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Why are British tabloids so particularly "awful"? | [
"The UK tabloids are basically like the US gossip rags, but unlike the US, they have the veneer of a \"serious\" paper. Everyone knows the National Enquirer or Perez Hilton's gutter rags for what they are....they are trash, but at least they're pretty honest about it. Whereas the UK tabloids at least make the prete... | [
"I think the responses you've got so far indicate that it isn't very reliable. The whole thing is based on a sample. A sample of people are given set top boxes that monitor what they are watching. This sample is then scaled up to the whole population with weighting bias added in so that they can account for the 'av... |
If the FDA (US) so strictly vets new drugs for safe use on humans, why then do TV adverts contain so many warnings against side effects? | [
"Possible side effects aren't guaranteed side effects. You may get one side effect, or maybe another, or probably none at all. Drug makers are required to advertise all possible side effects that occurred in their clinical trials. Those trials comprise probably thousands of people; conceivably if one person got a r... | [
"I can speak for the UK, I think. Here, it was illegal for law firms to offer 'No Win No Fee' claims for civil cases until 1995. This meant that for you to sue someone you had to have the money to pay for a costly lawsuit with no guarantee you'd win. Most people wouldn't take the risk. When 'No Win No Fee' was perm... |
How do earthquakes happen that are far from tectonic plates fault lines? | [
"The epicenter [was 11km below surface](_URL_3_). Wales is crossed by [several hundred](_URL_3_) smaller and [bigger](_URL_3_) faults, it's not unusual that a slip occurs, releasing energy. It's difficult to say precisely what happened, without a detailed study."
] | [
"It's due to the size of cities. They can go through download areas, but you have to realize that downtown areas are very very small in comparison to the size of tornado alley. [List of downtown tornadoes](_URL_0_)"
] |
Why doesn't neuroscience do more with psychedelics to deal with PTSD? | [
"They'd love to. Seriously, what little has been done has been VERY promising, and its a serious shame that their hands are so tied. The government doesn't allow too much experimentation with drugs of that caliber. It really is mostly the DEA putting a hamper on potential amazing research because they want to seem ... | [
"[Voyager 2](_URL_1_) passed by decades ago and studied it in some detail but not as its own mission. There have been a few proposed missions (see farther down on the page) designed to study the atmosphere/weather, the rings, the moons, etc. Really it just comes down to funding for planetary science and what the c... |
Why is it that some craters, notably on the moon, have a small elevation in the centre/point of impact? | [
"I think [Tycho](_URL_2_), a young crater on the moon, is a good example of this. What is going on is that a large impact produces enormous pressure, well above the ultimate compressive strength of the rock. As a result, the rock behaves as a fluid, and you get dynamics similar to [droplets of water](_URL_3_). The ... | [
"Get yourself a a couple pieces of paper. Lay them on top of each other and push the middle up from the ends. Notice how parts of the paper are vertical? The same thing happens over millions of years with rock - sentiment layers form (like the sheets of paper) and extreme forces push them up."
] |
Wouldn't you need to travel twice the speed of light before you could affect causality? | [
"You can't exceed the speed of light. The faster you go in your reference frame, the closer to C you appear to go from another reference frame. At no point does this affect causality. If you're going 99.999% of C in my time frame, the distance you travel in your time frame compresses to a very apparently small amou... | [
"The equation you mention doesn't even have a term for speed in it! The full, relevant equation is E = mc^2 /(1 - (v/c)^2 )^1/2 . Solve for v: v = c \\* ( 1 - (mc^2 /E)^2 )^1/2 Now try plugging infinite energy into that. (edit: it's probably important to also mention that E^2 = (mc^2 )^2 + (pc)^2 , so E is always... |
If QR codes are constantly being created in many different forms, is it possible for one to be created, but it has already been created in the past, so now it links to that past code? | [
"A QR code is just a computer-readable piece of text. The computer doesn't look it up in a service or anything, the QR code itself contains a URL or a number or whatever other piece of text you want to put in it. So if two people wanted to put the same number or same URL in a QR code, they'd end up with the same co... | [
"How these cameras work is that the you're not actually seeing the same light pulse every frame. The camera has a very precise shutter speed, but once the shot it taken, it can't reset to take the next image. So to capture videos like this, you send hundreds of light pulses and for each pulse you very finely push t... |
Is there any evidence that Hannibal Barca actually brought elephants to Europe and crossed the alps with them? | [
"I know very little of the archaeological work done in the Alps, besides the fact that it really doesn't show anything. However, the reason that elephants are not mentioned on the article on the Battle of Cannae is that by Cannae all of Hannibal's remaining elephants had died, as both Livy and Polybius point out. A... | [
"Currently reading *Eisenhower in War and Peace* by Jean Edward Smith so most of my knowledge on the subject is coming from that. Essentially, Roosevelt wanted George Marshall to take over for Eisenhower after the North Africa Campaign. However, Marshall turned down the job leading to Eisenhower being picked. Hones... |
Poisoning wells is a common espionage activity in fiction based in medieval times. Was well poisoning actually something spies would do? What would the exact goals of a well-poisoning be? | [
"To ad on to OPs question; what would an attacking army do to clear a Well? What were other sabatoge methods used by medieval spies? This is an interesting post op"
] | [
"Your question is like: > Why do people keep telling me to take a pill my doctor prescribes when in ye olden days people didn't have access to the same pills? Clean water is way easier to get now than it was then. Since you have access to clean water you should use it. In the same way, getting a doctor to prescri... |
- Why Are Humans' Predominately Right Handed (Or even left handed, have a dominant handed usually?) Wouldn't it Be Advantageous to Be Ambidextrous? | [
"Finally, my time to shine. I did my PhD in Human Motion in computing. Your hands have equally important, but different, functions There's a principle called Guiard's law of bimanual skill. This states that we typically we have one hand dedicated to fine movements, like writing with a pen, and another hand that is... | [
"I've always been fascinated by the wide variety of \"Fall of Rome\" arguments and how they're affected by historical perspective. I was wondering: **Does your historical specialty advocate a certain theory for the fall of the Roman Empire? or what's a unique argument for the fall of the Roman Empire that you've co... |
Why can we blow out a candle but not suck one out? | [
"The flows of air when you suck and blow are not opposite. When you blow, air is directed forward in a stream. When you suck, air flows toward your mouth evenly from all directions. As a result of this, blowing is much more effective at causing high air velocities at a distance from your mouth. Air you exhale is lo... | [
"Your whole high school is in the gym for an assembly. The presentation comes to an end and everyone needs to leave all at once. If you never open the doors, people will never leave. If you open one door, how long will it take for everyone to leave? If you open all the doors, how long will it take for everyone t... |
The difference between decriminalisation and legalisation | [
"you can still be fined for things that are decriminalized. You won't be sent to jail though."
