Subset (10)

eli5 · 25k rows

Split (1)

train · 25k rows

query stringlengths 20 300	positive listlengths 1 1	negative listlengths 1 1
Why do our body temperatures increase while we sleep?	[ "Your body temperature should [decrease](_URL_0_) when you sleep. Having a blanket or something else on you, however, will keep enough heat around to keep you warm overnight." ]	[ "More blood is flowing to your face, blood is warm." ]
Why do we have sinuses?	[ "[Here is a list](_URL_0_) of proposed biological functions of sinuses." ]	[ "Keep sweat from getting in our eyes under physical exertion. Asked that same question once when I was a kid." ]
Would extreme time dilation make it possible to travel to a distant galaxy in one human lifetime (from the traveler's perspective), assuming you were going fast enough?	[ "Yes, you can go what a appears (in the earth's frame of refence) to be an arbitrarily long distance in what feels like (in your frame of reference) an arbitrarily short amount of time. However, from the perspective of the earth, the trip will still take you (distance)*(speed of light) + a little bit of time. And i...	[ "How about how to fit a 2 km train on a circular 1 km track? It's impossible normally, but if the train is moving at 87% the speed of light it works fine. The game [Velocity Raptor](_URL_0_) involves several puzzles that require moving at relativistic speeds. For example, you unlock a door by making several blocks ...
The Earth's magnetic field periodically reverses polarity. How does this happen and what are the effects felt on Earth?	[ "The effects are relatively unknown. We know a good number of species rely on magnetism to navigate, so there might be a critical moment that could lead to a kill off event where magnetically dependent species just get lost and die. Or they will just notice everything's been flipped. It's hard to test, I've seen ex...	[ "There are small, stone like structures in your inner ear which help you balance and know which way is up. These stones (otoliths) can get dislodged at times leading to something called BPPV (benign paroxysmal positional vertigo). Dix Hallpike maneuver diagnoses this and the Epley maneuver treats it. There are you...
Why is gambling illegal in most of the world?	[ "Most places in the world, even the US, still have laws based on subjective morality. For many, gambling is a moral wrong. There's also the fact that gambling invites organized crime and statistically preys on poor people." ]	[ "Costs money to build and maintain the facilities, some countries don't feel like taking on the burden of that cost." ]
[Physics]Does beta decay violate the law of conservation of mass and/or energy?	[ "No, it does not. The masses of the proton and neutron are not exactly 1 amu each. The proton mass is 1.007276466879(91) u and the neutron mass is 1.00866491588(49) u. Note that these are not the same. The neutron mass is slightly higher than the proton mass, which is why free neutrons can beta decay into protons...	[ "The equation you mention doesn't even have a term for speed in it! The full, relevant equation is E = mc^2 /(1 - (v/c)^2 )^1/2 . Solve for v: v = c \\* ( 1 - (mc^2 /E)^2 )^1/2 Now try plugging infinite energy into that. (edit: it's probably important to also mention that E^2 = (mc^2 )^2 + (pc)^2 , so E is always...
When I look up into the sky at night, how much of that is from the Milky Way vs. from other galaxies?	[ "All the stars you see are in our galaxy. Some [other galaxies are visible to the naked eye](_URL_0_), but only in very good seeing conditions because they are dim and diffuse. If you're in the northern hemisphere for example, you can see [the Andromeda galaxy](_URL_1_), in the eponymous constellation, but it's kin...	[ "It's a quirk of the human eye. At the center of the eye (the fovea) we mostly have colour-sensitive cone cells to see detail and colour of what we're focusing on. Around the fovea we mostly have rod cells that can't see colour but are more sensitive to variations in light intensity and movement. Looking slightly ...
Why do all websites use "WWW" in the beginning, and are there any other prefixes besides that? Also, if not... then why bother even having it?	[ "The internet predates websites. Back in the day, there were several types of non-web internet sites you could go to, and they often used different prefices: * ftp - upload and download files * telnet - miscellaneous text based interface * gopher - text based hyperlinked site So if it was 1993, and you were at Stat...	[ "I have a chackboard with 100 words written on it. You ask me to delete every word that starts with A which there are 6 words. They're written randomly on the chalk board. I need to search for the words, and then neatly delete the words without deleting anything nearby. But you instead asked me to delete everythin...
Which stage of human development was the first to use drugs?	[ "This is a difficult question to answer, because we have little evidence we can turn to about prehistoric recreational use of naturally occurring substances. Even before the fermentation of alcohol, there is no doubt that ancient man would have stumbled along a mushroom or a poppy, or something else, that would hav...	[ "Hi OP, this is a cultural question, so it would greatly assist anyone considering answering if you could specify which culture you're asking about. For example, the name of a cultural group / country / geographic region, plus a rough time period. Otherwise, this question is simply too broad, as it encompasses almo...
I often see heavy machinery precariously placed on piles of dirt at construction sites .. who's job is it to make it safe? Do accidents happen frequently?	[ "Engineer here. The person running the project gives guidance to the people using the machines (site superintendent). About 90% of the time everything is safe if the machine operators listen to the guy in charge. It is his responsibility for a safe work site, so if something were to happen, the blame falls on him....	[ "That mosque is not in Timbuktu. It is the [Great Mosque of Djenne](_URL_0_), in the city of Djenne which is about 500 km south-west of Timbuktu in Mali. Anyhow, those are wooden timbers called toron. They are used to [support scaffolding]( _URL_2_) when adobe is reapplied to the exterior of the mosque, or when r...
What did Ancient Egyptians do in their free time?	[ "There were a variety of past times available in ancient Egypt. Religious performances were popular, so was attending of musical concerts consisting of flutes, harps, and drums. Many people also played their own instruments. Fishing and hunting was also a popular past time. Indoor activities included board games s...	[ "We invent new sports all the time. My favourite is [Ultimate Taser Ball!](_URL_0_) Edit: [Video of people playing Ultimate Taser Ball](_URL_1_) and also the [Official Website](_URL_2_) of UTB." ]
How can a phone send data back to a cell tower antenna if it is miles away?	[ "I think that the cell tower has a big antenna to send, and a big one for receiving. Like a cinema screen and a telescope Edit: Your phone is like a guy away that observes and does hand gestures, the cell tower does the rest" ]	[ "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." ]
According to wikipedia "Current generations of nuclear submarines never need to be refueled throughout their 25-year lifespans"	[ "Naval nuclear reactors use uranium that is enriched to much greater levels than what civilian commercial reactors or research reactors use. U235 levels typically vary between 20% and +95% (weapons-grade, for some subs). This greatly increases energy density of the fuel rods and allows a full lifetime without refue...	[ "I myself work in the mining industry in australia. Recently was at a site near coober pedy in the middle of nowhere. Maintenance is a big part of it. The road trains we had are tri-drive kenworth 908s or something but would do 6 trips a day so close to 600kms a day from site to rail siding and back a few times but...
