrot, and an Apple.

Snack: Sunflower Seeds.

Dinner: PB&J, Pasta, or snack such as Pickled Herring & Crackers.

Desert: Bowl of Ice Cream or Chocolate & Peanut Butter.

My grandfather has Type 2 Diabetes.

I take Adderall, so my reduced appetite throughout most of the day allows me to eat as healthy as I want, but I tend to indulge as it wears off right before bed.

Does any amount of additional physical activity (like simply walking walking more or taking the stairs instead of an elevator) improve resting heart rate or does is strenuous activity needed?

If my resting heart rate is just above 100 bpm, will walking a little bit more throughout the day over long period of time bring it down below 100 bpm or does anything short of cardio do absolutely nothing whatsoever?

I'm not a tactilely social person. I recieve little to no pleasure from touching or being touched by friends and family, apparently unlike most other people. I've learned to do it for the sake of the people around me, but to me it still seems like a pointless invasion of personal space. Petting dogs falls into this catagory of social interaction. When I go through the motions of petting, patting, scratching, or rubbing a dog I many times feel like the fact that I am merely mimicking the action is obvious to the dog, leaving both parties wondering why they are taking part in the action at all.

I'm about to move in with someone and their dog doesn't seem comfortable around me (constant sniffing, pacing, occasional growling, and even barking). It is very protective, a domestic guard dog, so if I wouldn't be very surprised if it exploded at me if I took one too many liberties inside the apartment early on, especially if the owner isn't around.

How do I calm the dog around me ASAP and how do I eventually make friends with him?

Are some Greek deities inherently more powerful (more godly powers) or is the dominance of one deity over others the soul product of politics?

If some are indeed inherently more powerful, is that power dependent on anything? Does lineage matter? Are successive generations of deities less or more powerful than the previous?

Most theists believe God plans to wipe out humanity at one point, and this is viewed as not necessarily bad because it means humanity will move on to a better place (for the most part). The state of humanity in the long run is thus the same regardless of whether or not humanity exists one more year or a hundred billion more years.

Atheists on the other hand only live on through humanity as a culture and species, so letting humanity go extinct is tantamount to destroying the afterlife.

Example - An asteroid may or may not wipe humanity out in the next thousand years. It makes more sense for an atheist to spend money on an asteroid defense plan than it does for a theist, because the existence of the asteroid is no fault of humanity and thus a theist has the grounds to say it is part of God's plan.

Buddhism stresses detachment (or something similar) and one who is truly detached has little use for action.

The problem I seem to be having with Buddhism is that sometimes action is necessary for survival and if a philosophy leads a people to annihilation then I don't believe it is a good philosophy.

For example, imagine a large asteroid is discovered on a 40 year collision course with Earth. A Buddhist world would not be as technologically advanced as many possible non-Buddhist worlds because it is often the desires of humanity; the want for something better, faster, and bigger; that often drive technological progress. The last generation of humanity on this Buddhist world may be very content, but need for the power to save humanity is far more important than the happiness of billions of people.

I have a B.S. degree in physics, but I don't know what quaternions are.

I've been reading a little about them. Are they simply the i_hat, j_hat, and k_hat unit vectors?

Does a quaternion necessarily need three imaginary components and one real? If the three imaginary components represent three spatial dimensions then does the fourth, real component correspond to time?

Please, thank you, and have some points for your trouble. :P

Are there any webpages that list local, state, and national elections given one's place of residence?

If an individual were to know emself was infected with a dangerous contagion but nonetheless took no measures to prevent infecting other people then would that individual be prosecutable?

For example, imagine if someone with very unhygienic habits became sick and proceeded to sneeze on people, put eir mouth on drinking fountain spouts, and generally do things that would be frowned upon even when healthy. That would seen like a criminal disregard for public safety.

Without the extreme pressure present on neutron stars the neutron degeneracy pressure holding the neutrons apart would likely push the neutrons apart with enough force to produce a significant explosion, but even if most of that energy was relieved beforehand the neutrons would still be very densely pact.

What would happen to this lump of neutrons? Would they simply fall apart and tumble down into the Earth?

"Compile" turns the program into executable code and "Execute" executes the code, but what does "Build" do? The more detail the better.

Please and Thank You!

I'm prescribed a controlled substance and I need to take it through the day, so I like carrying a few tablets around with me outside of their container. The receipt seems to have all the information that is on the container, so every bit of my common sense is telling me carrying the receipt with me should be sufficient. I just want some reassurance.