] | [
"This CGP Grey video does a really good job of explaining it all. _URL_3_"
] |
What causes random fleeting aches or pains in the human body? | [
"This is something I have regularly. I refer to it as voodoo doll pains because it happens randomly and i have had it happen from the bottom of my feet to the top of my head. Sharp intense pain for 4-10 seconds then it dials back to a slight tingle and in about a minute it is done with. No doctor will give me any k... | [
"Well, there are a couple of things. First, there's the cumulative stress of the environment over time. Things like oxygen oxidizing things it's not supposed to and all sorts of other minor things that just add up over time. Second, there's the fact that it's built into our genetics. As a defense against cancer, ou... |
Why is it a problem that Cuba is communist? | [
"The issue is not that they were communist, it is that they were allies with the USSR and are allies with Russia. Russia is still our biggest enemy and we are still having proxy wars against them. The Cold War officially ended when the USSR collapsed, but in most practical purposes it is still going."
] | [
"The more money that is in circulation the lower the value of each denomination of that money. So a dollar today may get you a candy bar, but after the government prints a whole bunch of money that same candy bar may cost you three dollars."
] |
How an earthquake can have a negative magnitude | [
"The Richter scale is logarithmic, meaning with every increase, the quake gets 10 times more powerful (power being defined as the ratio of the amplitude of the seismic waves to an arbitrary, minor amplitude). But when the Richter scale was invented, sensors weren't as precise and quakes below 1 could not be detecte... | [
"The bank's systems simply will not process an increase in person A's account balance without a corresponding decrease in person B's account balance. It'll be automatically rejected as an invalid transaction."
] |
What exactly does ISIS want as their ultimate goal? | [
"Primarily the establishment of a caliphate (a state where all society, politics and trade are governed by the laws of Islam). Secondly to spread the governance of the caliphate as far as possible, their immediate intentions are the entire Middle East and North Africa. Ultimately they want the entire planet."
] | [
"I wrote a detailed response about Tom Holland's documentary [here](_URL_0_), using primary source to argue that something very similar to modern Islam did exist quite early on. Also worth noting that Crone and Cook's *Hagarism* thesis is not taken seriously anymore (or even at the time) - it literally used only th... |
How do "motion-activated" and "heat-activated" deodorants work? | [
"I'm sure it's just a chemical or compound that reacts at a certain tempurature, there wouldn't really be any way to \"activate\" deaoderant once it senses movement or senses heat. You could call water \"Heat-activated\" Ice or call gas \"motion-activated\" water."
] | [
"There’s a bunch of people in your tongue, and they have a weird name. They call themselves TRPM8, and they’re proteins. They specifically tell your tongue when it’s really really cold. Mint gums or candy have a chemical, called methonal, that tells them that they’re REALLY cold, and in turn, your tongue thinks yo... |
Why do you get fluff in your belly button? | [
"Because shirts have bits of fluff, and your belly button does not have sufficient to nerve endings to inform you that it is accumulating there."
] | [
"Can add butt hair to this? What purpose does it serve?"
] |
Before phones were popularized, how were the police informed of a crime taking place? | [
"Walking to the sherrif's office/police station and letting them know. Some areas also had police call boxes (Yes, like the Doctor Who thing) in high traffic areas like parks that would connect you with emergency services, in America at least you can still occasionally see call boxes around although I've seen more ... | [
"The same way they do now: using satellite and microwave transmissions. Using the internet is kind of sketchy, because of a lack of control of the bandwidth that can cause the connection quality to drop, which is why other technologies are preferred when feasible."
] |
What is the probability of getting at least one black ball if I were to draw from a bag filled with 99 white balls and one black ball (replacing all balls once drawn) 100 times? | [
"Chance to pull a white ball: 0.99. Chance to pull only white balls after 100 draws: 0.99^(100)=0.366. Chance to pull at least on black ball: 1-0.366 = 0.634. So there is a 63.4% chance. If you repeat a process where only A or B can happen and where the chance of outcome A is P, then the probability that B happens ... | [
"Condoms come along with a small information package that tells you what the failure rates are. Here is an example: \"Pregnancy rates for birth control methods. (For one year of use in the United States)\" For \"Male latex condom\" it states 2% for \"Lowest Expected Rate of Pregnancy\" - so it means that if users d... |
What lead to the events of the Paris massacre of 1961? What was the international response? | [
"To add to this, what was the Paris massacre of 1961?"
] | [
"You're thinking of Philip II, Philip I was the third Argead king of Macedon and reigned back in the Archaic Period. There's a number of previous threads on this subject. [Here's one I wrote myself, though there are any others](_URL_0_), although there are many others. But the short version is that Sparta...really ... |
Why didn't the allies bomb the whole beach of Normandy before D-day, so they could just walk on it without severe casualties? | [
"They did, but the weapons available at the time (bombers and shipborne artillery) were not very accurate or effective at destroying dug-in infantry and bunkers. Not that the preliminary bombardment didn't matter, but what you seem to imply was just not possible at the time."
] | [
"> I’ve seen a lot of scientists say we can’t get through the Van Allen belts Who in particular? Were they working on the Van Allen belts, ionizing radiation in general, or biological impact of ionizing radiation? We can go through them easily, and if you don't spend days there the total dose is not a significant c... |
How is cloud-based computing different from the terminal-to-mainframe architecture of yesteryear? | [
"A mainframe performs transactional batch processing and has backwards compatibility as far back as the stone age. Cloud computing means you are consuming resources out of a pool. The resources you consume, the work performed, isn't guaranteed to be on any one server, or just one server, and hardware can be subdivi... | [
"I got a really terrific answers, with pictures!, from /u/colevintage and /u/grantimatter when I asked about this during AskHistorians Fashion Week. [Did early modern and early, modern, women's clothing in the West reflect different climates?](_URL_0_) Colevintage talked about how women adapted European fashions fo... |
How is it under debate Turkey to join the EU while countries like Serbia, literally surrounded by Europe, not standing a chance to join too? | [
"[Serbia is under consideration and is far further along in the process than Turkey](_URL_0_)"
] | [
"Jonathan Steinberg has a book entitled [_Why Switzerland?_](_URL_0_) that attempts to answer that very question. One of the problems he addresses in that book is how Switzerland was able to weather a lot of the storms characteristic of modern history: nationalism, class warfare, racial and cultural conflicts. Stei... |
How can an e-cigarette atomizer operating at a temperature of 65 °C vaporize a mixture of propylene glycol (BP 188 °C) and glycerin (BP 290 °C)? | [
"I believe an atomizer is not used for vaporizing a liquid, but for creating an aerosol (suspending liquid droplets in a gas)."
