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Given the speculation around reddit that the situation in Syria may lead to WW3, I was wondering, what was the general consensus prior to the previous world wars? Were they expected or surprising to the public? | [
"WW2 can be seen as an inevitable continuation of WW1 - Marechal Foch's quote on the signing of the Treaty of Versailles was \"this isn't a peace. It is an armistice for twenty years.\" It was also increasingly seen as inevitable by some military planners through the 1930s, which is why, despite the attempts for pe... | [
"Context is important. I'm not surprised to see a hot dog at a hot dog stand. I'd be surprised if I opened my wallet to pay for a hot dog and it only had a hot dog inside. I'm not surprised to see beach clothing at a beach, but would be concerned if I'm about to go into surgery and the surgeon shows up in a speedo.... |
Are we the only ape descendants to grow hair indefinitely long (at least on our heads) instead of to a certain point then stopping? When did this trait start showing in early hominids? | [
"A quick note, human head hairs have a maximum lifespan before they fall out and thus a maximum length. It's just far longer than for body hair, eyebrows, etc."
] | [
"Our bodies are very good at maintaining a normal body temperature in high heat thanks to sweat. Dogs for example can only pant to cool their tongue in order to lower their body temperature. We have sweat glands all over our bodies. The sweat evaporates and takes heat with it. This is why we can run for long distan... |
how are games developed for consoles. | [
"The actual work is done on a PC. But when you want to run the game to test it you upload it to a special version of the console called a devkit. A devkit is different to a standard version of the console because it doesn't have the same anti-piracy measures, allowing you to run your own code on it without it being... | [
"Depends on the way the online stuff is done. It's either server side calculations, where you pressing the button sends a message to the server along the lines of \"hey he pressed shoot, tell me what happened please\" or client side which is \"hey he pressed a button so I figure the bullet went here and hit that gu... |
If multiplication is repeated addition, then what repeated operation is addition? | [
"Here's as good a place as any to mention that multiplication isn't really repeated addition. It developed out of repeated addition, but it's a unique mathematical phenomenon. See more here:_URL_1_"
] | [
"Imagine you are made of genetic soup. Some people have ingredients that just don't go well together and make the soup taste bad. But that's ok, because when you have a kid, we just take some of my soup and some of my wife's soup and pour it in together. So even though my soup has some bad ingredients, her ingredie... |
What happened in Chernobyl? | [
"Poor planning and disregarded safety measures, during a test of a backup power generation system (to maintain cooling of the reactor in event of power failure), resulted in a runaway reaction that overheated and hence overpressurized the contaiment vessel for the reactor, blowing it apart. This allowed burning, n... | [
"Hi there -- while we've approved this question, we would like to remind potential respondents of our [current events](_URL_0_) (AKA \"20-year\") rule -- it's fine to discuss events through 1997 (inclusive) and their effects, but not events after 1997. Thanks!"
] |
Why does fluoride rid the mouth of plaque/cavities? | [
"It doesn't do anything to plaque. It does strengthen enamel, which can help prevent cavities. Brushing itself is what removes plaque."
] | [
"It doesn't, the ad was intended to make you associate Colgate with feeling virtuous and then want to buy Colgate the next time you're at the store."
] |
In a cavalry charge would infantry strike at horses or try to kill the rider? | [
"I don't have a specific time frame, but I'm thinking like 1000 - 1500 ish, but any information would be great =)"
] | [
"**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... |
Why can't we make a safe plastic? | [
"There are many safe plastics. The reason many plastics are poisonous is that they're rather similar to the kinds of molecules that make up your cells, and can damage or interfere with them."
] | [
"They *did* do that. Some people just claim that research funded by oil companies doesn't count as \"extensive research\", because they think it's too likely to be biased."
