Subset (10)

eli5 · 25k rows

Split (1)

train · 25k rows

query stringlengths 20 300	positive listlengths 1 1	negative listlengths 1 1
If we were to receive a video message from another planet, would it necessarily have to be in black and white as there would be no reference color?	[ "Would you mind expanding what you mean by this question? From what I understand there is no limitation to having colour in a video sent from another planet, the addition of a planetary distance to the transmission doesn't change anything, except transmission time and signal degradation. You might want to explain w...	[ "In the 18th century, there was thing that's come to be called The Great Male Renunciation. Up until that point, men's clothing and appearance was more varied, brilliantly colored, and luxurious. Wealthy men often wore high heels, makeup, wigs, and silks/satins. After the GMR, the neutral colored suit became the...
Why did some people confess during the Salem Witch Trials? Did they actually believe they were witches?	[ "Followup question: I know the nature of the record makes this a long shot, but do we know of any specific cases in which the accused actually were witches, and may therefore have been honestly confessing? Obviously none of them were truly directing demonic accomplices to do their bidding, but in a world in which ...	[ "I would recommend that you read [this](_URL_0_) article. It's written by Christopher Hitchens who volunteered to undergo the water boarding process. The tl;dr version is best summed up by Hitchens himself > You may have read by now the official lie about this treatment, which is that it “simulates” the feeling of...
I have a cold and when I'm standing my nose is clear, but if I sit with my back straight it gets clogged again. Why? What's the difference?	[ "It's the swollen tissue in your nasal passage. When you're standing, more blood goes to your legs and reduces the blood pressure in your upper body, which allows the nasal passage to open up a bit." ]	[ "It's all of that. Our vocal timbre, or the way our sounds, is comprised of two major factors. First, your vocal chords. Everyone's vocal chords are different, but basically, the longer and thicker your vocal chords are, the deeper your voice is. Second, your skull. The shape of your skull and the placement and sha...
Reddit, how come laptops and handhelds grow gradually slower as they get more beat up? Intuition say they should either work perfectly fine or stop working altogether.	[ "They don't. The slowing down that you experience is generally caused by more software taking runtime on your device, or your exposure to newer and faster systems. Don't believe me? Reset your device to the original settings." ]	[ "I'm pretty sure that it (the alcohol) sterilised any potential infection, but it's also exposed to human flesh (which is also sterilised, and this hurts). In theory, it's entirely possible to apply something that deals with the germs, but doesn't affect your own flesh. In practice though, we don't really have anyt...
Why were humans able to capture "black and white" photo/video before they were able to capture "color" photo/video?	[ "Basically, there are different photosensitive chemicals that capture different colors of light. Getting things in terms of light and dark using one chemical is fairly easy. However, the first hurdle was discovering and being able to produce chemicals that only reacted to certain colors of light. Then, the differen...	[ "Their eyes. Our eyes have rods and cones, and we have three different types of cones (red, green, and blue), each is for a different section of visible light. Animals like dogs only have 2 (in the case of dog yellow and blue) different types of cones. It is a simple physiological difference. _URL_0_" ]
What is the first species with eyes	[ "I'd look into planaria (_URL_0_). They've got ocelli or \"simple eyes\" that function as light-sensitive spots. Even if planaria aren't the earliest example, I'd bet what your looking for has ocelli, rather than complex eyes." ]	[ "They're not looking into light, they're looking into a relatively dark area, while being lit. You can actually see that in the picture you posted." ]
Which provinces of the Western Roman Empire remained loyal until the very end?	[ "Depends on your definition of loyal, and the very end - but, if we take 476 CE (with the deposition of Romulus by Odoacer), the provinces 'he' ruled over directly were composed of Italy, some of southern gaul, and parts of the balkans. Additionally, there was the domain of soissons, which was a rump state within G...	[ "How would we know what an \"average citizen\" thought? Every text we have is produced by the elite class. Whether people lost friends or family is impossible to know in the specifics. We do know that military disaster did not affect the political careers of the generals involved. Rosenstein in Imperatores Victi ...
Has milk (cow/sheep/goat) always been available all year round or is this a modern industrial occurrence?	[ "To add to my question. Would milk have been more of a seasonal resource with cheese being used through the periods milk was unavailable ( when I presume livestock wasn’t lactating as they were not actively feeding young or pregnant) ?" ]	[ "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...
How does a planet make noise?	[ "It's an interpretation of the magnetic field the planet has, audible sound can't travel through the vacuum of space but electromagnetic field are easy to detect with the right equipment. By assigning different parts of the field to different sounds you can have a roughly corresponding noise. Imagine each colour of...	[ "A long time ago in places like Greece, Rome and even before that in really, really long ago places like Sumeria, and Egypt people made up stories about the stars/planets and the pictures they thought groups of stars made. These stories were usually about beings they considered to be gods or demigods (the word demi...
why we are still redditing when the evil Pao hasn't been dethroned?	[ "Don'T you think its slightly hypocritical asking this question on Reddit?" ]	[ "Look at it like a chess board: After 100+ moves, it's hard to set every step back until you're in the start position. It's easier to remove all the pieces from the board and start all over. ^This ^was ^explained ^before" ]
Why on boats are the propellors at the back yet on planes they are on the front?	[ "One reason on ships, and small boats with fixed engines, is that the water from the propellor flows directly onto the rudder. That means that the steering effect is greater as the concentrated water stream from the prop is deflected by the rudder blade to turn the boat. Aeroplanes are to a large part steered by ba...	[ "It might just be your perception: you notice them buzzing around your face (the part of you with all the sensory organs) more than you notice them buzzing around your leg." ]
Why is nuclear power not as cheap to produce now?	[ "Nuclear power is extremely cheap to produce. I don't know about the time's article you're referring to but nuclear power has gotten more expensive (new regulations after fukushima are significantly expensive) while natural gas power plants have gotten MUCH cheaper. The utility I work for though is building more nu...	[ "Money and politics pretty much, NASA's budget is nothing compared to what is used to be and back then US was completing with Russia to be the first to the moon" ]
What is the scientific explanation for your stomach rumbling when you're hungry?	[ "Mass movements are initiated by the large intestine when you aren't active to encourage defecation. It is just rapid movement of the feces toward the anus. It is different from peristalsis, which is a controlled movement used by both the large intestine and small. This usually coincides with the stomach being empt...	[ "Your evolutionary ancestor is calling for help, frightening the enemy, and moving you a bit away from the danger while your brain can catch up and decide what to do next." ]
What exactly happens to the weight you lose from intense exercise?	[ "During exercise you lose weight through sweating. Simultaneously, you lose weight (all the time) by exhaling CO2 and water vapor — the food calories you eat are removed, in part, by that exhalation of breath. Some of the energy your muscles generate during exercise go to operate your muscles, and some of that ener...	[ "I'm sorry that I'm no expert, but I remember reading about this the last time a similar question was asked: _URL_0_ Basically, you percieve time faster after your run because of endorphines released during the work out, which means that the music seems slower. This is apparently also why a lot of rock musicians pl...