] | [
"The UK is further north than Newfoundland yet has a much milder maritime climate and average yearly temperature of around 10°C. The reason for this is oceanic currents. In the case of the UK, the Gulf Stream brings warm water from the Gulf of Mexico all the way to the coast of Ireland and Britain. This has a sign... |
How injurious was tarring and feathering? | [
"To add in my two cents (though I think khands has rather well summed it up), there was a sailor in Boston who was tarred and feathered for informing on smugglers. Within weeks he was serving aboard the *HMS Rose.* If tar and feathering was as truly incapacitating as is often stated, it is unlikely that a man could... | [
"I don't know what kind of firearm and bullet were supposed to be used, but no, it's not realistic. A through and through wound would leave massive cavitation and other tissue damage as well as blowing a large exit hole - typically. It's a movies, they frequently are inaccurate ."
] |
Why does IMDB say 'Green Inferno' has a 2013 release date, yet it is even to hit the theaters? | [
"To add here, the movie company Green Inferno was under was in trouble [financial//buy-out related type of thing] and IIRC got bought out right at the perfectly wrong time for Green Inferno to hit theatres; Eli Roth had to be in negotiations with the new movie company to get Green Inferno released to theatres. That... | [
"I haven't heard of this. Something you might be thinking of: Visiting revolutionary Petrograd, John Reed recorded the following in [*Ten Days that Shook the World*](_URL_0_): > The waiters and hotel servants were organised, and refused tips. On the walls of restaurants they put up signs which read, “No tips taken... |
How absolute was Stalin’s power over the USSR? | [
"Follow up question, given the size of the Soviet bureaucracy, how did this impact law, law enforcement and rule at a local level?"
] | [
"I'd actually like to add a cautionary note to the suggestions of Stephen Pinker's book. His use of statistics is deeply misleading, from the numbers killed in the An Lushan Revolt (which certainly did not kill 2/3 of the population of the Tang Empire), to the suppression of the Cathars (which Pinker has essentiall... |
What the most efficient way to fly/hover (i.e. Spends less energy), constantly flapping wings like insects do or rotate blades like helicopters do? | [
"Rotating blades. In order to flap wings efficiently, you'd need some kind of spring or really good regenerative braking involved. Rotating blades don't need that. They convert momentum on the x-axis to momentum on the z-axis and back. The blades can just spin."
] | [
"In a permanent-magnet DC generator, the output voltage is determined by the RPM, and the RPM is relative rotation between rotor and stator. So, if you spin the rotor at 100RPM, but spin the entire housing backwards at 200RPM, then the relative speed between the two is 100+200 = 300. And so the output voltage wil... |
How do cough drops work? | [
"The lining of your throat is swollen and irritated. The air going by bothers it a lot making it think something very small is stuck in your throat causing you to cough. The cough drop contains one of more of the following: - Something like sugar that coats the throat so air doesn't irritate it. - Something like ... | [
"It doesn't. Scientific studies on neuro-linguistic programming have shown it to have no effect. _URL_0_"
] |
Why do we get itchy? | [
"Itching is a way of getting irritants away from the body. If you get stung by something (or touch something poisonous) scratching it is a good thing, since it might dislodge the thing that's causing the irritation."
] | [
"Simply put for the same reason drinking water when you're not thirsty isn't as refreshing as when you're REALLY thirsty. Anticipating the bodies' needs doesn't trigger the same reward responses in the brain as fulfilling a need that is already present. Your muscles don't NEED to stretch right now, so you can't ant... |
How many regular British soldiers would serve in the Peninsular War, the War of 1812 and the Battle of Waterloo? | [
"This has essentially been answered by the preceding comments, but what hasn't been contributed is this: _URL_0_. Muster and enrollment records, transfer lists, honours lists, etc, for the period of 1730 through 1898. Worth having, OP, if you're writing or researching the topic academically. To succinctly summarise... | [
"The best book on this is and will always be Herodotus' *Histories*. It is our only surviving narrative account, written just two generations after the events, and while Herodotus can be accused of many things, dry he is not. Good translations are widely available; you can pick up De Sélincourt's *Penguin Classics*... |
What is the difference between Hip-Hop and Rap? | [
"The true distinction is that Hip Hop is a group collaboration and rapping is an individual art. Hip Hip originally consisted of four major parts: the DJ, the MC, the B-Boy, and the (graffiti) writer. Rappers (MCs) are a single element of the larger Hip Hop conglomerate. Hip Hop is the original genre, developed out... | [
"I usually explain it to my friends using phones: & nbsp; Switch - You can call anyone in your area code but can't get anyone outside of your area code. & nbsp; Router - You can call people in your area code(switch), but anything not in your area code is forwarded from the switch to the router. The Router can for... |
How do we reach extremely low temperatures? The likes of bellow 50 Kelvin. | [
"The best way we have now to cool down a molecule is with “laser cooling”. We reached the lowest temperature ever, bringing a 3-atom molecule to withing a thousand of a kelvin of absolute zero. Molecules are a lot harder to cool down than individual atoms. The technique works by causing an electron bound to the ato... | [
"The rules of thermodynamics can be loosely put as: Zero: The universe wants to play a game where it changes your internal energy. One: You can't beat the universe. You can only hope to tie it. Two: You can only tie the universe at absolute zero. Three: You can't get to absolute zero. Building a machine that never ... |
how can I get calls from numbers that, if I try to call back, apparently don't exist? | [
"Many places of business have their own telephone switch which has a limited number of outgoing lines. The outgoing lines are expensive, so to save money they will oversubscribe the lines as a pool. When someone in the building makes a call to the outside, the buildings switch will assign that user one of the outgo... | [
"Nielsen does this, they tell you how on [their website](_URL_0_), but basically they just randomly select people and track everything they do by asking them to write down everything and walk around the streets with microphones to record whatever people are listening to. They aggregate the data and produce the rati... |
what's the difference between brown sugar and "normal" sugar? | [
"Brown sugar is actually white sugar, however they add in about 2% unrefined molasses for colour and flavour. 'Organic' sugar does not receive milk of lime in the refining process (the step before the product is turned into white sugar), which leaves in brown in colour too, making it slightly more healthy (accordi... | [
"Salt & Pepper season our food. They make it taste better. Spices & Herbs flavor our food. They make it taste different. Season everything. source: Chef."
] |
Is it possible for continents to raise or lower in height? | [
"The top of Mount Everest has marine fossils. It was formed from India slamming into a larger continent and pushing up the former seabed creating the Himalayas to about 10k meters. People have indeed noticed this."
