Subset (10)

eli5 · 25k rows

Split (1)

train · 25k rows

query stringlengths 20 300	positive listlengths 1 1	negative listlengths 1 1
How extensive was the industrialization of Manchukuo during Japanese rule?	[ "Under the Manchukuo 5 years development plan(満州産業開発五カ年計画), group of bureaucracy and military person \"Niki Sansuke(弐キ参スケ)\" including [Nobusuke Kishi] (_URL_1_) managemented to puppet country. Common belief said the target of the plan could not be achieved cause priority to the food demand due to the war in China...	[ "Slightly off-topic, but [this video](_URL_0_) talks about the systemic, official use of meth in the Luftwaffe in the Blitzkrieg (as well as the USAF). This isn't a direct link to the use of meth in the IJNAS, but it was a pretty common throughout the rest of the war." ]
The difference in seasons in northern and southern hemispheres	[ "Seasons are the result of the tilt of the Earth. Earth spins on a slight angle compared to the circle of its orbit around the Sun. This means that at different times of year, the poles are pointed towards or away from the Sun. This affects how much daylight the poles get, with the impact decreasing as you get towa...	[ "Follow-up question: I once read on this sub that the Tasmanian Aborigines of Australia gradually lost the technology of cold-weather gear after Tasmania was separated from the mainland. Well, it gets bloody cold in Tassie, so how did they cope?" ]
What was the ethnic make up of the British Expeditionary Force in 1940?	[ "Not discouraging further answers, but you may be interested in [this answer to a very similar question](_URL_0_) by u/thefourthmaninaboat, or [this megathread](_URL_1_) about the movie itself." ]	[ "The graph cites a broken link to the US Census Bureau. A few minutes of digging led me to [this table](_URL_0_). As you can see, the only number for 400 BCE is from Biraben, whose numbers are higher than the McEvedy and Jones numbers the table depended on before. Biraben numbers often are the upper limit, but acco...
How did higher education work in the Soviet Union?	[ "Generally, college was free and job placement was 100% since it was government centralized and there was a huge focus on preparing students for the workforce, and education was a priority. You picked a job before you graduated and had to work there for a certain number of years to sort of ‘repay’ the education. Un...	[ "Some questions to clarify OP's premise: Did the NKVD do regular searches of civilian homes or would there have had to be suspicion of a crime? Would that suspicion need to be based on anything substantial? And what qualifies as \"forbidden Western literature\"?" ]
the humidity percentage scale	[ "relative humidity is a statement of how much water vapor is in the air relative to the amount of water vapor can exist at that temperature before condensing." ]	[ "Absolutely. The weather can provide false returns, and can also seriously attenuate the radio signals. This is why ships cary both X-Band and S-Band radars (9Ghz and 3Ghz respectively). The S-Band cuts through the weather better, but doesn’t have the same angular resolution. X-Band has better resolution, but is mo...
Why does coffee taste so much better in a porcelain mug than in a paper or styrofoam cup?	[ "Are you drinking the same coffee each time? Generally, coffee in mugs is either homemade or comes at a restaurant, while coffee in paper/styrofoam cups comes from fast-food chains or coffee shops. Different restaurants/chains may stock different grades or brands of coffee, which then affects the taste. The cup mat...	[ "Thank you for this helpful post. As a mostly uneducated consumer on this topic, I have often wondered the answer to this very question. My primary concern is which one causes the least environmental damage to the actual earth after it's thrown away, as I recently found out that even though my town collects my recy...
Was looking up game guides on Civilization 5, and this introduction paragraph blew my mind. Is surplus food the single most important thing ever for civilizations? Without "surplus" u will never be great?	[ "Yeah it is true. Agriculture allowed for a surplus of food that is unachievable in hunter-gatherer societies. With more food people settled into communities that became cities. Surplus food allowed people to focus their energies into things other than searching for food; that means because people had more time fre...	[ "Sugar tastes good. When faced with a choice between that which is smart and that which is pleasing, most people will spend their money on the latter. A business exists to sell people what they want to buy, not what some might feel they should buy." ]
Why do younger people use emojis backwards?	[ "I am in my early 20's and never use emojis backwards... never seen it even (maybe a couple of times...)" ]	[ "Well as far as I know it started with this prank video: _URL_0_ And after that it simply went viral." ]
Why is the inverse square law so prominent in physics?	[ "It has to do with the fact that our universe has three spatial dimensions*. When you have a field whose intensity is spread evenly over a surface (e.g. a gravitational field is the same everywhere at a fixed distance from a central mass), and the surface area of a sphere grows with the square of its radius, the fi...	[ "A lot of the characteristics we are attracted to are from basic instincts in our brain. Hour glass figures on women are representative of a good body for childbirth. An upside down triangle body on a man is representative of a physically strong man, who is resistant to disease. Some people are attracted to differ...
"The Nazis had been particularly careful with Prague; Hitler had wanted to turn the city into a museum of Jewish life." What does this mean?	[ "The author is probably talking about the Jüdisches Zentralmuseum which I have written about [here](_URL_0_)." ]	[ "The Romans built many great stone forts. The word \"castle\" is usually used to refer to the private fortified residence of a noble (though not always, there are Royal Castles, and castles of the military orders as well as the castles of nobility in Medieval times). The Romans did not build many (any?) of these t...
How has the internet become more reliable (in terms of packet drops, connection errors etc) even though the underlying protocols are the same?	[ "Better cables (copper) and fibers, better best practices, fixing bugs in firmware of switches, routers, network cards, faster cpus in network devices. Protocols are the same but im sure they are being constantly updated. Also routing protocols are better, routers works better, the infrastructure is much better tha...	[ "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 ...
Historians of Reddit - What book is best for teaching a succinct World History course?	[ "Oh, my. I simply can't imagine an 8-week compressed world history course. I'm struggling with a one-semester world history survey, I have no idea how one would manage an 8 week overview. That said, there's some good books that sort of straddle the line between traditional textbook and readable monograph. Here's tw...	[ "Alrighty guys, because I've already had to remove ten comments similar to this, I'm going to leave a top-level mod post here. Please remember when posting here that this is not /r/Politics. We are not interested in contemporary politics, your opinions on current policies of countries, two word answers, one line an...
