Subset (10)

eli5 · 25k rows

Split (1)

train · 25k rows

query stringlengths 20 300	positive listlengths 1 1	negative listlengths 1 1
What type of musical instruments would have been popular in the Caliphate of Cordoba circa ~1000AD?	[ "Going by the Great Book of Music of [Al-Farabi](_URL_0_) there would have been oud, psalteries ( somewhat like the present qanun), harps, drums, racks of bells, flutes- and singing, of course. The oud would make a great impression on Europeans, who would adopt it and call it the lute. Guitar is actually an anti-l...	[ "The only example I can think of is Saddam Hussein's son used one in Iraq. Uday Hussein kept an iron maiden in his torture chamber. _URL_0_" ]
Why is space black instead of white?	[ "[This paradox](_URL_0_) is actually pretty historically significant. The important thing you're forgetting is that the universe is not infinitely old and light is not infinitely fast, and so there are only a finite number of stars visible to us. Even though the stars are very large, the distances to them are large...	[ "When we look at something a million light years of distance away, we are seeing it as it was about a million years in the past. (It's not exactly a million because the universe has been expanding during the time the light has been travelling). So, using redshift to measure distance, we can figure out how far rad...
How do joints/cigarettes stay lit?	[ "Air comes in when you take a hit, feeding the fire and thus making it \"larger\". If you light a cig or joint and dont puff on it, it will eventually go out" ]	[ "This is a more scientific answer than it sounds: it's all in your head. Try having a friend hold a pen there randomly half of the time. You guess when it's there, the more you guess the closer to chance you should get." ]
What is the purpose of fainting? What are the benefits of this mechanism? In extreme situations (e.g. being under attack) humans and animals sometimes faint but I see this as counterproductive and it would probability be better to become more alert in these situations, right?	[ "Our brains need a lot of blood to stay alive. Normally, our bodies work just fine pumping blood against gravity and up to our noggins, but sometimes things go wrong. If for any reason there's a drop in blood pressure or heart rate or reduced level of oxygen to your brain, your brain is going to make you faint. W...	[ "Cats and dogs have been selectively bred to be good companions. Most animals find being petted extremely stressful and many would lash out if you tried. But those are poor traits for pets so we try to breed them out. There's an old Russian experiment with a fox farm that demonstrates this very nicely. At the farm ...
Is this recent heat wave a result of global warming, or is there another reason it's so hot right now?	[ "It's impossible [as I understand] to attribute any single climate event or short trend to global climate change - Only long term trends can be attributed to it." ]	[ "In cookery we have dry heat and wet heat. Wet heat is boiling and stewing - effectctively cooking by immersing in warm liquid. Dry heat is grilling or deep frying. Deep frying counts as dry heat since once the skin crisps, further oil does not penetrate it. Microwaves heat the water molecules in the food, and cook...
Why do rubs from someone else feel so much better than rubbing yourself the same way?	[ "The same reason tickles feel entirely different. Your brain already knows exactly how you're going to touch yourself. Where when another person does it\\- it's a surprise sensation." ]	[ "Each instance of an object is unique, and reviewed by a human before being delivered. When you order something handmade, you know a person who is skilled in their craft spent a lot of time creating and determining that the product was suitable for sale. Manufactured products aren't all individually checked before ...
If a storm is fed by sea water, how does the resulting rainfall come down as fresh water? What happens to the salt?	[ "The sun heats the water. Water vaporizes into the air. The salt doesn’t vaporize but stays in the sea. The water damp forms clouds and from the cloud it rains down again." ]	[ "Ever had a furry rug? If you rub it a bit, you'll be able to zap someone. Lightning is something similar. Clouds are like a big fluffy rugs that are constantly rubbing against other fluffy rugs. When enough charge is accumulated, they zap the Earth. ---- In a bit more detail: when you get enough power, you can zap...
How did American Political Language essentially become reversed in many cases	[ "The whole Red=Conservative/Blue=Liberal dynamic in the States is rather fascinating too. As noted, the U.S. TV networks began using varied color schemes in election maps back in the '70's. But it wasn't until the 2000 election (Gore/Bush) that they really took hold. The reason being NBC political reporter Tim Russ...	[ "This sounds like a \"polltype question\" which is not appropriate for askhistorians. sorry." ]
If looks are subjective, why are the same people (like celebrities) considered attractive by so many people?	[ "There's the basic evolutionary stuff we're all born with that dictate who's \"beautiful\" based on preferred biological mating characteristics. A woman with good size breasts and hips is considered better from a biological stand point for procreation. Her breasts show she can provide for a baby while her hips show...	[ "Pretty much all complex food tastes different in different conditions. Since much of our 'taste' is actually smell, I suspect that a huge amount of it depends on the proportion and composition of the volatile components. (this is certainly true for wines - consider how big of a difference temperature and glass sha...
How do stomach cells excrete HCl and enzymes through the mucus membrane?	[ "[This](_URL_1_) is a good overview of gastric mucosal physiology. There are specialized cell which secrete the HCl, and other cells which secrete mucus. The acid gets through the mucus mainly via an action of muscular contractions to help the acid be expelled from the gastric pits. Additionally, the goblet cells o...	[ "Here is a good video on what you're talking about: _URL_0_ Basically the esophagus and the trachea are separated by the epiglottis. So when stuff goes down the wrong tube it means your food went down your trachea instead of your esophugus." ]
Why hasn't Magic Johnson's HIV developed into AIDS yet? Is he a rare exception?	[ "Not every HIV case develops into AIDS. Magic Johnson caught HIV right around the time the most effective treatment for HIV was developed, [anti-retroviral therapy](_URL_1_). He also happens to be extremely fit, which significantly improves most disease prognoses. He also has [boatloads of money](_URL_0_) to pay ...	[ "Think of it like a balloon you are trying to blow up. You can start huffing and puffing with great abandon as the balloon isn't going to pop. but when it gets to certain size you start to worry, You want the balloon bigger but you worry it might go bang. So you have to slow your puffing down." ]
What was the Green Army in the Russian Civil War and what were they fighting for?	[ "The Green Armies weren't an organised force in the same way that the Reds and Whites were during the Russian Civil War, rather it's a term used to describe a number of peasant groups that resisted the Reds in defence of their communities and regions. Early in the Bolshevik Revolution, the Reds instituted a system ...	[ "Can I request someone flesh out the Blueshirts in Ireland? From what I recall they were a right wing organisation from around the 30's- Would it be correct to say the IRA at the time were more communist leaning?" ]
Is it better to have windows open or closed on a hot day?	[ "Heat moves from areas of high concentration to low concentration. If it is hotter outside than in your room you want the windows closed. That being said air flowing across your skin helps water on your skin evaporate thereby cooling you. I don't know how to quantify the effect and it will require factors such as h...	[ "AC was invented because someone wanted to remove humidity from the air, it was only after they did this they found out that a side effect was cooling. Cali. doesn't have that much humidity and Florida has a more then any human should have to go through. I would say in Florida your noticing the cooling and humidity...