Can we use our own poop to make methane-biofuel?	[ "We can, and to an increasing extent, _are_ doing so. Search for 'biogas'." ]	[ "I've actually built one for a science fair before. I used _URL_0_ as a reference guide: _URL_2_ _URL_1_ It worked, but know going in that you will not get a huge amount thrust. Your setup would probably do better, but it will still most likely not be a lot. What I ended up doing that had a more striking visual eff...
why it's colder in Utah than Washington, even though Washington is farther up north.	[ "Water holds heat longer than air. Thus, the ocean has a moderating effect on the climate of Washington." ]	[ "If I am not misstanke the reason it the [Analemma](_URL_0_) of the sun. If you take a picture of the sun at the same time during a year is move in a figure 8 like in this picture _URL_0_#/media/File:Analemma_fishburn.tif The sun will be at the lowers location it location on the sky more a lot horizontally at the t...
How have scrubs, which are essentially pajamas, become socially acceptable for medical professionals to wear to work?	[ "They're extremely efficient, they can be entirely washed with no difficulty whatsoever and they're comfortable as all hell. They're also cheap enough that you can just throw out something that's been soaked with infected blood or something terrible." ]	[ "Overall crime rates have been on a well-documented and decades-long decline. Why this is happening [is unclear](_URL_0_), and by unclear I mean probably a lot of things coming together led by the baby boom getting too old to rob people and better policing. You may be interested in the concept of a [moral panic](_U...
How does soap help remove bacteria/germs when washing hands?	[ "This is what my high school chemistry teacher told us. We made soap in class. It removes nonpolar molecules like oils from your hands. Oil and water don't mix. Oil has nonpolar molecules. Water has polar molecules. Soap molecules are nonpolar chains with polar ends, so soap allows oil and water to mix thus washing...	[ "Imagine your hard drive as a giant wall, like the Great Wall of China. Now imagine that your files are painted on this wall (Images, text, music notes). When you delete a file, your computer finds the spot on the wall where that file was painted, and marks that section of the wall as \"free\". It doesn't scrub o...
How does one gallon of gasoline emit around 20lbs of CO2?	[ "Yes, there's that much oxygen being taken into the reaction. Every 1 atom of carbon takes in 2 atoms of oxygen, and oxygen weighs about 4/3 as much as carbon." ]	[ "Cattle being bred for meat eat and fart and poop. That's a lot of fart and poop. The gases get released into the atmosphere and add to the greenhouse gases." ]
The difference between a university and a college?	[ "Traditionally a college teaches one thing or a set of related things. A University is a collection of colleges. A University is made up of many colleges. The words aren't that specific anymore. Some schools are still called colleges for historical reasons even though they have a bunch of colleges. A good example ...	[ "This CGP Grey video does a really good job of explaining it all. _URL_3_" ]
During digestion, do the type of macro-nutrients ingested determine the body to release CERTAIN enzymes?	[ "I'm not sure in the general case, how more common nutrients such as carbs and fats are enzymatically treated. I do know that when certain less common nutrients (i.e., lactose) enter the environment of cells who mean to use them for energy, the presence of the nutrient molecule is detected by receptors on the outsi...	[ "You might want to take a look at [epigenetics](_URL_0_), which is a study of where the rubber of genetics meets the road of environment. Basically biological functions are entirely due to protein activity. Protein activity is influenced by many factors, but the big ones are genetic and environmental. Protein act...
My speedometer goes up to 160mph but the max speed of my car is 115mph. Why does the speedometer go so high?	[ "And often the dashboard is not only used for a specific car. Think of the same model with different motors. Some can only go to 115 but a bigger engine may can go to 150 mph. And that's not only for the same model. Even different models from the same brand can have the same dashboard. While most of those dashboard...	[ "This is a really dumbed down explanation, compared to the other answers. The live memory in older video games (like the NES) is very simple. Think of it like 10 boxes, the first one is your score, the second is your current level, third one is your lives, and so on. Now, let's say the maximum score was 999. Seth m...
I've always been curious about the Winter War between USSR and Finland. Any especially good books or articles on it?	[ "Photos instead of articles: Last month the Finnish Defence Forces put an [archive of 160,000 WWII-era photographs](_URL_2_) online. The Atlantic has [excerpted](_URL_1_) 40 striking ones. It's a shame it's over, but there was also an incredible interactive exhibit at the [Finnish Military Museum](_URL_0_) that end...	[ "There are. One of the most easily accessible collections is [\"Documenting the American South\"](_URL_0_) which is a digitization project carried out by the Uni. Of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. [\"First Person Narratives of the American South](_URL_0_/fpn/) and [\"The Southern Homefront, 1861-1865\"](_URL_0_...
Is this really the orientation of the planets orbits relative to the motion of our solar system?	[ "OP is asking simply if the plane of the solar system is inclined relative to the galactic plane. And the answer is yes. It's hard to tell from everyones existing replies, but yes." ]	[ "Point a flashlight at the wall and turn it on. See the small circle? Now, let's say your flashlight is delivering xyz power to the wall. So xyz power is landing in that circle, right? Tilt the flashlight in any direction. The circle spreads out across the wall doesn't it? But you didn't change the batteries or any...
What exactly is salvia, and how does it effect the brain?	[ "Salvia is a plant which is basically sage. There's different species of the plant, Salvia divinorum is the one that produces a high. It has Salvinorin A in it, which is basically an opioid, which is what gets you high like many other drugs. Ps. Affect and effect are two different things and not interchangeable. A...	[ "Saliva only contains amylase and lysozymes, which digests complex carbohydrates like that found in bread and carbohydrates found on the surface of bacteria." ]
Is there any non-Biblical proof for the United Kingdom of Israel and Judea?	[ "Why can't we say that the Bible can be taken as proof? Legitimate question as this isn't my field of study. As far as I know, from my old days of studying the Bible loosely, many of the older Biblical works (Joshua, Judges, Samuel, Kings, Isaiah, etc.) which speak of the Kingdom of Israel and Judea are dated arou...	[ "[The Fordham Internet History Sourcebooks](_URL_1_) are pretty much go-to in terms of finding major/commonly-assigned primary documents in simple text format. The faculty in my department use Fordham docs a ton in assigning readings. I use the [Public Records Office of Northern Ireland](_URL_0_) online selection, ...
