Subset (10)

eli5 · 25k rows

Split (1)

train · 25k rows

query stringlengths 20 300	positive listlengths 1 1	negative listlengths 1 1
how come we get better at darts and billiards after a few drinks before it goes downhill?	[ "Alcohol slows heart rate, reduces blood pressure, when used in smaller amounts of consumption it can help ease body movement and stress. It's actually banned as a performance drug in shooting/archery competitions." ]	[ "I'm pretty sure it's because when you're in the driver's seat you're operating the vehicle, you're in control of the forces and speed and your body automatically compensates, knowing what you're about to make the vehicle do. Where the passengers are only reacting to the outside forces." ]
Why is it that some thin plastics tear very easily once started but are very resistant to a tear starting?	[ "A good example of this is in plastic grocery bags, which are made of low-density polyethylene (LDPE). Normally, LDPE has a very low crystallinity; the polymer chains aren't aligned in any particular manner. However, when you start to tear/stretch the plastic, you're sort of pulling some of the chains into alignmen...	[ "Tiny scratches or holes are punched in the disc by a CD/DVD/Blu-Ray Burner. When the CD/DVD/Blu-Ray is read, a Red(CD/DVD) or Blue(Blu-Ray) laser is used to detect the holes and scratches so they can be read as binary code." ]
why, in some videos I've seen recently, is the snow not melting and just turning black when people try to melt it with lighters?	[ "because the flame isnt hot enough, so it's basically just spitting the gas residue onto the snow." ]	[ "Vantablack consists of a lattice of alligned carbon nanotubes of specific width to trap the electromagnetic waves of wavelengths specific to visible light. Within the layer of vantablack that is coasted onto a substrate the light continuously bounces between the nanotubes becoming more and more absorbed, of which ...
How are people/groups of people legally allowed to place "bounties" on others?	[ "They're not \"bounties\" like in the Boba Fett sense. They're rewards to turn over information which would lead to arrest/prosecution. Boba Fett bounties (\"Capture and/or kill this person\") are illegal." ]	[ "Basically, the Cult of Hubbard rakes in enough money to have really good lawyers. South Park did an extremely accurate portrayal in the episode \"Tom Cruise Won't Come out of the Closet\"" ]
Why is that neurons aren't physically connected?	[ "I'm fairly new to the field of neuroscience, so I might be wrong, but wouldn't eliminating synapses also eliminate the possibility of plasticity? Remember that in a fully developed adult, the brain is generally unable to develop new neurons. So in the case of injury (and probably many more applications) the brain ...	[ "Quoting [Wikipedia](_URL_0_) (a bit naughty, but it's a nice way to express what I think): > The proposed theory is inconsistent with quantum mechanics and critics have ruled it out on those grounds. Which is essentially saying what you pointed out, yes. If what they're doing is as easy as it sounds - just runnin...
Why people use # before a number?	[ "\"#\" means number. It's a label and abbreviation, like a dollar sign. It's not appropriate in all places, but it's useful when it appears. For example: \"My father is #50 years old\" is wrong, because it would be read as \"My father is number 50 years old\". But, \"That player wears the #50 jersey\" is acceptabl...	[ "I don't know where you experienced this but I do it all the time. I bought a tv one day. It came up to $500 and something. I handed the dude 4 100 dollar bills, and told him I was going to put the rest on a card. He punched in the $400 and got my new Total of $100 something. Then I ran my card like normal." ]
How to serve a 1,000 year prison sentence?	[ "It's just so that even if future laws allow him to cut 10% or 50% off his prison term for good behavior he still isn't getting out. When he dies in prison he'll be treated just like anyone else, his remains will be released to relatives." ]	[ "There are a lot of people in the world who don't care about laws, or the laws of other countries, or the property rights of other people. For example if you stole a piece of art from someone in England that a wealthy member of the royal family in Saudi Arabia wanted they probably don't care at all that it was stol...
Why killing and eating dolphins is considered to be so much worse than killing and eating cows.	[ "Dolphins are generally thought of as particularly intelligent creatures from the animal kingdom. Most people have hang ups about eating animals that are appear intelligent and social." ]	[ "Relate it to Coke bottles: 20oz bottle: $1.50 -Easy to carry and drink quickly -Fit in cup holders -Convenient -Good for on the go 68oz (2liters): $1.09 -Large, bulky -Unconventional for casual drinking -Better for taking home Both of the bottles have the same product, but the have different markets, or who they a...
Why does the Southern United States react so badly to cold weather?	[ "The Southern US doesn't experience cold weather as frequently as other regions so is unused to it. Also southern cities are less prepared to handle the weather conditions that come from colder weather (e.g., ice, snow). People also have less experience driving in those conditions and have accidents or are afraid t...	[ "\"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 is gold worth more than silver?	[ "Essentially supply and demand. There is less gold on the earth (easily available) than there is silver. A major factor is that there is far more silver in the world than gold. It is estimated that around 171,300 tons of gold has been produced in all of human history (Gold reserve). That's less than the amount of ...	[ "Here's a pretty good explainer. _URL_0_ Basically it comes down to different memory, different promises (reliability and service life), and different marketing." ]
Can't remember what it's called	[ "This is [the bandwagon fallacy](_URL_0_) in which someone holds an idea to be true/valid because a majority(sometimes perceived majority)of people feel the same way. Also, the idea that global warming causes tornadoes and other natural disasters is [the false cause fallacy](_URL_1_) in which one claims there is...	[ "Nielsen does this, they tell you how on [their website](_URL_0_), but basically they just randomly select people and track everything they do by asking them to write down everything and walk around the streets with microphones to record whatever people are listening to. They aggregate the data and produce the rati...
What is the physical effect that causes light to travel slower in a medium?	[ "[This is a good answer from our FAQ](_URL_0_)" ]	[ "Have some friends stretch a sheet taut and hold it parallel to the floor. This represents spacetime. Place something small on the sheet between center and edge - a sheet of paper crumpled into a ball. Note that the paper does not move. This is your stationary object. Now place something larger and heavier in the m...