Is there anything fundamentally wrong with simulation theory?	[ "There's no such thing as simulation theory, so that's a pretty major weakness. (There are people who say \"whoa, maybe we're in a simulation\", but that's not the same as a scientific theory.)" ]	[ "Before I answer, may I ask who the speaker is for this particular lecture? Or if you have a link for me to listen to? I would like to know where they are coming from in their argument." ]
Why are so many people allergic to peanuts and tree nuts.	[ "They aren't, but doctors told them they were, so you can't get mad at them. A recent study found that around 80% of the people diagnosed with peanut allergies were actually allergic to pollen and not peanuts. This misdiagnosis was due to a lack of precision in common testing regimens. Link to relevant article: _UR...	[ "\"Just about everyone here\" Where is \"here\" for you? It sounds like your question's premise is based on a small sample set based on personal observation. Before your question is addressed, you should be making sure the premise is valid..." ]
How common was atheism within Medieval Europe?	[ "'Religion' pre-Reformation is not just a belief system; it is a way of seeing the world. For a medieval person, belief in God is the same as belief in gravity or belief that your king has authority over you. This also means that in regions where religions were in conflict (the extreme North, East and South), there...	[ "Hello! This has been covered before on this sub.[ Here](_URL_0_) is the relevant section from the FAQ. [This post](_URL_1_) in particular from /u/idjet covers the topic quite well. To sum it up, the idea that clean water wasn't available in the Middle Ages and that people used beer or ale as a\"substitute\" for wa...
Is there at least 1 molecule of Dealer Gas in my car after 10 years?	[ "The solution is relatively easy, as what you're doing here is no different from a serial dilution (assuming homogenous mixing after each fill up): You have 1 tank, and you're doing 1:10 dilution 520 times. This gives a dilution factor of 10^520. Your original tank of 50 L of gasoline (we'll further assume it's pur...	[ "We can detect compounds pretty easily, thanks to technology (slightly off-topic: we know that Coke is made of water, sugar, caffeine, phosphoric acid, and caramel colour/flavourings). What we can't do, though, is define how those compounds were all produced, and the amounts and methods they were mixed to...
Was there a Roman pantheon before they adopted the Greek gods/goddesses?	[ "Just to add to the two previous comments, two sources you might find helpful would be Nancy de Grummond's [Etruscan Myth, Sacred History, and Legend](_URL_0_) and Larissa Bonfante and Judith Swaddling's [Etruscan Myths](_URL_1_)" ]	[ "I just read the article, and Witzel isn't even telling a just-so story -- he's telling an \"it's so whether it's so or not\" story. Take a look at this statement, as just one example among many: > Apart from the feature of drift, certain motifs that widely appear in Laurasian and non-Laurasian mythologies may bel...
How did the debt grow so much when the deficit decreased under Obama?	[ "The deficit is the amount by which spending outpaced earnings. So if the debt is 100k, and your deficit is 20k, now debt is 120k. As long as you have any deficit, the debt will go up." ]	[ "We only have 150 years worth of direct temperature readings (ie. taken with a thermometer) for the planet. There are many different proxies for measuring temperature throughout the more distant past. CO2 ratios in air bubbles trapped in deep ice cores, tree ring data, marine sediment layers, and others. All of whi...
Does anyone know good references for the cultural history of semen? Im specifically looking at the materiality of semen.	[ "Could you define 'materiality' please? I'm intrigued by your question, but quite confused!" ]	[ "The all-time classic on this is Bertram Wyatt-Brown's Southern Honor: Ethics and Behavior in the Old South (New York: Oxford U Press, 1982). Since then, a lot has been written on the subject, particularly relating to gendered notions of honor and race. One important recent work on how Southern males had the mea...
Are Vibram FiveFingers and other toe shoes really good for the health of your feet over a lifetime compared to regular cushioned shoes in our unforgiving tile, concrete and tarmac environments.	[ "Studies seems to indicate that barefoot like running could be healthier. There seems to be less stress for ankle, knee joint, and the hip joint. All negative aspects I know of are related to the transition period (I started slow in my opinion but still had hair fracture from running on cobblestones). 1. _URL_0_ 2...	[ "Suppose you are sharing a room with your brother. The left side is yours, the right side is his. You draw a line on the floor to mark them, but you think it should be moved more to the right and so you start quarreling. You do not have a measuring tape (and besides, since the room is not a rectangle it's hard to m...
Why do you hear so much more regarding desperate and lonely men rather than desperate and lonely women? Shouldn't there be more or less an equal amount of both?	[ "Women have far better support systems available compared to men. It's socially acceptable for women to feel hurt and express those feelings. They usually get ample sympathy and support from friends, family, colleagues and the public. When a man tries the same, he's ignored, ridiculed and perceived as weak." ]	[ "This occurs in sex-role reversed species, and is typically accompanied by a polyandrous mating system. Both sex-role reversal and polyandry are pretty uncommon. The northern jacana is a famous example of this. The females are more brightly colored than the males, and they defend territories that contain several ne...
the observable universe.	[ "Yes, but things expanded away too fast for their light to reach us." ]	[ "Nobody knows. We're still trying to figure out what crazy shit went down in the Big Bang. All we know is that there's energy now and it is conserved in the things we can observe." ]
Why did Australian Aboriginals not develop/adopt agriculture?	[ "In the book Guns Germs and Steel Jared Diamond explains a lot of history using New Guinea and Australian aborigines. One things he discusses was how farming was difficult in many geographies due to lack of beasts of burden and easily harvestable nutrient rich crops like corn or rice. There was a higher return on i...	[ "Some of my uni professors in the dendrochronology lab (tree rings) at the U of Arkansas did research on this by studying the climate of the area all the way back to about 1100. The research revealed that the 3 year period surrounding the colony was the driest, most extreme period of drought in the 800 years studie...
Why do some memories remain vivid in our memory and some memories are forgotten about?	[ "For good recall, memories need to be recalled. Huh? Memories are reinforced the more they are accessed. In fact, there's evidence that when you remember something, the memory is accessed and mostly erased, then re-written. If you don't access a memory, it tends to fade away. But accessing it will refresh it ...	[ "It's called selective focus or sometimes it's called the cocktail party effect. There is a difference between perception (actually putting brain power to interpret stimuli) and simple detection by your senses. So when you focus on this one conversation, your brain only interprets signals here and effectively ignor...