When did people start smiling in photographs?	[ "People will tell you how developing the photo took a long time, this is actually not true since the exposure time were shortened to a few seconds by 1850's. The biggest reason is photography at the time was an alternative to getting your portrait painted. They viewed it as a serious thing thing to do, so they kept...	[ "Cause our diet is completely different now. Sugar is everywhere and it destroys your teeth." ]
Why are the "r" and "l" sounds so difficult for toddlers to master when they're learning to speak?	[ "You probably want to clarify the language and the dialect. Or use IPA. These are by no means the same in most languages as they are in one specific one." ]	[ "This is a deceptively deep question that has to do with spectroscopy selection rules. If you google \"Raman scattering selection rules\" and take a look at some of the results you'll learn a lot. In this case there's a complimentary distinction between IR spectra and Raman. In a very crude sense, because of the se...
Why do phone storage have 8gb, 16gb, 32gb, 64gb and etc. Why not do it by 10, 20, 40, 60gb and so on?	[ "Binary system. All computer storage and programs work on the binary system - 1 and 0. So everything is powers of 2." ]	[ "Singles were created before the Internet, to get popular songs out quickly. The artist wouldn't have enough material or time to release something longer at the time. Traditionally, just an A-side (single) and the B-side. 2 songs. Nowadays, a few remixes. Somewhere around 6-15 minutes. EP stands for extended play, ...
why do computers need MAC address when they have IP address to identify them?	[ "You've almost answered the question yourself. The MAC address identifies the device at layer-2. The IP address identifies the device at layer-3. Both addresses are necessary to uniquely identify your PC on a given network. Lets say you have 3 devices on your home network, ip1/mac1, ip2/mac2 and ip3/mac3. Think of ...	[ "\"America\" can't, but Texans in his district certainly can. Once every two years they get the opportunity Mr. Smith is a congressman, and he represents one particular place. Only people from that place get to vote for or against him. Unfortunately Mr. Smith represents a wealthy area near Austin, Texas where I sus...
How is engine size determined in liters? What do those liters represent? Like a 3.7L V6?	[ "Liters represent volume; in this case the volume of displacement in the engine's cylinders. So if you have a 3.0 liter V6 engine, the total volume of the 6 cylinders is 3 liters, or half a liter each. The higher the volume, the more air can fit in those pistons, meaning more gas can be burned, creating more power....	[ "Cholesterol listed on food is the actual molecule known as cholesterol. LDL and HDL refer to transporters of cholesterol in your blood. HDL picks up cholesterol from around the body and brings it to the liver, thus is considered good. LDL does roughly the opposite, and is therefore considered less good. The health...
I spent a frustrating hour with GIMP before coming to you guys, please ELI5 how to make animated .gifs.	[ "You'll need each individual 'frame' to be on a separate layer. If you already have all your pictures you want to turn into a .gif made (and named in proper order), simply go File > Open as layers, select all pictures, and it will imported as layers. Once you have every frame on it's own layer, select File > Save A...	[ "There are ways of looking at your computer to see its 'fingerprint' that can be connected to other programs, such as facebook or imgur that also can see that computer 'fingerprint' to build a profile on the person. If someone wants to badly enough, they can connect all the dots, including reddit to all of your ema...
Fun house mirrors, and camera lenses.	[ "There is nothing special about your camera or camera phone that would let it correct such distortion. Even if it had a distortion correction system, it would be calibrated for the distortion produced by its lens -- it wouldn't detect distortion in the image automatically. What I think is going on here is that the...	[ "Because you are used to seeing yourself in reverse while viewing the _URL_0_ pictures you are seeing yourself how everyone else sees you.That's why if you ask someone if you look odd in a picture they'll most of the time say \"no you look fine\"." ]
Gas vs Diesel Engines	[ "The difference isn't exactly how the fuel is injected, it's how it's ignited. Both systems use an injector to introduce the fuel into the chamber, except for old style carbureted gas engines. Gas engines use a spark plug to ignite the fuel/air mixture at the top of the pistons stroke. The diesels piston compresse...	[ "Adam and Jamie (from Mythbusters) did an awesome job demonstrating the difference between CPU's (sequential\\linear) and GPU's (parallel) computation. [NVIDIA: Adam and Jamie explain parallel processing on GPU's](_URL_0_)" ]
Did the Confederacy celebrate the fourth of july?	[ "No, it was seen as a Union holiday and after the war was an event mainly celebrated by freedmen. The worst lynchings and massacres in Reconstruction occurred when white people attacked 4th of July celebrations. There's not a specific date when Southerners began to reconcile themselves with the Union but most histo...	[ "I'll answer your question with a question; how does someone displaying a symbol or flag violate your rights? What right is being violated? Freedom of speech applies to everyone and everything, that's what's so beautiful about it. While I am in no way supportive of what these symbols may or may not represent, I h...
How does the Kepler spacecraft tell the difference between a single large planet making a transit in front of its star and multiple smaller planets doing the same?	[ "Two planets can only have the same period if one is much bigger and one is in the other's Lagrange point. If they have different periods, then we'd see the intensity dropping with different frequency for each one. It would be pretty cool if there was a planet at a Lagrange point, I guess. A Trojan planet. [Jupiter...	[ "We aren't just looking at how red an object is when determining red shift. We're looking at how the object's emission lines line up with where we know they should be. Every atomic or molecular substance will absorb or emit light in very specific bands of wavelengths. Checking where we observe these lines (for exam...
How is Go different from Chess?	[ "Uh it's an entirely different game with almost no similarity to chess other than being complex and the fact that similar minds to tend to be attracted to both. The biggest \"difference\" is that in chess, it's easy to fall behind early on in such a way that it's impossible (barring stupid blunders on the other sid...	[ "You might be interested in some previous threads comparing the Cheka and the Okhrana: * [Was the USSR's method of keeping order (especially under Stalin) similar to the old tsarist way?](_URL_1_) - 4 comments, over 1 year old. * The commenters here explore the goals of, methods used, and punishments inflicted by b...
Why is it that search engines do not block results to their competitors' sites?	[ "1) google doesn't lose if you use bing 2) as soon as they start restricting or modifying search like this, people leave" ]	[ "Same way you would. You recognizance that the words in this sentence are English words, so you guess that I'm in fact writing in English. Och du ser att orden i den här meningen inte är engelska, eftersom att de är svenska (and you see that the words in this sentence are not English, as they are Swedish) And googl...