Why does chlorine (Cl) change so drastically from a gas to table salt (NaCl) when sodium is added?	[ "When Cl is alone, it is missing only one electron so it desperately wants to find one to complete its orbital. That is why chlorine gas is so corrosive - it’s trying as hard as it can to yank electrons off anything it can find. Sodium on the other hand has one electron it desperately wants to get rid of. It donate...	[ "Crickets, like all other insects, are cold-blooded. They take on the temperature of their surroundings. Many characteristics of cold-blooded animals, like the rate at which crickets chirp, or the speed at which ants walk, follow an equation called the Arrhenius equation. This equation describes the activation ener...
What Religious Group came out on top during the war of Succession following the Prophet Muhammad's Death?	[ "The history of Sunni vs Shia split is not black and white as you think. First off, war did not start as soon as Muhammed died. It started slightly after Uthman was assassinated. Aly was ~~unanimously selected~~ agreed by everyone to be the next Caliph. Few months later some disagreement came up with Muwayia. Muway...	[ "I have a knock off question that seems related enough to younger sons and inheritance to go here. I was reading Game of Thrones and in it a character (Samwell) is the eldest son but isn't good at fighting, etc. and his father doesn't see him as a fit heir. The younger son takes the fathers favor and Samwell is for...
Why do sidewalks sometimes have sections of metal grippy things?	[ "These are to alert blind people that the walkway ends here -- you're about to step into a more dangerous zone (such as the street)." ]	[ "The one I go to puts stickers on the lids to track how old a plate is. When whatever time has passed, they pull the plate in and dispute of it." ]
What is coral, is it a plan or an animal?	[ "Coral is an animal, a member of Cnidaria, like jellyfish & hydras. Source: in high school zoology." ]	[ "Place was an April fools reddit made two years ago. Place was essentially a canvas consisting of 1 million pixels (1000x1000). Users could change one pixels colour every 5 minutes or so (the delay between placements changed). As it progressed over the next couple of hours users started to make drawings and images ...
Why are you more sentimental/truthful towards people when drunk?	[ "Alcohol lowers your inhibitions and makes you braver to do things you might not do when sober. It is a depressant....meaning it depresses anxiety (like the anxiety you would feel before asking a girl out on a date. Take a couple shots. Instant courage....you become a smooth operator)" ]	[ "The vast majority of ethanol is converted to acetate in your liver. The metabolism of the acetate then takes preference over the metabolism of fat, carbohydrates, and protein. So ethanol doesn't turn into (much) fat, but anything you eat while acetate is in your system - that you don't burn - will." ]
I might sound stupid for asking this, but a lot of presidential candidates are saying the USA is 'losing at trade' with China... how does that work?	[ "When politicians say this, they mean there is a trade deficit with China--Americans are importing more from China than we are exporting to them. The problem with the way this is framed is that this isn't a bad thing, on its own. In fact, the fact that we can run a trade deficit means we are rich and can afford to ...	[ "Imagine you buy a shiny new toy. It costs $20. A week later, you want to sell it to a friend, but that friend will only pay $15 because he knows he could have a new one for $20. You decide not to sell. A year later, the toy has gone out of fashion. Now, your friend will only pay $5 for it. It's in similar conditio...
Why do human eyelids follow the iris when looking down but there's no eyelid to follow when looking up?	[ "Because your eyelids aren’t the same. You have a hood and the bottom one. The hood is far more mobile. The bottom one does follow your eyes up, just not as much." ]	[ "The stars. If you think of the stars as an unmoving background you would see the sun slowly move across the sky in a full circle over the course of a year, I'm not talking about the daily sunrise and setting but the sun in relation the the stars. That's where we got the zodiac from." ]
When government officials say that cuts to medicaid will cause people to die. Can someone break down how that happens?	[ "When someone does not have health insurance, they stop getting routine check-ups. They also stop seeing a doctor unless they are critically ill. When you don't get check-ups, things like diabetes, cancer go undetected. Early detection for diabetes and most cancers change outcomes significantly. Also, many people h...	[ "Growth in per capita productivity plus labor demand. Productivity determines (broadly) how big the pie is, and labor demand determines how much of the pie goes to workers and how much goes to their employers. Both are necessary for middle-class wage growth: mostly commonly you see economic stagnation in countries ...
Does anyone actually believe the claims that the North Korean government make?	[ "Their propaganda isn't for us, it's for them. Their citizens have no idea about the world outside of North Korea, so they can claim to have cured AIDS and have won all the trophies in every sport and have went to Mars." ]	[ "> how it really amounts to a bunch of bologna I don't have an answer, but I do need to point out that bologna = lunch meat. Baloney = nonsense." ]
In case of a nuclear war what would bomber crews do after dropping their payload?	[ "The Convair B-36 was SAC's primary nuclear bomber from 1946 to 1959. Based in Alaska, they had insufficient range to fly the return leg of a bombing mission over the Soviet Union. In addition [Operation Castle's](_URL_0_) results indicated that a typical wartime delivery profile would result in significant damage ...	[ "Media companies \"Nuking\" torrent files with data. Nuking basically means they put some kind of trojan horse in a movie/video game file, so when you download it, they can track it and report you to your ISP." ]
Why does a lake ripple more in its center than on the edges?	[ "There are a couple of reasons. One is the perspective from which you observe - the edge of the lake is closer and occupies more of your field of view, while the center occupies more. There are also fewer visual references, giving the appearance of a smaller relative area. So, even with a perfect distribution of ri...	[ "It shouldn't, when just sitting still. I assume you mean when you are moving it. Older mouses had a ball that made two different little wheels inside rotate, and that would be translated by the computer into mouse motion. But those little wheels would pick up dust and gunk and that could make them get erratic. ...
In an electro-magnetic pulse is the human nervous system effected and if so, to what degree?	[ "I don't imagine it would be affected unless the radiation energy was strong enough to actually kill or damage the neurons. Neurons are foremost self repairing chemical and physical structures. Signal propagation is not due to the flow of electrons as in standard circuitry, but changes in ions concentrations within...	[ "The Wikipedia article on Hypoxia has [an absolutley fantastic video](_URL_0_) (~7:00 long) that answers your question. Essentially a large part of the issue lies in being unable to run calcium pumps that reduce the concentration of calcium ions into the cell. The calcium ions can trigger various enzymes that caus...