Where fruit flies come from.	[ "Fruit flies reproduce very quickly. From laying eggs to adults in merely 8 days. This means that once you have one or two, you suddenly have an infestation. Now where do they come from. There are two options. The first is that the eggs were already present on the fruit in the supermarket that you brought home. The...	[ "There is a very good answer to this by /u/commiespaceinvader from about a year ago: [Is it true that Hitler, Stalin, Trotsky, Tito, Freud, and Archduke Franz Ferdinand were all living in Vienna in the summer of 1913?](_URL_0_)" ]
Day of Reflection \| October 13, 2014–October 19, 2014	[ "/u/idjet has done great (and patient!) work with his/her [AMA](_URL_0_) on medieval witchcraft, heresy, and the inquisition. He/she deserves our thanks." ]	[ "I had spend 2 hours writing up a long post about 3U+AB and how it would probably be a picture of that plane taken during ZG26's deployment to Greece during April-June 1941, including a cunning deduction from me showing that the plane in the background most probably is SB+GO. It was all very pretty with links to so...
Why is it considered implausible for a piston-powered, propeller-driven aircraft to break the sound barrier, and then how does a prop setup fundamentally differ from a turbine setup?	[ "I'm not sure any aeronautical engineers think it's implausible. I can tell you why it's not been done. It gets really noisy. Basically your prop tips go supersonic and that makes for an extremely loud aircraft. The Russian bomber and the American Thunder screech both use(d) supersonic propellers. The former is app...	[ "> This recent infrared image of the Eagle Nebula shows a bubble of hot, rapidly expanding material directly behind the pillars What they have seen is the beginning stages of a supernova. The initial stages of the supernova itself happen very fast, but the shock-wave needs time to pass through and destroy the Pill...
how weather history is a valid argument for global warming.	[ "It's not 100 years of data, it's far more. A simple example is ice core samples that contain dissolved gasses, etc. that tell us a lot about the climate in the past. _URL_0_ \"An ice core from the right site can be used to reconstruct an uninterrupted and detailed climate record extending over hundreds of thousan...	[ "If you want a slightly biased but accessible and interesting source for a lot of the factors that have played into this phenomenon, you should check out \"before the flood\" documentary by Nat Geo. It came out pretty recently and is really informative, while being pretty engaging. The best part is that rather than...
is autism more prevalant these days or has our awareness & diagnosis increased?	[ "\"Autism\" encompasses a much larger spectrum than it used to. Decades ago, many people with high functioning forms of autism would've just been brushed off as weird or awkward. We now know a lot more about autism and can assign it accurately to more people. At the same time, it is misdiagnosed more often because ...	[ "Very hard to judge because its so subjective a question. 'people from the 1500s', for example, is a wide sample. which class? from which country / area? gender? Perhaps interesting (although undoubtedly difficult) research to undertake would be to try and find signs of depression or other related mental illnesses ...
How does manufacturer pricing work? Can a business charge more than the price on the item packaging?	[ "Unless the store has signed a contract stating otherwise, they are free to sell for whatever price they want to. There may be some jurisdictions in which this doesn't apply, but I'm not aware of them." ]	[ "You get a paycheck from your job. They deduct a piece and pay that as taxes to the government. When taxes are due you get your total taxes owed. If they paid enough/too much (depends on your viewpoint) upfront you get money back. Hooray If they paid too little you have to pay taxes then. BUMMER (my opinion)...
How quickly could Egyptians write considering their alphabet was made of complex shapes and symbols?	[ "they used hieretic or demotic when in a hurry, not hieroglyphics" ]	[ "it's a problem once it's said it's mohammed O /\|\\ / \\ This stick figure is competely safe O /\|\\ < - muhammad / \\ This will get my head chopped off." ]
Will homemade yogurt retain (close to) the same nutrition as the starter yogurt used?	[ "No, the majority of the protein and fat involved will come from the milk you use, not the starter. The sugar content will be derived from how long you ferment the yogurt and how much of the lactose is consumed out of the milk by the bacteria." ]	[ "When programs start up, they copy a \"known good\" version of their code and resources from the hard drive, into the devices's RAM. Then the code in the RAM is executed by the CPU. If the code is misbehaving for god-knows-what reason, stopping the program and forcing it to start over restores that good set of inst...
Why were prehistoric dinosaurs mean and scary looking but animals today are cute and cuddly?	[ "Read [this answer from Quora](_URL_0_). Tl;dr: Most dinosaurs probably didn't look mean and scary. The problem is that we don't have any actual pictures of them, so we have to figure out how they looked from their skeletons, and the way that we do this makes them look as scary as possible. (For instance, you know ...	[ "Humans eat raw meat all the time, ranging from fish to [horse meat](_URL_4_). All food carries some risks that you'll get sick from eating it (\"pathogens\"), and various things can limit those risks, like [proper cleaning and storage of meats](_URL_0_), freezing meats to [kill bacteria](_URL_3_), and only using m...
Did the Norman invasion of England in 1066 change the way Christianity was practised on the island?	[ "To reply to your specific question: The filioque was recognised by the Synod of Hatfield in 680 under Theodore of Tarsus. It is unclear whether the Filioque was in use before that date. Sources: * Carl-Joseph Hefele: Conciliengeschichte, Vol. 3, Freiburg 1877, p. 252. * A. Edward Siecienski: *The Filioque. Hist...	[ "Hi there -- while we've approved this question, we would like to remind potential respondents of our [current events](_URL_0_) (AKA \"20-year\") rule -- it's fine to discuss events through 1997 (inclusive) and their effects, but not events after 1997. Thanks!" ]
Why do so many (especially modern) political dramas in film and television primarily concern plot and characters from or based on the Democratic party? e.g. Wag the Dog, Madam Secretary, House of Cards, Ides of March, West Wing, the Good Wife, State of Affairs, Boss, & others.	[ "In the case of The West Wing, it's because Aaron Sorkin (creator of the show) is liberal, so naturally he was writing story and characters he was sympathetic towards. In the case of Wag the Dog I'm pretty sure that was meant as a satire of then-President Bill Clinton, a Democrat. With House of Cards, frankly...	[ "Copying a post I made on this a few months ago: > Segregation was a major headache for the State Department from post-WW2 until the passage of the Civil Rights Act. They spent a lot of time soothing ruffled feathers of African diplomats - it was quite common for them to be harassed when travelling between Washing...