The Jews, the pyramids and the plagues.	[ "Haaretz gave it a political angle the other day: _URL_0_ In summary though, there's no evidence for any part of the Egyptian exodus story, no evidence for the Israelites ever being slaves in Egypt, or any such great migration. The Jews only enter historical record a thousand or more years after the pyramids were b...	[ "Oil money and slave labor can do some amazing things. Once the oil money started pushing the city up real estate and construction started to take over as everyone wanted a piece of this city that has been marketed as the future." ]
Why humans newborns/children seem so helpless when compared to other species?	[ "Because we have a large brain and stand upright (on two limbs rather than four). Those two needs mean that women's hips need to be large enough to allow a baby's head to pass through, but narrow enough that she can walk. The only way to reach both limits is to birth babies that are very undeveloped compared with o...	[ "Part of the presence of pain is its purpose. Your nervous system continues to remind your brain the pain you've experienced so you know to protect it. For us, that means going to a doctor for a broken finger. But in nature, that means \"I need to guard this finger until it heals, or else I may die. If I try to ...
Why do I think something is a good idea when I am in bed at night, but when I wake up the next day I am too nervous to do it or think it wont work out?	[ "Everything your brain does requires energy, including \"nothing.\" Specifically, to stop yourself from having certain types of thoughts (let's call them \"dumb ideas\"), other parts of your brain capable of critical thinking, evaluation, scenario modeling & if-then extrapolation have to exert metabolic energy. Lat...	[ "Your eyes are perceiving that your body should be in one position (lying down in case of the linked gif), yet the signal from the balance centers in your ears are sending a different signal to your brain. This dissonance causes your brain to try and make you feel how you should based on the signal from your eyes."...
Why were squad or platoon leaders usually issued sub-machine guns in WWII instead of rifles?	[ "So the two excellent answers already explain the \"how\" but not the \"why\", AFAICS. Were SMGs considered better? Or was there something advantageous about them to their role? I'd find this very interesting to know. On a bit of a sillier scale, it certainly used to be that Space Marine squad leaders came with pis...	[ "In addition to what Teekno says, developers like streetcars and subways better than bus routes. Developers take public transportation into account before investing in building a new project. A bus line can be moved on a whim, so they are less sure it'll be there. A subway or streetcar line will not be moved easily...
Did Ross Perot have a serious chance of winning the 1992 US Presidential election before he dropped out in July?	[ "While Mr. Perot did drop out in July, he re-entered the race in October. (_URL_0_) The results at the election were better than most third-party attempts (15% of the national vote), but ultimately not especially good for a three-way race. Polling done before the election was mostly in line with that. Perot's campa...	[ "When you say \"Does this apply to modern day\", do you mean to ask whether it is still the case that the family of Otanes \"submit[s] to the rule of the king only so far as they themselves choose [and] continues to be the only free family\" in modern-day Iran (or Afghanistan, or Iraq, etc.)? If that's really what ...
What techniques did Hitler use to convince the Germany population that the holocaust was justifiable?	[ "The Holocaust, as in the systematic killing of the Jews, was not an official or openly acknowledged policy. Officially the Jews were \"merely\" being deported to the East for resettlement and forced labour. The fact that they were killed was *Geheime Reichssache\" or a state secret. Those involved in the killings ...	[ "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...
Why can't we just "seal" active volcano craters to stop them?	[ "Volcanoes don't burn because they are on fire, they burn because they are hot. 'Sealing' an active volcano would go down about as well as putting a lid on a saucepan of water without taking it off the heat." ]	[ "There are two ways: Pile Driver: Big machine that shoots giant metal rods from the surface, through the water, and into the seabed. Coffer Dam: Workers build a wall around the site and then pump out all the water. Then they climb down and pour concrete in the seabed." ]
If I see a fly land on my food, should I ignore it and go ahead and eat the food?	[ "Your immune system is pretty beastly. Keep in mind the environment in which the human body was conditioned for included ravaging diseases and general filth. Our immune system has adapted to combat common environmental microbes and pathogens through built up passive immunity. Unless the fly transmits something spec...	[ "You could test it. E.g. cover yourself in grease and then shower 1) with water only 2) with water and the product. Compare results. That would be a (pretty crude) experiment, which is how we learn answers to those kinds of questions. Also you could compare two pieces of perishable food, one of them treated with th...
Is urine pushed out or "siphoned" out or what? Sometimes things just seem to keep flowing out on their own, as it were.	[ "The transitional epithelium of your urinary bladder does a remarkable job of stretching. Eventually it signals it has stretched too far. Your brain signals to sphincters, which are muscles keeping the holes closed, to relax for a while. More muscles squeeze the bladder. Generally a complete empty is achieved. This...	[ "There are two ways to keep consistent water pressure for a town/city. Method 1: start with a reservoir (or tank) that is higher than any building within the city. If it’s a water tower you may need a pump to pump water from a reservoir up into the water tower to keep it full. This is the method towns and cities u...
Is is any more likely that the universe is not expanding, but that every point or particle in it is shrinking in size? Does the distinction even matter?	[ "I am a cosmologist and this thought has crossed my mind before and I have discussed it with my colleagues. And I can't give you a good reason why this would be impossible. However, it seems less likely, because there is no known mechanism that could even come close to causing something like this. Whereas we know t...	[ "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." ]
How do Christians explain the seeming contradiction between the fact that allegedly God gave man free will, but that God also "has a plan" for us?	[ "> I've always been stumped You and the entire history of Christian theology, pretty much. AFAIK there is no universally agreed upon answer to this question." ]	[ "pick one door. then before anything is opened, do you want the one you picked or the other two? That is essentially the question. Monty knows which door has the big prize and never reveals that one. Try this. there are 100 doors. you pick one. ( say it's #29.) Monty knows what door it is. He the opens 1,2,3, . . ...
Why are vets able to be so much more precise about price than human doctors?	[ "Because people doctors have to deal with insurance companies and never know how things are going to be priced. In other words, MDs have little to do with billing." ]	[ "Becsuse all tux's basically look the same, just different sizes and are a basic loose fit. Easy for many men to wear the same thing. But theres a bajillion styles of wedding dresses and different styles for different shapes and they're usually fitted. Odds of finding a generic sized dress in a style you like that ...
