Subset (10)

eli5 · 25k rows

Split (1)

train · 25k rows

query stringlengths 20 300	positive listlengths 1 1	negative listlengths 1 1
How can they show faces on shows like "To Catch A Predator" when the people explicitly ask not to be on TV?	[ "Dateline is classified as a \"news\" program. They are held to different standards than \"entertainment\" shows. They have much greater protections under the first amendment. Think about when the news will show a picture of an accused (or convicted) murderer. They do not get those people to sign waivers. > From w...	[ "Think of it this way. I own a house. In this house I allow several drug dealers to ply their wares. I don't sell drugs, I don't use drugs however I do FACILITATE knowingly, the use of drugs by my direct action and I am profiting off of it. Basically that's why, they know that they where facilitating the exchange o...
Why do toys that are low on battery slow down and change pitch instead of stopping completely	[ "It's low voltage. Imagine if the toy were powered by pressurized water instead of electricity. As the water feed tank empties (akin to low batteries), pressure drops, and the device performs sluggishly." ]	[ "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...
Why or why shouldnt we update windows?	[ "Old windows let out cool air and head, making maintaining a comfortable temperature in your home difficult. Update to insulated windows and save on your heating and air conditioning costs. You're welcome." ]	[ "a program is like a piece of cloth occasionally a hole is found so you put a patch on it but the cloth remains the same size when you want to make a cloth a blanket then you make it bigger this is called bloat" ]
Why do the veins on my arms become less apparent when it is cold? But more apparent when it is hotter or I am doing physical labor?	[ "This is part of your thermoregulation system. When it's hot, your body pumps more blood to veins near the surface in order to radiate heat from it. Likewise, when it's cold, blood is withdrawn from the surface to keep it warm." ]	[ "I'm sorry that I'm no expert, but I remember reading about this the last time a similar question was asked: _URL_0_ Basically, you percieve time faster after your run because of endorphines released during the work out, which means that the music seems slower. This is apparently also why a lot of rock musicians pl...
why is it hard to diffuse a bomb?	[ "Because bombmakers don't want you to diffuse their bombs, generally speaking. So they will create paths where interruptions cause detonations, for instance, so that by yanking out all the wires you set off the trigger." ]	[ "The boston marathon case was very very clear cut. There wasnt much to do really." ]
Why did the US choose Hiroshima and Nagasaki to be bombed rather than Tokyo or some other major city?	[ "Tokyo was already pretty much destroyed during the bombing of Tokyo, and Nagasaki and Hiroshima were the next best cities in terms of strategic importance to the Japanese military and war effort, as well as the best cities for the Americans to bomb in terms of alternate targets and bomber range." ]	[ "In the 1832 Supreme Court case Worcester v. Georgia, Chief Justice John Marshall, in the majority opinion, ruled that the Cherokee nation was its own distinct community and not subject to the laws of a particular state. How, Andrew Jackson chose not to enforce that ruling, thus paving the way for the Trail of Tear...
How do hand-drawn animation studios keep a frame-by-frame consistency in art style with so many artists?	[ "Being able to emulate any given style is simply a bsic skill that a professional artist in many areas has to learn. Additionally there are lead animators and animation directors whose job it is to enforce a consistent style." ]	[ "There are a bunch of ways but one way is for each client to predict the future movement of other players. For example if they are moving forward assume they do until the next updated location. The server then tries to resolve different ideas of the state of the world various ways. Blizzard's Overwatch tends toward...
- What does a conductor do in an orchestra?	[ "Been asked many times and this is probaly the best thread about the conductor job: _URL_0_" ]	[ "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?" ]
What is the purpose of the British Common Wealth? Do countries like Canada, Scotland, Australia have to do what England tells them?	[ "it is a club of countries that shares a common history and culture, descending from the British Empire. They use it to encourage friendly relations between each other on that basis. The members are equal, including the United Kingdom. Scotland is not a member, because it is not independent. There are rules for bei...	[ "William remained the Stadtholder of of Holland, Zeeland, Utrecht, Guelders, and Overijssel until his death in 1702. The countries were never joined, largely because the position of Stadtholder was a sort of gray-area, de facto hereditary monarchy—ie, a crown without an actual crown. Following William's death, Hol...
How does a DVD player know when you're recording the video feed and instantly turn to static?	[ "There is a channel called \"Technology Connections\" that explain a lot of this kind of stuff, in a audio-visual format, if you would want to see that as well." ]	[ "The premise of your question is wrong. The powerful end of the music industry has had a problem with people ripping CDs. You should read up on the [Sony Rootkit scandal](_URL_0_) to see that they've gone to pretty extreme lengths in the past to stop it. Ultimately, I think they just found that what they were doing...
Measuring computing speed - What's the difference between FLOPS, IPS, Hertz, CPS, and the other CPS?	[ "FLOPS = Floating point operations per second Floating point is a way of storing № which compromises between efficiency and accuracy (on computers). Operations refers to the mathematical operation. Hertz (Hz) = Cycles/Second This is a measure of frequency (how fast something happens in a given time). It c...	[ "Imagine you wanted to send a digital file to a friend of yours, but all you have is a telephone and the binary data contents of the file. You tell your friend \"when I say beep you write down 1, when I say boop, you write down 0\", and then you read the contents of the file to him over the phone \"beep beep boop ...
Was prostitution segregated in the USA?	[ "As a side question to branch of this one - how common was segregation in illegal activities in general before the civil rights movement? (The one that comes to mind specifically is illegal alcohol manufacture/sale, but there are a wide array of organized criminal activities in America.)" ]	[ "This submission has been removed because it is [soapboxing](_URL_1_.), [promoting a political agenda, or moralizing](_URL_0_). We don't allow content that does these things because they are detrimental to unbiased and academic discussion of history." ]
Why do people buy so much in gift cards and how does it benefit the buyer?	[ "There are several possibilities, but the amounts make me feel like its the first one. 1) Fraud: the buyer or group of buyers are using stolen cards in order to buy all of the cards. After the purchase is made, the thief ditches the stolen credit card and then resells the purchased gift cards through eBay, plastic ...	[ "I don't have a ton of experience with Bitcoin, but AFAIK, you can download a wallet app, meet with someone and exchange cash for Bitcoin (you pay cash, then simply transfer the bitcoin to your wallet by snapping an image of their QR code), and walk away. You completely bypass any bank, that's the entire point of B...