How simple harmonic motion works beyond the basic systems	[ "[Here's a java demo of a double mass-spring system](_URL_3_). The motion of these types of systems can often be described as a sum of [normal modes](_URL_4_). In the geometry you described, a common normal mode is for the masses to sort of [pass the oscillation back and forth](_URL_0_). There are plenty of other s...	[ "> but why/how does this make a phone vibrate. Because the momentum of the lopsided weight pulls in a varying direction. Try grabbing some weight on a flexible string or rope and spinning it. Notice how it pulls on your hand in various ways?" ]
Is it possible for a planet to have at least two moons orbiting it in opposite directions? If yes, what would be the effects if it somehow happened to Earth?	[ "It is not only possible- we have observed such a planet! [Triton](_URL_0_) is the largest moon of Neptune and orbits in the opposite direction of Neptune's rotation - and the opposite direction of the other moons of Neptune. As for what would happen to Earth - as long as the moons' orbital radii are well separated...	[ "[Here's a java demo of a double mass-spring system](_URL_3_). The motion of these types of systems can often be described as a sum of [normal modes](_URL_4_). In the geometry you described, a common normal mode is for the masses to sort of [pass the oscillation back and forth](_URL_0_). There are plenty of other s...
When did humans unanimously decide our genitals were inappropriate to show in public?	[ "Who said anything was unanimous? There's still plenty of cultures where it's perfectly acceptable to show genitals in public." ]	[ "Because to our primitive ancestors, different usually meant bad. That tuber smells different? Probably rotten, don't eat it. Your dog acting weird? Might have rabies, stay away. That stranger looks different than you? Probably from a rival tribe, and up to no good." ]
Why are most of the fastest sprinters and best marathon runners of all time black?	[ "Not the color of the skin, but the genetics and culture. The pigmints in your skin don't give you super powers, but there are some muscle traits that are passed down genetically, a form of natural selection. Some of the african cultures are more closely linked to hunting tribes rather than a culture that focuses o...	[ "_URL_2_ columnist William Saletan waded into this issue several years ago with similar questions to yours. Here's an article posted AFTER his initial article and several followups, all of which can be reached via links within the article. It's an interesting journey with commentary from psychologists, statistician...
Why is Japan not allowed to have an army?	[ "They're not allowed to have an offensive military force. They do have defensive military forces. The reason is because of their history of military aggression, particularly in World War II, and their defeat in that war." ]	[ "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 /...
Did the British settle Australia as a convict colony or were there other reasons?	[ "Not to forestall further answers, but my answer to the question [Why was Australia colonized? What motivated people to travel so far only to settle in such a dangerous place?](_URL_1_) might help answer your question. I've also answered a question about [when the numbers of free settlers arriving in Australia star...	[ "He's sexist and homophobic, and made some pretty bad decisions. Like deciding to put the upgrade to fibre-optic cabling for internet services on hold while they try to convince everyone the \"cheaper\" option is better even though it guarantees we have to upgrade AGAIN in the next decade instead of just jumping ah...
Just how toxic to humans is plastic from a biological perspective?	[ "Plastics consist of a unit known as a monomer repeated in large chains to form a polymer. The structure of the monomer plays a very large role in giving different plastics their different properties. Plastics by themselves are typically quite inert substances, which is one reason why they're so useful. The biggest...	[ "Physically developing we are close to a bobcat or other animals in terms of lifespan. We have a much, much more complex world than any other animal does though. We have to eat that play-doh and stick that key in the electric socket to learn that we want to be a philosophy major or an architect. Bobcats can't build...
How do you prove that hexagonal tilling is the most optimal in terms of "border use"?	[ "I looked at Hales' paper. There are two basic ideas: 1) An optimal tiling must be convex. 2) The optimal convex tiling is hexagonal. In the first section of the paper, he notes that (2) was proven in 1943 by Toth and observes that convexity allows one to work with polygons, because if the edges of a cell in the ti...	[ "Go to a new area of Australia (or wherever). Comb one acre very carefully, cataloging every species. Figure out how many new species there are. Do this in a few different places, figure out about how many new species there are in general, and extrapolate." ]
What exactly are neutrinos and why don’t they interact with matter?	[ "They are just really small elementary particles that are released during certain types of radioactive decays. They have no charge, dont interact with any thing through the strong nuclear force, and are so small their gravity is almost inconsequential. The main reason they go through things is do to the complete la...	[ "The hard and protective outer surface of teeth “enamel” is sometimes worn down and very small tunnels, or tubes, that are usually hidden under the enamel are exposed. The tubes are called tubules and it is often painful or uncomfortable when they are exposed, to cold drinks or salt, sweet or acid foods. Novamin co...
I saw that unborn babies can have dreams at 17 weeks. How is this possible considering they have not seen the real world yet?	[ "Dreams are just a sign of a working brain, which would happen at about 17 weeks. However their dreams would not be like yours. You can only dream of things that you have experienced. They would dream of the sounds they hear, like the mother's voice." ]	[ "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...
What is the oldest known written, reliable record of anything? Also, what is the oldest text that speakers of modern english can understand?	[ "The oldest spoken old english completely understandable to modern english speakers is in line 11 of Beowulf, after the caesura. [\"Þæt wæs gōd cyning!\"](_URL_0_) which is pronounced \"that was good kining\" meaning \"that was (a) good king.\" I know this because I listened to Benjamin Bagby's performance of Beowu...	[ "Follow up question: How did the soldiers who did surrender know that they were in fact properly ordered to surrender instead of being lied to by Allied propaganda? Follow upto the follow up question: Did Allied propaganda actually try to lie to the Japanese troops before the actual surrender?" ]
Why is Brazil zo big compared to other SA countries?	[ "Brazil was actually even bigger than it is today. Portugal and Spain got into a huge fight over it, and since they were both Catholic countries, they went to the Pope to settle it. At the Treaty of Tordesillas in 1494, they agreed to split the territory in half. Unfortunately for the Spanish, they were unable to p...	[ "These days the most accurate answer comes from GIS data. This basically describes the shape of the country as a polygon, i.e., a shape made up of a sequence of straight lines connected together. There's a (relatively) simple [mathematical formula](_URL_0_) to determine the area of a polygon. There are some minor c...
Fiber optic technology	[ "Optical fibers are made of a glass-like material that has a property called total internal reflection. This means that light cannot escape; it simply bounces around inside the fiber. Rather than sending electricity through a conductor, fiber optic cables basically \"tunnel\" pulses of light. It's far more efficien...	[ "Whenever you see that rainbow surface, there is usually some interference going on. Which means that you have a thin film of something and light rays of different wave lengths are reflected in such a way that some wave lengths are canceled out depending on the angle you look at it. Another example would be oil on ...