Why is it that I get bored of eating the same evening dinner twice in a row, but can eat the same breakfast for the rest of life?	[ "It's all a matter of conditioning. Your parents probably didn't give you fried shrimp, barbecue shrimp, poached shrimp, coconut shrimp, etc for breakfast. But some people live like that all the time. In our 9 to 5 world, we tend to like something \"nice\" or \"special\" after a long day at work. The ability to coo...	[ "commercialism. if you were happy with your old stuff, you wouldn't need to buy new stuff. all the designers and manufacturers come out with new looking stuff and market the old stuff as ugly and new stuff as pretty in order to make money. our tastes are hugely influenced by others." ]
When did people start to smile while getting their picture or portrait taken?	[ "In older styled pictures, it could take 15 minutes or more for a picture to be actually taken. This is why we saw black spectre like veiled mothers on child portraits; they wish to be hidden from view but they need someone to hold the child still! Once picture taking became more rapid, people could afford to com...	[ "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...
; how to make my computer run fast again.	[ "I'm assuming you're running windows, since you didn't specify. If the usual registry cleaners and defrag doesn't help, you might try disabling any services you don't absolutely need, or as a last resort reinstall the OS (though if it's only a year old, that's probably overkill). Also, I'd suggest that questions li...	[ "There's lots of things that may kill/destroy a virus. The trick is finding something that doesn't also kill/destroy you." ]
Junk epigenetic modifications?	[ "We don't really know for sure what a lot of epigenetic modifiers do. Many of them are poorly understood, so I don't think it's possible to conclusively say that a certain epigenetic mark is \"junk\"." ]	[ "Look at the genes of people who get disease X, look at the genes of people who don’t. See which genes are only present in people who get disease X." ]
Can/do elements exist where electrons and protons are replaced with positrons and anti-protons?	[ "The chemistry of antimatter should be extremely similar if not identical to that of matter. Any difference due to CP violation will arise from loop-level contributions, so will be tiny. This is very difficult to verify experimentally. So far only antihydrogen [^1](_URL_0_) and antihelium [^2](_URL_1_) have been ob...	[ "For that type of early photography you take a dark baseplate coated in silver and expose it to fumes from typically iodine or chlorine. This changes the pure silver to a compound that is sensitive to light. The places where the light hits are turned back into silver by that. So after exposure you get the image in ...
Could plasma (state of matter, not blood plasma) be a solvent?	[ "Plasmas are unstable in general, and adding a neutral gas to them threatens to cool it down to a point of recombination, and the ions and electrons would recombine into regular atoms and molecules If you maintain the plasma while adding a neutral gas, the plasma would ionize the gas and you would have new ion spec...	[ "A few videos on youtube by people who make that kind of stuff: _URL_0_ _URL_1_ You need to start with a seed crystal which you dip in the saturated solution and then as the water evaporates the salt precipitates on the seed crystal. You may be increasing the speed of the evaporation by heating and that may be caus...
Why are conservatives so against the idea of socialism?	[ "Most conservatives believe that the role of government should be as limited as possible, and that every time the government expands its involvement in the lives of the people, individual freedoms are reduced. For many conservatives, this belief goes hand in hand with the idea that those who are fortunate in life ...	[ "American here, we don't like anything new near our buttholes. New things scare us, anything to do with buttholes scare us. We may be the best country in the world but we are very shy about our buttholes." ]
How do the Russians explain to their history students how the Soviets unheroically invaded Poland in '39 and their participation in the Ribbentrop–Molotov Pact (Nazi–Soviet Pact)?	[ "They explain it as a circumstancial movement for creating a buffer zone against Germany as the Soviet Union had tried repeteadly to make an alliance against the nazis with the western powers which didn't accept, leaving the SU alone and isolated. They made the pact for gaining time because they knew the germans we...	[ "> an example would be Mexico were they pledge alliance with the roman salute That is a traditional rite which doesn't make it relate to the way the Nazi's used it. Mexico was never under Nazi occupation and as such doesn't have the same connotation with it. > why did the media label it as a nazi salute when it d...
Restaurant beef vs. fast food beef	[ "With whole cuts of meats, like steaks, it's not strictly necessary (from a food safety perspective) to cook to a minimum temperature, as long as the outer sides (the only parts potentially contaminated with pathogens) are cooked. (Although often a snippet of text warning about the potential hazards of undercooked ...	[ "Well kid, you remember the difference between nouns, verbs and adjectives, right? And sometimes you can put \"that\" or \"also\" in a sentence or take it out and it doesn't change the meaning? Well, put those together and you have this sentence. Let's take something with the same structure. \"Dallas chickens that...
Why is it that when I put honey directly on bread, the bread gets crunchy-ish?	[ "The sugar in the honey is drawing the moisture out of the bread. Honey is a _URL_0_ which is a hygroscopic substance. _URL_1_ \"Hygroscopic substances include cellulose fibers (such as cotton and paper), sugar, caramel, honey, glycerol, ethanol, methanol, diesel fuel, sulfuric acid, methamphetamine, many fertiliz...	[ "Pigeons like large fields and don't mind nesting in cities, that also don't mind eating french fries and such. Many of the birds, or even most, just don't like that type of environment and won't nest near it, you won't find hummingbirds in an open park, they eat nectar and stay near flowers, you won't find goldfin...
If a hybrid/battery-powered car is charged by a coal-based power plant, is it still greener than a purely gasoline-fueled car?	[ "One big thing to note is that an electric vehicle charged on coal-derived electricity can much more easily have its emissions controlled for pollutants than could your typical combustion engine vehicles. It is not economical to have strict vehicle emission regulations whereas it can be for conventional power gener...	[ "Imagine you have a computer on your house. Now you want to connect that computer to your friend 100 miles away. How do you do it? You could lay a 100 mile cable, but do you have the permissions to dig up roads and pathways? You would use a company whose cables were already there, and just use that network of cab...
What is that loud ringing noise I can hear when I'm trying to sleep after a night out?	[ "It is a symptom called tinnitus. It is a 'ringing in the ears' that happens when you experience loud noises. The little hairs that sense sounds in your ear get damaged. When you get tinnitus after a night out, you have done damage to your hearing. Most of that damage will probably heal, but if you keep doing it, y...	[ "Your nail hits the coin very sharply as you flip it, and it rings just like a xylophone bar. The difference in the timbre is because it is in the air, with nothing to dampen the vibrations. Edit -After thinking about it for a minute, you probably also get a bit of Doppler Effect/vibrato from the coin spinning. Th...
How much money do popular Youtube channels really make? How do they make money when I can watch them for free?	[ "According to _URL_1_, the highest-paid channel is Pewdiepie at $7 million per year. Jenna Marbles is at $4.3 million per year, Annoying Orange at $3.4 million, and EpicMealTime at $1.3 million. The reason they get paid that much is ad revenue. How can television networks afford to pay millions of dollars per episo...	[ "There's also something about you're only allowed to have five seconds with sound at a time. Notice how much of Cinema Sins is them talking, then brief sound, then talking. Also, when you review a movie, it's considered \"Fair Use\", that means that you're not infringing on any copyright, because you're talking abo...