How does soap actually disinfect germs?	[ "And for the germ-killing (antibacterial) soap... Most germs (bacteria) are built like medieval cities, with the good stuff inside and walls (cell membranes) to protect them. These walls have gates with gatekeepers (ion channels/porins) to let only specific things and people (nutrients and wastes) pass. I...	[ "Its all CYOA. The company making the product can't advertise that it kills 100% bacertia. This is because of human error. If someone uses their product the wrong way, and gets sick, they can sue the manufacturer for false advertising, and in this society, they stupid person would probably win. Same thing with The...
A gun fires a bullet at the exact moment you drop a bullet from the same height. Which bullet hits the ground first?	[ "In a vacuum, both will land at essentially the same time, depending on local topography. The reason is that vertical acceleration and horizontal velocity aren't necessarily linked. Gravity is pulling both objects downward with the same force, regardless of their forward velocity. In an atmosphere you may have air ...	[ "That saying is a myth. The order you consume your drinks in is not what matters, it's the total amount of alcohol consumed. With alcohol, your inhibition goes down, which often leads to drinking more, so if you start with a drink that has a higher alcohol content, your inhibition goes down more quickly and you ten...
Why is there such a huge gap in the accomplishments of human species and the next most intelligent species?	[ "because we are the greatest tool makers in the animal kingdom.. It took millions of years of learning and passing down tool making before we figured out how to farm plants with our tools, once people started sitting around with free time our tools became more complex and our understanding of the world grew. fast ...	[ "You know when iTunes, Facebook or your phone updates and how you know it's the same program as before but things have changed slightly and you are kind of lost. Well that's what it would be like going from animals to humans with the errors being death instead of frustration." ]
Why does the DMV not accept cash or credit cards	[ "Cash is very easily stolen by people and credit cards cost fees to accept (often up to 3% of the purchase price). Businesses accept both because they want to be as convenient as possible for their customers to spend money with. The DMV doesn't care about that - you have to spend money with them regardless so they ...	[ "They want your demographic info (age, sex, income level, etc.) so they can market their products better." ]
What is dizziness?(like spinning on a chair, then stopping)	[ "Your inner hear has circular tubes full of liquid. The liquid in these three tubes move when your head moves so you keep a sense of your spacial location. That's how you know you are falling or hanging upside down. When you are dizzy from spinning on a chair it is because the liquid in your ears is still spinning ...	[ "You could just be bored. I know I sometimes eat just because I don't have anything else to do. If your meal was mostly simple carbs, it's probably your blood sugar coming back down from the post-meal spike." ]
- What makes someone a Libertarian?	[ "Essentially, Libertarianism is an ideology based on the idea that government should play as little a role in all aspects of its people's lives, both socially and economically. It pushes for low taxes and low government spending in favor of privatization, partially on the grounds that free-market competition is a b...	[ "Off the top of my head: * How, where, when, and by whom they were taught to write * How much practice they've had * How often they actually write by hand * What writing instrument, paper, and surface they're using * Their mental state * How carefully and at what speed they're writing * How old they are * Whether o...
How can electrons in Cherenkov Radiation travel faster than the speed of light if "nothing can travel faster than light" ?	[ "Particles which produce Cherenkov radiation do not travel faster than c, they travel faster than c/n in a medium with index of refraction n. There is no rule which says that this isn't possible." ]	[ "No, something being FTL would not be invisible. However, it would only be seen at a location when it arrived, or by a nearby observer after it had passed. At that point, the observer would see two images of the object, the arriving image playing out backwards, and the passing image playing out normally. It would a...
[Orbital mechanics] Does the Earth move forward in its orbit with greater velocity when the moon is ahead, and slower when the moon is behind?...	[ "No. You could say that there is a very small change in velocity of Earth relative to Sun depending on where the Moon is. Earth and the Moon orbit their common centre of mass something like [this](_URL_0_). So when the Moon is directly in the direction of the Sun (that is, new moon), Earth's orbit around the centre...	[ "Imagine pushing a cart sideways, from the middle of the broad side of the cart: the pivoting wheels will not experience much resistance, whereas the fixed wheels will have a large amount of friction. The pivoting wheels will move forward, the fixed wheels will not, and the cart will rotate. Returning to pushing th...
What are the cover charges at bars/clubs suppose to cover for?	[ "Short answer: Because they can if people are willing to pay. Long answer: Clubs have a limited number of people they can let in, usually based on fire codes. They don't want people to show up and just take up space, especially if the club is paying for entertainment. Someone who is going to balk at a $10 cover pro...	[ "So, I don't know if you know this, but Blackstone did just what you are suggesting. After the housing crash of 2009, they went out and bought up homes in different cities. They put them all under the umbrella of a REIT (real estate investment trust) called \"Invitation Homes\" and then spun it out in an IPO a few...
Why do some objects float?	[ "Its all about density. Specifically, whether or not the average density of everything below the water line is more or less dense than water. For example, a solid iron bar will sink because iron is more dense than water, but a metal boat can float because a lot of what is under the water line is just air (because t...	[ "You were making ramen, so I am guessing your water was hot, making it less dense, that blob of oil may have just hit the water without force to break the surface tension, and sink with the help of gravity, and started to rise as the water cooled a bit and the initial impact had worn off." ]
how is that possible on Ubuntu system the video I was playing was deleted permanently but still playable on already opened video player(before I delete it It was opened)?	[ "If I understood you correctly: You had some file (avi mov) and opened it in the program. Then you have deleted the file while the program was opened and the player is still playing the movie, right? On linux system, the unlink function deletes the file from directory entry but not the file itself. It decreases the...	[ "in short, no, the pattern will not change. Observing in this sense doesn't actually mean observing. When people say the electrons are being \"observed,\" they really mean that they are being \"measured.\" By passing them through the slit, you are essentially measuring their position - you know that they are in the...
What is Photon Decay / How does it work?	[ "Imagine a glass with water and sand mixed inside. If you leave it long enough, water will evaporate, leaving only sand. The act of separating is very roughly \"decay\". \"Photon decay\" roughly says that if enough time passes a photon will separate itself into smaller particles. But because it experiences no time ...	[ "I think people come to that interpretation due to Feynman diagrams since, in them, an antiparticle is pictorially represented as a line with an arrow going in the negative direction on the time axis. However, Feynman diagrams are in part just pictures to help one understand processes occurring and don't necessari...