How did Alan Turing break the Enigma? How does The Bombe work?	[ "Brute force computational power. Now he knew how to build a computer that could run the jumbled enigma message through a decryption but simply the amount of variations available to the enigma machine were too high (14 billion or something iirc) for the computer he could build to get a result in a reasonable amount...	[ "\"The only way to beat Roulette is to steal the money when the dealer's not looking.\" - Albert Einstein this goes for any casino game. they would not invent a game where the house will not have an edge." ]
How come we humans can recognize a face from caricature drawings?	[ "As you could imagine, recognizing faces is a really important part of being a human. It's so important that we have a whole area of the brain dedicated to recognizing faces. It's called the fusiform face area and it's located on the ventral portion of the frontal cortex. To add to this, it's generally better to re...	[ "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." ]
Would a bullet eventually completely degrade if it were shot in space?	[ "Yes. It would degrade all the same though if it were just placed in space rather than shot. What will eventually degrade it is the constant bombardment with high energy particles that are abundant near stars but will be found in any place with differing frequency. Edit for clarification: The process might take bil...	[ "Depends on the material and temperature. Sometimes the surface forms a reconstruction, as dreykevins explains. Other times the surface forms an oxide or some other surface layer, which can prevent recombination. Other times the pieces actually CAN be put back together, and this process is called \"cold welding\". ...
What is the space within an atom composed of?	[ "It is empty space. Hard to imagine emptiness since air is made of atoms. The empty space also has particles coming in and out of existence. That is a separate topic." ]	[ "basically you have a goo kinda like gum and it makes little voids that create a vaccuum when they're pulled apart, resisting being pulled apart. its just mini- vacuum balls that get stronger as you pull (until they pop)" ]
How can a single speaker make multiple tones at the same time?	[ "One of the coolest properties of waves are that they are linear, meaning you can add them together to get a new wave. That new wave obays the wave equation just like the two original ones. So check this out here is a plot of sin(x) and of sin(2x) and of their sum. _URL_0_ Notice that two of those plots just look l...	[ "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 ...
How to calculate neutron decay?	[ "The difference in mass between a proton and a neutron is about 2.5 electron masses. When a neutron decays into a proton, an electron, and a neutrino, the total kinetic energy of the three is roughly 1.5 times the rest mass energy of an electron. If the bulk of the kinetic energy is carried away by the electron, it...	[ "You just have to memorize the chart. There's no trick to it. You should get used to this if you will eventually have to take Organic Chemistry. Here's a [picture](_URL_0_) of the chart to help you out. All you really need to do is figure out how many chemical bonds you have, and how many lone pairs you have, and t...
Banach–Tarski Paradox	[ "The idea here is that you can take a mathematical ball, cut it up into small number pieces, and put those pieces back together to make two balls of the same size. First of all, I would like to point out that this is only a paradox of intuition: mathematics actually is weird like this, but this doesn't make math ...	[ "He could cut you a long thin (as opposed to wide) slice, put a half twist in it, and attach the two ends. You would then have a turkey [möbius strip](_URL_0_) which only has one side and one edge." ]
What were the international relations of the Confederate States of America like? What were their plans for the future had they won?	[ "This has been touched on in previous threads here, but only briefly, with one noting [a near-serious breach between the Union and the United Kingdom over the \"Trent Affair\"](_URL_0_), and another the [absence of European opportunism](_URL_1_) during the conflict. There are many Civil War experts here, though, s...	[ "This question is getting a lot of traffic after being [tweeted by @reddit](_URL_5_), so I thought I'd welcome those of you that haven't visited /r/AskHistorians before to the subreddit. Please do bear in mind that in order to keep the quality of answers here high we have [strict rules on comments](/r/AskHistorians...
Why doesn't Winston Churchill seem to be judged as critically by history as other WWII leaders?	[ "I think most people who take an active interest in history and most academics in history do see Churchill as a more morally ambiguous character. It's just the mass media in the UK which chooses to idolise him, much as the mass media in the US idolises George Washington and the Indian media idolises Ghandhi. They'r...	[ "If you're interested in how the Confederate government tried creating a positive image of itself in Great Britain as well as a negative image of the north, check out The Index. Henry Hotze was a Confederate agent in London and he created a newspaper dedicated to promoting the Confederacy and influencing public o...
Question about light/shadows	[ "Shadows like that are made using light bulbs of several colors. Since the light bulbs are separated by a certain distance the shadow cast by each bulb will be in slightly different locations. This allows light from the other two bulbs to illuminate the shadow left by the third bulb." ]	[ "Can you better define \"real time?\" Everything you see is in the past, even the computer screen you are reading on. If the flat earth were the length of the circumference at the equator it would take the light 0.13 seconds to make the journey whereas the computer screen will take somewhere around 0.0000000017 sec...
Why is Marilyn Monroe considered a role model?	[ "She was beautiful and famous. A lot of people want to be beautiful and famous. They are envious of people who are beautiful and famous. They wish they could be someone like Marilyn Monroe, who was beautiful and famous." ]	[ "My guess? When you're dealing with a lot of makeup, prosthesis, special effects its easier to hide flaws. You can see acne under makeup in high def, you couldn't really see that back in the day. Just a guess." ]
What happens to oustanding debt if you die and don't have any family members left?	[ "Any debt you have is handled by your estate, whether you have family members or not. So all the debts are paid before anyone inherits anything. If your debts exceed your estate's assets, then the creditors take a loss. Debt isn't inherited." ]	[ "A few ways. First thing to know is Company's only pay tax on profits, not revenue. 1. Setup headquarters in low taxing country and shift profits there. One of the big mining company's in Australia sells it's own coal to a Singapore based company they own. In Australia then pay tax on the heavily discounted rate th...
How can an application or program get constant updates and still be the same size?	[ "a program is like a piece of cloth occasionally a hole is found so you put a patch on it but the cloth remains the same size when you want to make a cloth a blanket then you make it bigger this is called bloat" ]	[ "Up until recently, Android devices didn't employ [TRIM] (_URL_0_), reducing performance over time as \"fresh\" blocks in the flash drive became rarer and rarer. That's one specific example of an effect that could reduce performance over time. The other posters are correct in that 95% of the time, it's because the ...