Why do proteins have different names?	[ "This is due to how the English language developed and the Norman conquest of England. The Normans, who basically took over the nobility of the Island spoke French. So the terms for the food that they ate were the french words for that food. Over time the words morphed slightly to the modern words poultry, beef, v...	[ "You may want to check out alternative periodic tables. There are various ways to express the same information. [_URL_0_](_URL_1_)" ]
How come sometimes to go "back" on my browser I have to furiously click the back button instead of a single click?	[ "Some websites have a very fast redirect coded into them for ad purposes or whatever, so you have to click back (usually twice) very quickly to go back to the first page prior to the redirect, and then the page you actually thought was before." ]	[ "Because bugs crawl on us, and some can be dangerous. Think about two phenotypes: A human with a shudder response to bugs, and a human without. In the wild, the human who shudders and reacts strongly to a bug on its skin gets the bug off of its skin as quickly as possible. If you've just walked through a spiderweb ...
If cigarettes contain things like arsenic, butane, cadmium, ammonia, and formaldehyde, how can people smoke then everyday for years without dying within the first few weeks?	[ "There is no such thing as lethal or safe substances. There are only lethal and safe doses. Water can be toxic if you drink enough of it." ]	[ "Probably some fish are a good example to explain why. Pangasius is a fish that's cultivated in Vietnam. It can get oxygen out of the air, so for the farmer (sorry, don't know the proper word in english) it doesn't matter too much if the water is clean or not. They can grow a lot of fish in a really small amount ...
What is Net Neutrality? Why does it matter? Or why should i care?	[ "It's the concept that all Internet Service Providers (ISP) should treat all traffic on their network as equal. It prevents a \"pay-to-play\" scenario where ISPs charge fees for priority treatment. So large companies who can pay the fees get a higher priority over smaller companies who can't afford the fees. It all...	[ "When you watch a video it only needs to send the video as fast as it needs to in order to play it back. When you download a large file from Steam it attempts to get you the file as quickly as possible." ]
Can animals laugh situationally/develop a sense of humor?	[ "I'm curious about this too. When I play with my dog, she makes little snorting sounds that I like to think are giggles, like a little kid playing. Not the same as \"getting the joke\" but definitely playful." ]	[ "These sort of questions are really hard to answer under the auspices of \"science\". Someone can probably tell you a story based on a sort of \"evolutionary reasoning\" (and these stories are where a lot of evolutionary studies begin), but unless they can cite a serious research program that has investigated this...
If i were to dig deep down into the earth how would the gravity change? Would the mass above me decrease the gravity's effect on me?	[ "The mass above you wouldn't affect you (look up the shell theorem), but the way the density of the Earth changes means that the gravitational field actually increases as you get deeper, up to about 10.6 m/s^(2), about halfway to the center when you reach the outer core. Below that, it falls off towards zero at the...	[ "[There are ](_URL_0_) [a few](_URL_2_)[ things that can cause compression](_URL_3_) in the spine which will make you shorter. Basically what happens is the disks between your vertebra can get compressed thus making you shorter. [You also will get shorter as you age] (_URL_1_) for similar reasons." ]
Can someone explain to me this map from the 9th century Europe?	[ "The boring answer is that its not an accurate map, or intended to be one since its from an atlas for schoolchildren from 1905. From the [preface](_URL_0_): > The principles which have been followed are mainly two-never sacrifice clearness for the sake of detail, and to let each map deal with one period only; in s...	[ "It looks like it's different editions of the same book. The first book you linked is the [US paperback edition](_URL_1_), the second book is the [UK ebook edition](_URL_3_). There's also an [UK paperback edition](_URL_0_) and a [US ebook edition](_URL_2_). It is not unusual for there to be a slight delay between e...
I'm looking for books/sources on the Christianization of Anglo-Saxon England and its relation to folk religious practices.	[ "I'm currently reading Frank Stenton's Anglo-Saxon England, which has some extensive chapters on the Christianization of the Saxons and the constitution of the early English church, its development, its litterature and its relation to Irish Christianity. It doesn't, much to my dismay, cover much concerning pre-chr...	[ "Is this a homework question? It says in our [rules](_URL_2_): Our users aren't here to do your homework for you, but they might be willing to help. Remember: AskHistorians helps those who help themselves. Don't just give us your essay/assignment topic and ask us for ideas. Do some research of your own, then come t...
How do they make artificial sweeteners taste the same as real food?	[ "Look at the structure of [Sucralose](_URL_0_) (Splenda) vs [Sucrose](_URL_1_) (Normal sugar). Notice how similar they are, splenda only having a couple extra chlorine atoms? Because it has the same structure as sugar, your taste buds pick it up as sugar. but the addition of the chlorine atom makes it so your body...	[ "They play the music at the same % as how fast they plan to sped up/slow down the video and have the singers lip-sync to that version." ]
When I choose the "skip" option on certain files in a torrent, why do some of them sometimes still download, often even 100% of the file?	[ "The content of a torrent is split into blocks of a fixed size. That's the smallest unit your client can reliably download. Each block can contain one or more files (or parts of them). When you choose to skip a file, but the block containing this file also contains another file that you didn't choose to skip, the w...	[ "Computers run on sets of instructions telling it how to run all the parts of the computer and build an interface so you can use those parts. Say you're following a recipe for a cake. Then you finish the cake and someone comes along with a better way to make a cake by adding another ingredient and changing how muc...
Why Do Police Use Loud Sirens When Responding To Bank/House Robberies As It Alerts The Thieves They're Coming?	[ "Everything in police work is about maximizing the safety of the public. The use of sirens is a safety system to let other drives know \"I'm responding to an emergency, I'm in a hurry, get the fuck out of my way!\". Anytime that a call is urgent enough to require speed, it requires these safety features. The poten...	[ "I don't feel my intelligence is insulted. Laughter is actually a group activity. Studies have backed this up: on being told a joke, you're much more likely to laugh if you're with other people than if you're on your own. Movies don't need laugh tracks, because they're designed to be watched in an auditorium with a...
Could frequency modulation be used on the AM spectrum?	[ "Yes. You could FM in AM and vice versa. AM suffers from fading, which makes the resultant sound level constantly changing. The sound level of FM isn't affected by the actual radio signal amplitude, though modern radios tend to lower the volume when the signal is low. This is to reduce the volume of the noise that ...	[ "They were easy to get a hold of because this was prior to the [National Firearms Act](_URL_3_). As to availability, [Thompson sold it by mail order and in stores](_URL_1_). Price doesn't seem to have been the determining factor. Only the civilian models used the circular drum magazine. The military [M1A1](_URL_4_)...