Why isn't glucose C6H12O6 and not CH2O?	[ "You're ignoring the connectivity. Glucose acts like it does because of how the atoms are connected, not just because of how many atoms of which type it has or their ratio CH20 is actually formaldehyde, which has completely different properties to glucose Chemical properties are a function of what the molecule look...	[ "Because water is fairly high density, and is difficult to displace. You need a material with very low density, like cotton candy." ]
question about japans elevator to space	[ "I'm not sure why you think that. Friction opposes motion. The space elevator will be rotating with the earth and atmosphere and won't be pushing air out of the way." ]	[ "For the London Eye, they assembled it horizontally on piers before lifting it into position. [Here's a promo video on it](_URL_1_) The Singapore Flyer was assembled using steel supports, as shown in [this timelapse](_URL_0_)" ]
Why do some stars and objects in space flicker different colours?	[ "As the air in Earth's atmosphere moves, it distorts different wavelengths of light differently, and so sometimes you see different amounts of different wavelengths, causing [twinkling, or scintillation](_URL_0_)." ]	[ "Reading through your comments I realize you have fundamentally misunderstood doppler- and/or cosmological redshifting. To simplify, imagine that the speed of light is 1 m/s. Now if a source is sending out light at a constant frequency of 1 Hz, that is one period per second, what will we observe? Well if the source...
Is it possible that the vikings sailed in more oceans than the Northern Atlantics and the Nordic Sea?	[ "Well they certainly made it to the Mediterranean, the Black Sea and the Caspian. I do know of an example from the Fragmentary Annals of Ireland describing a band of viking raiders from Ireland going somewhere in western Africa, defeating a huge army and making off with loads of African slaves. It's not certain w...	[ "I did some google-fu and found the [ship referenced on this wiki-list](_URL_2_). It pointed to two further sources. [_URL_0_](_URL_0_) which contains some information prior to German service, and the [Miramar Ship Index](_URL_1_) which has further information but requires a subscription. That list and [Wreck Site]...
Every decade in my mind has a distinctive fashion / music style until the 2000s - is this because I grew up in the 90s or did connectivity / the Internet merge styles into one.	[ "It's just too soon. In 2005 we didn't have a good idea of what \"90's fashion\" was (except for maybe early 90's, 1990-1991). Give it another 10 years and there will certainly be a \"2000's\" fashion and music style." ]	[ "This is a question that needs definition. What exactly do you mean by globalization? Is just movement of people, goods, and ideas? Is it important economic connections between all regions of the world? Is it thinking primarily in global rather than local terms? Until you define what you mean, the question is impos...
Why do circuit breakers flip?	[ "Essentially, it's a spring / clamp that trips at a given temperature or magnetic strength. As the amperage increases, the amount of the heat generated by the increase to resistance and/or the increased electromagnetic field causes the clamp to releases to trip the breaker." ]	[ "The business cycle. This is just how capitalism works--it goes from boom to bust and back. Actual hard answers are complicated bits of economics that are beyond an ELI5." ]
If a satellite remains in orbit by the force due to gravity of the Earth, and similiarly the Earth due to the sun, does the satellite not experience any gravitational force from the sun?	[ "Yes, the satellite definitely experiences the gravitational force from the Sun. That is why the satellite traces out a year-long orbit around the Sun just like the Earth." ]	[ "Very careful simulation based on testing data. Engineers have experimentally gathered data about all the different materials used to make the telescope. This data includes failure points given applied loads, vibrational frequencies, etc. They can use this along with a computational model of the sattelite to predic...
Why do we laugh or smile when we are being tickled?	[ "I don't laugh or smile when tickled, I beat the shit outta the person who does it to me." ]	[ "As /u/SwedishBoatlover has said it causes the blood in your body to increase in pH. Everything in your body, including the CO2 that you produce, exists in an equilibrium. Our bodies were designed to have certain ratios of these things in our system and it relies on them to keep everything normal. In the case of yo...
Why does TriCare not follow with the Affordable Health Care Act rule of being under parent's insurance until your 26?	[ "Because TriCare is not health insurance, and the ACA applies only to health insurance plans. From this [page](_URL_0_): > TRICARE is not health insurance; it is a federal health care entitlement program only for eligible uniformed service members, retirees and their families." ]	[ "An example of a site is BoundTree where, once you send in the appropriate paperwork and have been verified, you can buy most everything medical. A great example is ambulance services. A doc sends in their paperwork and the ambulance's authorized user can purchase meds like epinephrine or morphine, or other medical...
why is Times New Roman, size 12, the most commonly used text font?	[ "For a long time, it was the default for Microsoft Word (by far the most common word-processing program), thus becoming the de facto standard." ]	[ "You probably don't remember windows 3.1.. when windows 95 came out shit was forever changed. When win98 came out, everything wrong with win95 was fixed (for the most part). Better question- why was windows 95 so good? Edit: just to wrap this question up in three simple words.. the start menu." ]
Why does my guitar pick up radio stations when it is halfway plugged in?( I get the Jesus channel.)	[ "Yessir. Without the grounding the cable and coils are acting like an antenna. Sometimes the strings even resonate. Active pickups can be even worse." ]	[ "Making some simplifying assumptions (eg friction doesn't exist)... yes, all of them become excited. This is true for 1D strings too, not just for circular membranes. To illustrate, let's model a \"pluck\" of a string as meaning that at t=0, the string at rest but is deformed into a perfect triangle shape. Then we ...
Why aren't we stimulating our pleasure centers with electricity?	[ "An experiment was done in which rats had electrodes connected to the pleasure centers of their brains. When researchers activated the electrode by a lever that the rodent could push, it would press the lever as much as 700 times per ~~minute~~ hour. It would prefer pressing the lever over food and water, eventuall...	[ "So, if you had a robotic tickling arm that you controlled with a joystick, could you tickle yourself?" ]
Biofeedback Coherence / HeartMath. I was given a device to "help" with my anxiety and depression and I am skeptical that it does anything meaningful. How does it work and How does it produce long-term results beyond simple breathing / meditation techniques?	[ "[It is garbage.](_URL_0_) The field of psychiatry is still emerging and there is a huge amount we don't know about how the brain works. However the use of meditation as a calming influence (practicing focus and being calm on demand) is mixed up with spiritual woo (access a higher level of consciousness and channel...	[ "The Big Bang theory actually concerns itself with the evolution of the universe since moments after whatever initially happened. If we try to use the theory to extrapolate from the first moments it can represent to the actual beginning of time, the equations give us a singularity - basically, a divide by zero....