Not sure how answerable this is, but do animals, especially house pets, become accustomed to smells like humans, and stop noticing them? Any tests done on this?	[ "Yes. Every animal that is capable of olfaction experiences olfactory habituation (habituation = a decrease in sensitivity to a stimulus over repeated or sustained presentation of that stimulus). [Even](_URL_1_) [flies](_URL_0_)." ]	[ "How do you know a year has passed without looking at a calendar? I imagine they sense the temperature/climate changes like anything else." ]
How did gamblers in the 1800s determine the ordering of the poker hands? Was probability theory sufficiently well understood at the time that they were able to correctly compute the likelihood of being dealt each hand? Was there any debate about which hands should beat which?	[ "Not an answer to your question, but I've always found it fascinating that the rules of blackjack work out to an ideal edge for the house with perfect player strategy, even though the rules were created long before the technology and existed to correctly prove the correct strategy or to prove the house edge. I'd lo...	[ "A can beat B in arm wrestling. B can beat C in arm wrestling. So we can deduce that A can beat C in arm wrestling. A has bigger arms than B, so A beats B in arm wrestling. B has bigger arms than C, so B beats C in arm wrestling. A (by deduction) has bigger arms than C, so A beats C in arm wrestling. So by inductio...
Why do soda (carbonated drinks) make spicy food taste even more spicy?	[ "The ingredient that makes food spicy doesn't mix with water, so rather than mixing with the spice and carrying it away it simply spreads it around your mouth causing more pain. Fatty substances do mix with spices which is why milk is generally considered the best thing to drink with spicy food*. If you've ever see...	[ "The sound of your speech normally resonates through your sinuses and out your nose in addition to your mouth. Shen you pinch it closed it doesn't anymore; and actually echoes back through your sinuses and out your other. Same reason your voice changes when you have a cold and are \"stuffed up\"." ]
What is DirectX And Why do we need it	[ "DirectX does have a competitor, called OpenGL. It's used on the PS3, as well as OSX, Linux, and Windows. It has it's pros and cons vs. DirectX. (Most notably, DirectX only works on Windows and Xbox.) Some examples of OpenGL games include Quake, Angry Birds, Amnesia, Minecraft, Unreal Tournament, KOTOR, and the Mac...	[ "The way x264 compresses video is more efficient. ie, you have less data loss for every mb you shave off" ]
What does it mean for mercury to be in retrograde?	[ "If you mean Mercury as in the planet, then that means that apparent to Earth, it looks like Mercury is going backwards in its orbit. isn't actually, but because we \"pass\" them Mercury appears to stop and then begin traveling backward." ]	[ "Long science words: gastroesophageal sphincter. Like you're five: the bottom of your esophagus closes up like a butthole to stop food from coming back up your throat." ]
After alcohol prohibition was repealed, how did society view prohibition crusaders and prosecutors, as well as those who they prosecuted and punished?	[ "[This article](_URL_0_) was posted somewhere on Reddit a while ago. It details the life of one of the main Prohibition supporters before, during, and after Prohibition. By the time Prohibition ended he was generally disliked and he ended up dying in obscurity." ]	[ "greetings all. Just a moderator reminder to potential respondents of what subreddit we're in here: it's /r/AskHistorians, so do review and comply with [the subreddit rules](_URL_11_). In a nutshell: > Answers in this subreddit are expected to be of a level that historians would provide: **comprehensive and inform...
How come when walking up the stairs my feet know how many steps there are, but I couldn't say how many stairs there were if asked?	[ "/u/mattlaten has a good explanation of doing a repeated action may times that builds up a motor memory. However I think you are after something a bit different. If you were to say, close your eyes, or turn off the lights, I bet you'd have a much harder time navigating the stairs correctly. Basically what is going ...	[ "There are two strips of brain cells that run from ear to ear across the top of your head (The sensory-motor cortex). One strip is used to control all your movement in your body the other registers sensation all over your body. We can actually map out a person's body on these strips. When a person loses a limb, the...
After Tito´s death, when the disentegration of Yugoslavia started, which countries showed natiolism and which patriotism?	[ "I'm curious how you differentiate the two. They are basically synonymous. The main difference is that \"patriotism\" has a generally positive connotation, while \"nationalism\" has a negative, or at least excessive, connotation." ]	[ "Hi, I've approved the post, but just a note to you and potential respondents: this subreddit has a 20-year rule against discussing current events, so any answers will have to cut off at 1997. If you're looking for answers that can include 1998-2012, do consider x-posting elsewhere, eg. a foreign affairs sub like /...
What problems, in theory, would a computer never be able to solve?	[ "Such problems are called [undecidable problems](_URL_0_), and perhaps the most famous example is the one [fishify linked](_URL_2_), [the halting problem](_URL_4_). Wikipedia has a [List of Undecidable Problems](_URL_1_) article that has some examples (as well as a brief explanation). There are also some example...	[ "Mathematicians copyright the papers they publish — but their equations merely describe facts about the natural world, which is, as a category, not copyrightable. Phone books can't be copyrighted, for instance. They can copyright a particular phrasing of a theorem, but any theorem is just like a recipe." ]
Friday Free-for-All \| Nov. 23, 2012	[ "Even though at Thanksgiving dinner with the family I said that I was thankful for everyone being together and healthy, I was only telling part of the story. In my mind I was celebrating that, merely hours before, my dissertation prospectus was accepted by my advisor and department." ]	[ "Related question: Jack Daniel's makes a similar claim yet the only source cited seems to be a collectible bottle of whisky they sold, is this whole 1904 World's Fair liquor competition an urban legend?" ]
Does elevation effect the time the sun rises and sets?	[ "Yes. Usually the effect is negligible because elevation typically doesn't change too radically over short distances, but mountain tops and skyscrapers can get several more minutes of direct sunlight per day than the surrounding area. If you lived in Dubai, you could watch the sun set, then ride the elevator to the...	[ "News and scheduled programs have different airing times for the different time zones. Live programs (sports, or a presidential debate or something) are scheduled so as to attempt to be convenient for everyone. This often ends up being rather late on the east coast, and inconveniently early on the west coast. I don...
What happens after you accidentally carry a bee to a new place in your car... Does it find a new new hive to join or continue independently or just die?	[ "It really depends on how far you drive on whether they make it back or not, but I'm assuming they starve and die looking for their hive, just like how a hummingbird runs out of energy quickly without sugar when it gets trapped in a building. I found [this](_URL_0_) if it helps." ]	[ "Lots of airlines use the hub and spoke model. Rather than have a flight from every city to every other city, they have flights from the small cities to a few big cities, called \"hubs\". You then fly from the hub to your destination city, or perhaps to another hub, from which you fly to your destination. So let's ...