Why is the universe being portrayed as dark when during day time (on Earth), everywhere appears bright. There are so many stars in the universe, shouldn't the "dark space" be filled with light?	[ "This line of thinking is exactly what led to the Big Bang theory of cosmic evolution. Scientists initially believed the Universe to be infinite and eternal, but if it was so then surely every line of sight in the sky should end on a star, and the night sky should be completely bright. Therefore, the Universe must ...	[ "In short, [yes](_URL_0_). There's areas in space that are completely devoid of pretty much any matter, generally called a void. To quote wikipedia, \"Voids typically have a diameter of 11 to 150 megaparsecs.\" Much farther than the human eye can process if you were in the middle of one. edit: To put a megaparsec i...
What does it mean for a photon to have "more energy"?	[ "Frequency does have a meaning in this case. Higher energy, higher frequency. A blue photon has more energy than a red photon. Another way to think about it is what happens to a system that absorbs a given photon. If it absorbs a higher energy photon, it will see a greater increase in its energy." ]	[ "... you ever felt warm standing in the sun? bam your feeling lights energy...." ]
How is it large herbivores such as cattle, moose and deer can grow so large on a diet of only grass?	[ "Hervibores have a specialized digestive system that helps them acquire much more nutrients from those food sources that would just pass through our own digestive tract untouched. Also, all they do while they're awake is either eat or look for stuff to eat." ]	[ "Uncooked meet can make you sick because of bacteria or parasites that are present in the meet. Chicken, for example, can be contaminated with Salmonella. The kinds of bacteria that exist on beef, require access to air in order to live. Therefore the bacteria can only exist on the outside of the meet. This is the o...
What is the origin of the "dumb blonde" stereotype?	[ "I think it's a combination of things: * It's an example of a broader species of stereotypes about women who inherited a lot of money. Many of the same characteristics ascribed to \"dumb blondes\" are also ascribed to \"Jewish American Princesses\"; in Asia, there are similar stereotypes about various subgroups. * ...	[ "> Where did this misconception that the first amendment means you can say whatever you want without any repercussion come from? A lack of understanding of the first amendment." ]
Why can we see depth?	[ "If you close one eye you cannot see depth. You may think you can, but you cannot. Depth is created by the brain processing two slightly offset images. What you THINK is depth is really your eye focusing on one field, leaving the other field blurry. If you actually tried to do something that tests your depth percep...	[ "the light actually is touching the receptors in your retina (the back wall of your eye) physically...translation of that reception by the brain yields your perception of the pain [animation here in Clip1](_URL_2_) is well done, IMO. edit: [here's another animation on eye function](_URL_2_)" ]
What languages did the founders of turkic dynasties in what's now modern day Iran speak?	[ "This is a pretty complex question, but I can provide at least a little information here. Persian was the lingua franca for the Iranian Plateau. Turkish rulers relied on educated Persians, to some extent or another, for the administration of the empires. Persian was even the official language or court language for ...	[ "In short, we don't know. We only have a tiny handful of examples of Brythonic writing, and these take the form of 'curse tablets' found at the Roman temple-bath complex to Sulis-Minerva at Bath Spa in Somerset. These are written in the Latin alphabet and engraved in the same manner as the other tablets." ]
Why do many neurological disorders seem to occur 3-5 times more in males than females?	[ "Conversely, some neurological disorders occur more often in females than males. there are, presumably, hormonal and developmental components to them." ]	[ "Two social psychological concepts come to mind here. State dependent memory encoding and Erickson Arousal theory of learning. State dependent learning states that what ever state of mind you are in during encoding is the state of mind where recall would be optimal. Erickson arousal theory states that learning is m...
Boob sizes of the world, why is there so much difference	[ "This chart indicates that beast size is not genetic, but likely environmental/diet based. The genetic differences between a Caucasian from the US and Caucasian from Canada or the UK is almost nonexistent and would not account for the significant differences in breast size. Edit: I would also like to mention that t...	[ "I get what you're saying. I'll assume a singer is from US, but then hear them in an interview, and I'm like, \"oh, I didn't realize they were British, or Australian....\" I'm not sure why, but I have wondered this too." ]
How do dams get built?	[ "normally they reroute the river down a separate path temporarily, then build the dam, then close off the temporary path so the water has to flow into the dam to generate electricity." ]	[ "Thank you for your submission! Unfortunately, your submission has been removed for the following reason(s): You can find the basic answer with a google / wiki search. Please start there and come back with a more specific question. If you disagree with this decision, please send a [message to the moderators.](_URL...
Why can shows like To Catch a Predator air pedophiles being caught without their consent?	[ "_URL_0_ The short version is they were recorded during a sting operation in which police were informed of the show's activities. You have no expectation of privacy during the commission of a crime in most jurisdictions. Local law varies, though." ]	[ "The people don't make money off the adds themselves. They make money when say your typical 70 year old grandma or 5 year old kid click on the ad and download (and install) the program. Once installed these programs take all kinds of personal information (including credit card numbers) and can actually take control...
why "Steam" is the driving force of most of the power plants for more than 150 years? Does no other fluid has capability to replace it?	[ "Don't underestimate the benefit of it being cheap, clean, readily available and well understood. Another fluid would have to have significant technical advantages over it before making the switch would be worthwhile." ]	[ "First, I need to clarify what an oil reservoir is. It is not a big underground cavity filled with oil - that's a common misconception. Oil is stored in tiny pore spaces between sediment grains, and in order to be extracted, there must be connective spaces between those grains. Thus, an oil reservoir is a *porous...
Other than allowing people to believe whatever they want, what legal protection does Freedom of Religion actually offer?	[ "It prevents Congress from making any law that would restrict the free excercise of their religious beliefs. Same thing like you don't need a law to say you're allowed to assemble or say what you want ... but it prevents anyone from passing a law preventing you from doing those things" ]	[ "Disclaimer: all of my knowledge comes from genetic algorithms in the realm of computer science, not biology. This argument doesn't seem to apply to biology, as the probabilities of modifying the coding DNA shouldn't decrease, but it's interesting. In computer science genetic algorithms, a lot of noncoding DNA prot...