Why is it so important for people with head injuries to stay awake and not fall asleep? Is this only in the movies or is it for some legit reason?	[ "Mainly for evaluation. If you go to sleep/pass out it's hard for someone to figure out your symptoms and such. All concussions are bad, but if you suffered a brain hemorrhage (internal bleeding in the brain) people need to know ASAP or you will die. Once evaluation is complete and they're sure you're not going to ...	[ "Hits to bony areas usually cause large swelling very quickly. There is no fat/muscle to blunt the force. The piece you see is actually an \"eye iron.\" It is simply a cold piece of metal. That piece is applied and pressed into the swelling to minimize/reduce it. It literally \"pushes\" the swelling down. The co...
When I lose weight, how does my body know where to burn the fat from?	[ "The body doesn't know where to burn fat from. The idea of localized fat burning is a myth. Instead, the body burns fat from everywhere in your body, with some reserves being easier to access than others, giving the illusion of localized fat burning." ]	[ "Imagine your hard drive as a giant wall, like the Great Wall of China. Now imagine that your files are painted on this wall (Images, text, music notes). When you delete a file, your computer finds the spot on the wall where that file was painted, and marks that section of the wall as \"free\". It doesn't scrub o...
Why do they pat down ufc fighters before the enter the ring?	[ "They check their bodies for grease or other lubrication that would help them slip out of submission attempts easier. They are checking for things like putting a oil based hair styling product in the hair so as they sweat it drips down them or putting lotion on before they get sweaty so it comes out with the sweat....	[ "The check-in is quick for organised guests. Most of the waiting time is the agents sorting out guests who have either: stuffed up their booking, overweight with their luggage, carrying something considered a dangerous good, seat allocation changes and changing connection flights. This all takes time. Take note of ...
Is there a maximum weight for a volume?	[ "Well, I don't know about any fundamental limit, but there is a maximum density you can have before it would collapse in on itself to form a black hole. For a sphere the maximum density would be 6.73×10^26 kg/m^3, above which it would all fall inside the [Schwarzschild radius](_URL_0_) EDIT: Actually thats the maxi...	[ "Not at all. One of the most interesting demonstrations of this is breathable fish bags that allow gasses to pass but hold water...pretty handy for shipping fishes without suffocating them." ]
When sick, you're often told to drink more water. why?	[ "It's to keep you hydrated. Most of the time you are sick, you are running a fever (and thereby sweating), you may be vomiting and/or have diarrhoea. All of these cause you to lose a lot of fluids. As for the follow up, I don't know." ]	[ "I'm not an expert in Australian weather terms, but here in Canada we actually have two different terms for this kind of thing: humidex and wind chill. The humidex is used in summer, and is typically higher than the \"real temperature\", because humid air feels hotter than drier air. The body cools itself by swea...
How are more accurate tools made from less accurate tools?	[ "The best book I have read on the subject is \"Foundations of Mechanical Accuracy\" by Wayne Moore. The short synopsis is the you make a very flat object by grinding three granite surfaces against each other until they are as flat as you need. This granite becomes your reference plane. You can then lightly dust the...	[ "This question is rather ambiguous. Could you clarify? Do you mean creation of new mass, splitting atoms into their composites, or making new elements? TL;DR more stuff, dissecting stuff, or new types of stuff?" ]
How did women treat UTIs in the past?	[ "> UTIs don't seem to be something that go away on their own Not an answer to the historical aspect but just wanted to clarify this; they usually do go away even without antibiotics actually, antibiotics are used mostly to shorten the time of the infection and ease the symtoms. I'm a nurse and midwife in Sweden and...	[ "With trepidation, I will try my first posting of an image - one suitable for this question. This is [John Piper's Old Corner Bar](_URL_0_) in Virginia City, Nevada in late 1860, illustrated by Grafton Brown, an African American Artist who produced a Bird's Eye View of the town (with businesses illustrated around p...
How do all natural numbers add up to 1/12?	[ "The sum 1+2+3+4.... doesn't really equal -1/12, in the conventional sense of addition and summation. But it's possible to extend a particular function outside of its regular domain in a way that's useful sometimes but misleading other times and yields the result -1/12 for that particular sum. I don't think anybody...	[ "Generally, it's done in a minor key where the tune is altered, so anything can be spoopy when done that way (Have you seen the Teletubby episode in black and white that plays a Joy Division Song over it?). Also, one of the early films to do this was Nightmare on Elm Street where kids are jumping rope and singing ...
Biologically speaking, is there any difference between a genius and a ordinary person brain's?	[ "My neurophysiology teacher told us that when Einstein died, they studied his brain to see if there was anything particular with it and found it that its brain had more glial cells than average. Glial cells are what maintain a good environment for neurones by maintaining ionic concentration and adequate extracellul...	[ "I don't think there have been extensive studies on the Great Wall in particular, but I was able to find one: _URL_0_ The key figure is Fig. 3, which demonstrates the genetic separation between plants on either side of the wall. Similar studies have been done in other places though: _URL_1_ indicates some kind of ...
Did Native Americans ever clash with Incans or Mayans?	[ "Incans and Mayans are Native Americans. Do you mean specific tribes in what is now the US?" ]	[ "Alrighty guys, because apparently maturity and self-control are in short supply tonight, I'll go ahead and make this thread-level post. * Your jokes are not funny. Needless to say, they do not belong here. If your comment has no substance, do not post it. If any further jokes occur here, you will be warned, wi...
Are there shipwrecks full of loot in the Mediterranean Sea?	[ "People do [try and salvage ](_URL_10_) shipwrecks in the Mediterranean. There is an abnormally high number of potentially valuable sunken ships in that area, given its long history of being sailed. In the context of the Greek shores, described above, government regulations have banned salvaging activity. This crea...	[ "Just a few comments that caught my eye this week: - /u/rkiga on [In Ancient Rome, where did the wealthy keep their...wealth? Gold? Money?](_URL_0_). This one caught more than just my eye, but there's also some excellent follow-up responses that got less attention. - /u/reedstilt on [To what extent were Precolumbia...
What is white noise?	[ "White noise is sound evenly distributed across a broad range of frequencies. The reason it is called white is because white light is also composed of light across a broad range of frequencies. Other related types of noise include pink, red, brown, etc. Each is named for the way that the sound is distributed across...	[ "Never heard of this before, googled, and now see it is a thing. Newsprint is very rough, meaning it is not smooth, but has tons of imperfections. Imperfections means debris can get trapped in it. Much like a shamwow or magic eraser, it is all about having a bunch of imperfections that can grab debris. News print ...