Why don't mosquitoes spread HIV?	[ "So do things like Malaria and Yellow Fever need significantly less virions to start the virus in someone or how do they spread while HIV does not?" ]	[ "Some do, like the [Maasai](_URL_1_) who have a method of drawing blood from a cow without killing it There are also dishes made from blood, like [Black Pudding](_URL_0_)" ]
How homeschooling works	[ "I homeschooled my children for several years. In my area the government required an annual certified test to be administered by me and send back to the company to be scored. Then I was to keep these results on file. There was also an attendance record that had to be kept and a minimum days of attendance, (190 days...	[ "I could try to explain it to you, but this video is all you really need: _URL_9_" ]
Why do rappers always seem to have a mentor/producer who they owe their careers to and rock groups don't?	[ "Most rappers dont make their own beats - the actual music, melodies. They write lyrics and rap." ]	[ "That's just it. It takes a while to amass information and use it. An animal just does whatever comes natural, aka 'instinct'. But humans are taught and trained and learn and practice and... and... Layers and layers of information and training to get us to the point where we can actually achieve more than the previ...
What specifically allows some people to hold their breath longer than others?	[ "The thing that makes you breathe again (after holding your breath) is CO2 buildup rather than lack of oxygen. Respiration, in addition to supplying your cells with oxygen, also removes CO2. There's plenty of oxygen in your blood, the problem is when CO2 starts to build up in your cells your body starts sending out...	[ "When light moves from one medium to another, it refracts (distorts). The eye evolved underwater, so it evolved to have fluid inside it so light would move from the water into the eye without refraction. Your eyes have adapted to compensate for the refraction that happens when light goes from the air to the fluid i...
Is terrorism really on the rise, or does the increasing accessibility of news just make us more aware of it?	[ "History would say we are currently in the safest era of living. 24/7 media would have you believe otherwise. Add into the fact that coverage is higher when it happens in 1st world countries too, and it may seem like the world is ending at times. It isn't." ]	[ "hi everyone! just a reminder to respondents to be mindful of this sub's [\"20-year rule\": no discussion of events/conditions post-1994 please](_URL_0_)! thanks! OP, if you'd like to carry on this discussion for more recent years, consider x-posting this question to /r/AskSocialScience." ]
Explain like I'm five: how lasers work	[ "It's not voodoo magic. It's kind of like brushing your hair. When you get up in the morning, your hair (assuming you have more hair on your head than I do) is all tangled from tossing and turning and all that other jazz. This is what regular light coming from, say, a light bulb looks like. It's all tangled and sca...	[ "[Richard Feynman](_URL_1_) ELI5's it pretty well in about 2 mins. Alan Alda had a contest and this [8 min video](_URL_0_) won." ]
How smooth is the surface of the earth?	[ "[I've removed the comments, as they may not be accurate.]" ]	[ "Think of it this way-the record was recorded with the same discrepancy between the speed of the inner and outer portion of the disc as it has when it is being played. As others have mentioned, the groove is filled with little bumps for the needle to roll over, and that produces the sound. Like the comic talks abo...
Why do we get dizzy when we spin round in circles?	[ "There's a little pool of liquid inside your ear that's responsible for your sense of balance. When you spin around it spins with you, but once you stop it continues to spin for a while, like a glass of water, or coffee would. Since the liquid's movement is what tells your body what's up, it still feels like you're...	[ "This question is pretty tough to imagine. Here's something that might help: Imagine you live on a [Möbius strip](_URL_0_). You're facing straight down at all times. You leave a ghost image of yourself as you go around the strip. Travel fully around and you get back to where you started, still looking the same way....
How is Non-Alcoholic Beer made?	[ "You can get rid of alcohol in anything by simply boiling it off, ethanol has a lower boiling point than water. If you've ever seen someone light a shot on fire they are actually reducing the alcohol content of the drink the longer they leave it lit." ]	[ "I can't answer all of it, but I know that the bacteria involved is anaerobic - meaning it survives without oxygen. You can't have oxygen in there because it'd kill off that bacteria and it'd stop working." ]
Why does the air above a campfire always look wavy and distorted?	[ "4 Years old post, but it is due to refraction and differences in air density apparently _URL_0_" ]	[ "It's actually water that's doing that, not the oil. Cuts of meat are full of water, so when you slap that meat down into the oil the water starts to cook out of it. As the water hits the oil it boils almost instantly, which is what causes all those crackles and pops. So it's tiny little explosions of water vapor t...
Why is it dangerous to bathe during a lightning storm if the water pipes are already buried underground?	[ "The pipes are grounded, but you are a really good conductor and closer to the ground." ]	[ "Pesticides used directly on food crops are not supposed to resist rain, at least not to the extent that they persist and poison people. Pesticides are often washed away by rain which is often part of the guidelines for use - rain can shorten the preharvest interval that is needed before crops can be harvested. The...
Where does the idea that people act crazier and strange things happen during a full moon come from?	[ "Think back to when there was no electricity. If you wanted to get crazy at night, it was always easier with a full moon. If you wanted to have a party at night - full moon. There was just a lot more of an opportunity to get up to trouble. Then add on a sort of confirmation bias - if everyone talks about being craz...	[ "Past generations just called you a simpleton or a tweaker and left you in the basement. There's not very good data on the occurrence rates of mental illness before the last few decades, so it's hard to say with much certainty if real rates are increasing or not." ]
Where are the (recognized) descendants of Abraham Lincoln, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson,etc today? Why are they not more "famous?" Why do we not hear more about them?	[ "They're around; you occasionally see news articles about them. But most Americans just don't care about people whose ancestors from long ago were famous." ]	[ "This is akin to asking why we don't have a cure for mosquitos. After all, couldn't someone just analyze the smell and appearance of mosquitos, and then develop a micro robot that specifically targets them? The pathways you describe are active research pathways, so far as I know. But research is hard, and actually ...
why is it called planned parenthood and not unplanned parenthood?	[ "Right. PP is an organization that gives people the resources to be able to CHOOSE when to become parents, through sexual education, birth control and abortion services. Being unexpectedly pregnant is not parenthood." ]	[ "[The Straight Dope covered this](_URL_0_). Basically, they started out as being made by two different production teams, but after a certain point, they became essentially interchangeable, but they kept both names going." ]
Since oil is causing so much trouble, and the US is a net exporter of natural gas, Why aren't there more vehicles powered by natural gas on the road?	[ "One gasoline gallon equivalent (GGE) of compressed natural gas will occupy [0.77 cubic feet of space at 2400 PSI](_URL_1_). One cubic foot of gasoline = [7.5 gallons](_URL_0_). So, gasoline is a more compact means of storing energy making it a preferred fuel in cars." ]	[ "Cost. Solar panels are still more expensive to make and install vs. tapping into existing infrastructure. Also, anywhere without good sun exposure will get crappy use from solar panels. The need for a second, backup source of power for extended periods of time would, effectively, make it cost more to do solar tha...