] | [
"I recall learning something about how the intervertebral disc tissue loses moisture as it ages and this has a compressing effect which can actually shorten ppl by an inch or so. Healthy discs = firm and plump Old/diseased disc = dried up, shrunken. Counteracting it? Stay hydrated and take joint and cartilage hea... |
Why do girls give other random girls dirty looks, especially in nightclubs? | [
"To establish dominance. The females select their mate based on the dance moves. Once a mate is selected: the female wards off the other ones, with paralyzing glares if possible, but violent combat if necessary. The males, usually stronger than the competing females, do not usually interject in this ritual but rais... | [
"The general consensus is [attention and approval seeking](_URL_4_) or [medical issues](_URL_1_). In [domesticated animals](_URL_2_), the approval seeking is generally from the owner. Because we see this in wild animals as well, it can't just be a human-approval mechanism. The attention seeking can be extended to t... |
How did mines of minerals on Earth formed? | [
"Well technically, mines and quarries are man made. But regarding why minerals are aggregated in certain areas and not evenly distributed, that's because the conditions that lead to their formation are localized. The ore or mineral deposits that we mine do not date back to the the original formation of the planet. ... | [
"Yes. There's a bunch of active research on this, and some caves have been found [on Mars](_URL_0_) and [the Moon](_URL_1_). The best way to spot them is with an orbiting infrared camera: the interior of the cave will be much warmer in the nighttime and cooler during the day than the nearby ground. Many people [hav... |
Why are cars now days more aerodynamic looking, compared to the "box" cars in the past? | [
"It is mostly driven by the requirement that cars have better gas mileage numbers over time. A car that slips through the air easily gets better gas millage than the older shapes. But also older cars were made of stamped steel and ridged frames and there were more limits on shapes as a result. Today's auto designs ... | [
"A quick [PubMed](_URL_0_) search for these drugs brings up a vast amount of peer-reviewed papers, some of which are free even if you are not at a University with access. The short answer is that even though these early compounds were effective, the side effects were astronomical. We've moved towards more specific... |
How does alcohol clean things like bacteria? | [
"Not a biologist but alcohol permeates the cell membrane due to it's small molecular size and displaces or bonds with the water molecules inside the bacterium. Leaves the cell dehydrated and unable to live basically. More here: _URL_0_"
] | [
"Its all CYOA. The company making the product can't advertise that it kills 100% bacertia. This is because of human error. If someone uses their product the wrong way, and gets sick, they can sue the manufacturer for false advertising, and in this society, they stupid person would probably win. Same thing with The... |
How do you create permanent magnets? | [
"Each atom of a ferromagnetic element has a magnetic dipole. Normally (such as in a piece of iron), these magnetic moments points at a random direction, so the bulk magnetization is near zero. If you align the moments though, and force the atoms to _stay aligned_, the moments will add up to produce a macroscopic fi... | [
"search askscience for a better answer but it would have to be very strong, I think there might be affects before you get strong enough to make the dimagnetism of water what kills you"
] |
What's the phenomenon that occurs when you drive sorta fast ( > 50 mph) with only one window down and hurts your ears. And when you open another window it stops. And why it happens? | [
"It is commonly called wind buffeting, but the official term is Helmholtz Resonance. There are two different masses of air while you're driving, inside versus outside. When you open a window, it creates a vortex the compresses and decompresses the air. This is the noise that you're referring to. Modern cars and tru... | [
"Your whole high school is in the gym for an assembly. The presentation comes to an end and everyone needs to leave all at once. If you never open the doors, people will never leave. If you open one door, how long will it take for everyone to leave? If you open all the doors, how long will it take for everyone t... |
Why is there so many different kinds of pain medication? They all seem to do the same thing (according to their descriptions), but why does Tylenol work for some headaches and Ibuprofen (Naproxen, Aspirin, etc.) work for other headaches? | [
"Some reduce inflammation which helps relieve pain, and some block pain receptors in your cells, so you don’t feel the pain. Different drugs perform different chemical actions that help with pain in different ways."
] | [
"If we use the standard Intel x86 instruction set, [there's hundreds of different instructions](_URL_0_) available. Most of them are pretty basic - add/subtract/multiply/divide two numbers, load/save something from somewhere to somewhere else, compare two values, etc. Most of the other instructions are special case... |
What is happening chemically when a chip or bread gets stale? | [
"The starch is crystallising, which is what relates the hardness, and when you say chip I'm assuming you're American, in which case would be absorbing moisture from the air, the air inside chip packets is actually nitrogen which keeps them crisp. Also putting bread in the refrigerator will make it go drake quicker ... | [
"You could test it. E.g. cover yourself in grease and then shower 1) with water only 2) with water and the product. Compare results. That would be a (pretty crude) experiment, which is how we learn answers to those kinds of questions. Also you could compare two pieces of perishable food, one of them treated with th... |
Why doesn't gravity require energy to accelerate an object? | [
"It does require energy to accelerate an object. The type of energy is called [potential energy](_URL_0_). When gravity accelerates an object it converts potential energy into kinetic energy, thus conserving the total amount of overall energy"
] | [
"a way this is used is when some kinds of elements which are radioactive like some kinds of uranium releases radiation. This radiation comes in 3 forms. Well only talk about one form that is gamma radiation. When uranium radiates gamma radiation, this gamma radiation has no mass but it was observed that the uranium... |
Is there any sort of evolutionary advantage to our heads/necks being shaped such that we require a pillow to sleep comfortably? | [
"We don't require a pillow. You can sleep on a flat hard surface with no pillows at all. Comfort we have now is a modern invention."
] | [
"Specializing helps with optimization. Cows can't eat meat, but their teeth and multiple stomachs are ideal for eating grass. Humans have to have sharp teeth for meat and grinding teeth for plants and our digestive system is inefficient at processing plant matter. Versatility is obviously useful, but there are trad... |
Where did the term "black market" come from? | [
"Black is a color commonly associated in many cultures with unsavory, hidden, and distasteful things. It isn't entirely clear if the term arose in response to a particular market which identified with the color black, but it is not a reference to the African slave trade."
] | [
"Dark meat is the muscle animals have, which they use frequently (like legs) So it contains a lot of myoglobin, which is constantly carrying oxygen to supply the muscle with energy. This also contributes to muscle growth. White meat (like chicken breast) is the muscle that's only required for short, brief bursts of... |
Why does it feel so much colder outside in humid climates versus dry climates? | [
"More humid air is better at retaining heat. It is denser than less humid air, and the water it is holding absorbs heat better than drier air. So as you stand outside, more of your heat is being absorbed by the more humid atmosphere than if you were in a drier climate."