] |
Should cancer researchers be attempting to design drugs that will interfere with the products of tumor suppressor genes like they do with oncogenic proteins? | [
"It's hard to replace something that's missing or non-functional, like an altered tumor suppressor. It's much easier to target an overexpressed protein and knock it's function down with a drug. In addition, a tumor suppressor may interact with and affect many downstream targets. It's difficult enough to enumerate ... | [
"> Do bigger accelerators mean better results? In general, \"bigger accelerators\" means higher intensities and higher energies. These are the two basic things we need to push the limits of our understanding. On the frontier of particle physics, you need higher and higher energies to look for new particles which ha... |
Why do military dog tags have you Social Security number on them? (US Military) | [
"I assume so they can identify you more clearly if something happens to you. Like they don't get you mixed up with some other guy with the name name or birth date."
] | [
"The magnetic north pole is not at the point of the geographic north pole anyway. A compass close to the poles doesn't show in the direction you might expect, and it will struggle pointing in a consistent direction if you are too far north/south. You can still use the stars for navigation, but GPS is more convenien... |
Why do I hear a ringing noise when there is complete silence? | [
"have you been going to loud rock concerts or doing loud construction or something? you have damaged hearing. it's called tinnitus"
] | [
"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."
] |
Is it possible to orbit a planet/star at its escape velocity? | [
"No, in Newtonian circular orbits, escape velocity is about 41% greater than orbital velocity. In highly eccentric elliptical orbits, the orbital speed at the closest point in the orbit (periapsis) can get pretty close to escape velocity. However, you must remember it's called escape velocity because it's the veloc... | [
"How about how to fit a 2 km train on a circular 1 km track? It's impossible normally, but if the train is moving at 87% the speed of light it works fine. The game [Velocity Raptor](_URL_0_) involves several puzzles that require moving at relativistic speeds. For example, you unlock a door by making several blocks ... |
Why doesn't Raoult's Law depend on the chemical nature of solute? | [
"I think the issue here is it is not actually a \"Law\", it only holds in the case of weak interactions. [Real solutions can deviate from these laws.](_URL_1_)"
] | [
"Look at the sign of the [Hall conductivity](_URL_0_). For the experimental setup, it's easiest to look at the picture in the \"theory\" section of that wiki page. The voltage that you measure will have opposite sign for n versus p type doping."
] |
Do microquakes via oil fracking lessen the chance of large scale earthquakes? | [
"The hugest of the 'huge ones' happen where plates collide and those epicenters are usually pretty deep. Drilling technology isn't that advanced. Some of the subduction zone earthquakes are pretty deep, the 2004 boxing day eq was 30 km deep and the deepest drill hole ever was only 12km deep."
] | [
"You can see how they have changed since Pangea in one of my favorite animations of all times by Colin Reeves [about break up](_URL_0_). We can try to understand the original shapes by what rocks correlate on different continents, the types of fossils and the shapes of the continental masses themselves. Larger pl... |
Where does light go? | [
"You would perceive it to simply vanish. On very short timescales it would bounce around getting absorbed by the walls."
] | [
"The photons are actually re-emitted in a random direction after being absorbed, but, due to the additive and destructive properties of waves, all other angles are essentially canceled out except for the reflecting angle that we are accustomed to experiencing. I saw a video lecture by Richard Feynman describing thi... |
[NSFW] In Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992), when Dracula meets Mina, he takes her to a sort of Bohemian theatre showing what appear to be 1890's porno films. Did such films exist at the time? If yes, would they really have been shown in a place like that? | [
"Username checks out. Out of curiosity u/annalspornographie how did you get into this particular field of study?"
] | [
"Michelin began as a general travel guide for motorists, intended to help promote the brand new technology of automobiles, and the sale of Michelin tires. It originally also had maps, instructions on how to change tires and hotel listings. Over the years, Michelin began to realize how popular the restaurant secti... |
Is Earth unique in its richness of variety of elements? | [
"It is incredibly unlikely. Our current model of planetary formation suggests that planets all form from the same dust that orbits a star. If this is the case, then it makes no sense for Earth to be unique in this respect."
] | [
"The opposite of that is more likely to be true. What you're asking is roughly analogous to suggesting that melting all the crayons together would give you more colors."