How are elements other than iron created in the universe?	[ "They create elements up to iron before they die. The big ones create elements up to uranium as they die (as supernovae). There are also hydrogen and helium (which mostly originate in the Big Bang) and lithium, beryllium, and boron, which partially originate from there but are mostly fragments of bigger atoms...	[ "No. Time passed before humans / earth existed. Matter collecting into planets takes time." ]
Did the US ever try to convert Filipinos to Protestantism during their colonisation of the country?	[ "After the US colonized the Philippines the Catholic Church was disestablished, and was no longer the official religion. When that happened there was a large influx of Protestant missionaries of all denominations to the Philippines. Today, Protestants make up around 10% of the total population in the Philippines, w...	[ "I just want to take a moment to thank Dan Monroe, Director and CEO of the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, MA. His continued neglect of the Phillips Library Collections, and ensuring that the collection was unavailable both physically and digitally to researchers over the past 2 years (and for the forseeable futur...
Was Jesus a Roman citizen?	[ "While /u/RingGiver is correct that Roman citizens were not normally crucified, there were incidents where this didn't hold up. More directly, Jesus simply had no claim to citizenship. He was born under Herod the Great's rule of Judea as a client kingdom, and there is simply no grounds on which he would hold Roman ...	[ "There is a good deal of room for fresh responses to this question. But I briefly summarised the main controversies [in an earlier thread here](_URL_0_). The short answer is that we have no certainties about this at all, only a lot of supposition and a certain amount of reasonable deduction. Even the discovery of f...
Why do some computers need incredibly complex cooling systems? Why aren't fans sufficient?	[ "High performance parts perform high because they use more energy. Using more energy creates more heat, needing more cooling. After a while, new tech developments allow the same performance on smaller components needing less energy, generating less heat, needing less cooling." ]	[ "There are two main ways it's done. The first is something similar to what you're describing. A bunch of processors linked together with custom hardware, basically creating one giant motherboard (though it does a lot more work than a standard motherboard.) The second is by taking separate server racks of standard c...
What is happening in the middle east and why is there more conflict than usual?	[ "In the last several years many governments have been overthrown by rebels (such as Yemen) dictators removed with foreign support (US/UN with Iraq and Egypt) and different sects of Islam on different sides of the ISIS crisis (Iran and Saudi Arabia). There is more, but that is wavetops" ]	[ "[Search before submitting, especially when asking about current events. The search box is in the upper righthand corner of the page.](_URL_0_)" ]
Why is David Cameron so disliked and why are people so disappointed with his time in office?	[ "He warmed over the failed policies of greed and corruption promoted by Maggie Thatcher. He promoted tax dodging by corporations while saying he would stop it. He bullied and robbed the worst off in our society while giving cash breaks to the mega rich. He implemented policies based on dogma rather than what is bes...	[ "\"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 do muscles shake when they’re cold / dealing with too much weight?	[ "I can't say for the weight bit, but your body's natural reaction to cold weather is to warm itself to a healthy internal temperature. It does this by twitching muscles which generate heat by consuming fuel derived from what you eat." ]	[ "Generally its a response of submission/chagrin at impending punihment/scolding, and that's just how the dog is reacting to the \"alpha\" (pet owner in this case) being upset with them. Now, if you set up a hidden camera in a room and the dogs made those same expressions/movements after doing something bad, with no...
Why must vaccines be given as a shot and not simpler forms like pill, patch, etc.	[ "I'm not an expert, but I believe it is because the human body, especially the stomach, is quite good at tearing down any foreign and harmful things that enter it. Vaccine shots usually contain antibodies or disabled viruses of a certain disease, that have to be inserted into the bloodstream or at least under the s...	[ "Profit. Microsoft can charge you for a whole new version much more easily than for just an update" ]
How is it that the US women's soccer team is the one of the best in the sport worldwide, yet the US men's team is lackluster in comparison?	[ "Most of the best male American athletes choose to play sports other than Soccer. Women's soccer is a top dog sport by comparison and attracts some of the best athletes." ]	[ "Our bodies are very good at maintaining a normal body temperature in high heat thanks to sweat. Dogs for example can only pant to cool their tongue in order to lower their body temperature. We have sweat glands all over our bodies. The sweat evaporates and takes heat with it. This is why we can run for long distan...
Why do buildings sometimes have angled concrete columns (picture of example included)?	[ "Presumably to provide bracing to prevent [racking](_URL_1_). Here's a cute little [flash animation](_URL_0_) to explain the concept." ]	[ "Not all cans are like that. I've got cans of pet food in my cabinet that stack perfectly. I've got cans of Bumblebee tuna that stack just fine too. It's most likely just that particular brand's decision to use a different can. Maybe that type of can is cheaper or maybe they can save money on manufacturing by using...
What form of radiation is given off by nuclear waste?	[ "Nuclear waste pretty much gives off all forms of radiation...alpha, beta, and gamma rays, neutrons, protons, and larger high energy nuclei. It also gives off radioactive isotopes of iodine, strontium and cesium, that can accumulate in your body and give off radiation internally." ]	[ "You are correct. If you interpret virtual particles as things that literally exist, you are led to nonsensical conclusions. The mass of a W boson is much too large for a real one to be produced during beta decay of a nucleus. Virtual particles don't literally exist; they are just an artifact of certain calculation...
When planes fly through clouds, the clouds don't move. Surely they'd react to the turbulence/engines/speed. What gives?	[ "The cloud does move. The water vapor near the aircraft gets pushed around and moves along with the air flowing around the plane. The cloud is just so big that not all of it moves. Think about a boat in the ocean. The water directly around the boat moves and forms a wake. Water further away from the boat feels no d...	[ "Your eyes are constantly making adjustments for your movement, and your brain corrects for motion blur. A camera has to take a snapshot during a moment in time. If you move the camera during that moment, then the image is blurred. However, if your camera has a very fast shutter speed then the image will not be blu...
What are some examples of “legislating from the bench” and how is it different from legal interpretation?	[ "I think the difference is a matter of interpretation. Frequently the difference though is \"legislating from the bench\" is when a judge does something I don't like (activist judge fits here too) and \"legal interpretation\" is when a judge does something I like, or don't care about." ]	[ "\"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...
Why did the US adopt 120v60hz as standard vs the much more widely used 220v50hz that most of the world uses?	[ "The differences are mainly historical; however, the EU has mandated a standardization of mains at 230V, not 220V. The frequency difference was another historical engineering difference implemented at 60Hz based on Westinghouse generation standard and AEG Germany at 50Hz. US and Euro-based generating companies main...	[ "Let's say some French guy wants to buy a case of Velveeta cheese product because he's tired of fine French cheese. At $5 for a 1 lb. package, a 10-pack case would cost the French guy 41.90 Euro -- because $1 is currently worth 0.84 Euro. If the dollar fell to where it was only worth 0.75 Euro, then that case of Ve...