How to set up a company from A to Z	[ "This is a very good question, but I don't know if can be aquatically explained to a 5 year old. Still, I would love to see someone do it." ]	[ "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!" ]
What makes Flu Season happen at the same time each year?	[ "It's a combination of factors, but the biggest was found in a study by a microbiologist named Peter Palese in 2007: the virus thrives in dry air. When you exhale, your expel a little bit of moisture; just tiny droplets too small to be seen. As the droplets fall to the ground, they start to evaporate. The virus in...	[ "Well i dont sleep good at night time very often, so when i get home from school i crash right away. Im guessing its just based on your body clock and what time you eat/go to sleep. Basically it just depends what your daily schedule is...." ]
What are you supposed to do if you're swimming in the ocean and lose your shorts?	[ "Keep swimming parallel with the shore until you find a nude beach?" ]	[ "The video shows every step. The fish, crab, and eels, have millions of years of evolution where finding holes in the bank to hide in resulted in fewer deaths from predation. So they seek the holes. They seek dark holes with the scent of prey. Humans come along. They imitate the dark holes with bamboo. They put ou...
How do we synthesize particular DNA?	[ "I'm assuming you're asking how to make a strand DNA from individual bases without a template. You would want to look at oligonucleotide synthesis and specifically the synthetic cycle ( found here _URL_0_) In addition it should be mentioned that this process is fully automated and usually done by a third party suc...	[ "Actually we do. _URL_0_ The reason its so complicated is because we have so many dialects, accents, and speaking mannerisms. The program itself needs (I believe) a minute of speech from the subject before mimicing the speech." ]
. Why does overcharging a smartphone kill its battery life?	[ "This seems like a great article on the topic: _URL_0_" ]	[ "Every time you make a copy of a cell, there is a chance for errors. For example when you photocopy a first print, it is pretty crisp and close to the original, but there are a few minor discrepencies. Now if you photocopy the copy, it gets more distorted, and so on until some letters get hard to read, it gets diff...
Can you touch or see a vitamin? Does it have a shape? If I opened up a tomato, could I find the vitamins?	[ "Vitamins are chemicals. Touch salt water. You've touched salt dissoved in water. Touch lemon juice, you've just touched vitamin C dissolved in water. Alot of other vitamins are water soluble." ]	[ "We also have smaller things called capillaries. Think of veins and arteries as highways and capillaries as normal streets. There are very few businesses and houses on a highway but they provide quick and efficient acess to the streets that do." ]
What's the difference between agnostic and atheist?	[ "Gnostic theist = I know there is a god. Agnostic theist = I think there is a god. Agnostic atheist = I don't think there is a god. Gnostic atheist = I know there is no god" ]	[ "This CGP Grey video does a really good job of explaining it all. _URL_3_" ]
Which European countries were least affected by World War II?	[ "I would go with Vatican - No damage, no war related deaths, not much changed actually. San Marino - Bombed once by mistake - on the retreat the germans an americans actually made sure not to cross into the country. Liechtenstein & Switzerland - 100 people died due to wrong targets being bombed and problems with ...	[ "Yes, entire villages were struck so hard that they were abandoned. In Sweden, there's a specific name for villages that were abandoned - \"böle\" was added to the name of the village when it was re-populated again. It might not have been entirely eradicated, but enough so that people could move in from the outside...
Can /askrhistorians help me to identify these medals of this USSR beret?	[ "On the first picture, top left corner says \"Pyatigorsk\" this is a [town in south-west Russia](_URL_2_), below that is a pin for the [Baikal-Amur Mainline](_URL_1_), a rail line running across Russia. To the right of that pin is one for a Театр Кукол (Puppet Theater), to the right of that one says \"54th Festival...	[ "Hi OP, I've temporarily removed your post per our rule to protect personal privacy - _URL_0_. Could you either remove the link to your grandfather's docs, or modify the images to block out his name (and the names of any other people not serving in an official capacity), and any other identifying information. Then ...
What has happened to cloning since Dolly the sheep and aren't we cloning Pandas and other endangered species out of extinction?	[ "Animals get cloned every now and then, but it isn't newsworthy anymore. It's still difficult and expensive and it's easier to get padas to mate naturally. And with endangered species, cloning wouldn't necessarily solve problems, as the new animals would have the same genetic code. Introduce 100 new cloned pandas t...	[ "After Apollo, interest in manned lunar landings greatly diminished. Interest and money turned toward the shuttle program and space stations. Right now, no one has the capability to land on the moon as both the shuttle and Soyuz were not designed to leave Earth's orbit at all. NASA does plan to return to the moon w...
Drinking glasses - why we use certain shapes for certain drinks. Why not drink red wine out of a whiskey tumbler? Does the thickness/quality of the glass matter?	[ "For wine glasses, they are very shallow and wide at how deep you pour wine as to increase surface, allowing the wine to \"breathe\", i.e. react with oxygen to improve the taste. For whiskey, there are so-called \"nosing glasses\" which have a round bottom part and a relatively slim upper part; this allows the whis...	[ "I like this. However, pictures are awesome. Your pictures with the flame on the drawing board? Good stuff. The video with candle/flame? Good stuff. Your face? Great face for TV, but I don't want to see it the majority of the time. It makes the viewer lose interest over a period of time. Personally, I liked learnin...
how spiders start their webs across large gaps like between trees and across footpaths	[ "Generally they basically use the wind. They will let out webbing from their abdomen and allow wind currents to take the ever lengthening strand until it catches something, then they pull it tight and secure it. If it doesn't catch anything, they will often pull the line back in and eat it to recycle the proteins. ...	[ "The movie was [Days of Thunder](_URL_0_) and he was talking about [Slipstreaming or Drafting](_URL_1_). As to your question, this depends on * The velocity of the cars * Geometry of both cars * Atmosphere status (temperature, rain, snow ... although they have very little effect at higher speeds) On the street it's...