Why do so many people catch lobsters out of the ocean. Isn't it easier and cheaper to raise them in a farm?	[ "As I understand it, lobster larvae take a long time to mature, as well as requiring a lot of food. But a more likely reason is that there was never a need to because of the massive lobster population off the coasts of places like New England. Only in recent years has the lobster population began to rapidly decline...	[ "The media in which the film's where originally captured in has higher quality then the old video tapes or even digital copies could produce. High definition releases of old movies captured on actual film (none of this applies to film captured digitally) do actually capture more detail then older methods could." ]
Are there any known instances of viruses in non-lethal relationships with their host?	[ "Yes actually! The example I know of though is not that simple. In the case of panic grass in Yellowstone Park, there is a fungus that resides in the roots of the grass. If the fungus harbors a particular virus, then the plant will be more heat tolerant than without it. The plant (and fungus) can survive without th...	[ "Sort of how hawaiis volcano is not particularly dangerous as it constantly and very gradually errupts. Good question, i would love a geologist to point out all the unidentified variables etc" ]
How do dogs in movies and TV shows know what to do? How are they trained?	[ "Dogs are, the same way as children, given very easy instructions. You hope to get it done, and reward them for doing the right stuff. It's also about tricking them into thinking the scenario is real. If you want a shot of a class of children all crying for your movie, it's not unusual(to be loved by anyone) for so...	[ "Most of the interior filming is done in Highclere Castle, aka the Abbey, with the exception of some sets which were built in studio. Considering that most shots are done in actual historical places, it's possible that they aren't allowed to film smoking shots indoors due to the preservation of the houses. However,...
why is it that certain companies in the uk are called one thing, but elsewhere called something totally different?	[ "I'm pretty sure each country has its own laws regarding intellectual property and trademarks, there's no international collaboration. So if an American company that trades under the name \"super duper burgers\" wants to expand to the UK and finds that there is already another company trading under that name they ...	[ "The countries in the Universal Postal Union have agreed on common standards. If I pay the proper international postage rate in the United States, then any postal service will deliver to the proper address in their country after receiving the letter from the U.S. Postal Service, regardless of the local postage rate...
What types of persecutions do white men face in the U.S. (specifically)? Why are they defensive when dealing with issues like rape, police brutality, racism and online harassment?	[ "Because most of us know that we were born into all these issues caused by long-dead white men. Sometimes it feels like a direct attack on white people because we are \"white,\" which is a pretty huge category. ELI5: Nobody wants to be criticized for being in a group when they had no choice and nobody wants to be b...	[ "In the country of Rwanda there were different groups of people. One was called the Hutus, and the other was called the Tutsis. The Hutus didn't like the Tutsis because the Tutsis had more money, and always bossed the Hutus around. Then one day the French government which was was in charge of Rwanda tried to allow ...
How can scientists truly claim that distant stars contain trace amounts of elements such as tellurium	[ "Background interference would be minimized in the same way it always is in spectroscopic experiments: by using a blank sample. In this case, they would aim the Hubble at a point next to the star and take a blank reading. Then they would aim at the star and take their experimental reading. By subtracting the blank ...	[ "All the time our cells get damaged and dies. New cells are created in order to replace them. Every time cells copy and duplicate themselves they have to copy and duplicate the DNA, too. The DNA is ordered in sequences called chromosomes. When a chromosome is duplicated, a short sequence of the DNA at its end gets ...
How common were Blacksmiths and what was their primary job?	[ "Blacksmiths made tools such as axes, hammers and the like. They also made nails, screws and other fasteners before machines were invented to make such things. And they made horseshoes, repaired wagons. Basically a blacksmith was a machine shop and vehicle repair shop in the pre-industrial world. Edit: there is a /...	[ "This sounds like a \"polltype question\" which is not appropriate for askhistorians. sorry." ]
What was the "Universe" before the big bang?	[ "This has already been answered numerous times: [_URL_0_](_URL_0_)" ]	[ "Nothing!!! really, there is nothing there. Just the fields - the electromagnetic, gravitational, higgs and probably many that I don't know about and humans have not yet discovered - from which the particles are created and in which they interact." ]
How did non Latin based languages like German, English and Swedish end up using the Latin Alphabet?	[ "Latin was the language of western Christianity. When the Church spread through these regions they took Latin and its alphabet with them. During the Middle Ages, especially the earlier portion, priests and monks served in administrative roles maintaining the majority of written records--both in Latin and otherwise....	[ "Alice wants to send a message to Bob. They are very far away. So, she writes a letter and gives it to Chris, who is a very nosy individual. Chris steams the envelope open, reads the letter, and then reseals it and hands it to Bob. If you are Alice and Bob, you probably don't want Chris to do that. So you develop a...
Are Filipinos Hispanic?	[ "Some of them are, but most are not. The term \"Hispanic\" as it is used in the United States is a little made up, a creation of the Census Bureau. It requires that persons \"trace their origin or descent\" to a Spanish culture; theoretically, they could be from anywhere in the world. Most Filipinos do not identify...	[ "A follow-up question for any historians of South-Asia: Was this colorism ever noted in Vedic/classican Indian sources? How old is this bias?" ]
The American Healthcare system.	[ "All I can say is that there are Americans, such as myself, who are incredibly embarrassed by it." ]	[ "I wouldn't base your opinion on the TTiP from what you're told on Reddit. These kinds of agreements are very complex and to understand exactly what they mean is no easy task. People like to take sections of these document out of context and write off all of the benefits. I'm no expert. But neither are the people ...
In the middle ages how did they picture what was ancient Rome	[ "Hi. While questions are always welcome, I think you should see one of our older threads: * [How were Roman ruins perceived in the medieval period, if at all?](_URL_0_)" ]	[ "There isn't much good material on the Carthaginians which makes writing about them a challenge. The only sources we have for them are Roman and Sicilian, and they both hated Carthage. A book you might be interested is Carthage Must Be Destroyed by Richard Miles. He discusses the political factions of Carthage." ...
Why is that when you blow a balloon too hard, little air pockets appear inside your mouth just below your ears?	[ "There is a tube between your inner ear and your mouth to help equalise pressure between the two. They are called the [Eustachian Tubes](_URL_0_). If you blow too hard and have too much pressure in your mouth, the tubes will relieve some of that pressure to come out of your ears. I believe this is what you're looki...	[ "There's no hole being made. Think of it as the same thing as a swimmer in a pool of water. The closest thing you can do to \"making a hole\" in the water is, like, belly-flopping into the water...but the cavity made by the body entering the fluid only exists for a tiny amount of time. To even call it a \"temporary...
How do predators eat poisonous spiders and not die? I saw on the TV a big spider eating a poisonous black widow, isn't that suicide?	[ "To be specific, these spiders are venomous which means the toxin is intended to be injected into the tissues of the unlucky victim. In some cases, venom does not achieve the same impact if ingested. They may be diluted in the stomach, less able to penetrate to the tissues where they can do harm, and the hostile...	[ "Fly physiology is so completely different than our own that any comparisons outside of genetics or general cell biology are pretty difficult to make. The fact of the matter is that flies have all sorts of their own pathogens. Because their physiology is vastly different, the pathogens on flies rarely affect humans...