Are people with darker skin better suited to living in sunny conditions?	[ "In fact they are. Darker skin pigmentation helps protect against harmful UV radiation from the sun. Less UV light penetrating the cells means that there is a much smaller risk of skin cancer and African albinos can typically have skin cancer by the age of thirty. At the same time, less UV light makes it harder ...	[ "Other parts of the world were/are just as eventful, you just don't heard about it because much of that history is either in other languages, lost, or never written down. Sailing technology was important, but it is not the be-all, end-all, other factors made the difference. Look at other parts of the world. The Ara...
If you were to paint a room alot of times, would the volume of the room decrease?	[ "It seems like it depends on the size of the room, how structurally stable it is, and how adherent the paint is to itself. As you added successive layers of paint, supposing they adhered perfectly to each other, you would be adding to the weight on the ceiling. This would prove a challenge to the structure upholdi...	[ "They actually debunked that, same with that nonsense about listening to classical music in the womb making your child smarter. It was all just BS to sell some cds. I'll see if I can find an article about it, and I'll edit this to put it in. And now to see if this answer is long enough, or if it will get auto-modd...
About the status of Taiwan	[ "1) 21 one countries official recognize Taiwan as an actual country, although the vast majority of the rest, including China, deal with it pragmatically and have unofficial but oftentimes extensive relationships with them. 2) Yes, as much as it can. It's been blocked from participation in certain institutions such ...	[ "Hi there -- while we've approved this question, we would like to remind potential respondents of our [current events](_URL_0_) (AKA \"20-year\") rule -- it's fine to discuss events through 1997 (inclusive) and their effects, but not events after 1997. Thanks!" ]
Why do men have a higher insurance rate, and why is that not considered discrimination?	[ "Men have higher auto insurance rates because they are more likely to be the cause of automobile accidents than women are. And insurance is, at it's core, a numbers game. And it is discrimination. It's just not illegal discrimination. Remember, discrimination is legal except in a few, narrowly defined categories ...	[ "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 ...
When watching poker on TV, how can the graphic calculate the chips bet so quickly?	[ "The obvious answer is that you are not watching a live feed and the graphics were edited in afterwards." ]	[ "Are you asking about fiction shows or TV as in documentaries? In the case of the documentaries some places it is completely legal to grow. Others, well it’s not hard to hide really if you have the right setup. The hardest part is covering up smell. Some induction fans or blower fans with charcoal filters connected...
Why is the difference between theory and law such an important distinction?	[ "A law or fact is a singular observation, simple and without context. ex. Things accelerate at 9.8m/s^2 towards the earth. Large bodies of mass attract other bodies of mass towards them A theory is a complex thought that take many laws and facts and put them together into something that makes sense: ex. The Theory...	[ "> how it really amounts to a bunch of bologna I don't have an answer, but I do need to point out that bologna = lunch meat. Baloney = nonsense." ]
How do scientists determine the weight of huge (extinct) animals?	[ "Purely hypothesizing you can infer muscle attachments from a skeleton. This helps to determine the biomechanics of a beast. Muscle has a certain density, so you'd calculate roughly the proportions to ambulate properly (the gait pattern of the T-Rex was just recently reassessed and they can't run). Since bones weig...	[ "A few different ways; - [Lasers](_URL_0_) for really close things like the moon. - [Parallax](_URL_2_) used for nearby planets and stars. - [Standard candles](_URL_1_), the brightness of a specific type of supernova which gives a good range. - [Red Shift](_URL_3_) for things very far away. For more detail on how a...
What is the benefit to making new elements in labs?	[ "> Is it simply for the furthering of knowledge or is there another reason? Is that not enough? We learn about nuclear structure, nuclear reactions, etc. If we can study them chemically, we can learn about atomic structure as well. These extremely heavy elements could have very interesting chemical properties." ]	[ "You would be the first person from earth to visit another planet. You would have your name in the history books along with every other great explorer we currently celebrate. It's a chance to do something that litterally no other human has ever done. As for ethics, well what's unethical about it. Everyone who signs...
How do tattoo cover-ups work?	[ "Generally following the same lines and curves of the original tattoo to draw the eyes away from the original design." ]	[ "Usually, when you change something in a program, whether it's a video game or not, you don't take out code and replace it. You just put in new code. This new code will have instructions to ignore the original parts of the code that are buggy, and to instead use the newly written stuff." ]
Why can we pop our ears, and why can we hear much better when we pop them?	[ "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...	[ "The \"air\" is actually dissolved gases in the fluid within a joint capsule. As you stretch the capsule (which has a finite volume and is a closed compartment), the pressure decreases and the dissolved gases (C02, nitrogen, etc.) expand, leave the fluid and enter the joint space, basically causing an air bubble. T...
How can dye-containing food advertise as "All Natural"?	[ "The FDA does not have a formal definition of the word \"natural\" on food labels, which makes it difficult to stop it from being used misleadingly. There have been multiple lawsuits on this issue, though." ]	[ "They don't really. The chance of that stuff actually happening to you is practically nil - but if it does, from a legal standpoint you were warned in advance. From a medical perspective they probably have ways to tell that a certain mixture could have some side effect without needing actual cases of the effect o...
What is the "resolution" of the human eye? It is possible to create a camera with a resolution higher than the human eye? If so, how would we perceive the photos it takes?	[ "Why are empty threads showing up on the front page? This makes no sense." ]	[ "Similar questions have been asked several times before. You may be interested in the following posts: _URL_3_ _URL_8_ _URL_6_ _URL_0_ _URL_1_ _URL_4_ _URL_7_ _URL_2_ _URL_5_ _URL_9_ There are lots of really great questions and answers in /r/askscience that unfortunately get buried because of the high volume. It's ...
The Book "How the Irish Saved Civilization" claims the majority of ancient texts were saved thanks for the Irish. While it's true, to what extent. Weren't the Arabic nations also copying ancients texts of the romans and greeks?	[ "And the Byzantines were copying said texts as well. A large number of ancient texts actually filtered into Italy following the sack of Constantinople in 1204 (and the dissemination/rediscovery of those texts in Italy is theorized to be one of the catalysts for the Renaissance). Monks of Ireland certainly did do go...	[ "The Aryan race is from old racial theories. The idea was to connect Europeans with Indo-Iranian settlers. Aryan refers to, in theory, both Indo-Iranian and European groups, but 'Aryan' in the Nazi/White Supremacist context refers only to the Indo-European side of things. Primarily, this connection was used to conn...