If humans have been in the sun for all of history, why are we still burnt it today?	[ "Because we adapted to avoid sunburns by restricting exposure to direct sunlight, rather than by having thick hair or scales that cover our body. In addition, many people have darker skin (especially those whose ancestry originated most recently from equatorial regions, such as Africa) which does not burn as easily...	[ "Same reason you don't keep turning the ignition key for hours in your car when it won't start -- there's no point in doing it, it won't get better." ]
Why isn't the universe bright everywhere all the time?	[ "You've actually stumbled on a classic argument. Essentially, if the universe were infinite in size, infinite in age, and isotropic, then any point in the sky would be in line with the surface of the star and (interstellar dust not withstanding) the entire sky would be as bright as the surface of a star. Since this...	[ "Your eyes work by constantly producing chemicals that is broken down by light. By measuring how much chemicals is in your vision cells you can find out how much light they receive. When it is light there is very little chemicals present and when it is dark there is lots of chemicals. However it takes your cells ab...
What type of relationship have the KKK and neo-Nazi groups historically had?	[ "To get you started, let me suggest [this thread from two years ago](_URL_0_) in which a now-departed user describes relations between the Klan and Nazi-leaning groups leading up to World War II." ]	[ "I just read the article, and Witzel isn't even telling a just-so story -- he's telling an \"it's so whether it's so or not\" story. Take a look at this statement, as just one example among many: > Apart from the feature of drift, certain motifs that widely appear in Laurasian and non-Laurasian mythologies may bel...
How do we know what it will feel to touch something? Even things we never touched before?	[ "That's why babies touch everything and put everything in their mouths. They are learning, grouping, categorizing, remembering what everything feels like. We associate how things look with how they feel. Just like we associate how things smell with how they taste. We pair those memories. So when you see something y...	[ "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 is it that i'm left handed but do some activities like a right handed person would?	[ "As I understand it, left/right-handedness isn't a 100% binary thing. You can be left-handed for most activities, but still be right-handed on a few/some others depending on how you were taught, how you grew up, etc." ]	[ "Looks like the phenomenon is called [Chronostasis](_URL_0_). > probably caused by the way in which the brain attempts to construct a continuous conscious experience in spite of quick eye movements (saccades). Basically, since your eyes are constantly making countless tiny movements all the time your brain has to ...
why are there two chains of command in companies? There's the CEO, CFO, COO and the President, Exec VP, and VP line. What's the difference between a president and a CEO?	[ "The role of the President (and basically only the president) will vary wildly between businesses. CEO is always the top-level executive officer, should the title exist at all, commonly assisted by a CFO, COO, and maybe some other C-level executives like CIO. In companies with both President and CEO titles, the pre...	[ "The US Justice Department’s opinion is that a sitting president cannot be indicted or arrested. Congress can, however, impeach a president and, upon conviction by 2/3 of the Senate, remove the president from office. Once the president has been removed from office, that can be indicted and prosecuted. So, prosecuti...
I was just pondering time travel and realized that we see stars millions of years after they are dead as bright live stars, in the same context if we were able to view the earth from those given stars, would we be able to see the past?	[ "Yes. Light takes a finite amount of time to travel places, so if you set up a mirror 4 lightyears away, and looked at it, you'd see light that left Earth 8 years ago (4 years there, 4 years back!)." ]	[ "We can divide divide spacetime into regions bounded by your forward and reverse [light cones](_URL_0_). The region of spacetime inside your forward light cone is the \"absolute future\", meaning that all observers agree that these events have not happened yet. The region inside your backward light come is the \"ab...
Do animals experience emotions? If so, do they differ from human emotions?	[ "Kind of hard to tell exactly what animals experience, since we can't ask them. However, science suggests that many of them do. PET and fMRI show their brains acting the same way ours do when we experience emotions." ]	[ "If i recall correctly, plants actually convert ~5% of incoming light to energy via photosynthesis. In addition to this, solar radiation is a pretty diffuse source of energy (one of several issues with solar panel technology, large areas are needed for any significant energy to be gathered). These two factors (poo...
How do autistic people see the world?	[ "They're not schizophrenic, which seems to be what you're describing. They only see the world differently in a metaphorical sense. In other words, they may perceive different solutions to problems than you normally would. A lot of them do have active imaginations, but they can tell what's real and what's not. The r...	[ "VSauce on Youtube made a very good video on this, I highly recommend you check it out: _URL_0_" ]
Does a lightning bolt or strike have a thickness? Or is it one electron thick?	[ "It has a thickness. The lightning bolt is a channel of hot ionized gas created through an electrical discharge. Depending on the discharge this channel can be tiny (e.g. piezo sparks) and typcial thickness in real lightnings is 1-4 cm _URL_0_" ]	[ "Wifi and cellular systems use microwave radiation (like your microwave oven, except far far less power). Microwave radiation rips absorbed quite readily by polar molecules like water and fats. (this is how microwave ovens cook food, imparting the energy of microwave radiation into kinetic energy of water and fat m...
how long would it take to breed a almost truly intelligent animal?	[ "Actually a lot of dogs are smarter than wolves. But when we breed animals we're usually not aiming for intelligence. Smarter things are cool and all but they're smart - they need intellectual stimulation, they break shit and mess around and don't listen to you and manipulate you because they're smart and it's bene...	[ "> ...why are all species so distinct? Many species aren't particularly distinct. Certain species of rabbit and certain species of cat, for example, are aesthetically similar. Various species of bird are similar to one another, as are various species of fish, plants, etc. > ...why do we have chimpanzees and people...
Why do chefs have to wear white and that tall dorky hat in the kitchen and where did this originate from?	[ "The white is to signify cleanliness. The 'tall dorky hats' are called toques and, besides keeping hair out of food, they have good air circulation in the poofy bit. In practice, most chefs don't wear toques unless they're on display (when I was a cook ages ago, we usually wore baseball caps or skull caps). Jackets...	[ "Marketing. It makes the reader more easily relate to them. They aren't really a group of editors and publicitsts pushing the book, it's just that one person in a small town that wrote a story." ]
Could non-collapsed stars have a singularity at their core?	[ "No. If the core of a star were to surpass the schwarzschild radius, this would immediately stop fusion from occurring within the star. Without the power output of the core providing outward pressure, the inward pressure of gravity would collapse the star. This results in a supernova." ]	[ "We don't currently have the tools to talk about the moment of the big bang. But we can talk about things in terms of a limiting procedure. It turns out that, as far back as we can safely calculate things (which is quite close to the big bang), the Universe was never within its own Schwarzschild radius. In other ...