Modern humans have existed for about 200,000 years. If you could go back in time and bring back an infant would it be able to grow up and thrive like a baby from this day and age?	[ "By all measures, a large part of our \"modern\" culturo-cognitive faculties existed 200kya, while the systems that gave rise to them did not. Taking out disease and immunities from the equation, a newborn from day 1 raised as \"normally\" as possible and being acculturated no differently than any other child (rela...	[ "_URL_0_ Babies look too similar to (grown up) people, but not exactly like them and it makes them gross for some people." ]
Why isn’t possible for all cars to move in unison when a red light turns green instead of seeing a green light and having to wait a few seconds before you can move?	[ "It's to do with the spaces between the cars. At the lights there's only a small gap, and if all the cars started together then the gap wouldn't grow and if someone hits the breaks there would be an accident. By waiting a second for the car in front to move, you create a safe gap between your car and the car in fro...	[ "Each builder is going to do what they want. Google pictures of Beijing some time, they have entire large blocks of buildings the same style and height. They also are far more regulated about how they build. I imagine in a more free market economy, each builder wants their building to be \"their building\" and not ...
What effect would a tennis ball sized ball of matter have on the earth if it was fired at such a velocity from orbit that it passed through the earth at one side and out the other?	[ "There is no such velocity. Projectiles at high speed will only penetrate about a tennis ball's diameters length into the ground. Here's a good picture: _URL_0_ Basically, if the densities are comparable, then you don't get much penetration." ]	[ "The problem is that the waste heat will always outweigh the temperature decrease from the ice. Its the same reason a refrigerator with the door open won't cool your apartment. The net effect would be to convert solar energy to heat. A more viable way to redirect solar energy is to put reflective particles such as ...
(For DIY) Why is it more common to paint (house) wall with paint rollers but use spray can for cars?	[ "If you google \"rustoleum roller paint job\" or the like, you'll find plenty of people who have rolled a paint job on their car for ~$50. With the right kind of paint, some thinner, time, and patience, it can totally be done. The hardest parts would be getting in all the tight spaces a sprayer would do better, and...	[ "A \"regular\" download is one person (you) downloading from one location (the server). This allows for a secure connection but is limited by the server's upload speed. A torrent is one person (you) downloading from many locations (everyone else who is \"seeding\" the torrent). This is called a peer-to-peer networ...
Why are the mirrors on the newer telescopes shaped like hexagons?	[ "Disclaimer: amateur astronomer. I have a clue, but no guarantee that I'm right! In the past, large telescopes like the 200\" at Mt. Palomar would be just one large circular mirror. When you try to scale up much beyond that, you get problems like the mirror sagging under its own weight, ruining the image. The moder...	[ "SpaceX has two types of rockets in that aspect: The regular cargo version with a payload and the Dragon version - Dragon is the capsule that flies to the ISS (cargo, soon crew as well). I guess you mean the cargo version with its wider payload fairing. The diameter of the main rocket was chosen to keep them small ...
(X-Post from r/AskReddit) Any internet historians out there? What was the early internet like? What did you do on it? How would you describe the "internet culture," if there was one?	[ "A mod clarification as this question is rubbing right on the edge of our 20-year rule: feel free to talk about what the Internet was like prior to 1993 (yes, there was an Internet prior to then!)" ]	[ "Is there a specific region and time period you are interested in? If not, your question would break our \"poll type\" question rule." ]
How is it that a single boil on a body causes feverish symptoms but acne all over the face/body does not have that cumulative effect if they are both infections?	[ "Acne is typically caused by clogged pores, not necessarily infections, although some infections might contribute. That being said, acne/boils are symptoms of a problem and not themselves the 'cause' of the problem, so the \"number of skin disruptions\" is not necessarily indicative of how dangerous the underlying ...	[ "There aren't any answers on here that are correct. Bruce Schneier has a good write up on it at _URL_0_. While it focuses on terrorism, terrorism is just one specific crime. The principle is the same for all crimes. The short of it is \"base rate fallacy\". Since any algorithm for detecting crime is not 100%, there...
Why do we hate weak or limp handshakes?	[ "To me, if there is a weak grip and lack of eye contact it conveys a lack of engagement in the meeting. Feels like they are subconsciously saying \"meh\" about meeting me. When it is the opposite, the way it should be...firm grip, good eye contact it conveys confidence and mental engagement in the current situation...	[ "\"Just about everyone here\" Where is \"here\" for you? It sounds like your question's premise is based on a small sample set based on personal observation. Before your question is addressed, you should be making sure the premise is valid..." ]
Why did we really choose to put year Zero where it is currently set?	[ "There's no year zero... the dates go directly from 1 BC to 1 AD. And, the current system of dating years from the date of the birth of Jesus Christ was created by a religious scholar in Rome in the 6th century AD." ]	[ "A common old expression in business is \"one throat to choke\". It means that when things go wrong, you want one individual, not two or some group or committee, that you can point at as accountable to fix it or accept accountability and any recompense for the problem. It's a lot easier to do it with an individual ...
Why can't I brew a cold tea?	[ "That simply is not true. Put your teabags in water. Set on counter. Come back tomorrow and pour a glass of tea. Add ice and lemon and / or sugar to taste. Enjoy. You will not extract as much tannins this way so it will be smoother than tea made with boiling water." ]	[ "very simple, Air is a horrible transfer medium for energy, Water is a good tranfter medium for energy. It takes longer for the energy in the air to flow to the ice cube then the energy in the water to flow in the ice cube, When when there is steam in the air, its still maybe 50% humidity compared to 100% humidity...
Reasonably Accurate Prehistoric Fiction?	[ "You might like Sarum: The Novel of England by Edward Rutherford. It's set in a single location and spans prehistory through the 20th century." ]	[ "Just a heads up: archaeologists study people, not dinosaurs. You want a palaeontologist. You might want to change the flair on your post." ]
Does the co-pilot have any control over the plane?	[ "He has as much physical control as the pilot does. There are two sets of controls, one in the left seat (pilot), one in the right seat (co-pilot). Authority wise, he is not the commander of the aircraft, either legally or in corporate structure, but he can certainly physically control the airplane from his seat." ...	[ "I know Air travel and contrail contribution to cloud clover definitely changes surface temperature in cities. In the 3 day stand down of (almost) all air traffic in the days following the 9/11 attacks, there were measurable decreases in surface temperature . I can only assume the effect would contribute in other m...