Connections between Dome Styles, Cathedrals and Mosques	[ "The prototype of Muslim domes is the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem. It was constructed by the Umayyad dynasty with Byzantine architecture as model. So yes, there is a strong connection between the Christan, mostly Orthodox, domes and the Muslim domes." ]	[ "Would you be willing to compare and contrast the relationship between the 'Mandate of Heaven' and each religion. Also, would you include Neoconfucianism, as from what I understand it is an mixture of the 3 belief systems of some sort. Thank you guys!" ]
Did citizens in the USSR have to pay taxes?	[ "The Soviets relied on a few different taxes but the primary tax was along the lines of a modern VAT tax called the turnover tax. They also had a food tax and a childless tax, and other minor forms of taxation. I'm not aware of any income tax equivalent to the US system of taxation. An Economic History of the U.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...
What causes waves to look like a wave?	[ "In the case of electromagnetic waves, the thing that's 'waving' is the electromagnetic field: specifically, a changing electric field produces a magnetic field and vice versa. Since it isn't a physical motion (i.e., there isn't an actual object moving up and down, the way waves on strings and in water work) there'...	[ "Drop a marble down the edge of a round bowl. Unless your bowl is perfectly straight and your marble is perfectly round, it's gonna wobble and spin into the center. If a stream of water is flowing towards a drain and \"misses\" to one side, the water around it will push it sideways and back in, creating a swirl." ...
I've never seen banana seeds. Where do new bananas come from?	[ "The bananas we eat are infertile. They've been selectively bred to have small seeds and over time the seeds basically just disappeared. (Those small specs in the banana are technically seeds) Most bananas are clones. Replanting banana tree trimmings actually let's you grow an entire other tree, although geneticall...	[ "Because most pennies are not rolled up and returned to banks. They go into giant jars or kid's math posters. Stores go to banks to get pennies, and the bank has to get them from the mint because outflow > > inflow. No mint would make pennies unreliable, and stores would have to handle that through rounding for cas...
Why is the mother of Jesus deified but his father is almost not mentioned?	[ "Follow up question, is there any information about how marriages were consumated during that time period? It always seemed a little strange to me that they were married but she was still a virgin." ]	[ "Robert kardashian (the OG patriarch) was a high profile lawyer who was a part of OJ Simpsons defense team. Then he died of cancer, his wife remarried and his daughter fucked a c list celebrity and released the tape of it." ]
why do people hate Obama so much?	[ "I dislike Obama but I also disliked G.W. Bush but I was too young to say anything when Bush was I office. What I dislike about Obama is the fact he will bypass laws to get what he wants or what he feels is \"right\". It's more of my dislike for his administration than just dislike for Obama. Another thing is how m...	[ "This CGP Grey video does a really good job of explaining it all. _URL_3_" ]
How do muscles produce so much force when they seem to be pulling/pushing at angles that would seem to decrease the overall force output?	[ "The answer is what it seems to be at first glance. Muscles are actually very strong. It's true a lot of muscles work at a mechanical disadvantage, but it's weighed up against the ability to do more with the arm. If the arm was built so the bicep muscle was attached at the point of maximum mechanical advantage (li...	[ "Because the bullets are propelled by literal explosions. Now you'll all have to excuse any incorrect use of terminology here but the front of the bullet is what leaves the barrel, and the rest of it (the casing) is filled with gunpowder. When you pull the trigger the firing hammer hits the back of the bullet, sett...
how does lucid dreaming work?	[ "Basically, the idea is to keep the concious part of your brain awake, or to wake it up, whilst the rest of your brain is sleeping. This then allows you to consciously interact with your dream environment and, to an extent, bend it to your will, letting basically do anything you want or can imagine. The reason this...	[ "Radiolab does a really good job of explaining it like I'm 5: _URL_0_" ]
How are we sure that other galaxies, or even other solar systems, aren't made up entirely of anti-matter?	[ "The short answer is that we are simply not sure. In fact, such a situation could be one possible explanation for why there appears to be so much matter in the universe than antimatter, called the problem of [baryon assymetry](_URL_0_). The trick is that these regions of antimatter would have to be well-separated f...	[ "Nope. It confirmed a prediction of the [Standard Model of Particle Physics](_URL_0_). The Standard Model doesn't say anything about supersymmetry (often abbreviated to SuSy) or the multiverse. SuSy is a hypothetical extension to the Standard Model. It's a pretty extension, but to date there is absolutely no experi...
How many countries has the CIA orchestrated (or attempted) a regime change in?	[ "This is controversial because how much the CIA was involved can sometimes be over exaggerated. One of which would be Chile since really, the Military was already in the stages of overthrowing the regime there. Much of the top generals and officers already hated Communists/Socialists and such hatred were further va...	[ "We only have 150 years worth of direct temperature readings (ie. taken with a thermometer) for the planet. There are many different proxies for measuring temperature throughout the more distant past. CO2 ratios in air bubbles trapped in deep ice cores, tree ring data, marine sediment layers, and others. All of whi...
Cannabis is just a plant, however there are hundreds of different strains. What is the difference and why are they all different?	[ "Think of cannabis like apples. There are red apples and green apples and even yellow apples. Each Apple tastes a little different, some are sweet some are more sour, but they are all still apples. Cannabis is the same way." ]	[ "Ask Reddit is for personal opinions, stories, and the like. Essentially subjective answers to questions without hard answers. Something like \"whats your favorite food\" is a good post there ELI5 is for getting a simplified answer or explanation to a question that you don't understand. A good thread here would som...
why is there a decline in the number of bowling alleys?	[ "In my personal opinion I think people have just moved on from bowling. There are some places like Main Event, which have bowling along with a giant arcade. It's not that people don't like bowling, it may not be as popular as it once was, but that a lot of the bowling alleys were opened around height of bowling's p...	[ "These answers were largely true years ago, but not so much today. The large outlet shopping centers you see all over are not selling off quality, or outdated goods. The manufacturers make other specifically for the outlet markets, usually of slightly lower quality. Source: worked for Levi Strauss and they have doz...