] | [
"Think about it this way. The humidity of a room is 50. The moisture of a soft cookie is 75 and the moisture of a hard cookie is 25. Over time they both begin to level out to a moisture of 50. The hard cookie is softer in comparison to it's original state and the soft cookie is harder in comparison to it's original... |
Would a cell phone work in space? | [
"The main problem would be heat. Cell phones passively cool themselves via the air, but there's a distinct lack of air in space, so despite the near 0C temperatures in space, without a way to get rid of heat (apart from blackbody radiation), the phone would overheat. If you could cool it, then it should function."
... | [
"So they have your attention, the chances of it skrewing with the plane are slim to none (plus many have airplane modes that eliminate any outgoing signals) they use this excuse because again they want you full and undivided attention during takeoff & landings"
] |
Why can't we hear frequencies out of our range due to aliasing? | [
"You're imagining a situation like this: Sensor with infinite bandwidth - > DAQ at 20 kHz- > Brain If that was what was happening, you would be correct. However, if you instead imagine: Sensor with 20kHz cut-off - > DAQ (100kHz) - > Brain Then you can instantly see why what you suggest doesn't really work. The sign... | [
"If you actually tried to fly it straight up, it would stall. If you tried to fly at the maximum rate of ascent, eventually the air would get too ~~think~~ thin for the engines to work, or for the angle of attack on the wings to have much of an effect, so you'd be effectively limited to a certain altitude (what tha... |
Why are train tracks surrounded by tonnes of loose stones? | [
"It keeps the rails in the right place. Absent any kind of substance around the rails, they'd eventually move around due to the extremely heavy trains going over them all day, so you need something hard that keeps the track from sinking or moving side-to-side. It needs to be something that doesn't expand or contrac... | [
"Round here (Telford, UK) the local one stores salt for de-icing roads in winter. There's another one around which has a riding school in it."
] |
Why does food taste "Bad" and why do some humans like food that others don't? | [
"Culture plays a massive role in taste and appreciation of food. If you grew up eating salted fish, you are far more likely to enjoy it in adulthood. For a more western equivalent cheese is not terribly appreciated in Asian countries, and is definitely considered an acquired taste for older generations. There are ... | [
"You can figure out what components are in the food through a series of chemical tests. So if you want to know how much fat is in the food, you could extract out the fat using an organic solvent, filter out the non-dissolved parts, and weigh how much each part weighs. Or if you want to know how much salt is in the ... |
What was actually going on at Tiananmen square? | [
"hi! in addition to /u/Jack_of_all_offs' link, here are a few more related discussions you may find of interest * [To what extent was the Tiananmen Square movement actually motivated by democracy?](_URL_1_) * [I've just read that there was no massacre of students in Tiananmen Square on June 4th 1989. What's the dea... | [
"Related question - is the cavalry-filled lane during the Battle of Waterloo as described by Victor Hugo in Les Miserable at all accurate?"
] |
Do third world countries/mass poverty come from colonialism and its effects, or is it a natural transition from less developed civilizations to the present? | [
"Hi there! There's always room for more answers, but we have some information in our wiki/FAQs that can get you started. Many similar questions have been asked here, and here are some notable threads. If you see answers that are useful to you, tag the commenter in this thread (by saying something like \"hey /u/jsch... | [
"hi everyone! just a reminder to respondents to be mindful of this sub's [\"20-year rule\": no discussion of events/conditions post-1994 please](_URL_0_)! thanks! OP, if you'd like to carry on this discussion for more recent years, consider x-posting this question to /r/AskSocialScience."
] |
How come there is no cure for a hangover yet? | [
"Hangover's are caused by dehydration and an electrolyte imbalance. Alcohol is a diuretic, meaning it causes your body to release water, so you urinate a lot. With that water you are also losing tons of electrolytes. Your body needs both to function properly. The morning after you feel lousy due to this imbalance. ... | [
"Why not look at this as an opportunity to do a bit of science yourself? I can't think of an easier experiment to set up."
] |
How does wind feel cool on the skin even if the air itself isn’t a low temperature? | [
"It’s actually because of evaporative cooling. Your body releases small water molecules through skin pores all the time. Even at the same temperature the dry wind sucks some of the fastest moving (hottest) H2O molecules thus cooling you down. That’s why hot dry air feels cool but humid hot air does not."
] | [
"It is a matter of heat transfer. Specifically the heat transfer coefficient. Compare the coefficients of the two and you will see that your body (mostly fluid water) transfers heat energy more effectively through fluid rather than air."
] |
Is there a chemical reason why elements change properties when forming compounds? (ex. sodium and chloride losing explosive and poisonous properties when forming table salt.) | [
"It's all about electrons...atoms with incomplete shells react with others in a way that allows it to complete the outer shell. Atoms react to give up, receive, or share electrons to produce a completed outer shell. Atoms with a complete outer shell do not react with other atoms. See diagrams at: _URL_0_"
] | [
"Freezers are designed to remove moisture to prevent freezer burn. Ice tends to be exposed to this moisture removal, so it ends up evaporating. But water has minerals in it. So you may discover that your ice cubes shrink over time, but they have the same amount of minerals in each remaining cube, so that you end up... |
What's the deal with being "NO MSG" at Chinese Restaurants and why are they so adamant about it? | [
"A lot of people are worried MSG is unhealthy or otherwise don't want to consume it. It's just like being a vegetarian restaurant - you let everybody know so that those that care will still come in, and those that don't will do whatever they were going to do anyway."
] | [
"Both of these answers are mainly guesses on my part. For the white label players, the networks aren't as focused on the quality of their video players since they aren't as invested in their working correctly. Hulu and Youtube make money by having an easy video streaming service, whereas networks make money by prov... |
One of primary objectives in Aztec warfare (and way to rise in society) was capturing enemies, rather than killing. How did their combat tactics, equipment and tools differ to achieve it? | [
"I'd like to add, how did they fare against cultures (both Native and European) that didn't abide by that norm?"