Is the universe 13.8 billion years old everywhere in the universe?	[ "In theory, yeah, it would seem that observers moving notably faster (closer to the speed of light) or near MASSIVE objects would have different ideas of the age of the universe based on certain data. I wouldn't be shocked, though, if there was a way to determine the age of the universe that wasn't impacted by time...	[ "The Hubble deep field is about 2.5 arc minutes across (there are 60 arc minutes in a degree) which at a distance of one meter would subtend 7 millimeters. That's about the size of a pea." ]
If a website says "all on content copyright by X 2013" does it hold any legal value?	[ "You have automatic copyright on anything you create (text, image, audio, video...). Writing \"copyright 2013\" doesn't matter, it's just common practice and a bit of a way of saying \"I don't want you to copy this\"." ]	[ "Re ._URL_3_. The co has nothing to do with the commonwealth. The UK chose to have a second level to the .uk web address. This means there are lots of .uk web addresses. There's ._URL_3_ for companies There's ._URL_0_ for organisations that don't like to be called a company, like charities. There's ._URL_2_ for the...
My mother once told me that there was a time (before at least the 1980's) when people did not use the word "Cancer" when discussing the disease. What was the reason for this taboo in the US?	[ "As far as I can tell the premise of your question is flawed. I haven't been able to find anything that shows there was any national taboo surrounding the word \"cancer\" prior to the 1980's. Rather I've found several sources from the era in question that do use the word. *Edit: [Example #1](_URL_1_), [Example #2...	[ "Because the CDC eliminated malaria in the United States in the 1950s. > The National Malaria Eradication Program was a cooperative undertaking by state and local health agencies of 13 southeastern states and the Communicable Disease Center of the U. S. Public Health Service, originally proposed by Dr. L. L. Willi...
Why do people avoid eye contact with strangers?	[ "It depends. People in small towns might say hello to everyone they pass, in which case, making eye contact would be the norm. In most cities, it's different. Eye contact implies that you are trying to get someone's attention or want a social interaction with them. It feels awkward to make eye contact with someone ...	[ "The thing about our body language is that it is more symbolic than we realize. Sometimes when we try to remember something we sort of look around, as if we are searching around for the memory. This is half learnt behavior (we see others do it, and mirror it) and half physical reenactments of mental processes. When...
I don't have a clear picture of what slavery in Europe was like during the era previous to abolition. Does the UK, for example, have anything similar to the lore that we have in the US?	[ "To narrow OP's question a bit, I would be interested in African slavery in Europe. Was there ever an industry of importing black slaves to be sold to Europeans? If there was, how did that industry differ from the US's African Slave trade? How important was it to the economy, what were they primarily used for, wha...	[ "Is this a homework question? It says in our [rules](_URL_2_): Our users aren't here to do your homework for you, but they might be willing to help. Remember: AskHistorians helps those who help themselves. Don't just give us your essay/assignment topic and ask us for ideas. Do some research of your own, then come t...
Why aren't there as many rainbows as there are rain drops?	[ "Technically there are. Each droplet acts as a prism, separating the colors. From your perspective you only see a fraction of that light from each raindrop. The full rainbow effect is caused by seeing slightly different perspectives from millions of different raindrops. One raindrop gives you red light, while anoth...	[ "one does. you just don't see it coz transparent liquid + transparent liquid = transparent liquid." ]
Why is it that water in a rock quarry is always super blue?	[ "There are generally significant suspended fine solids (rock flour like [loess](_URL_0_)) in quarry water. This would appear milky white in a small amount of water, but in a deep quarry, like those in many [images](_URL_1_), the effect is to amplify the naturally blue appearance of the water in sunlight." ]	[ "[\"All around the Mediterranean there are wide stretches of beaches composed of crushed murex shells, silent witnesses to the geographical scope and longevity of the Phoenician dyeing industry\".](_URL_0_) It was all from a gigantic murex snail farm off the coast of modern day Lebanon, which was notably monopolize...
Why does your face get red from embarrassment?	[ "The vessel in your face become bigger (vasodilator) and increase blood flow to your face, hence the redness (the increased blood)." ]	[ "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...
How does this throw perfectly land in the persons hands and not go further than the boat or land on the bridge [link in comments]?	[ "It was thrown high enough that the object didn't have time to fall onto the bridge and thrown at just the right angle that it landed far enough forward for the other person to catch it. It travelled the same speed as the boat, being thrown by someone on the boat, plus whatever extra the throw added it (enough to h...	[ "It's primarily two things: 1. Better equipment. Technology plays a larger role in these things than most people realize. Simply the fact that modern equipment is lighter, stronger, has more flex, rebound and spring allows athletes to do things that were literally impossible 20 years ago. 2. Athletes start training...
Why is it that sometimes reddit will give me a "we took too long to make this page for you" screen almost instantly after I click a link but then other times be content to load for 15 seconds before displaying the page I was expecting it to?	[ "Different amounts of traffic at different times. If its not too congested reddit will keep trying to serve you the page you wanted. If it is congested, it'll stop trying and give you that error page." ]	[ "Listen to me. It's sleep cycles. People have been posting questions like this to ELI5 for months now. I got this answer form a previous ELI5. The answer is sleep cycles! Each sleep cycle is 90 min. If you wake up in the middle of one, you feel tired all day. So be sure to sleep in intervals of 90 min: 90 min, 3 ho...
If Christopher Marlowe was just the son of a shoemaker, how was he able to attend The King's School in Canterbury and his further education? Was this kind of education available to everyone?	[ "Marlowe was the recipient of a scholarship set up through the will of the Archbishop Matthew Parker. The scholarship was able to pay for his schooling, and allowed him entrance into the King's School, even though he was of middle-class stock. Nothing is really known about Marlowe's life before coming to The King's...	[ "Well first you have to ask why these movements purged so many intellectuals. In every case, it's your well-educated people who pose the biggest threat to your regime. Your professionals and college professionals are typically smart, well-organized, and resourceful. They make the most capable critics against the ...