Why did we use lead in pipes?	[ "At the time, it was the best means of transporting water. Meaning, it was cheap, malleable & most, of not all plumbers were able to literally, make pipes & fittings while on the site." ]	[ "In short, marketing. Long answer, just repeat that phrase like you're [Steve Ballmer at the MIX '08 conference] (_URL_0_). Dasani (Coca-Cola), Aquafina (Pepsi), and co marketed the hell out of Bottled Water claiming all these health benefits and the \"purity\" of it and how much \"better\" it was for you compared ...
why raising the minimum wage ≠ a consequential rise in the cost of living.	[ "The argument that a rise in the minimum wage would cause a rise in the cost of living rests on two assumptions: * minimum wage employees make up a substantial portion of the workforce. * paying minimum wage employees is a significant portion of the costs faced by most companies. These two assumptions are, simply...	[ "There isn't any downside to saying the sky is falling. Politicians aren't vying for the votes of economics professors, they are vying for the votes of people who don't have the willingness to look up the numbers themselves." ]
How will self driving cars ever be able to drive on snow and ice?	[ "I suppose there would have to be sensors in the wheels to sense different road conditions. But even then, it is hard to imagine a computer driven car reacting to changing conditions during a blizzard or something like that. Personally I hope the whole self driving car for everyone doesn't become reality in my l...	[ "The same way they do now: using satellite and microwave transmissions. Using the internet is kind of sketchy, because of a lack of control of the bandwidth that can cause the connection quality to drop, which is why other technologies are preferred when feasible." ]
Why exactly do electronics such as cell phones and mp3 players cease working if inundated by water?	[ "The water creates an unintended pathway with low electrical impedance, through which excessive energy can flow, which can in turn burn/vaporize/melt or otherwise damage components. Essentially, the electricity is allowed to flow outside of the path designed for it, with its controls and regulation. Edit:more speci...	[ "Those anti theft scanners use electromagnetic fields to detect those magnetic sensors that are attached to the clothing (and removed by the clerk upon checkout). As you walk past, these electromagnetic fields will induce some alternating current in your earbuds, and that's where the buzz comes from." ]
How did Jewish lenders in medieval Europe enforce their debts? Didn't they have little to no power?	[ "Sort of a side question, but my Russian Jewish Grandfather used to tell me that pogroms (and anti-semitism as a whole) back in the day were orchestrated by governments as a way to get out of paying their debt. Is there any credence to this?" ]	[ "It's stylistic. Exaggeration of features is very common in art around the world, even in the modern day. This kind of topic gets into an area that is rather vilified in the archaeological community. Links from one cultural group to another (i.e. \"Semitic features\" being present in some South African native popul...
Why did Nazi propaganda attack the KKK?	[ "Not to stifle any further discussion but /u/kieslowskifan has written about this poster [in one of their answers before here](_URL_0_) and [here](_URL_1_)." ]	[ "You may be interested in this similar earlier thread. _URL_0_ See responses by Blanglegorph, jonewer and myself. The short answer is that any positions of relative advance (e.g. Rocketry) tended to be out of desperation, whilst Allied advances (e.g. Computers) tended to be more a case of doing things they could af...
What (if any) links have been disovered/researched between Native (North?) American peoples and Asian peoples (including Indian Subcontinental)?	[ "The long version can be found here, _URL_1_ The short version is yes, they do have a relation. The following image explains it pretty well and sucinctly _URL_0_" ]	[ "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...
Why do Flies behave the way they do around hanging light fittings?	[ "Someone will give a more detailed and educated answer for sure, but its because the insect is trying to get, \"behind,\" the light. Since light that doesn't come directly from the sun is pretty uncommon in the wild, they simply just haven't evolved to a point where they can exactly recognize it as a source of ligh...	[ "Electricity has to complete a circuit - i.e. it has to go into them, and then back out. Think of a battery - they have two poles, one for the current to flow out of, and another for it to return. If something is sitting on just one wire, it's not completing that circuit, and the electricity has nowhere to go." ]
How can flash memory retain its data without power? Is it possible for it to lose data over extended period of time?	[ "Yes they can loose data over time as they work by trapping electrons and eventually the electron escapes. I'm not sure how it is possible though" ]	[ "To put it very simply your body has three states, fed, fasting and starved. In the fed state your blood glucose is high and you have the energy to do whatever you want. In the fasting state your blood glucose is low, so your body mobilises glycogen (glucose in another form (ish)) stores in the liver and muscle to ...
If touch screens use the conductivity of your fingers to work, and if glass is an insulator, how does a tempered glass screen protector allow it to function?	[ "Touch screens sense the [capacitance](_URL_1_) of your fingers, which is a related but different concept from conductivity. Implementations do of course vary, but the basic idea is that you have a grid of sensors which continually measure the capacitance of a local region; when you touch the screen, you change the...	[ "Our eyes are for the most part made of water. Specific heat, which is a measure of how much energy it takes to warm a substance up, is really really high for water compared to a lot of other substances including air. *That means a lot of energy needs to be transferred from our eyes to the surrounding air to make o...
Can you reflect presumably a "Death Star" Laser using a simple mirror?	[ "No, mirrors don't reflect perfectly, a strong enough laser will heat up and burn a mirror, like here: _URL_0_" ]	[ "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 do some surgeries take such a long time (6-12 hours)?	[ "They are very intricate multi step procedures that have to be performed at a methodical pace in order to be done correctly" ]	[ "The US banking system was [developed in the 70s](_URL_0_), and has not been updated since. They save up days worth of transactions and then actually perform them all at once, which saves them a lot of effort. If Bank A has 10,000 transactions totaling 1 million dollars to go to bank B, and Bank B has 10,000 transa...
Is there a theoretical maximum hardness?	[ "Would a neutron star be very hard? It's certainly one of the densest things I can think of that isn't a black hole." ]	[ "We do use antimatter currently for practical uses, ever heard of a PET scan? It would be the ultimate energy storage medium because gathering meaningful amounts of antimatter from nature is impractical. The best place to find it now is in the van Allen radiation belts." ]
Why do US calendars start the week on Sunday instead of Monday?	[ "Because that is the start of the week in the Christian and Jewish Calendars. The Christian holy day, Sunday is the first day of the week. Jewish Sabbath is Saturday the seventh day of the week. The phrase \"week end\" is more accurately said \"week's ends\". Think of the week as a line segment from math class. Sun...	[ "It's pretty simple, really: Microsoft [adopted TNR as a default system font](_URL_0_) in Windows in 1992. Windows achieved remarkable dominance — it still holds more than a 90% share of [the desktop OS market](_URL_1_) — and Microsoft Office achieved similar success in the productivity software market. So essentia...
Why do I get irritable when I'm hungry?	[ "Because the animal inside you activates and you engage in \"Predator\" mode, doing everything in order to secure food and guarantee the survival of your species." ]	[ "I don't actually know the whole idea behind it but I believe it is intentional habit building. The idea being that if you spend 2 months acting like a character, their mannerisms, their way of thinking etc then when it comes time to actually shoot the scenes you will do these things naturally and subconsciously...