What is the difference between types of wood on a cellular level?	[ "Just commenting so i can find this post tomorrow and read the real answer. I wonder if different types of wood at the cellular level are very similar (differing in levels of cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin) and it is instead differentiated by the way it grows. Found this = > _URL_0_. And this = > _URL_1_" ]	[ "Here's a pretty good explainer. _URL_0_ Basically it comes down to different memory, different promises (reliability and service life), and different marketing." ]
Why does major chords sound happy and minor chords sad?	[ "It's cultural. Major chords sound happy to you because you've been told it's happy since your early childhood. That said, Pharell William's \"happy\" is in minor chords (Happy Together by The Turtles too), whereas REM's Everybody Hurts is in major chords and Creep by Radiohead is mostly major too." ]	[ "Some superficial injuries hurt more because nerve cells are more numerous on the surface of the skin. Additionally, smaller injuries may hurt more as a warning signal: \"don't do that again!\" Once you sustain a serious injury, the autonomic nervous system kicks into serious endorphin/injury recovery mode. There'...
Are there other 4D polygons other than a hypercube that we have rendered?	[ "I haven't rendered any projections yet, but I do make cross section animations/pictures of non-polytope objects in 4D, 5D, 6D, etc. Here's a few: [4D Tori (donuts)](_URL_4_) [4D Spherinder (sphere prism, hypercylinder)](_URL_11_) [4D Cyltrianglinder (triangle x circle)](_URL_7_) [5D Conindrone (pyramid of the pris...	[ "I'd like to add this. In WWII they retrofitted some Spitfire airplanes with up to 5 cameras that used this exact same principal to take 3D areal recon photos of Europe. The cameras were aligned just right (and pilots trained just right) take take photos that could be put under a special viewing device bringing the...
Food science/chemistry question: what's happening to cooking oils when they go from a liquid to a sticky gum-like substance when exposed directly to extreme heat?	[ "I believe you're looking for this - [Smoke point](_URL_0_). In short, the oils are decomposing at high temperature to glycerol and fatty acids." ]	[ "The printers head almost touches the bed and the hot filament extruded by the printer sticks to the printers bed, it's not simply laying over it. The final piece usually needs to be pried from the bed. It's also common practice to spread glue on the bed to increase adhesion. ELI5: It's kinda like putting toothpas...
Why do people write (sic) after some words in articles?	[ "It's used in quotes to show that the author of the article is quoting the individual directly. Often in a quote someone spells something wrong, or uses a word that kind of breaks the flow of the sentence. It's basiclly the author saying \"I'm quitting this dude directly, I did not make an error or write this mysel...	[ "Their claim hasn't been verified in any scientific way. If I gave 10000 people a sugar pill and 1000 of them lost weight I could legally claim that the pill helps with weight loss. It wouldn't make the claim true, and the results might not be repeated in a larger sample population. The disclaimer would keep people...
how come the brain lets its owner fall asleep behind the wheel knowing fully well that that could be its ending?	[ "Our brains didn't evolve with cars in mind. They evolved with, like, being hunted by a jaguar (or whatever) in mind. So your brain doesn't know what to do with a car. It thinks hey, we're sitting, our body's not really doing anything physical, there's very little activity or stimulus... this seems like a good time...	[ "Because people have not evolved effectively to control large masses of metal and plastic hurtling 65-90 miles per hour down a stretch of flattened, occasionally curved, ground. Human beings are terrible drivers. Some are just worse than others." ]
Friday Free-for-All \| August 05, 2016	[ "[Here's a comic on history books.](_URL_0_) Very mildly NSFW language in case that matters to you." ]	[ "Hi there, I've approved this question but you may want to reword it so the question is actually in the title. Most of our flaired users have alerts set up that search titles for keywords, that one isn't going to get you anywhere unfortunately :-)." ]
Why does coffee make some people sleepy?	[ "Coffee dehydrates you a bit because it makes you pee more, so it's recommended to drink water to counter that after having that coffee, or whatever that keeps you more hydrated. Oldie arabian way of drinking coffee supposedly involved a bit of salt to keep the fluids in longer. If you're not hydrated enough you'll...	[ "Our brains didn't evolve with cars in mind. They evolved with, like, being hunted by a jaguar (or whatever) in mind. So your brain doesn't know what to do with a car. It thinks hey, we're sitting, our body's not really doing anything physical, there's very little activity or stimulus... this seems like a good time...
What happens when rich people leave all their belongings to pets in their wills?	[ "pets are not people, so they cannot own property. Who is a legal heir varies from country to country, but the heir(s) can dispute the will in court, and get the belongings instead." ]	[ "> If most animals are colorblind or see in limited color, why do other animals use bright colors as indicators of poison, good mates etc? This is called a complex question fallacy and it isn't possible to answer it. Your question contains presuppositions that haven't been established and the answer is the question...
Is The Core's (movie) representation of giant diamonds a geological likelihood or just the movies plot device?	[ "It is possible for crystelline structures to exist but i think it may be open to debate as to whether they do or not. Read on wiki about Earth's Core - that'll give you mostly up to date info. Please dont take ANYTHING from that movie as in any way accurate. It has a reputation of being one of the most scientifica...	[ "They are using the author's name and fame to sell a movie. A perfect example is I, Robot - older readers and hardcore sci-fi fans *ran* to the theaters to watch this travesty of manipulation. The book is a collection of short stories. The only pieces in the movie that have anything to do with Asimov are Sus...
Why do old electricals sometimes smell of burning?	[ "Several reasons old insulation can break down and potentially creating a short. As the poster below stated that dust heats up, that is another one. And also the older wires tend to not be sufficient as the older you get the less protection you get. Old electrical appliances are kind of frightening in comparison to...	[ "Your monitor uses a scheme called \"dynamic contrast\" to improve it's contrast ratio. When brighter colors are displayed, the backlight intensity increases, which requires more current from it's power supply. The audio amplifier's power supply is, obviously, not as well isolated from from the power line noise as ...