] | [
"Technology needs to be created to accomplish such a major feat. This technology can have multiple uses to both the military and consumers. Space conquest is in humanities future. So counties with an edge will be at an advantage. What better way of creating a great space program than shooting for the moon? Here wa... |
If space is frictionless, why is the limit on how fast our rockets can go so close, wouldn't a big enough rocket constantly accelerate? | [
"Okay, so fuel has mass. The more mass you add, the more thrust you need to move it, which means bigger engines and more fuel, which means more mass... All kidding aside, at a certain point adding more fuel becomes impractical. You have to put the fuel in a container, add more structure to the ship, etc, etc. You... | [
"An object with no forces on it follows a straight line through spacetime; this is the cause of gravitational attraction, as you point out. But once another, non-gravitational force acts on the object, it follows a *curved* path through curved spacetime (just like in Newtonian mechanics, an external force causes an... |
While I understand the mechanics of how genes make proteins, I'm still flabbergasted by the diversity that genes can create. is there some special factor that accounts for how the genetic code can do this? | [
"Proteins are long molecular chains made from the 20 basic building blocks of life, amino acids. The longest known one, titin, also known as connectin, contains 26,926 amino acids. Titin is found in muscle and contributes to its passive stiffness. Because the 20 amino acids can be connected up in arbitrary sequence... | [
"The programs in question have a specific bit of code that checks the key. This check is performed by an algorithm (i.e. fancy math equation) that determines if the key is valid or not; it doesn't store all possible valid keys, just the equation that determines a valid from invalid key. If you get into the code of ... |
Why is it impossible for a Megalodon to still exist? | [
"I'm shitting my pants afraid that someone says \"well, actually it is still very possible as data from a research published yesterday reveals that blablablabla and scientists are now able to confirm that shit is indeed going down.\""
] | [
"Many years ago going to the moon seemed Imposible, Negativity ain't gonna bring ya nowhere bruh"
] |
How different/similar is Android to other traditional GNU/Linux Distros (targeting desktop/other platforms) out there ? | [
"You're right that Android runs on the linux kernel. That's about the only similarity it has to traditional Linux distros. Everything else in Android differs completely because there are almost no GNU components in the rest of the system (the exception being the kernel itself)."
] | [
"This doesn't apply en mass to the apocalyptic genre but I have noticed, looking at certain anarchist or libertarian examples, there is a specific desire for a world in which their skills are more valuable than those rewarded in the current economy. For example if I'm skilled at hunting, fishing, gardening, etc, th... |
What did the famous 'Rebel Yell' (used by the Confederate Army in the American Civil War) sound like and what were it's origins? | [
"Not sure about its origins, but here is an old recording of CSA vets doing the rebel yell in the 1930's. Pretty impressive to see those old timers still belting it out. _URL_0_"
] | [
"[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, ... |
Hey I'm curious as to the origins of humans having different blood types. Do we know when they began to diversify and why? | [
"_URL_0_ Why: the ability to change the sugars on the erythrocyte membrane provides resistance to pathogenic organisms (parasites, bacteria and viruses). This could be because the pathogens bind the sugars to gain entry into the cells, or because they have similar sugars on their own cell surface and so do not prov... | [
"Sorry, we don't allow [throughout history questions](_URL_0_). These tend to produce threads which are collections of trivia, not the in-depth discussions about a particular topic we're looking for. If you have a specific question about a historical event or period or person, please feel free to re-compose your qu... |
Is it actually possible to not know that you're pregnant until you go into labour? | [
"Yes, it is very possible, and happens all the time. The women this happens to tend to be toward the obese end of the spectrum, so they just don't notice the pregnancy bump. Also, many women have irregular periods, so no alarms will go off if they miss a few. And then there's plain old denial."
] | [
"Clear to who? A minority of Germans were against operation Barbarossa, which was probably the point at which the war really did become unwinnable. [Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg](_URL_0_) knew in 1942/3. Maybe before. Some Nazis were trying to surrender to the Americans before the Russians even entered Germ... |
What's the difference between sorting by best and sorting by hot? | [
"Hot means they’re very active right now; best means they’re highly upvoted. Controversial means they’re highly up AND downvoted. And New means they’ve recently arrived."
] | [
"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 does JELLO pudding mix only work with dairy milk? | [
"They make ones that will work with non dairy milks. The proteins and fats and sugars in milk are pretty unique which is why they can make cheese. You cant make almond cheese or coconut cheese, and you cant make dairy pudding with them either. Maybe someone can explain the science behind the interactions with the c... | [
"Well over here in the UK. ASDA which is owned by Wall Mart sells its own brand of all major sweets. Mars. Snickers, Twix, etc etc.....and they taste better at half the cost!"
] |
If all household batteries put out the same voltage, why is there not one standardized size? | [
"They're the same voltage but not the same capacity. A D-cell has 10x the capacity of a AAA battery. If you're making a low power device like a TV remote then you want a small battery like a AAA or a AA because it'll fit better. If you're making a big bright flashlight you want some C or D cells because they'll kee... | [
"And which style of outlet should the entire world adopt? _URL_0_ It would take a substantial amount of money for a nation to swtich over all its outlets, and the benefit isn't sufficient enough to justify the cost, especially when adapters are a much more cost-effective work-around solution."
] |
Whats the point of circumcision? | [
"This is an episode of Penn & Teller - Bullshit - Circumcision. _URL_0_"
] | [
"We don't *have* to cook our meat. We also could walk around with a heavy parasite load, like most animals do."
] |
Why do people say that burned/charred foods give you cancer? Is there a scientific consensus on this? If so, how does it work? | [
"Meat cooked at high temperatures forms heterocyclic amines (HCAs) and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). In long term very high concentrations these can cause cancer in lab rats; it is unclear whether occasional low concentration exposure (such as eating occasional BBQ) is dangerous. This may simply be a cas... | [
"When cells divide they make pretty much exact copies of themselves. Introduce radiation to the equation and the copying process goes screwy and the new cell is different. Rinse and repeat over and over and you end up with body cells which are completely different in shape size and function to what they were origin... |
Why does weed and skunk smell so similar? | [
"It's actually just a coincidence in the way we interpret smells. As far as I know, there are no common stinky chemicals between the two."
] | [
"[The Straight Dope covered this](_URL_0_). Basically, they started out as being made by two different production teams, but after a certain point, they became essentially interchangeable, but they kept both names going."
] |
Question about American and Soviet attitudes towards the space race: | [
"hi! there's always room for more info, but you'll find lots of previous discussion in this section of the FAQ* [USSR's objectives in space exploration](_URL_4_) *see the link on the sidebar or the wiki tab"
] | [
"Just FYI, You'll want to look into _Starman_ by by Jamie Doran and Piers Bizony. I was pointed to it by this [article on NPR](_URL_0_). (I haven't read it yet so I can't comment further) The two were incredible friends; Vladimir knew the ship was doomed, but went through with it because if he didn't, his friend Yu... |
What prompted the first emperor of Qin to have hundreds of scholars buried alive and their works burned? If history was the primary concern, what interpretations and narratives was he trying to suppress? Was live burial a "normal" punishment or an exceptional one, to make an example? | [
"A follow up question: what sources do we have on the reign of Shihuangdi other than the Records of the Grand Historian?"