Why is it good manners to not have your elbows on the table while eating?	[ "I got this... This tradition started in the UK around the late 1700's. The Royal Navy sailors(most sailors actually) would put their elbows on the table while eating to secure their plate from sliding around during rough seas. When the sailors would land at a port of call they still ate with their elbows planted o...	[ "Back when the USA was still growing, that river was seen as the symbolic boundary of the known part of the country. \"Best x east of the Mississippi\" basically meant \"best x in the whole civilized part of the United States.\"" ]
ISIS. Everything about them. Who, why, what are they?	[ "It's a group of jihadists in Syria and Iraq that believes by establishing an extremist Islamic caliphate, it will bring about the apocalypse. Basically it's a group of brutal maniac doomsday worshipers. It was originally formed as a group loyal to Al-Qaeda, but broke off on their own. They got their \"start\" as ...	[ "The IRS doesn't know exactly how much money you will make this year based on a single paycheck, you might have a second job or a rental property or you might get a raise. They also don't know what deductions you qualify for or are going to take when they issue your pay cheque." ]
political bias aside What type of government are we technically and in real life?	[ "We are all of them. All of the terms you've listed apply to the US." ]	[ "I was always informed it was based on the focus of the website. A company would have a .com An organization would have a .org A database or network might have a .net The government has a .gov Meanwhile, the endings in .uk (England), .ca (Canada), .us (USA), .jp (Japan) are short for country cod...
If two perfectly round spheres were to touch each other, how large would the contact surface be?	[ "In a mathematical space, two spheres contact at a point. In the real world, spheres are made out of atoms so even in the most perfect case (for example, [the gyroscopes in Gravity Probe B](_URL_0_)) if you zoomed in enough you'd see that it wasn't a perfect sphere but bumpy collection of atoms, and if they compres...	[ "If you can't find an answer here you can always try e-mailing whatif@xkcd.com and hope it gets featured there, because it sounds like a question that would fit. Sorry I can't help any further =/" ]
What happens to a photon as light passes through a medium?	[ "There's a really nice answer in the FAQ ~~here~~ [here](_URL_0_)." ]	[ "Remember, electrons can be pushed around by an electric field via the Lorentz force. In metallic coating type mirrors, the incoming EM wave drive the electrons in the reflective coating back in forth. Since the energy of the incoming wave is transferred to the electrons, the incoming wave is absorbed. Recall thoug...
I’ve been wondering this forever. Why does the sun/moon appear humongous when they are rising over the horizon but small as they are higher in the sky?	[ "It's an illusion your mind creates to make sense of an object in the horizon. If you look at the rising moon upside down you'll notice it's small again." ]	[ "When you search reddit the rank of each submission can change dramatically within seconds, especially those not on the front page. By the time you reach the lower ranks, the posts you read before drop or rise to another page. What can also happen is the same news story or event is posted at once because many reddi...
Why do some internships require you to receive college credit?	[ "Legally any unpaid internship is required to benefit the intern and not the company. Requiring you to receive college credit is a good way for companies to demonstrate that you are benefiting so that they are not liable." ]	[ "They check for an @ symbol and a domain extension such as .com or .edu It doesn't normally do any test to check if the address is reachable etc" ]
How is it that an intermittent drip from a faucet can keep the entire pipe system from freezing ?	[ "Leaving a faucet on a slow drip keeps pipes from bursting when they freeze, not to keep pipes from freezing. If you put a can of soda in the freezer, when the soda freezes, the can might burst because water expands when it freezes solid. If you open the can beforehand, there’s more room for the soda to expand ou...	[ "This is where we start talking about chaos theory. The key is having \"sensitive dependence on initial conditions\"- a system that develops such that tiny changes in the initial conditions grow into larger and larger differences in the outcome as time progresses. The weather is such a system. Our initial data is n...
If insects like the Prey Mantis have thousands of eyes, then why do they have pupils?	[ "They do not have pupils. They have [pseudopupils](_URL_2_), or what is sometimes called \"the pseudopupil effect\" or \"pseudopupil phenomenon\" because it's not an anatomical structure. Rather, it's an optical effect that has to do with the position from which the observer (i.e. the person taking the photo) is lo...	[ "Think of a marbel in a field at night, you know it is somewhere on the field but you just cannot make it out. Now imagine it's moving. On the other hand, imagine a street light with a fly buzzing around it. You cannot see the fly but if you look at the light long enough you can just make out something changing in ...
Given the violence surrounding the events, did Che Guevara's revolutions have a positive effect on the countries in which he fought? Or, does the narrative of Che being a commie murderer actually hold water?	[ "Somebody else may want to expand further but there's a good write up dealing with some of the most popular criticisms of Che here: _URL_0_" ]	[ "Hippies are sometimes perceived as lazy mooches who live off a successful society but don't want to do the things that make it successful. They are also sometimes perceived as having poorly thought out political and social ideas that are unrealistic. Also, their aesthetic is sometimes seen as dirty (literally, ung...
How do geologists determine how much water falls from a water fall?	[ "The same way you measure volume of water that flows down a river. You go to where you can easily determine the cross sectional shape of the river. Then you measure how fast the water is moving. Do some math involving multiplication and perhaps integration over time and there you go." ]	[ "They don't and there are no authorities. Historically there were so few people climbing mountains for fun that they all pretty much knew each other and climbing a major mountain ( one worth talking about ) usually involved a large team of climbers and an even larger team of support staff that you really couldn't l...
Why does your appetite decrease in extreme heat?	[ "Your metabolism's job is to regulate the temperature of your body. \"Metabolizing\" food is basically like setting it on fire in your body and using the heat for energy. In the extreme heat, your body temperature is already high. So your body doesn't burn the energy it has as aggressively (your metabolism slows d...	[ "I'm sorry that I'm no expert, but I remember reading about this the last time a similar question was asked: _URL_0_ Basically, you percieve time faster after your run because of endorphines released during the work out, which means that the music seems slower. This is apparently also why a lot of rock musicians pl...
How did you become a Historian?	[ "In Grad school currently studying American history from 1876 to Present with emphasis on African-American history (The Civil Rights Movement) and American religion. To be considered a \"Historian\" most groups/people/institutions want you to have at least a Masters degree in history, similar to being a librarian, ...	[ "Hi everyone. Since this is the kind of question that can attract non-expert responses, just a friendly reminder that all responses must comply with [sub rules](_URL_0_), and that [personal anecdotes](_URL_1_) are explicitly not permitted in /r/AskHistorians." ]
Is it possible that all of our scientific theory's could only affect the surroundings we can see? That being earth, our solar system to the farthest we can see in space.	[ "We test our scientific theories on distant things as well as on nearby things in laboratories. We can see objects that are billions of light years away, and we can see that quantum mechanics and relativity work the same way over there that they do over here. For example, we can see, in both the near and distant u...	[ "It's nighttime. Here, have a telescope. See that building way over there? You can pick out details in the rooms that are lit, maybe even see people, what they're doing, etc. Now using the telescope, in your own dark room, find your car keys." ]
What it was to be a slave in Arab country? And when/why was slavery in Arab countries abolished?	[ "Slavery was abolished in each country at a different time, for example Saudi Arabia abolished slavery in 1962 and Mauritania in 2007, although it's still widely practiced." ]	[ "I'm not a historian, but I do know a good deal about human albinism. The reality has very little to do with dramatic depictions of albinism. We always think of pale skin and white hair, but the primary affect of albinism is on the eyes. Without the ability to make melanin, the iris becomes translucent instead of o...