How do baked goods like cookies and brownies made with marijuana retain the medicinal properties without it getting "cooked out" due to the high temperature of the oven?	[ "The thc start to vaporize at 315°f (157°c), not a pro cookie baker but i bet the temps of the cookies doesnt get that hot in the oven." ]	[ "They remain in jail. because their actions were criminal at the time they did it. Of course, it is possible that the governor/president commutes their prison sentences or pardons them, but that's extraneous with regards to legalization; it's not required or a de-facto part of the legalization process." ]
The life expectancy at birth (LEB) of humans has increased almost 3-fold since the bronze age. Have other species seen similar increases in LEB over time?	[ "Cats and dogs, I suppose. A cat in the wild has an average life of 4-5 years, whereas a domestic cat 13-17 years. The factors are similar to ours; no predators, less risks, no starving, no exposure to the elements, no fighting for territory/food/procreation, healthier (both in the sense of \"good for your health\"...	[ "There's one from my area of study. A die called tekhelet was commonly used in Jewish ritual items, made from a sea creature of some sort. At some point due to the destruction of the Temple (and, by extension, the Jewish ritual apparatus) and the progressively smaller share of Jews who lived in the area where thi...
If over-the-air HDTV signals can be broadcast wirelessly for miles, then why can't simple wifi have the same reach (and I know TV signals are one-way, but the amount of data in an HDTV stream must be pretty significant)?	[ "You answered it. Its one way. They have satellite internet that covers the globe. You have to transmit back. Do you want a huge 500ft tower in your pocket?" ]	[ "Here is my understanding. Right right after the big bang, the universe was overall an electrically conductive material. EM waves can not propagate very far in a conductive material, so there is no remaining radiation from that immediate time. It couldn't \"propagate\" A little while later, matter starts forming hy...
You have three doors, and behind one is a prize. You pick one door which you think the prize is behind The presenter of the TV show knows which door the prize is behind. He opens one, and the prize is not behind it He now gives you the chance to change doors If you do you get better odds. How?	[ "When you pick the first one there is a 33% chance you picked the right one. When he eliminates one, it means the unchosen door now has a higher chance of being correct, which is more likely than the first door when you picked it. It makes sense because no matter which door you pick, a wrong door will be eliminated...	[ "You can hear things because there is a thin “drum” in your ear that sounds make vibrate. Your brain feels those vibrations and you experience it as sound. Air cannot go through that ear drum, just like a normal drum. Air gets to the other side through a different hole deep inside your head. The amount of air aroun...
What is happening when a chip goes stale?	[ "I am not 100% sure about the exact chemistry of stale food, but [Serious Eats has a really interesting piece talking about the science of stale bread.](_URL_0_) Moisture loss is only one of the factors that makes bread stale. The other is the crystalline structure of the starch in flour. When heated, the geometric...	[ "It makes it much easier to isolate calorie dense portions of ingredients while removing all the fiber, water, or nutrient rich portions of ingredients, so processed food is much more likely to be empty calories. Take for example a simple process like extracting olive oil from olives. Olives have a huge amount of ...
What's the difference (in terms of policy) between Trotskyists and Stalinists?	[ "Trotskyism was largely concerned with the idea of ongoing revolutionary sentiment and the active propagation of communism across the globe. Stalinism was heavily bureaucratic, used state violence to try to accelerate the Marxist process of progression toward communism, and - as a major feature, advocated communism...	[ "Ahoy! I'm [Dr Richard Blakemore](_URL_1_) ([@historywomble](_URL_3_) on twitter) from the [University of Reading's History Department](_URL_4_) and I'm excited to join you on the 18th of September for an AMA about [my areas of expertise](_URL_5_) \\- the Stuart and Tudor navies, sailors in the Early Modern period,...
Does the family of people who started old corporations (like Exxon) still receive some sort of monetary benefits?	[ "If you started a company called Blue Bonnet's Banjos Emporium and it became the #1 brand for banjo and banjo accessories but you sold all of your shares then you no longer get any profits from the company, regardless of how successful it goes on to be. Your children, grandchildren, great grandchildren and so on wo...	[ "A couple reasons. 1. What the show sells for determine its value, so if they want to sell it to another network it's good to establish a value over a buck. 2. They can, if the accountants can pull it off, report the sale as income for fox and inventory for FXX, improving the value of both companies. AOL was infamo...
- Why are human voices so vastly different when the sounds other animals make are all so easily identifiable/differentiated	[ "For starters, the anatomy of our neck and tongues allow for a wide range of sounds. One of humanity's earlier ancestors is believed to have been out-competed by another purely because the shape of their neck/throat didn't allow for complex communication. Birds have solid pitch control via their throats, but don't ...	[ "If you were to build a 'super' car, would it be the fastest? The car that uses the least fuel? The one that can carry the most cargo? The one with the most amounts of seats? The one that fits in every parking space because its small? Different people create different languages for different reasons. Some are supe...
How can "stealing" another company's employees and "agreeing not to steal" employees both be sue-able offenses?	[ "Most engineers sign non-disclosure and non-compete agreements with their employers. That means that for a certain amount of time after leaving their job, they will not work on exactly the same thing for a competitor. It's to avoid companies paying hiring people from other companies just to steal their research. Th...	[ "The city and the team entered into a 15 year lease deal a couple years ago. As part of that deal, the team was paid to operate the stadium and the city was to be paid a share of revenue. As revenue has dried up, the city was not making the money back that was expected. Since the contract was legally binding for an...
[Canada] what is stopping private companies from undertaking roads and public transit projects	[ "Almost no private land is zoned to be a road or railway. You can't get a building permit without changing the zoning." ]	[ "> So I'm wondering why land speed records aren't set by huge rockets tipped sideways on wheels. Their are different categories for the different records, all with their own sets of rules and regulations. There is a governing body, so you can't just \"build whatever you want\". > And in regards of Piston powered c...