] | [
"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... |
How do scientists make sure satellites don't crash into one another? | [
"Satellites are on a set orbit. The scientists put the satellite into that orbit to begin with, so they know when and where in space the satellite is going to be. When they launch a new satellite, they just calculate the appropriate trajectory and launch time to get the new satellite into space without hitting the ... | [
"Two lines were painted on the road at a measured distance and police would check the amount of time it took to pass both lines. Using that information they could figure out your speed. They would also get behind cars and pace them with their own speedometers."
] |
Why does GPS work in tunnels, yet AM/FM/Satellite radio and cell signals do not | [
"Your GPS receiver has an Extrapolation-function that allows it to Extrapolate your position based on course, speed, and what road you're on. So while it loses the signal after entering the tunnel, it knows where it was before entering the tunnel, it knows what speed it was going, and it know in what direction it w... | [
"You have a mobile map open. You are driving 55 mph. The company running the app knows you are driving 55 mph. You stop. The app knows you stopped. Over a period of 30 minutes, 100 cars are driving down a street with the map software running. Every single car slows to 10 mph for 5 minutes at the exact same spot, t... |
Why do some countries (Sweden, Lithuania) has faster internet than others (USA, Germany, etc) | [
"Well In general \"a small country\" can more easily heighten its average internet speed. For example there are regions in USA which have very fast internet, but there also regions that have slow internet or no internet at all. So the average for USA tends to be lower. Same goes for Germany. In case of Sweden which... | [
"You may have a flag on your account that says you qualify for the promotion while he doesn't. If you've had your account longer, have better credit/payment history, or if he's locked into another kind of contract he may get different offers. Basically the computer looks at all the accounts and says \"Accounts with... |
Was body armour used by any armies in WW1? Either as traditional or experimental equipment? | [
"Yes, body armor was experimented with - and even issued - by many armies in World War I. The most widely-known was the German \"trench armor,\" called *grabenpanzer* or *sappenpanzer*, which consisted of a front-facing thick steel breastplate with additional plates (held on by straps) covering the abdomen; it was ... | [
"**If you're new to the thread, please don't post the Mythbusters episode again. Mythbusters is entertaining but it's not history (or more specifically, it's not historical proof of anything.)** The short answer is no, not that we know of. /u/davidaop, our pirate expert, and I have both answered [questions about th... |
Do we know why our moon is so big? | [
"The leading theory seems to be that Earth got clobbered by a large object (perhaps as large as Mars) early in its history. This collision left a large amount of debris in orbit around the remains of the Earth, and the debris formed a large moon."
] | [
"Disclaimer: amateur astronomer. I have a clue, but no guarantee that I'm right! In the past, large telescopes like the 200\" at Mt. Palomar would be just one large circular mirror. When you try to scale up much beyond that, you get problems like the mirror sagging under its own weight, ruining the image. The moder... |
I'm currently reading the Quran for the first time, can anyone give me some (possibly) important context as to what was going on in the Arab world when it was written? | [
"Just for clarification, are you asking what was going on in the rest of the world (i.e. Mediterranean, Europe, Asia), or are you asking for what was going on in what is now considered the Arab world (Middle East, North Africa, Central Asia), or are you asking for what was going on in what was then considered the A... | [
"Hi - we as mods have approved this thread, because while this is a homework question, it is asking for clarification or resources, rather than the answer itself, which is fine according to [our rules](_URL_1_). This policy is further explained in this [Rules Roundtable thread](_URL_3_) and this [META Thread](_URL_... |
Why do the elements chromium and copper have different electron configurations? | [
"You may have heard of [Hund's rule](_URL_0_) - electrons tend to occupy orbitals singly before pairing up. It turns out that the 4s orbital and the 3d orbital are very close in energy, such that you can _almost_ treat them as degenerate. In both cases, it is more stable to \"promote\" an electron from the 4s to 3d... | [
"You may want to check out alternative periodic tables. There are various ways to express the same information. [_URL_0_](_URL_1_)"
] |
The U.S. Merchant Marines | [
"They're privately owned cargo ships. They move goods around. In wartime they can be asked to assist in the movement of military cargo."
] | [
"Add-on question: I've heard from one source that one major inspiration for the US government was the Iroquois Confederation - how true is this?"
] |
what is the difference between cigarettes and a vape? | [
"With cigarettes you inhale smoke from burning leaves. With a vaper you inhale vaporised propylene glycol with nicotine and flavourings. In both cases you are taking unnecessary crap in to your lungs."
] | [
"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 is Rastafari widespread in Jamaica instead of Vodou, such as in Haiti? | [
"[According to the US State department Jamaica is only 1% Rastafarian] (_URL_0_) (I was quite surprised to learn this!) I think it's safe to say that the the perception of Jamaica as Rasta comes from the influence of Bob Marley and the Wailers, if not other musicians. *May the mods strike me down for my brief, amat... | [
"I don’t think there’s anything to explain. Sometimes we as humans are just hypocrites. Why is Bill Clinton given a pass on all the allegations against him? Why do people follow some bits of the bible and reject the bits they don’t like? Humans are strange."
] |
What exactly is it about lack of sleep that creates or worsens undereye bags? | [
"That location of skin is thinnest on the body. What you are seeing is happening to all of the skin but most visible due to the thinness. Sleep is when many of the adrenal hormones (glucocorticoids, epinephrine) are replenished. Without sleep there is a lack of these hormones. These hormones also police blood press... | [
"Gravity, mostly! Also, when you are lying in a supine position, your core muscles are not contracting as much as they would be to stabilize a standing position to keep you upright. Both of these things contribute to the \"urgency\" feeling you get when your bladder is full."
] |
If cosmic rays cause genetic mutations, are mutations more common at higher elevations? | [
"There have been numerous studies that report pilots and flight attendants have a higher risk of cancer, although the results appear to be somewhat controversial. This would be consistent with a mutagenic effect of prolonged exposure to cosmic rays at higher elevations. As for seawater protection, I seem to rememb... | [
"Most of the people with melanoma now are the ones who were out in the sun back in the 60s to 80s, before there was so much awareness of skin cancer and when being tan was quite fashionable."