What does O(log n) mean exactly?	[ "Its [Big O notation](_URL_0_) and tells you how processing time increases with a function of data size. If something is O(log n) then processing time increases proportionally to the log2 of the size of the data. If you increase your data by a factor of 8 then processing time will quadrouple. Big O notation is usef...	[ "I'm going to go early 5 year old on this one. You have more than one way to get to something on the network. Spanning tree picks the best way, and blocks the other ways so things don't just go around in circles. Then when your best way breaks, it opens one of those other paths." ]
Radon could be in the apartment I am thinking about renting out with friends. Am I in danger if it states the following?	[ "That looks like the standard radon warning you'll find. Some states require that statement on rental contracts. It is pretty standard, but if you're still concerned get in contact with the [Georgia Department of Community Affairs](_URL_1_). They can also sell you [radon detection tests](_URL_0_)." ]	[ "There's a level of subjectivity in that statement. But there are definitely a lot of downsides: - you only get a certain number of days / times of the year where you get to use the property, or it may be first come first serve depending on your contract. - you may have a degree of legal ownership, may be required ...
Is a particle's probability wave a wave in the quantum field?	[ "You’re mixing concepts from nonrelativistic QM and QFT. In nonrelativistic QM, and when you don’t want to create or destroy particles, you usually do things in terms of wavefunctions (I assume this is what you’re talking about when you say “probability wave”), or more abstractly with state vectors that live in Hil...	[ "Short answer: Yes, we can assume that they follow a Poisson distribution Long answer: The number of drops impacting at any moment on the ground surface (or passing throw any other surface) is independent of earlier impacts and they don't influence in any way the future impacts. Although We can think that t...
Could the human body withstand 1/1000th of a second on the surface of the sun?	[ "I would say not. The surface of the Sun is 6000K, and the amount of radiation present at the surface of the sun would be thousands or millions of rads. The radiation alone would kill you. From a heat perspective, the mean particle speed at 6000K is about 6000m/s (just a coincidence), so in that 1/1000 of a second,...	[ "I don't think you would be making this post. because you probably wouldn't be alive. KY sensations would go out of business though." ]
If you're near sighted and you stand very close to a mirror why can't you see things far in the background?	[ "Because the mirror only bends the path of light, without refocusing it. The optical distance between your eyes and the remote object is still long." ]	[ "Because most cars steer with the front wheels. So if you are reversing into a spot, you 'set' the rear of the car in the spot and maneuver the front end of the car to be parallel to the curb. If you are trying to park while driving forward, you can maneuver the front end of the car into the spot, but there's no wa...
Rate of fall for shuttle rocket booster.	[ "What you're seeing is the result of the rockets reaching the apex of their trajectory. At 127 (mission time) seconds they separate (and are still burning weakly).. At this point they are travelling at about 3000 miles per hour, at a fairly low angle (have a look at the smoke trail being left at about 2.07 on the v...	[ "Many missions do use multiple slingshot encounters (aka \"Gravity Assist Maneuvers\"). If I recall correctly, the Rosetta mission performed two Earth GAMs and a Mars GAM. Cassini performed two GAMs past Venus, one past Earth, and another at Jupiter. However, this takes time. In order to pull off the double-earth s...
What exactly causes the sea level to rise?	[ "There’s a little extra water coming from melting glaciers but most is from the volumetric expansion as the ocean warms. In some areas where they like to show local sea level rise it’s from the sinking land. An example is the disappearing wetlands of Louisiana" ]	[ "_URL_0_ < - Here is an article discussing this particular paper written by climate science experts. They go through and show why the paper is incorrect. _URL_1_ < - This article deals with several past models the author (Roy Spencer) has released. Basically the issue with Spencer is that he is convinced CO2 has no...
Would a tree still get rings if you kept every environmental factor exactly constant over the time of its life?	[ "Not necessarily. This is one reason why it is difficult to age trees in tropical or temperate environments. California redwoods (Sequoia sempervirens), for example, do not reliably put on rings every year, and can be similarly difficult to age. _URL_2_ _URL_1_ Edit to add another link discussing alternative a...	[ "There's many different measures of [curvature](_URL_0_). I'm not sure what you mean by being able to balance an object on it. Where you can balance an object has as much to do with the distance to the center of gravity as it does with the curvature." ]
[Astronomy] Do we know enough about the heavy metal output of supernovae to speculate as to what the mass of the first generation of stars was? What do we know about the first stars?	[ "One of the interesting questions that has not been fully answered yet is how the first stars acquired their magnetic fields. Suggestions have been made (e.g Bierman Battery process) but nothing has been confirmed as yet." ]	[ "How exactly did labor markets (or whatever was in their place) function in the USSR? How did planners determine what was being paid (if this is a fair way to characterize it)? Did wages differ by trade/region/labor supply, and if so, how was this decided?" ]
Short Answers to Simple Questions \| March 14, 2018	[ "Who is the first female central/standalone protagonist of a science fiction story that is not explicitly about gender (or makes gender a component of a portrayed utopia/dystopia)? How about a novel or serial-published-as-novel? For purposes of this question, assume SF is roughly a 20th+ century genre." ]	[ "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_)" ]
Why hasn't there been a recorded migration away from urban areas to rural areas? Why aren't many people moving to smaller towns/cities?	[ "I would imagine that big city folk see the drop in pay if they moved to a small town in terms of the cost of living in the big city. In the small Iowa town I lived in for 30 years, I lived quite well on 23k a year. But when I told big city folks those numbers, they saw that as poverty. I had a house, a paid off ca...	[ "Building is often done in bulk, dozens of houses at a time, which means you get economies of scale, not just in the materials etc, but in the laying on of services. Building a row of houses needs a trench dug for the sewer connections, for example, but you can do the whole row at one time - likewise the foundation...
Why do we listen to songs that depress us when we're upset? Even though we KNOW it only makes things worse?	[ "Does it make things worse? It's genuine psychiatric advice that sometimes you just need to feel shitty. Recognizing you're down and experience it is part of being mentally healthy, if you're always running away from unhappiness you're like to become mentally unwell." ]	[ "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." ]
How do you calculate a number to the power of a fraction or irrational number without using a calculator?	[ "You can do it with a fractional expansion of the exponent by taking advantage of the property that x^a * x^b = x^(a+b). So in your example, we can expand 2^1.47 to > 2^1 * 2^0.4 * 2^0.07 By converting those decimal exponents into fractions we get > 2^1 * 2^2/5 * 2^7/100 Which by the property of (x^(a))^b = x^ab ...	[ "You know how authors write long stories using letters and words and the rules of grammar and writing? Its just like that. With enough knowledge of how to read (math), these kinds of explanations make sense. Dont feel bad that you cant read it. Its just like if you tried to read a story in a language you dont know....

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