The typical movie scene where the good guy lights a strip of fuel/gas that is flowing out a car, fire catches up with car, car explodes. How fast does fire burn? What velocity would a car have to outrun the fire?	[ "The most cited speeds for a gasoline flame front propogation are 32.8 ft/sec to 82.0 ft/sec. Granted, that's inside a cylinder of an engine in which the charge is compressed. 1 foot per second is roughly 2/3 of a mph, so 20 to 55 mph-ish should outrun a gasoline flame front. Likely, it would be even less, as at at...	[ "Sparks near the battery can cause hydrogen fires. Sparks near the engine block are much safer. That said, modern batteries are sealed and pretty safe, but safer is always better." ]
Why have we not created an easy way to clear Carbon from rifles?	[ "I'm not sure how the military advises you to clean your rifle, but there are products that can make cleaning easier. One I use is called Frog Lube. It gets into pores in the metal and actually conditions it to resist rust and carbon build up. After a few cleanings, the rifle is impregnated with the Frog Lube, and ...	[ "Simple: Their music doesn't act as a confession. Music is a performance, you wouldn't arrest an actor for being a murderer just because they play one in a movie would you? Similarly you wouldn't arrest Eric Clapton for admitting he shot the sheriff, and you can't arrest a rapper for saying they are \"ridin' dirty\...
Why does every country have a flag? How did this tradition start?	[ "Maybe ask in /r/vexillology for a more detailed response.." ]	[ "This CGP Grey video does a really good job of explaining it all. _URL_3_" ]
What is your opinion on school history textbooks?	[ "You can find my thoughts/findings on the representation of American cultures [here](_URL_0_). It's always great to find that what you and everyone you know has dedicated their life to studying receives a single awful paragraph in just one, upper level textbook. Americans are clueless about the most basic facts o...	[ "Hi - we as mods have approved this thread, because while this is a homework question, it is asking for clarification or resources, rather than the answer itself, which is fine according to [our rules](_URL_1_). This policy is further explained in this [Rules Roundtable thread](_URL_3_) and this [META Thread](_URL_...
When you exhale, do you breath out vaporized bodily fluids?	[ "Yes, very specific bodily fluids and a very, very small quantity of them. I used to work on a project using exhaled breath condensate as a diagnostic tool. The idea was to identify certain molecules that were found in certain disease states (these are called biomarkers). We were testing it to be used on kids with...	[ "Bacteria on/in your skin metabolize the minerals in your sweat and create a by-product. TL;DR: sweat is bacteria farts." ]
Black people in ancient Rome	[ "Hi, not to discourage further answers, but there's [a section in our Frequently Asked Questions page](_URL_0_) which deal with the way that black people were treated in Rome and the differences between the current concepts of racism and ancient forms of xenophobia." ]	[ "Here's something I didn't see referenced in the three posts linked in the FAQ. There's a genetic mutation called Delta 32 or [CCR5](_URL_1_) that is believed to impart resistance to the Bubonic plague (and possibly HIV). Apparently this gene is more prevalent in Scandinavian and Slavic bloodlines. There's another ...
what causes or makes us not enjoy candy/sweets as much as we did when we were younger?	[ "Until very recently in human history, children needed every bit of energy they could get to grow into adulthood, meaning that their palates are largely geared to energy-efficient foods until they hit adolescence." ]	[ "Type 1 diabetic here, that much sugar in your blood is very hard on your organs. Imagine pipes with flowing water. Now pour as much sugar possible until it becomes a slosh :-P I mean, your blood isn't a slosh, but it's too saturated and organs like your kidneys that help filter blood have to work extra hard, hence...
What did Orthodox Christians think of the Protestant Reformation ?	[ "The Orthodox thought the Protestants were in error and offered some corrections. See more in this thread: _URL_0_" ]	[ "There is always more to say, but you might be interested in checking out this [answer](_URL_0_) I wrote on the central role Gorbachev's reforms played in the dissolution of the USSR." ]
On December 13th 2011 the Federal Communications Commission adopted a rule requiring commercials to have the same average volume as the programs they accompany, why do commercials still seem so much louder than the program?	[ "I used to work for our local TV station, Ch3 WEAR, in the master control department, and one of our jobs was to prep all commercials ran locally prior to them being loaded into our playlists. So, that meant checking captions, volume levels, run time, etc. If any of these were off by a certain margin, we had to con...	[ "During the First World War the Central Control Board was established in 1915, which \"effectively nationalised the brewery and pub industry in areas where the efficiency of munitions factories might have been damaged by drunkenness among workers\" ( _URL_2_ ). It should be noted that Lloyd George, who was Chancell...
Why do electron capture and beta decay both produce neutrinos?	[ "The simplest answer is that any particle reaction has to conserve the lepton number. Leptons {electrons, muons, taus and neutrinos} have a lepton number of 1, and their corresponding anti-particles have a lepton number of -1. So the only way to have an electron appear or disappear, and still conserve lepton number...	[ "\"Spooky action at a distance\" is what Einstein called a phenomenon now called quantum entanglement. Depending on who you ask, entanglement isn't really a poorly-understood phenomenon anymore. When we say two or more quantum particles are entangled we mean their collective state is described by a single wave-func...
What exactly do they do with your body when you die, if you're an organ donor?	[ "Depends on the program. If it is donate life or other organ donation services that assist with transplant there are certain organs they will usually always take (such as skin and eyes). There are other programs like the one I am involved in where tissue is banked for research purposes (in which case we take tissue...	[ "it's sold to bonemeal producers that grind them up and sell it as bonemeal, used for gardening as a fertilizer." ]
electromagnetism can work like gravity?	[ "Similar, but not the same. Not space-time bending. Treating the gravitational field as curvature of space-time only works because all bodies are affected by gravity in the same way. Not so with electromagnetism. Nonetheless, electromagnetism is a field, like gravity. Bodies don't act directly on each other, but r...	[ "Magnets don't use energy. The process of magnetising a piece of iron does not involve infusing it with huge quantities of energy. There is no energy to be transferred. So the question you are asking is really, how does a magnet do this without using energy? Think of it this way. The door of your fridge is not stay...
The SKS rifle and the AK47. Why did they coexist in the Soviet and Chinese armies?	[ "So the SKS was made to replace the old Mosin Nagant as the main weapon for the Soviet foot soldier. It was finally developed and deployed by the end of the 40s. However the AK was already being made and basically outdated the SKS before really being deployed. So now the Soviets have a bunch of these rifles and fac...	[ "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...
the point of changing your network's password if it can be hacked anyway.	[ "What's the point of locking your door at night if someone can break it down or enter through the window anyways? Why not leave your keys in the car if someone can break in and hotwire it anyways? It's a deterrent. There's no point in a hacker to spend hours and hours trying to get into your home network when there...	[ "New virus strains are constantly appearing. The influenza virus mutates very quickly and every year there are dozens of new strains that could infect you. That's why you have to get a new flu shot every year. When scientists are making each year's flu shot they look at what strains are currently in the wild and ma...