If all of the boats, ships and other man made items in the ocean were removed, would the worlds ocean levels decrease by a measurable amount?	[ "Short answer: No. Longer answer: Just as a thought puzzle, removing all items would of course decrease the level. However, to the degree we can measure the average level of the worlds oceans, the amount would be within the margin of error. Edit: [Seems to have already been answered] (_URL_0_). 2.7 microns is wel...	[ "Sand is constantly being moved by wave action. It is pushed up onto the beach when the wave comes in, and pulled back out when the wave recedes. When you stand on it, the waves pushes sand up and, as it can't go under your foot, goes over and around it. However, sand can come out from under your foot. So, when the...
How do electric eels generate electric current?	[ "Electrical current is involved when you use your muscles. The electric plaque used to produce high frequency (deadly) current is formed by a lot of muscular tissue that has lost its ability to contract in order to let the current flow through the next muscle (they are aligned). All those muscles act like tiny batt...	[ "One key to seeing this is that even as you increase the intensity of the light beam, the ejected electrons don't move any faster. This is explicable if the greater intensity arises from having more photons. In addition, if the frequency of the light is too low, regardless of how bright the beam is, electrons will ...
Dr Watson of Sherlock Homes fame still had a "Jezail bullet" in his arm from his time in the service during the books and stories. Was this normal for Victorian era British surgery to keep the bullet and shrapnel in? Wouldn't it have been cleaner to take it out?	[ "I'm not a Victorian, but have done some surgery. Even today we don't always bother to remove bullets. They tend to do their damage in the way in, but much less harm just sitting there. On the other hand, attempts to remove them can do considerable damage. Bullets often [fragment as they enter the body](_URL_0_) sc...	[ "A big cut of meat comes from a large muscle. Big blood vessels (running to parts of the body other than that muscle) generally don't run through muscles (flexing the muscle would dramatically increase blood pressure), just the blood vessels that supply blood to that muscle (and the butcher cuts any exterior vessel...
Why is solitary confinement so dreadful?	[ "There are mainly three factors. 1. People are social creatures. Being all alone will slowly drive you mad. Some people do like it, but for most it's torture. 2. There's lights on all the time. You don't know what time it is. You get food, but you don't know when. You sleep, but never well. 3. It's boring. Think ...	[ "Same reason you don't keep turning the ignition key for hours in your car when it won't start -- there's no point in doing it, it won't get better." ]
Does Height matter once you attain terminal velocity?	[ "Terminal velocity is the point at which no net force is acting on you. You have accelerated to the maximum speed gravity will allow because, at this speed, the atmosphere exerts as much upward force on you as gravity exerts downward. So height doesn't matter. You will continue to approach Earth at terminal velocit...	[ "In outer space, there is no functional distinction between the potential difference of -5V to +5V versus 0V to +10V. Just as you point out, it's only relative to an arbitrary reference -- a random selection of \"ground.\" ...on Earth though, things are different. The \"arbitrary reference\" is really not all that...
How do water powered hose reels work without electricity?	[ "There is energy in water pressure too, in fact electricity is often generated from the movement of water. Just like the pressure of flowing water can turn the generators in a water dam, it can be used to turn the reel back in. If that was clear to you and you rather wanted more detailed explanations of the exact m...	[ "Newer ones might be electronic. The original style would have a recording on a sound cylinder or disk, which would be wound by pulling the string. Generally, much like a record player. A number of the older ones basically are tiny little record players." ]
Why can't stars fuse Iron?	[ "Fusing iron require more energy that it give up, so it's not sustainable. Star do fuse iron at the very end of there lives (and even some heavier elements) but loose energy doing it, when there is too much iron and not enough lighter elements the star collapse and die." ]	[ "I'd be simpler just to build a [fusor](_URL_1_) with deuterium. _URL_0_" ]
Does deeper sleep during thunderstorms relate biologically to a decrease in predator activity?	[ "[Here](_URL_1_) is the link that got me thinking about this. edit: I meant to link to [this reddit post](_URL_0_) but copied the wrong link." ]	[ "These sort of questions are really hard to answer under the auspices of \"science\". Someone can probably tell you a story based on a sort of \"evolutionary reasoning\" (and these stories are where a lot of evolutionary studies begin), but unless they can cite a serious research program that has investigated this...
Why does it take a long time for human babies to stand up/crawl but other mammals can stand almost immediately after birth?	[ "The scientific consensus is that humans are birthed early in development as compared to many other mammals as a consequence of our large heads (large brains). So a human baby is much less able to care for itself as compared to other mammalian babies." ]	[ "I don't know for certain, but think about it: Plants are sedentary. They find a particular kind of environment that suits them well and, for the most part, stay in one place for their whole lives. They don't need to develop systems that allow for locomotion. They don't need to develop complex tissues and organs th...
Why cold/thin air triggers weezing/coughing fits in people who smoke or have asthma.	[ "Smoking or asthma both lower the number of available lung surface area. Those little air sacks inside the lungs (alveoli) get gummed up, and can not be as efficient as they should be. Cold air tends to stun those working little guys because they have moisture in them, and cold air is a shock. Between not having as...	[ "I've read a lot about historic climate shifts and I don't think I've come across this theory. Most accounts of the Little Ice Age place its start around the 14th century. In the 1310s there were a sequence of years with catastrophic rains during the growing season, leading to famine, and of course beginning in 134...