Why does the moon sometimes appear sideways?	[ "It's a lot easier to grasp when you think about the Sun's location relative to the moon when you're looking at it. The bright part of the moon is always facing the sun." ]	[ "Imagine they take away your chair in kindergarten class. They make you stand there all day and never sit down. Imagine how tired you would be after all day. Not what if you forgot to go home from school and stayed there all night too!!! Well, the muscles holding up your perky little face and eye lids gets tired t...
During colonial times, why did the British Empire more or less ignore South America and instead focused on North America and the Caribbean?	[ "hi! hopefully someone will drop by with an in-depth explanation re the British, but you can get started on a brief summary here * [Why did England focus its colonising efforts on North America (When the Spanish and Portuguese focused on South America)?](_URL_0_) and this post may be of interest if you want more on...	[ "The US has one of the largest populations in the world. The US is #3 behind China and India. The US is also one of the richest countries in the world. We've got twice the population of Russia or Japan and nearly 4x the population of Germany, the other large wealthy (ish) countries. A large, rich population with lo...
Why is it better for you to eat 3 separate meals instead of snacking all day?	[ "It's not really. Bruce Lee ate 5 smaller meals a day. Our ancestors would graze lightly and then have a larger communal meal around the hearth at night. Hobbits eat around 6 meals a day, not including snacks. Three meals a day really just fits into our busy lives. It became the norm as we become more industrial ...	[ "How big are the files you are talking about? You may have noticed that transfer speed always ramps up slowly. Therefore it will always be faster to transfer one 10gb file than a hundred 100mb files. This is because the file system needs to open a data stream of the file, read the data, write the data, close the ...
How is Bernie Sanders' free tuition plan a success when all of the affected citizens are currently below the voting age?	[ "Parents of children and teenagers also like the idea of not needing to pay tuition for their kids, or of their kids not being crushed under ridiculous student debt." ]	[ "They don't. It's a marketing ~~lie~~ gimmick. I used to work for a company that did a similar thing by mail. New customers were supposed to sign up by a certain time for special rates but as a specific matter of policy we'd give those rates to anyone who mailed back the special offer." ]
So you know how some animals can “smell fear”? Well, I was wondering, do humans actually emit a scent when they’re afraid, that other animals can smell?	[ "We know that pheromones are used by other species to influence certain social behaviors. For example some wasps emit pheromones when under attack to signal other bees from their colony to come help. Humans have pheromones too. Their effects on human behaviors are not fully understood, but it is conceivable that ot...	[ "Mosquitos are attracted to us by the heat and sweat we produce, typically it is only the females that are attracted to us. This is because she needs our blood to feed her offspring, thus the only way to make us not attractive to the female population of mosquitos is to mask this. The repellent is known as DEET (no...
What is the total population of all life on our planet?	[ "Do you count bacterias? The rest of the animals are just a rounding error for the bacteria population." ]	[ "I think you'll wait a long time for a sensible answer to this one. I don't think anyone knows." ]
Varying answers about credible, non-Biblical sources that verify Jesus Christ's existence.	[ "There's a lovely section in [the FAQ](_URL_0_) that has some answers." ]	[ "I know journals give a good representative of the top historians in WWII history, ANE history and Ancient Roman. This should be the case for other fields of history. For someone to publish several works in a peer-reviewed journal, they have to be serious and very prolific in their fields. Journals are a good place...
How were the farmers who owned the land that became battlefields on the Western Front compensated?	[ "As a follow up question, how are the farmers/owners of that land compensated today? Battlefields of WW1 are still claiming victims and damaging property with exploding ordinances. Wouldn't this not be covered under insurance as acts of war are pretty much never covered? Or is there a special fund or type of insur...	[ "In [Plague, Fear, and Politics in San Francisco's Chinatown](_URL_0_), Risse provides the following in reference to practices and attitudes in China at the time: > Most villagers, however still practiced the instillation of a powder made from dried smallpox scabs. Instead of conferring immunity, this strategy o...
How come you can say "take me to church" or "take me to school", but it's "take me to THE store, THE zoo, THE mall"?	[ "There are two things going on here. Typically, people only have one home, one church, and one school, so these words can be without articles. Other words require them. When a word requires an article, \"the\" can be understood to refer to a default choice understood by both the speaker and the listener. \"Let's go...	[ "If you ask for 1 pen, it costs you two dollars. If you ask for 100 000 pens, they will only cost you one dollar each. I prefer selling you 100 000 pens at half price, than selling you 1 at full price and have 99 999 sitting around doing nothing. In a similar way, if you ask for a small amount of money, you pay a b...
If you hurt yourself why does shaking that part of your body relieve the pain?	[ "This phenomenon is called the \"Pain Gate Theory\". When you injure yourself, pain signals travel from the site of injury to your brain. When you do something else to that part of the body, for example rubbing it with your hand, this also sends signals to your brain. However, because both signals are coming fr...	[ "Your evolutionary ancestor is calling for help, frightening the enemy, and moving you a bit away from the danger while your brain can catch up and decide what to do next." ]
What is happening with the US gov't shutdown, part deux	[ "Are DoD Employees working again? Yes, and No. A large portion of DoD has returned to work, based on the legal interpretation of POMA [(Pay our Military Act)](_URL_51_) by the Secretary of Defense. In short, civilians that are considered to be \"helping/supporting the military\" were told to report back to work...	[ "We ask that answers in this subreddit be [in-depth and comprehensive](_URL_2_), and highly suggest that comments include citations for the information. In the future, please take the time to better familiarize yourself with [the rules](_URL_1_) and our [Rules Roundtable](_URL_0_) on Speculation." ]
Why are there so few engineers and scientists in politics?	[ "for the most part, the work i do is a whole hell of a lot more interesting." ]	[ "I'm not normally one to naysay a request for knowledge, but this is not exactly a topic that can be explained like you were five. It requires a fairly extensive level of prior knowledge and understanding just to pose that question, and any answer posted is likely to be incomplete, wrong, or misleading. Sorry, but ...
Guide dogs for the blind, how do they know where to take someone?	[ "They don't know, unless they have been specifically trained for a certain location. Guide dogs work on a veto system; the blind person walks wherever they want and the dog will stop them if it is dangerous. The dog for example wouldn't particularly want to cross the street but the owner would, and when they came t...	[ "They pretty much don't. However website owners have the option to tell Google \"hey, I have a site here, check it out!\" When pages don't link to each other, website owners have the option to host a special file, named sitemap, that does list all content that should be searched for." ]

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