A commentator on the Scottish independence debate has just said that a higher voter turnout increases their margin of error. Why is that?	[ "That does seem counter-intuitive, doesn't it? Here's a possible answer (bear in mind I know nothing about Scottish law/polling practices/voting etc.) The pre-vote polls might have been created under the assumption of a small number of voters. Therefore, areas containing constituents most likely to vote may have be...	[ "Found [a handy plot for Voyager 2](_URL_0_) and it had exceeded escape velocity for the sun and since Voyager is faster, it too must have exceeded escape velocity. Looking at the plot, the blue line shows the escape velocity. The escape velocity drops as you get farther from the sun since the gravitational pull of...
Free trade and fair trade.	[ "They're two completely different things (I can see where it's confusing, though). Free trade: trade between nations with very few or no restrictions at all. Fair trade: a label given to certain products certifying that the people who made them (usually third-world farmers, etc.) were paid a fair price for the prod...	[ "Taxes. Young people don't have strong opinions on Capital Gains Tax, for example, because they don't have any yet. No strong opinions on Property Tax, because they don't own any yet. A lot of people have opinions about Estate Taxes....It's not nothing. I'm a lefty guy, but the idea that it sucks when the governmen...
Why can't router firewalls block DDoS attacks?	[ "Imagine you’re rich. You have a private estate. Your router is like a butler. The real‐life DDoS attack is that someone spread the word that there’s a party at your place. You have no intention of hosting a public party, but tonnes of people are showing up anyway. Your butler is turning them away at the door, but ...	[ "To put simply, infrastructure costs and up keeping requires a huge amount of money. Which cannot be covered by advertisements ." ]
how come kids can be preoccupied with one simple thing endlessly and adults seemingly don’t have those kinds of similar fascinations	[ "Adults certainly can be fascinated with one thing for countless hours, that's what our scientists and researchers are doing essentially. We think it's simple because we as adults already understand what is going on but think about all the stuff that even adults don't fully comprehend." ]	[ "Because it begins to lose your association with the idea it represents... IE - you say the word \"little\" and your mind immediately pictures something small.... if you continue to say \"little\" on repeat for a minute, it is just the sounds of the word coming out of your mouth and not the mental association with ...
What "enforces" the laws of physics?	[ "> What enforces these laws? The universe behaves consistently. The \"Laws\" are our mental model of how it behaves; they are descriptive not prescriptive." ]	[ "The easiest way to answer your question is to buy a double hook scale like [THIS](_URL_0_) ($20) and tow the truck with it. Do the same with various masses on the sled and you will have your answer. The amount of force to get the sled moving will probably be higher than to get the truck moving because it will lik...
Why is the algae bloom in Florida so terrible ecologically	[ "As I understand it the current Florida algae bloom is harmful because of the algae is blocking the light from reaching the sea grasses, which kills them off. That said note that there are several types of algae blooms that can be caused by dumping nutrients into the water that can be harmful in different ways. Whi...	[ "This is a very good question, but I don't know if can be aquatically explained to a 5 year old. Still, I would love to see someone do it." ]
Why CAN'T we have the characters '\', '/', ':', '*', '?', ' < ', ' > ', '\|' in a file's name in Windows?	[ "Each of them has a special meaning on the command line, so if they showed up in filenames they would lead to ambiguity. \\ is the path element separator on Windows and / is both the path separator on Unix-style systems and the normal command switch character. : is the character that indicates a drive name as well ...	[ "Like this! Oh, sorry. Forgot you weren't a real 5-year-old." ]
Why is the FBI involved in Benghazi?	[ "_URL_0_ That took me five seconds to find btw... _URL_1_ This is whats up in Benghazi. Basically Al-Qaeda killed an American ambassador and his guards." ]	[ "Just an armchair general here, but I would send the escort to make certain that the plane isn't going to get flown into a building, or the pentagon, or whatever." ]
If all the cells in our body including neurons get replaced every seven years — how do we retain memories further in time?	[ "Memories are stored in the pattern of connections between the nuerons, not in the physical matter of the body. Nuerons do not get replaced very often though. They typically last your whole life and recent evidence suggests that once they die, they do not regrow. Because of telomere lengths shorteninwith replicatio...	[ "> Why would it even matter if you're planning to live in a house for 20 years? It matters mainly if you want to refinance your mortgage. Refinancing is when you replace your loan with a crappy interest rate with a new one with a better interest rate. Technically, the way it works is you get a new loan with a good ...
Can we mine the ocean floor?	[ "Polymetalic sulfides form at hydrothermal vents, and are analogous to ore bodies found on land. There is some interest in mining these. There has been renewed interest in mining manganese nodules and crusts from the seafloor as well. So far, the yield from these types of deposits has not proven to be more profitab...	[ "It takes a ton of energy, and the cost is prohibitive. [Here is a good explanation why](_URL_0_) Here are some other discussions on this topic. _URL_2_ _URL_1_ _URL_3_ _URL_4_" ]
why some people insist that Christmas trees be called Holiday trees?	[ "Fox News does this every year. There is no \"War on Christianity.\" It's really just a bunch of BS for people to rally around." ]	[ "[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." ]
If you wanted to push an orbital object towards it’s gravitational well, as fast as possible, (say, like, using rockets to push Europa into Jupiter...) would you slow the object’s orbital speed (x)? Or push the object directly towards the gravitational center, at equal force (y)?	[ "You would slow it's orbital velocity, as it's tangential velocity decreases it will drop because the acceleration from the larger body will be able to pull it closer. Orbits work by the orbiting object moving sideways as it's attracted to the planet and so it falls around the planet. If it is no longer moving side...	[ "The impact energy is the kinetic energy the asteroid has at impact: mv^2 / 2. The minimum speed with which something can hit the surface of Earth is Earth's escape velocity: 11 km/s. Let's say the asteroid is 0.5 km in diameter and is made of rock (so its density is about 3000 kg/m^3 ): Its mass is about 1.6x10^12...