Does it take more energy to heat water from 10 to 15 degrees Celsius than it does from 75 to 80 degrees Celsius?	[ "Yes, but not by a lot. Assuming no heat transfer from the water to the environment and 100% efficient heating then the only two things you need to worry about are specific heat capacity and phase changes. Since neither of those temperature ranges go through a phase transition (I'm assuming standard conditions) the...	[ "For anniversaries, our calendar has decades, and since decades are relatively long, half-decades (5 years) is a good time frame. For volume/temperature, I rarely see only multiples of 5, as that is very limiting and drastic changes, what I mainly see are even numbers and also 5, so like 40, 42, 45, 46, 48, 50, 5...
Why can't the authorities triangulate the location of the London Gatwick drone operator?	[ "GPS is recieve-only. The drone knows where it is, but there is no other element of the GPS system that knows. If it were RF controlled, that signal is very short range and could be traced. If it's flying a preplanned route then there is no signal to trace." ]	[ "I'd like to add this. In WWII they retrofitted some Spitfire airplanes with up to 5 cameras that used this exact same principal to take 3D areal recon photos of Europe. The cameras were aligned just right (and pilots trained just right) take take photos that could be put under a special viewing device bringing the...
What are the implications of having neurons in our hearts?	[ "I would describe the complexity of the human cardiac regulatory system as profound, but I'm afraid that is the only role those cells play." ]	[ "The short answer is that to power a light bulb or measure a voltage you need a current. The answer to why there is no current is a bit more satisfying. The current induced by the potential across the junction in equilibrium condition is balanced perfectly by a current due to the different concentration of charge c...
[EL5] Oil Prices versus Gas Prices	[ "Add transportation. Add taxes. Add enough profit to pay rent on a gas station. Add wages. Add theft. Subtract a bit if it attracts people to a sufficiently profitable convenience store. Net result: you'll pay more in higher tax states, in states farther from refineries, in areas with high rent, and in areas with h...	[ "You may want to consider asking this in /r/Economics or /r/AskEconomics if you don't get an answer here. They may be able to provide you with answers related more to economic theory." ]
If Hawaii was formed entirely from volcanic activity, and it is nearly 4000 miles from the nearest mainland, how did the vast amount of flora and wildlife get there?	[ "Thai is actually an interesting question. The best answer I've heard comes from a book by Edward O. Wilson, \"The Diversity of Life\" Basically, wind currents, water, and birds' bodies and droppings can help move seeds and small animals extreme distances. Some Spiders for example, when young, create a web \"parach...	[ "That is a very famous photo, you are correct in guessing the time and location, it was taken at Pearl Harbor after the attack. The ship still afloat in the foreground is the USS Maryland. She was built in 1921 and was the flagship of the US Fleet early in her career. She was repaired in time to serve as a support...
It's 1856. I, a wealthy southern gentleman, want to send my younger son to the best university available. What are my options? What are my options if I don't want him associating with too many northerners?	[ "Follow up: Would you even send him to university, especially if he was intended to inherit your land?" ]	[ "From some quick digging it appears that people normally just \"dug in\" when large snowfalls occurred early on. Horse-drawn plows were at the top of the technology tree for effectively plowing snow until modern plows came around with automobiles. Some carriages and carts were even made into sleighs. That is, if th...
What purpose does the Double Jeopardy law state?	[ "Without that protection, an overly aggressive prosecution could just ruin the life of someone they don't like by continuously trying someone for the same crimes. The double jeopardy protection is there to allow the acquitted to resume their normal life after a trial." ]	[ "Think of it more like Satire. Schrodinger wasn't trying to really prove anything, he was trying to make theoretical physicists look dumb. His example, the cat being alive and dead, it absurd. That's the point. In theoretical physics there exists objects that can be 2 things at once, until observed, and he was usin...
Are there any problems in Computer Science that can't be solved with classical computers but can be solved with quantum computers?	[ "Not that we know of. Computational Complexity problems are all solvable with different kinds of resources. For example, problems in EXP take exponential space and time to solve, but are still 'solvable' in the sense that you are describing. The class of problems that are 'unsolvable' are known as 'undecidable'. A...	[ "If you know the full Hamiltonian for your system and the initial state, you in principle know how the system will evolve for all time. The time evolution is governed by the [time-dependent Schrodinger equation](_URL_0_). However you don't necessarily know what the results of measurements will be. For example, if y...
What was Hitler’s excuse for Jesse Owens winning 4 gold medals in the Olympics when he tried to prove Aryan superiority?	[ "I've done quite a bit of research on the 1936 Olympics and have never come across this. Which leaves me to assume that, rather than a rebutting excuse, Hitler simply chose to ignore it and focus on German medalists. His closest comment on the matter that from another redditor, but as you'll see it's just him tryin...	[ "I'm guessing that you're mainly thinking of domesticated animals and not wild ones. In that case the answer is here _URL_1_ - The tl;dr = there is a coloring pattern (known as \"Merle\" in dogs) considered attractive in inbred domestic animals (think border collies). It confers a very high incidence of heterochrom...
How can a touch screen tell the differences between gestures such as a touch or a swipe, or a prolonged press? [Engineering]	[ "Its the software not the hardware that does that. The same way your screen is made up of an array of pixels, the touch portions is an array of sensors. When you touch the screen it sends a signal saying \"I've got a touch centered at X1,Y1\", then you slide your finger it keeps reporting where it sees the touch. T...	[ "Think of a surface as something that has a lot of peaks and valleys. Sandpaper generally wears away the peaks and doesn't hit the valley, so the surface gets more level. Typically, you'll go from a rough grit to a fine grit. Finer grit sandpapers wear away the peaks from the scratches of the rougher grits." ]
Why do I wake up a minute before my alarm goes off?	[ "If your alarm has been the same for a long period of time, it just becomes a routine, like turning on your bathroom light when you walk in. Considering your body perfectly times heartbeats, breath, blood flow, etc, it's not that hard to believe it can time very accurately. :P It's completely subconscious." ]	[ "I don't think you are going to get a valid answer. Music in and of itself is a confusing scientific phenomena. Our attachment to it is a strange byproduct of various cortical functions. We don't really understand why it exists (though there are many theories, none with anything close to proof). The most likely exp...