What do we know about the Historical Jesus?	[ "Congrats! You've asked what may be the single most-asked question on /r/AskHistorians. That's good news, because it means we have [a big FAQ file devoted to your question](_URL_1_). Check it out, and I hope it helps! Edit: And [here](_URL_0_) is a great answer from /u/talondearg, who answers it quite a bit." ]	[ "This is a pretty common question here; here's some links from the FAQ: _URL_2_ _URL_4_ and a few others that have been posted over the years: _URL_3_ _URL_1_ _URL_0_ Most posts agree that it is largely a post-war pop phenomenon with fairly little evidence to support it." ]
Why are different people's "attention span"/ the amount of time the commit to something different? And how can I improve mine?	[ "Turn off your phone, and pick up a book. Read until you've finished the book. Turn your phone back on. If you choose to live in a world of constant interruption, you are teaching your brain to agilely jump from topic to topic every 15 seconds. This gives you a 15 second attention span. If that's not what you want,...	[ "Think of it like a balloon you are trying to blow up. You can start huffing and puffing with great abandon as the balloon isn't going to pop. but when it gets to certain size you start to worry, You want the balloon bigger but you worry it might go bang. So you have to slow your puffing down." ]
What is the difference between a sting and entrapment?	[ "Entrapment is when they get you to do something \"You wouldn't do anyway.\" Like if they leave a car where you can steal it, and you choose to steal it, and they arrest you for stealing the car, that is a sting. If they tell you that you can have the car, go ahead, Im giving it to you, then you drive away and th...	[ "[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." ]
What ARE 'primary colours'? Why can't I make them by mixing other colours?	[ "Let's ignore the way tvs and computer monitors work and focus just on paint. Paint color is created by subtracting wavelengths from white. For instance, a rose is red because it absorbs green and blue wavelengths from the spectrum, and simply reflects red wavelengths. Because of the way difference molecules subtr...	[ "Look at it like this: They were species closely related to us, similar to goats to sheep, or dogs to wolves or coyotes. Sheep and goats can have viable offspring (that cannot reproduce and so cannot create a viable offshoot) even though they are two distinct species. Dogs, wolves, and coyotes can all interbreed, a...
Why did the Ottoman Empire fall?	[ "There is more that can be (and has been) said, but you may be interested in these two answers by /u/Chamboz (as well as others linked within them) regarding why scholars no longer hold with the idea of a precipitous and constant fall: [The Ottoman Decline Thesis is completely discredited, but does the theory have ...	[ "This is like asking \"why does a fire burn itself out - what's the point of using up all the fuel if it can't sustain itself?\"." ]
Why does smoking cigarettes make you addicted, but inhaling smoke from someone else smoking doesn't?	[ "Most of the nicotine has already been absorbed through their lungs. Second hand smoke is still unhealthy though!" ]	[ "Find a kitchen sponge. Soak it with water. Now try drying it out with a syringe. If you spent enough hours to succeed, the sponge would fall apart from the huge number of holes you've made. And lungs are much bigger than kitchen sponges and the air cavities are smaller. And there are ribs and things in the way too...
If a 5 year old were to fall into a coma and wake up 20 years later, how would they act?	[ "Probably like a two year old. You don't spend 15 years in a coma and come back without some severe mental deficits." ]	[ "One case that comes to mind comes Tomocomo, a kind of companion who journeyed with Pocahontas to England. Allegedly he carried a walking stick with him upon which to keep a tally of all the people he saw, but soon gave up because there were far too many people in London or he was tired by the difficulty of the tas...
Why is porcelain the most prevalent material for toilets and other bathroom installations?	[ "It's cheap and easy to make. Not to mention it can come in a variety of colours, is durable, and is easy to clean." ]	[ "In short, marketing. Long answer, just repeat that phrase like you're [Steve Ballmer at the MIX '08 conference] (_URL_0_). Dasani (Coca-Cola), Aquafina (Pepsi), and co marketed the hell out of Bottled Water claiming all these health benefits and the \"purity\" of it and how much \"better\" it was for you compared ...
Why is it that I can tighten a lid until it is just snug, but then come back later and need to transform into the Hulk to open it?	[ "There are three things that can cause this. * 1 You get the threads wet with some fluid that dries, \"gluing\" the lid on. This happens often with honey or soy sauce, but can happen with any liquid that gets sticky (like coffee with sugar). * 2 The air pressure changes (either inside our outside), causing force o...	[ "Imagine every time you eat something, a large burly man appears in front of you and dances a burlesque routine. Without fail, this goes on for several years. Soon you fail to even think that this rotund mustachioed man is anything out of the ordinary. After all, every time you even begin to take a bite of somethin...
Acceleration due to gravity and density of a mass	[ "It is included, as distance. Think of it this way, imagine that you tried to go closer to the Earth's center. Would g increase? No, because as you travel closer, you go under ground, and more and more of earths mass is now no longer below you, but \"above\" you, so to speak. Now imagine that we squeeze Earth, decr...	[ "Momentum is what you want to look at here: When the first anchor becomes taught, the momentum will be > ~~P1= mv = m(gD)^0.5~~ When that anchor breaks, the climber enters free fall again, falling another [2D+d] until the remaining anchor catches, when the momentum becomes > ~~P2= P1-A + m( v1 + (g(2D+d))^0.5 ) = ...
Why is it that we started building a space station, rather than a moon base?	[ "The ISS is about 1000 times closer to the Earth than the moon, so we can actually move people and things back and forth in a reasonable time frame. The low gravity could actually be seen as a bonus - we need to study the effects of near-zero gravity on humans so that we know how to deal with the effects long-term...	[ "Cost. Solar panels are still more expensive to make and install vs. tapping into existing infrastructure. Also, anywhere without good sun exposure will get crappy use from solar panels. The need for a second, backup source of power for extended periods of time would, effectively, make it cost more to do solar tha...
What thoughts go on in the mind of a typical mentally handicapped person?	[ "There is no such thing as a \"typical mentally handicapped person\". Every individual is different and the brain is an extremely complex organ and development or injury affects every individual in different ways. A \"mental handicap\" may manifest completely different in two people depending on nature and/or nurtu...	[ "Federal records archivist here. We can't know the answer to that for sure, we aren't privy to details of Reagan's medical privacy. Most classified topics concern technical details of aircraft and weapon design, or other things that would hardly ever come up in conversation unless you were at work. It's unlikely th...
Why is it illegal to park your car on the street facing the opposite direction of traffic?	[ "Because when you pull into traffic you will pull into a oncoming lane. Plus potential for obstruction of view." ]	[ "When you tell a child \"don't ever lick cold metal\", you'll often find the kid with his tongue stuck to a metal pole as soon as you turn your back, even though it would never even think to do that if you said nothing. It's called reverse pshychology, and it applies to most people. You could say we just don't like...