"Appropriate" margin	[ "It's calculated by overhead. In general food service/sales has a higher overhead than retail so you need a higher margin to make profit. Honestly 60% sounds low unless they are talking about packaged food or manufacturers. Restaurants run at a much higher margin. They are talking about general rule of thumb things...	[ "To answer your second question: Yes, it is arbitrary. As for where it came from: that would be a question for /r/askhistorians" ]
Do emergency vehicles have priority levels?	[ "I don't think there's necessarily an order although you'd have to ask somebody in one of those professions. Often times the ambulance corps is a part of the fire department so they'd probably be going the same direction for the most part. I'd imagine that whichever one had the path of least resistance would go i.e...	[ "It costs money by private cell providers to implement that system,. And there's no profit to be made. The only reason they would do it is if the law demanded it and the gov was going to pay to costs of it." ]
How are fonts named?	[ "The creator of the typeface names it whatever they want." ]	[ "Musical style, of course. But also the selection of instruments and how they are played. I work as a sound engineer, and there are a few of my friends i can recognize when are playing. And I guess in the same way you might recognize an author through the writing style, you might also recognize the way the music is...
Why Frodo and not Sam had to carry the ring, when clearly Sam looked like a better choice?	[ "The ring was given to Frodo by Bilbo. Once Gandalf saw that Frodo could handle it, it wasn't worth the risk of letting anyone else try carrying it, especially after Boromir's reaction. Sam helped Frodo carry it near the end, but I wouldn't say that he was the better choice. At that point, Frodo was completely worn...	[ "From my understanding, it is simply sensationalism in the time=mass. It comes from the fact that particles (think light, electrons, etc.) all have a wavelength and thus, a frequency. This can be applied to larger (objects with mass) objects. If I understood correctly, measuring said frequency of an object (frequen...
How can meteorologists predict temperatures, even within 2-3 degree ranges?	[ "Meteorologists haver been keeping records of things for a long time...they are some of the first \"big data\" people. Basically, on a global scale, things like temperature, pressure, humidity, and wind direction measured and recorded. Patterns and trends are observed... if the data in a certain area looks a certa...	[ "Part of it is surely guesstimation, but more than anything, the doctor has access to data about the survival rates of a certain disease. Something like this one: [_URL_0_](_URL_0_) In other words, hard numbers about how many people in the past have been cured and how many have not. Of course, real doctors have acc...
Why do ads on webpages load slower than the page itself? To make you accidently click them?	[ "They're often loading from a different server than the rest of the website." ]	[ "Simply put for the same reason drinking water when you're not thirsty isn't as refreshing as when you're REALLY thirsty. Anticipating the bodies' needs doesn't trigger the same reward responses in the brain as fulfilling a need that is already present. Your muscles don't NEED to stretch right now, so you can't ant...
When and how did the Tea Party start getting a stronghold in congress?	[ "It was originally started by a Ron Paul \"Tea Party\" remembrance money bomb fundraiser, for the 2008 elections. People were tired of both of the parties supporting Wars on Terror and Drugs, and rallied to cut out the worst excesses of government. Ron Paul, being then a relatively unknown, un-savy politician had t...	[ "Ahoy! I'm [Dr Richard Blakemore](_URL_1_) ([@historywomble](_URL_3_) on twitter) from the [University of Reading's History Department](_URL_4_) and I'm excited to join you on the 18th of September for an AMA about [my areas of expertise](_URL_5_) \\- the Stuart and Tudor navies, sailors in the Early Modern period,...
Why lumberjacks cut the trees a couple of inches above the ground?	[ "Inches? most cut a foot or two above the ground. You do not cut down trees with a flat cut. That is extremely dangerous. You cut down trees with a directional notch and then cutting slightly above that notch toward it from the other side of the tree. You also do not want to be laying on the ground trying to cut do...	[ "Stations charge by the second to run a commercial. Shaving down to the most recognizable parts after the long version has run saves money." ]
Friday Free-for-All \| January 26, 2018	[ "This isn't really a question so much as a META comment I wanted to make. It's really only been a few days (I think? Maybe a week?) since the FAQ Flair has been announced/created and I wanted to say so far it seems to have led to some real good links. I've seen lots of people putting in lots of work finding the bes...	[ "What exactly is not clear about the quote? Why Conference is dated by July and not by August - if so, Potsdam Conference was held from July 17, to August, 2. Bulk of debates happened in July. Source 1. [Potsdam Agreement](_URL_0_)" ]
How did humans survive for so long without toothpaste?	[ "A lot of it has to do with the difference in diet and lifestyle of then vs now. Back then (say, before the industrial revolution, at least), humans didn't eat any refined foods. They ate a lot of \"basic\" foods - wheat, rice, barley, potatoes, and the like. As you probably know, sugar is terrible for your teeth, ...	[ "We do know how to make it and actually can make better with modern processes. This is one of those yarns about ancient technology being mysterious and better. Total BS." ]
Who was "Constantine E. Zinchenko"? He seems to have been a member of the United Nations "Under-Secretary for Security and Political Affairs", but not a lot of information about him exists.	[ "Why was this post deleted? It was a Google Books link to a Russian translation of the answer." ]	[ "Zalgo text takes advantage of tricks built into unicode. Unicode is a standard for how text in all the world's major languages should be handled. It includes support not just for the latin alphabet but quite a few writing systems, including ones where text goes in other directions than left-to-right. On modern co...
Why are religions tax exempt in the first place?	[ "If you operate as a non-profit, you are tax-exempt, the U.S. government isn't just favoring religious institutions. Since all major one's do operate as non-profit (all excess is put back into the organization), they don't get taxed." ]	[ "Politics. It's an easy issue to use to paint your opponent as \"evil\" regardless of which side of the debate they are on." ]
Why are 144p and 576p there instead of a round number like all others (240p,360p,720p,1070p etc.	[ "The standard monitor aspect ratio was 4:3. The move to widescreen monitors was started less than a decade ago. Previously, 256 × 192 and 1024 × 768 was the resolution of some common monitors. Videos at 16:9 had to be shown at 256 × 144 and 1024 × 576. This is why we see these floating around." ]	[ "Another component worth mentioning is that YouTube clips can 'intelligently buffer', while GIFs lack this functionality. Imagine your friend likes pistachios, but hates opening them. You, in your infinite kindness, start to crack open the shells and placing the open pistachios next to him/her. If your friend were ...