Keynesian, Austrian and Chicago schools	[ "Any description explained like you are five is either going to be wrong or mis-representative." ]	[ "I feel like this question is a bit outside of this subreddit's scope, it's really more of an economics question, plus if you look at [this graph](_URL_0_) then you can see that they were at very similar levels until around 20 years ago when they diverged, so anything following that violates the subreddits 20 year ...
Why did the US purchase of Iceland and Greenland not happen?	[ "Could you please cite the article or paper you read? I'm Icelandic and I had no idea about this and am interested to learn." ]	[ "1. The housing bubble collapse/credit crunch hit vacation destinations like the Hamptons extra hard. 2. Anything that isn't beachfront or at least beach-adjacent may as well be on the moon. People don't buy inland homes in the Hamptons." ]
If viruses keep changing themselves to fight against our immunity, how and why smallpox eradicated from the world?	[ "Smallpox was something of a special case, in that there was no animal reservoir that it could survive in after all human to human transmission was stopped; the virus can only live in human beings. Influenza viruses naturally infect a wide variety of birds and also pigs, animals with which humans are often in close...	[ "You don't always want all of the updates. Some Windows updates will cause certain programs to break, for most people it isn't an issue but in business or industry situations with specialised software this can be a big concern. The easiest way to manage this is to keep the original version the same and selectively ...
How exactly, in technical detail, can Trusted Computing facilitate the clandestine execution of software by third parties on a user's machine?	[ "Anyone who has the authentication keys for TCA can push an update to the software on the system (because effectively, every system will be updated via patches downloaded over the Internet, automatically or manually, at the operating system level or application level, eventually) — and can create authentication for...	[ "Because our bodies are electrochemical pathways that can be 'hacked'. The proper dose of chemical here, and suddenly you're having an epileptic seizure. A splash of a different chemical there, and you have the sudden feeling that something's biting your feet, so you climb a tree to escape it. Another chemical, and...
Does night mode have a practical function, or is it purely cosmetic?	[ "It is easier on your eyes. Bright light is especially bad at night since it can trick your body into disrupting your circadian (day-night) rhythm, leading to insomnia or other sleep issues." ]	[ "Software can optimize images and fonts to render well with your monitor. See [hinting](_URL_0_) and [anti-aliasing](_URL_1_) for details. With macs, the software is more standardized, which makes this easier to accomplish. For other systems, a bit of tweaking may be required, but the same effect can be achieved. ...
Does Mars have tectonic activity?	[ "Tectonics happen when the core is a different temperature than the surface. Mars doesn't have any as that planet's dynamo died over a billion years ago (the hot liquid metal core spinning also produced the magnetic fields that once protected Mars' atmosphere). As it cooled, tectonic shifts would have slowed and we...	[ "Honestly, from what I've read, it looks like there's nothing really to do there. All the science that can be done, was done." ]
Why hasn't personal flight for humans been invented?	[ "_URL_0_ shows a pretty good reason regarding jetpacks. Human wings work. BASE jumpers and hang-gliders come to mind." ]	[ "Best guess: Poor ROI. To make any chemical substance, you need to set up a lot of equipment. This means buying new equipment, renting a place to put it, and staffing a team. My best guess is that investors are wary of investing in a chemical project that only produces one very controversial drug. The last company ...
Would Super-heavy tanks like the Tortoise and t95 have been practical if they were available before the war ended?	[ "T95/T28 was a vehicle designed for a very specific purpose: Assaulting static German fortifications. In such a role, I see no reason it would not have done well. However, it would also be a very situational vehicle used only for set-piece deliberate assaults, and would have required substantial advance planning. S...	[ "Let's say you have a 7 lane interstate. At each end there is a toll booth. In the past payments were processed manually and there was a receipt that had to print, but the printers were slow. Only do much traffic could get through. Fast forward to the future where you pay with the touch of a button and get an insta...
Can a single mosquito carry multiple viruses at the same time?	[ "Yes. There are cases of simultaneous transmission of chikungunya and dengue viruses by Aedes aegypti and A. albopictus. [a 2015 article on the matter](_URL_0_) Correction: malaria isn't a viral disease. It is caused by parasitic protozoans of the Plasmodium type" ]	[ "It's likely easier to maintain many smaller simpler softwares than 1 large complex one. If something were to go wrong it would already be partially isolated and so easier to identify. EDIT: Also that comment about money seems valid." ]
Would'nt a black holes gravity tear us apart before we get any where near it's event horizon?	[ "> Is this something that happens because of the size of a star? Yes. Tidal forces depend on two factors. The first is the gradient of gravitational force, which increases the closer you are to the centre of the black hole (this is relevant because for larger black holes, the tidal forces at the event horizon are ...	[ "No human is that strong. Even if you chained yourself to the tree there's a good chance you'd be killed by debris or that the entire tree would be uprooted with you along for the ride." ]
How/why does hair turn grey?	[ "Essentially, your scalp is bleaching your hair. Your follicles produce chemicals to help the hair: hydrogen peroxide, and catalase, which breaks down the hydrogen peroxide into nutrients for your hair and scalp. For some unknown reason, your body eventually slows/stops producing catalase. So you have your hair, t...	[ "It is down to the combination of the genes you get half the genes from your mother and half from your father but those genes are an almost random selection of those genes which go to make up each so can be combined in trillions of different ways. Like saying you get half a pack of cards from one parent and half fr...