] |
Why does sound lose volume over distance? | [
"Sound is a vibration in matter. When you spread a finite amount of vibration energy over more matter, it causes less movement in each bit of matter, so its amplitude (\"volume\") goes down. [At a distance d from a sound source, the area of the wavefront the energy is being split across grows as roughly d^(2), so ... | [
"In general, dB is a ratio between two power levels. In general, the formula is Ratio(dB)=10 log(P1/P2). However, it is often possible to use voltage instead of power. In this case (considering that P=(V^2 / R), the ratio in terms of voltage = 20log(V1/V2). As a result, an increase of 6dB for voltage (which I beli... |
What's stopping us from drilling to the center of the Earth (other than economical reasons) | [
"To put it simply, it gets too hot. The deeper you go the hotter it gets. Once you reach about 10 km (6 miles) down temperatures are already as high as 482F (250C). Once you're through the crust (about 30 miles down)and into the upper mantle, which consists of partially molten rock, you’re talking about temperature... | [
"Because once you do something like that you can't un-do it. Even if you are right, what cultural artifacts have you destroyed in finding the chamber? And if you are wrong then you have destroyed them for nothing."
] |
How does satellite communications constantly work since it's not always lined up with your location and could be on the other side of the earth? | [
"Satellites used for communication are generally in Geostationary orbit, that means that they're always over the same spot on the Earth so you're always talking to the same satellite. That satellite has line of sight to either a ground station or another satellite which has line of sight to either a ground station ... | [
"Very careful simulation based on testing data. Engineers have experimentally gathered data about all the different materials used to make the telescope. This data includes failure points given applied loads, vibrational frequencies, etc. They can use this along with a computational model of the sattelite to predic... |
What is a straw man argument? | [
"A straw man argument is when you assert that someone else made a claim that they actually did not, and attack that false claim instead of the real one. The false claim is generally similar to the real one to make it seem legitimate. It could also be an extreme exaggeration of the original claim."
] | [
"Before I get all high & mighty about the term \"Dark Ages,\" can you define what you mean for us?"
] |
How much money disposable money do people in the US have every month? | [
"I'll give you mine. I make $48,000 a year, paid in 24 payments (2 per per month). I'm going to round the numbers off, but after my Federal Taxes, State Taxes, health insurance, and my retirement savings (9% into a 401k, 5% into a Stock Purchase Plan) I end up taking home around $1200 per check... so 2400 a month. ... | [
"Think of the packages like a fire hose, the water traveling through them is the data (such as streaming Netflix, watching YouTube, Etc). The 2Mb/s (Megabits per second) is like a garden hose. The 100Mb/s is like a fire hose. However that's not all there is to an internet connection. If you visit [_URL_2_] (_URL_1... |
Is weight loss really just as simple as calories in vs calories out? | [
"For the most part it is that simple. Take a look at [this summary of relevant research](_URL_0_). That said, there is no one-size-fits-all regime in nutrition and weight loss that would be ideal for all individuals. Some people simply respond better to a particular diet. There are clearly a host of reasons behind ... | [
"> it can't be a bunch of \"if\" and \"elses\", Actually, yes kind of is. Modern languages have ways to allow you to write a lot of machine code in fewer hand-written lines of code, but essentially it all gets converted back into a set of instructions which all basically get and set register values, test comparis... |
In statistics like "9 out of 10 dentists recommend this toothpaste", does that mean the dentists were asked "which toothpaste do you recommend" or does that mean the dentists were asked "would you recommend this toothpaste? | [
"It depends on the study! Be careful, these are not scientific surveys but advertisement surveys. Usually in advertisements like these, the advertisers like to get the best results possible to build their brand trust. So what they'll do is send out surveys to dentists asking them if they could \"recommend\" the bra... | [
"Therapist: A person who doesn't necessarily have a degree (but they very often do). But works to help people through problems such as bereavements or social anxieties. Psychologist: A person who studies the human brain and behaviour. These people mainly do research into why we are what we are. They study all types... |
Why is it specifically oxygen that fire needs? And is there a "fire" for other elements? | [
"You don't specifically need oxygen -- The general class of reaction is combustion - an exothermic (energy released) reaction with a fuel and an oxidizer. The fuel is \"oxidized\" - i.e. loses electrons while the oxidizer gains electrons. Oxygen is a good oxidizer but is neither the only nor the strongest. _URL_1... | [
"It helps to understand how candles work - I was actually blown away when I learned how candles work at age 24. I had always thought the wick slowly burned and the wax acted as a buffer. In reality, the wax melts and is absorbed by the wick. The heated wax then fumes up the wick and it is these fumes that catch on ... |
Why does time seem to go faster as we age? | [
"I think the more new information youre taking in, the slower time is percieved. So when youre younger and learning something everyday time seems to take forever as you continuously cycle through new thoughts on all of lifes subjects. As you grow older you become dependent on a consistent model of your environment ... | [
"Think of it as evolutionary to survival. If you aren't doing anything, those are the things you should catch up on so if you do have to fight for your life, your ready to go."
] |
Why is public education underfunded in the US? | [
"[The US spends 40% more on education per pupil than the OECD average](_URL_0_). There are two factors at work here that make it seem like education is underfunded: 1. Economic inequality: schools are primarily funded at the local level via property taxes. Poor and sparsely populated areas (both of which the US has... | [
"If I understand correctly it isn't a problem of a basic budget not being in place but that passing the proposed budget does not also approve the spending to pay for the approved budget. As a non American it baffles me how a budget can be passed approving and in some cases requiring spending to be made without als... |
Why is it acceptable in America to be Transexual but not Transracial? | [
"There are differences between the male and female brain - small but real. Most of these are to do with how much estrogen and testosterone the brain 'expects'. We did some autopsies on transexuals and found out that they had brains that matched their identified gender, not their genitals. This would lead to enormou... | [
"They did a scientific experiment, called \"Are Emily and Greg More Employable than Lakisha and Jamal?\" _URL_0_ The experiment was simple: they make two copies of the same resume. They put a \"white-sounding\" name on one copy (eg, Emily Smith) and a \"black-sounding\" name on the other copy (eg, Lakisha Washingto... |
Is it possible to "record" a brain hearing sound and reproduce the sound from the recording? | [
"Hm. I know people have done this with images ([Nishimoto et al. 2011](_URL_1_) < - pdf! You can also find some pop-sci write ups of this and some youtube videos; should be noted that it's not quite reconstruction, but we can nitpick separately) and with speech that someone produces or intends to say (but not sente... | [
"We aren't really sure why, but it doesn't seem that something like that can be done. Think about it like your bladder; you can build up a need to urinate, but you cannot urinate so much that your bladder is more than empty."
] |
Why do some old video recordings (~1900-1930) seem to be sped up? | [
"Silent film was usually shot at 16-18 frames per second. Sound film uses 24 FPS. When silent film was converted to video they used projectors which could only do 24 FPS, so it was sped up. _URL_0_ Edit : added link"
] | [
"My guess? When you're dealing with a lot of makeup, prosthesis, special effects its easier to hide flaws. You can see acne under makeup in high def, you couldn't really see that back in the day. Just a guess."
] |
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