how a word gets into the dictionary.	[ "According to [this article](_URL_1_) on the OED website, the key factor for deciding whether to include a word is \"their currency in the language (present or past)\". There are various rules they follow when making that decision, though. Interestingly, the word \"tweet\" (the noun and the verb, in the social netw...	[ "They contact the president and he puts it up on the fridge." ]
How does the cord of my earphones get all tangled up in several impossible knots?	[ "Entropy man. It takes more energy to keep something \"clean\" or \"arranged\" than it does to let it go to chaos and become a mess. Put a bunch of strings in a box and shake it. Things will get tangled up quickly, and take more time/energy from you to untie/unknot the item(s). User /u/crnaruka answered this best i...	[ "It's because you only try to fall asleep in an uncomfortable condition when you are exhausted, but you are rarely that exausted at the end of the day while relaxing in bed." ]
What exactly is happening when your body is in a coma? What determines whether you wake up?	[ "There are varying types of coma, comas caused by trauma, drug induced, etc. Trauma based comas come from your body shutting down non-essential activities (essentially putting yourself to sleep) and focusing on repairing the damage, only once the body has repaired itself to the best of it's ability will the body wa...	[ "Not a neurologist here, but I had read certain articles way back that explain our learning process. It was sort of like: we learn a certain thing while we are conscious, but this certain thing we learned is only stored as short term memory while we are conscious. The brain processes this information during sleep t...
How are people with split personality disorder diagnosed?	[ "There is also some really compelling evidence that the entire idea of \"other personalities\" isn't really a thing, that American psychologists who really wanted it to be real were inadvertently encouraging their patients to demonstrate that sort of behavior through positive reinforcement. Saying \"Tell me about y...	[ "By measuring it. There are so many contributing measurements that it is difficult to list them all in a reddit comment. [Wikipedia has an article](_URL_1_). The small uncertainty is simply a result of very precise measurements." ]
Why does bread get moldy relatively quickly, while other carb-based foods (sugar, dry pasta, crackers, etc.) don't?	[ "Bread is about 50% carbohydrate (sugars, starches, and fiber), 10% protein, and I have to assume that most of the rest is water weight. That's fairly low in water and protein, so bacteria don't grow well on it, but better water scavengers like molds can grow here. Bread also has trace elements that are needed for ...	[ "Radiocarbon dating only works for organic compounds. TL;DR is the ratio of C14 to C12 are stable over time on the earth. While alive, organic things (plants, animals,..) have the same ratio of C14 as the atmosphere. When they die, they stop replenishing C14 supplies and in turn, they decay. So by comparing the lef...
The movie The Man From Earth, gives a detailed description of how the name John was translated into Jesus. From Herbrew, to late Greek, to late Latin and then medieval Latin. How accurate / possible was the explanation given in the movie? (Video link inside)	[ "Two things are being confused in your question, though not as much in the movie, they are transliteration of a name and translation of a name. The former is representing the sound of a word, the latter the meaning (at least the way those terms are normally used) John is an English form derived from Latin Ioannes...	[ "The original film quality doesn't change. If you filmed it on poor grade film, it'll be poor forever. If you filmed it on professional grade film (basically every movie with anything resembling a budget), the quality of the film exceeds the quality achieved by the scanning process to convert to VHS or DVD. If a ne...
How do in games/movies smoke and fire in space are there? Space is a vacuum, would the smoke go away? Also no oxygen in space, wouldn't fires not even start?	[ "Games and movies often dispense with reality for the sake of storytelling. Fire and smoke look cool, and in a move or a game looking cool is way more important than accurate physics in your portrayals of fantasy space gunfights. Pew pew!" ]	[ "Many people posting here haven't actually taken a nerf gun apart and looked at it and are speculating that spring loaded guns could shoot fine in a vaccum. Well, here's a picture of a [maverick](_URL_4_) being taken apart for modding. You can see the spring is pushing on a piston-cylinder assembly. The nozzle on t...
The new definition of gender	[ "In most western culture, we have two genders (basically social roles) which we line up with the two sexes (biological bits). But there are some cultures with more than two* genders. The [Fa'afafine](_URL_1_) in Polynesia and [Hijras](_URL_0_ in India are well-known examples. The issue for us is that gender and se...	[ "Can you please give an example of \"everyone\" and of what \"recent reports\" your referring to? This is an incredibly loaded statement" ]
How did ancient Japan decide that one family should get the protective deity Amaterasu? Wouldn't there have been others who did not follow Shinto who would not recognize the Emperor's power starting out?	[ "If I recall correctly (someone please correct me if its not the case), it wasn't so much that Amaterasu was the main divinity of a well established pantheon. Rather, it was the deity of the clan that would eventually become the Imperial family, as such it was \"promoted\" to the central place it occupied afterward...	[ "What made someone a viable candidate to be Holy Roman Emperor? Were there specific criteria or was it more a matter of power and influence? Why were the Kings of kingdoms which were not in the Empire viable as candidates for Emperor?" ]
Why do you feel so tired after doing nothing all day?	[ "Even while doing nothing your body is hard at work doing many things such as: Fighting diseases (which your body has faced before) Contracting Muscles (Eg. Pumping blood around the body) Digesting food Respirating (Processing Oxygen from breathing) Creating Proteins for repairs Conducting Mitosis (How Skin, ...	[ "Educated guess here. Lots of blood and lubricating fluid builds up in all the \"tubes\" of your genitals when you sexually excited, and the tubes expand a bit for better flow. The \"plan\" is all that fluid is expelled in an ejaculation, then all the blood flow goes back to the rest of your body and all your \"tub...
What is indigestion?	[ "I'm not a doctor but indigestion is abdominal pain, heartburn, and difficultly in digesting food. Can be caused by disease ulcers, gastrointestinal issues, you could be allergic to something you are consuming. I get heart burn from constantly consuming a high carbohydrate diet, but once I cut them out my symptoms ...	[ "Can someone explain the difference between Dementia and Alzheimer's, please?" ]
What portion of causalities in armies was due to disease, prior to germ theory and antibiotics? Who was most effective at minimizing disease?	[ "> were there pre-modern armies that managed to eliminate disease as a major problem in their ranks? No. WWII IIRC was the first war with reliable statistics where combat deaths outstripped disease deaths. This was because of the invention of penicillin." ]	[ "Sorry, we don't allow [throughout history questions](_URL_0_). These tend to produce threads which are collections of trivia, not the in-depth discussions about a particular topic we're looking for. If you have a specific question about a historical event or period or person, please feel free to re-compose your qu...

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