What defines a song's genre?	[ "Instrumentation used, beats per minute, type of singing, key,..." ]	[ "Nutrition labels are mandated by law. Like when you buy a bottled water, the nutrition label tells you that it has 0% everything. The deinition of what's protein and what's not is determined by the FDA (in America). _URL_0_" ]
So we've reached the 7 billion population mark and we're apparently adding 1 billion every 9 years...So how (without all the bombastic doomsday scenarios) would this realistically play out?	[ "Well, we might get really radical, and put more resources into educating girls across the globe. It is widely believed by experts that that single action would reduce population growth rates dramatically. See [this newspaper report](_URL_0_) for an accessible summary." ]	[ "People are very bad at assessing long term risks. We haven't evolved to handle dangers and risks of long term activities. Even though we intellectually know the risks, it is hard for us to translate that intellectual knowledge into behavior, as it does not tell our instincts that it is dangerous. We instinctively ...
why does a country economy needs constant growth?	[ "If the GDP doesn't grow at, or faster than the rate of population growth, then living standards can decrease, as there is only slightly more wealth to go around shared by a larger proportion of population." ]	[ "Suppose you have a function f. For clarity assume that f is positive for all x. Now let F(a) = area under graph of f between 0 and a. How fast is F increasing? Its rate of increase is exactly the \"height\" of the area bounded by f and the x axis at the point x=a, i.e. f(a). This shows that F'(a) = f(a)." ]
Is it bad for my eyes if I sit on my PC (or other glowing screens like TV) at night while having the lights off? If yes, in what way? If not then why do so many people believe this?	[ "Techinically so, but prolonged use in a light room can be just as tiring on your eyes. Keep an eye out (heh!) for any signs of strain, such as headaches, light sensitivity, watery/irritated eyes. You might also look into [f.lux](_URL_0_) which adjusts your computers brightness to the time of day." ]	[ "Great minds think alike. Yer not alone in askin', and kind strangers have explained: 1. [ELI5: Why does it feel good to crack your back? ](_URL_3_) ^(_7 comments_) 1. [Why does it feel so good when I crack my back? ](_URL_6_) ^(_ > 100 comments_) 1. [ELI5: What does \"cracking your back\" do, and why does it feel ...
Why was the cessation of Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines to the US negotiated as part of the Spanish American war resolution?	[ "I apologize if it is inappropriate to plug a podcast in this subreddit (I love lurking here), but Dan Carlin's Hardcore History did a wonderful and fascinating episode on that era in US history, and discusses at length the Spanish-American war. If you have a few hours to kill, it's worth it. Here is a link: _URL_0...	[ "The election results are being challenged, as the phrasing of the question was a bit irregular. Instead of asking \"Do you want to be a state?\", they asked \"Do you want to continue with the status quo?\", then ask \"If not, do you want to be a state?\". The first question got a majority know, but the second got ...
Why do foul smells not effect animals in similar ways to humans despite having greater sense of smell?	[ "Because we are prone to food poisoning, and need to identify when food is not fresh enough to eat or contaminated with faeces. Dogs do think there are bad smells, they just aren't the same as what you perceive to be a bad smell. Try offering a dog some fresh orange peel." ]	[ "You're overthinking it. [Here](_URL_0_) is a scientific article about it, but it's still kind of complicated. The easiest way to think about this is the 10:1 rule. For every one pound of meat you, need ten pounds of feed for it. This means that if you ate the feed directly (eg, corn), you would use only 1/10 of...
Could Gas Giant sized rocky/icy planets conceivably exist?	[ "Some one may know more, but I can give a good first go at this! There's a cool paper by Szeged, 2007. Mass radius relationships for solid exoplanet. In summary, rocky planets can become very big, up to a few times the earths radius. However when they become very big they start to become denser rather than increasi...	[ "The magic astronomical phrase to Google here is \"[Hill sphere](_URL_1_)\" - that's the volume around a body where the body's gravitation dominates the gravity of whatever it's orbiting around. Anyhow, [here](_URL_0_)'s a pretty good explanation of the situation. Short answer: yup. But usually they're not very sta...
The difference between left and right lateral recumbent position, and why left is usually favored in a patient care setting.	[ "Left lateral recumbent is just laying on the left side. The main indication (that I know of) is hypotensive or hypovolemic pregnant women. You want to shift the uterus off of the Inferior Vena Cava to facilitate blood return to the heart." ]	[ "This is a hold-over from the physical book era. When physical books had to be printed, publishers had local partners in many different places in the world that did local marketing, printing, and distributing to local bookshops. So if you were in New York, you didn't have to talk to a book shop in Switzerland. The...
Why PhD students (sometimes) get paid to study?	[ "In biology we get paid because we are working full time as researchers in a lab. Most students work more than 40hrs/wk in lab. We get paid because otherwise people would all go into industry (which pays better than grad school). Many people are supported their first year by training grants from the NIH. After that...	[ "It is common in all fields. If you have an attorney friend you may ask him to look over your rental lease. A friend in construction may be asked to help install new cabinets. A friend in accounting look at your tax returns. Etc." ]
Why does Ancient/Medieval Eastern warfare seem to be more horse and bow orientated while European warfare seems to be more infantry focused?	[ "I don't think you can generalize about Eastern warfare, either. In wet southern China, land of a million rice paddies, river boats were more useful than horses, and those who invaded from the north had to adapt to the terrain. Siege engines were also very important." ]	[ "A reminder that [speculation is not appropriate](_URL_0_) for askhistorians. While it may seem intuitive that babies were breastfed, not all women can breastfeed and not all babies can latch. Breastmilk has not been seen as the superior means of feeding infants and babies universally through history, either. It s...
Are people more or less likely to inherit genetic diseases than 10, 20 or 50 years ago?	[ "Changes in mating patterns with more multiethnic pairings decrease the chance of autosomal recessive traits from being passed on. However, advances in technology and medical science have also allowed those carrying less fit genes to pass their genetic information on to off spring. I can't tell you what the net eff...	[ "A few factors ... * New games are way more complex. This means more code, and as the number of bugs per LoC is pretty static you get more bugs. * Today it is pretty trivial to push patches to the users as they have fast internet. * Deadlines have become a bigger factor esp. when it comes to franchise titles." ]
Why the rain that falls on native plants isn't enough to keep our gardens alive and we water them	[ "Many plants that you grow in your garden may require a wetter climate than where you live. Additionally, when you're trying to grow plants for food or aesthetics you want to give them the most favorable conditions possible so they look the best they can or yield the best food." ]	[ "Copper is rather expensive, so a single line usually runs from the home water entry point and is shared by all the bathroom fixtures. This means when water is drawn by two of the fixtures at the same time, there is less cold water for each of them. Showers get the right temperature by mixing a flow of hot and co...