Collective punishment - does it work as a deterrent?	[ "Try cross posting your question to /r/asksocialscience - since this is a matter that deals with psychology, they're your folks." ]	[ "Hi there -- while we've approved this question, we would like to remind potential respondents of our [current events](_URL_0_) (AKA \"20-year\") rule -- it's fine to discuss events through 1997 (inclusive) and their effects, but not events after 1997. Thanks!" ]
How are transistors (and others small computer parts) made if they are so small?	[ "You ever see an old movie or slideshow projector? Shine a light through a tiny picture then through a lens and it projects this massive image on the screen from a tiny picture. Turns out we can do that in reverse. Shine a light through a big picture and lens and we can project a tiny image on a tiny screen. Sc...	[ "You can use [chemical vapor deposition](_URL_0_)---flowing a tunsten-containing gas over the wafer and allowing it to react with silicon (at relatively low temperatures) to form metal and a gaseous byproduct." ]
How does a knife / razor lose its sharpness over time, even if it's not in frequent use?	[ "The metals in the blade can (slowly) react with oxygen in the air or in the water, the product of which is usually a powder. Rust is one such reaction, for example. The process is broadly called \"oxidation\"." ]	[ "An accepted academic philosophy states that as we age, we gain a form of \"crystalized intelligence\" which is formed through the brain's natural assimilation of lived experiences. But although we gain this \"intelligence\" other variants such as kinesthetic and operational intelligences greatly diminish. This is ...
After accounting for supply chain, what's the cleanest power source humans have?	[ "From [IPCC](_URL_1_) lifecycle emissions in gC02eq/kWh min/median/max: * Hydropower 1.0 / 24 / 2200 * Geothermal 6.0 / 38 / 79 * Nuclear 3.7 / 12 / 110 * Wind onshore 7.0 / 11 / 56 * Wind offshore 8.0 / 12 / 35 * Concentrated Solar 8.8 / 27 / 63 * Solar PV -- utility 18 / 48 / 180 * Gas 410 / 490 / 650 * Coal 740 ...	[ "[Here](_URL_0_) is a good NPR article answering that exact question. ----------------------------------- To start, we need something for a currency. Life is way easier with something for a currency. So what do we use? We need: * Something rare but not too rare * Something that's not a gas * Something that won't ex...
Why do public toilet seats look different from the ones in homes?	[ "Because the U.S. has adopted and made law the Uniform Plumbing Code of which Section 409.2.2 states “All water closet seats, except those within dwelling units, shall be of the open front type.”" ]	[ "That user is not correct. Cold and flu viruses can't survive outside of a human body for more than 24 hours. When you get the flu it almost always comes from other people. It's possible to carry the virus and not show symptoms, so you can get it even if nobody around you appears to have the flu." ]
Why are we able to explore outerspace while we have yet to explore the deep oceans? Technology, funding, no significance or a combination of all?	[ "We're not exploring either one very much at all. You just hear more about the space exploration, because the media thinks that stories about it are interesting." ]	[ "I'll have to read the full source article when I get to work (it's part of my job!), but generally the resolution problems that telescopes face are different than the ones that microscopes face. Telescopes can get better resolution by being bigger, using adaptive optics, and with interferometry. Microscopes lookin...
Annuities = Please explain them to me as though I'm a potential investor	[ "Basic annuities are essentially a reverse life insurance policy. You give the insurance company money up front and they pay you a fixed payment until you die. Because they're an insurance product, there can be some tax advantages to the returns offered by annuities, and they're quite useful as a way to buffer one'...	[ "If you have a spare afternoon or two I'd check out these two Khan Academy playlists on the [Credit Crisis](_URL_2_) and the [Paulson Bailout](_URL_0_), and if you want to learn more about how banks work check out this [Banking and Money](_URL_1_) playlist as well; there's a few others on finance and credit as well...
How does Ouija Work?	[ "_URL_0_ The ideomotor phenomenon is what causes the Ouija effect, and similar things such as water dousing. You can easily test this by blindfolding a subject, and unknowingly to the subject turn the board around, so that z is where a should be. Had some BS ghost force been controlling the hand, it would have seen...	[ "Like this! Oh, sorry. Forgot you weren't a real 5-year-old." ]
Why do hard drives copy really fast at first then trickle the rest of the way?	[ "Most large hard drives have a RAM cache which is an order of magnitude faster than the platters. When you copy a bunch of data, it fills the cache, quickly, then once it's full the transfer rate has to slow to the speed the drive can write to the platters. It's very much like pouring liquid into a funnel. You can ...	[ "Protecting intellectual property was supposed to foster innovation. To encourage people to come up with new ideas, because new ideas would be profitable for a while (the term of the copyright). However, giving limitless copyright terms causes the opposite effect: Nobody innovates or comes up with new ideas, becaus...
Did other countries get involved in the Russian Civil War?	[ "There was plenty of foreign entanglement during the civil war though generally it was against the Reds. British/American/Canadian troops were stationed in various port towns and militarily important areas past the cessation of hostilities. Famously the Czechoslovak Legion had to fight all the way to Eastern Russia...	[ "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 /...
How come water at the bottom of the sea does not heat up?	[ "The hot water used to heat your building that comes from 100 m underground is not hot because of the pressure. You probably live in a place like Iceland, or near Yellowstone National Park in the US, or other special locations) and the water is heated because there is magma (molten rock) or a [pluton](_URL_1_) (an ...	[ "It's all to do with affinity, the attraction of one molecule for another. Water molecules are polar - they have positively charged hydrogen ends and a negatively charged oxygen middle. Opposite charges attract so water molecules have a high affinity to each other. Oil molecules are non-polar, no great charges are ...
The Kansai region was the original home of the Imperial Family of Japan, right? Well then, how did Kansai-ben evolve into the "informal blue collar" accent, and Kanto-ben become the "cultivated formal accent"?	[ "The distinction here is between Kansai and Kinai. Kansai, you are correct, is commonly associated with Osaka-ben and earthy boisterous Osaka culture. That is mostly a legacy from the Tokugawa period when Osaka became a huge commercial center dominated by merchants. Kinai is kind of a subregion of Kansai but witho...	[ "Scrooge attended boarding school (he revisits it in his first visit with the Ghost of Christmas Past) so received pronunciation (sometimes called \"public school pronunciation\", or PSP) makes sense. As a filmmaker, received pronunciation would also suggest power and authority, suggesting Scrooge is \"The Man\" an...
Why did several 20th century revolutions see it significant to get rid of intellectuals such as college professors and scientists? Did they not see that this would put them at a disadvantage compared to other nations?	[ "Well first you have to ask why these movements purged so many intellectuals. In every case, it's your well-educated people who pose the biggest threat to your regime. Your professionals and college professionals are typically smart, well-organized, and resourceful. They make the most capable critics against the ...	[ "The historians I've worked with relied on a lot of Geertz's work to explain the history of insular Southeast Asia, as well as other anthropologists. Perhaps one of the largest and first being Edmund Leach and his study Political Systems of Highland Burma: A Study of Kachin Social Structure, which helped explain ...

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