Can daltonic (color blind) people see the 3D effect in 3D movies?	[ "Right now a polarizing system is used where each lens on the glasses is polarized in a way that corresponds with 1 of the two pictures being projected, causing it to be black in that eye, which leads to two different pictures in each eye. So, someone who is color blind would have no issues with the current system ...	[ "Yes, vitamin D synthesis is impaired, which may also explain higher rates of hypertension, diabetes, and some cancers. This article covers it: _URL_0_" ]
why every car does not come with a four point racing seat belt?	[ "Such a seatbelt would be very restrictive in mobility and it would probably just lead to more people not wearing a seatbelt at all. The belts we have today are perfectly adequate for protecting you in most collisions and they are good at balancing safety with comfort and convenience." ]	[ "I would imagine so if it gets caught it won't break your neck. Like cat's collars being elasticated so they don't strangle themselves in trees." ]
Why does it feel warmer when it snows?	[ "Meteorologist here. The phenomena you are experiencing is known as \"low pressurized elevated precipitation\". Water, in any form, conducts and retains heat much better than air does. When there is more water in the air, it \"feels\" warmer." ]	[ "Food Scientist here: Looked up the ingredients online but could not find the exact ingredients for the icing. However I will give it my best shot. It has too do with the amount of solids that is in the icing (mainly sugar and corn starch). The sugar will bind to the water, and will keep the water from forming very...
Since the end of the 2nd World War, has the ever US been criticized for its inaction against crimes against humanity?	[ "A general reminder of our 20 year rule on this one. We do not discuss events that have happened after 1993." ]	[ "Any soldiers who served in both Vietnam and WWII would have been field grade or higher officers, or senior NCOs. As far as I'm aware, there are no available numbers for men who served in both wars, but the army has kept track of three-time Combat Infantryman Badge awardees, almost all of whom saw combat in WWII, K...
Why are there rules on what is allowed in warfare?	[ "Efficient ways to kill people aren't outlawed. What is outlawed is excessively cruel or difficult to control weapons. Weapons designed to mutilate but not kill would be a massive drain on morale and medical resources. Chemical and Biological weapons can make land unusable and tend to hit noncombatants/your own s...	[ "To our readers: Please keep in mind [our subreddit rules](_URL_3_) when posting. Particularly, please make sure [to write an in-depth answer](_URL_1_), [to not just speculate](_URL_2_), and [not to just post a link](_URL_0_)." ]
In terms of data processing, what is a single computer instruction capable of?	[ "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...	[ "I want you to go to the river with this bucket and fetch me some water. You run at 2.4 GHz, so you can make this trip 2.4 billion times per second! Thanks for the water! But your brother, I'm going to give him a bigger bucket. He can also run at 2.4 GHz. He's going to be able to bring more water *because he accomp...
Why have illnesses adapted to be harmful ?	[ "They haven't. They're just trying to be fruitful and multiply. Any illness brought to man or beast is simply happenstance, an unintended consequence of infection and proliferation. Besides that, most bacteria are generally harmless unless they grow out of control. Take Escherichia coli, for example (“E. coli” fo...	[ "When you are creating new offspring, the genes come from the parents. The copying process however is not perfect and there is also some mixing of genes going on. As a result, the offspring will sometimes have differences compared to its parents. We call these changes 'mutations'. If the change is useful, there is ...
How do charities generally work?	[ "This is way too broad of a question to answer in any helpful manner. At the most basic level, a charity works by providing goods or services to those in need. There are nearly limitless goods or services a charity can provide, though, and nearly limitless ways to define populations in need. A lot of charities do w...	[ "\"magic\". This question is repeatedly asked. You need to ask more specific questions as there are a lot of things to answer." ]
Random rushing feeling while in bed late at night	[ "If ever I'm sick, I have a very distinct \"dream\" consisting of an environment composed entirely of tv static and a single potato like object being stabbed repeatedly by a sewing needle. It's been like this for as long as I can remember. It's terrifying." ]	[ "You could have [tinnitus](_URL_0_). You should see a doctor if you want any further information, since asking for medical advice is not allowed in this forum." ]
Why are Japanese fan content creators so much more strict about their activities in order to avoid copyright issues than Western fan creators?	[ "Social responsibility. In general, Japanese culture has a bit more sense of morality in respect to the original creators. They don't want to hurt the creators. Theres also this sense in Japan of following the order of things just for the sake of the law. A lot of westerners will do things they know they aren't sup...	[ "Less added sugar, less carbs. When you eat a diet where you get your energy based off of carbs you are running on glucose, basically your body is always in an insulin rush. This makes you fat. If you get most of your energy from good fats insetad of sugars youre body will shed it's fat. So more meat based fats or ...
Are there any attempts at humor in major religious texts?	[ "Sure. Humor can be pretty dependent on cultural context, so ancient jokes don't always translate very well; but I can think of at least two examples of jokes that still more or less make sense. When Elijah is taunting the priests of Baal for failing to call down their god's power, he basically says, \"well, maybe ...	[ "Well, here is an [online version of a English translation](_URL_0_) or Newton's own Principia. Pick a page pretty much at random and you will see a lot more words (originally in Latin), a lot more geometrical figures and lot fewer symbols than you would see in a modern text on mechanics." ]
With the announcement of Google Jibe, what exactly is the difference between SMS and regular data?	[ "Text messages are actually \"free\" to your carrier. They're just encoded inside a ping from the tower to see if your phone is on. Hence the short size limit of traditional texts. To elaborate a bit, these pings occur often, and whether you send a message or not." ]	[ "A good example might be a news website. The user subscribes to the websites RSS feed using RSS reader software, then whenever the news website publishes a story, it is sent directly to the user without them needing to check the website. If you've ever subscribed to a podcast it's pretty much the same idea. The pod...
Recoil of naval battleships?	[ "Just so you know, people frequently confuse [this](_URL_0_) picture of Iowa, thinking it's moving sideways. What you see in the water there are the shockwaves from the guns, not sideways motion." ]	[ "With some difficulty. This was an issue in the Apollo 11 landing. Neil Armstrong had to send a message back about slosh in the descent engine tanks, and the Apollo 12 descent stage was modified as a result. But in a launch, the tanks are tall and narrow. They start off full and there is little side to side motion ...

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