If matter and anti-matter perfectly annihilate, and they are always created in tandem-- Why does matter exist?	[ "Excellent question. No one knows. It probably has to do with CP violation, which means that if you set up an experiment with regular matter, and then an identical experiment but with antimatter and mirrored, you should see the same result. But you don't, we checked this. Somehow this CP violation probably caused t...	[ "If you consider positrons to be antimatter, we already have an actual use for them: positron emission tomography (PET) can be used to detect tumours and image brain function." ]
When I turn on a flahslight, am I creating brand new light particles (photons?) that didn't previously exist?	[ "Short answer: Yes. Electrical energy goes into the light-emitting device (whether that's an incandescent bulb or a light-emitting diode) and gets converted into photons emitted from the flashlight." ]	[ "Looking at an object in a mirror is the same as looking at the object at a distance of (distance from you to mirror) + (distance from object to mirror). To see something, light travels off of an object, through the pupil and to the retina. The pupil focuses this light so that lands correctly on the retina. Blurry ...
What happens in regards to time when we observe an interstellar object travel towards us?	[ "> Does this have something to do with the relativistic Doppler effect? That's exactly it. It's the same as listening to music played from a car approaching you - it will sound sped up and higher pitch. There are also true relativistic effects in play - clocks on the approaching planet will be calculated to run slo...	[ "The most basic way to phrase the answer to this is that [speeds don't add like you think they do](_URL_0_). To expand a little: if you are watching a ship move away from you at 0.9c in one direction and another ship moving away from you at 0.9c in the opposite direction then, of course, you see the distance increa...
Why do teenagers from the early 1900s seemed much older than teenagers from the early 2000s do?	[ "life expectancy and social expectations have pushed back the age of considered maturity in the early 1900's, women would get married before they were 18, and already have kids by then. that's a pretty big responsibility. not to mention that there were wars that young men were drafted into. nowadays, people don't u...	[ "Every time you make a copy of a cell, there is a chance for errors. For example when you photocopy a first print, it is pretty crisp and close to the original, but there are a few minor discrepencies. Now if you photocopy the copy, it gets more distorted, and so on until some letters get hard to read, it gets diff...
If I went back to Medieval England, would I be able to effectively communicate with people with modern English?	[ "As others have said, it would depend on when exactly you mean. To give a practical example, if you look at Beowulf and The Canterbury Tales, both in the original, you can read Chaucer well enough. A few words are difficult and generally you want to read out loud since some words aren't spelled like their moder...	[ "Your question is like: > Why do people keep telling me to take a pill my doctor prescribes when in ye olden days people didn't have access to the same pills? Clean water is way easier to get now than it was then. Since you have access to clean water you should use it. In the same way, getting a doctor to prescri...
If fat is bad for our health, why haven't we evolved to just expel fat like waste from our body.	[ "Fats are essential. We can't live without them, and it's worth noting that we are to a fairly large extent made of fats. And in any event, evolution doesn't optimize organisms in all possible ways. Something that slowly damages your circulatory system over decades won't be strongly selected against, because by t...	[ "Because the set of genes that create wisdom teeth are still floating around our gene pool. However, [a subset of people have genes that suppress wisdom tooth formation](_URL_0_), so it's quite plausible that the entire human species will some day lose its wisdom teeth." ]
Why are cans in Hawaii shaped differently than regular soda cans?	[ "This is an older design of common cans. Let this guy shed some light on it in the most interesting can-related video ever produced: _URL_0_" ]	[ "School collects box tops & sends them to the company. The company sends the school money. The idea is that people will buy more products from the company if they know it'll help the local schools. It's just an advertising campaign." ]
When dogs/pets sit their looking guilty after being yelled at do they what they are actually in trouble for, or do they know just looking cute and ashamed is what you want?	[ "There was a research about dogs recognising angry faces and happy faces. So basically when we yell at them.They realise that they've pissed us off.And then they go sit in a corner till we cool down . Sometimes they are SO DAMN cute when they do that you feel like comforting them immediately." ]	[ "One of the main ways animals distinguish prey animals from predators is by the eyes. The eyes on prey animals tend to point to the sides, while a predator's eyes are directed forward. Another crucial factor in how animals behave around others is apparent size. I don't know if you were expecting the rabbit to be fr...
Is reinforced concrete able to function as a faraday cage? And if so does it make a building save of EMPs?	[ "The gaps between the iron bars in the concrete must be in the order of magnitude smaller than the wavelength of the signal. So it might function for low frequency radio." ]	[ "First; getting permission from the Egyptian government to even study the pyramids is a huge process, and they turn most people down. Second; the rules regarding what you can and can't do in the pursuit of studying the pyramids are also very strict. You can't expose them to any kind of radiation, for example, or c...
Why is the kilogram the 'base unit' of mass instead of the gram?	[ "Are others actually reading his question? Yes when using metres of things they are more likely to weigh kilograms but why define a gram as 1000 times less than what would be used with other base units? The original kilogram was 1 dm^3 of water. So why not define that as a gram?" ]	[ "That has been done by Congress. The US officially switched in the 1970s. It did not stick. Those industries like the Sciences where it is much more useful switched, but general society where there is virtually no difference in the usages as we do not need to be that accurate in things there is not enough of a bene...
why do we get an artist's rendition of a court case when they can just simply take a photograph?	[ "Everybody is missing the obvious answer here. A camera might accidentally capture somebody that needs to stay unidentified, like a juror..." ]	[ "Its not completely uncommon - for example I was associated with this study in 2006 _URL_1_ where using a new imaging methods we found the anatomy was not as described in most dissection studies. The upshot was that the way of doing the dissection masked the relationship between the tissues. New imaging methods all...
Is there a limit to how small a star can be? If so, what is the theoretically smallest star possible and why?	[ "About 80 times the mass of Jupiter. Below that, they don't have enough mass to get the intense heat and pressure in the core required to fuse hydrogen. These objects are called \"brown dwarfs\", and generally look more like ~~a enormous~~ Jupiter than a star. The line between a small brown dwarf and a large gas gi...	[ "only if it's structure is perfectly non-[amorphous](_URL_0_) so that it wouldn't start contorting with the inertial effect commonly known as the [centrifugal force](_URL_1_). This would rule out glass and many plastics Also it would have to also be in a perfect vacuum so that air resistance, or friction with the a...
Why would Putin and Obama leave something as important as their Crimea negotiations to ambassadors? Isn't it way too important for anything less than Sec. of State or Russian equivalent?	[ "The Secretary of State is like the captain of a team, it doesn't mean they are the best ball player. Also, ambassadors are specialized in certain areas. An ambassador to Russia would have a lot of experience dealing with Russian bureaucracy and culture, which gives them an advantage over a generic representative."...	[ "People who see things happen call up the news and say, \"Hey, you should come down here and cover this.\" Organizations that are having big events issue press releases that say, \"Hey you should come down here and cover this.\" Really big organizations have regular (daily, weekly) press briefings that they don...

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