] |
What is Emergent Norm Theory? | [
"Emergent norm theory is a way of explaining crowd behaviour and why people in a crowd act collectively. When a crowd forms, people interact with one another and create the social norms for the crowd. People look at each other for social cues - what to do, how to act - and get this idea of mob mentality like 'if ev... | [
"It's just bullshit. They're making up gibberish and pretending it's a real thing. Ignore."
] |
How do some humans have a naturally beautiful singing voice, while others can’t carry a tune to save their life? | [
"Part of singing well is listening well. If you can't hear the difference between one note and another, or if you can't hear the detail in the sounds you produce, how are you going to know how to produce the right sounds?"
] | [
"It's most likely the knowledge of the wineries. The type of glass, the shape of said glass, pairings, temperature of the wine when poured/drank and how it's stored can alter the taste pretty severely. if you find a good wine ask, do they serve in crystal, take note of the shape of glass, how long they let it sit, ... |
Does the rate at which time passes ever change? | [
"Apparently yes. Time is affected by gravity. Time actually passes differently for astronauts than it does for people on earth. Time also passes differently depending on how close you are to a black hole. The TV show \"through the worm hole\" did an episode about it. _URL_0_"
] | [
"It is much more complicated than that, and is a very active area of research. A professor at my school, David Eagleman, studies this stuff. He's a complete badass, check him out: _URL_0_ edit: one of his famous experiments involves using magnetic energy to slow the propagation of some signals in the brain, and i... |
Why do some people think it's bad to drink bottled water after it has been opened and sitting out for a few hours? | [
"It isn't bad for you. Pure water left out in a clean container will be fine for ages and ages. Sure there are bacteria and stuff in it, but nothing your body can't handle. As long as something hasn't died in your water, you should be fine. Bacteria can't form massive colonies in water alone. Besides, before bein... | [
"To enable a substance to expand out of a can (it had to be compressed to fit inside) the molecules must be allowed to \"re-expand\" and bump each other further apart, in an effort to match the outside air pressure. To do this, the molecules inside demand more energy to allow the expansion to occur. *That* means th... |
why things like wood, noodles, paper, etc. become more pliable when wet? | [
"One effect is water temporally breaking the hydrogen bonds between molecules or polymer chains (starch, cellulose) which would allow the chains to move past each other. Another effect is plasticization. where the glass transition temperature (where something goes from rigid to soft) is lowered - this is the princi... | [
"A muzzle loading pistol (or most other guns of the time) wasn't simply loaded with gunpowder and a bullet. Wadding made of paper, felt or other fibrous material was rammed into the barrel as well. This went between the gunpowder and the shot and on top of the shot itself. This served the dual purpose of stopping t... |
Why did people write sagas in 13th century Iceland? | [
"hi! not discouraging anyone from contributing more detail, but FYI there was a good thread on sagas here, which touches on your questions [Questions about the Icelandic Saga](_URL_0_) I recall that there was another thread explaining the process to create & ready availability of vellum in Iceland, so if someone ca... | [
"Back then people still needed jobs, now they dont and can practice harder for longer. And science helps by showing then methods on improving motions. You cam find cool videos on youtube"
] |
Question about radio waves | [
"> radio waves are just light that is beyond the human's visible spectrum (ultra-violet/infra-red). Correct (although the human visual spectrum is between the UV and IR and does not include them). As you're probably aware, light behaves as both a wave and a particle. In the case of radio waves it is much more helpf... | [
"Your microwave oven is pushing several hundred watts into a pretty small enclosed space. It's not transmitting heat -- it's exciting water molecules in your frozen burrito. Your Wi-Fi access point is pushing less than a watt and scattering it in all directions, which is why it will do nothing to your burrito."
] |
What makes us get a 'Stitch' in our sides when we run too quickly? | [
"Believe it or not, the real answer is, 'we don't know'! The most common answer is that the jerking nature of running pulls on the ligaments tying the organs in our stomachs to our bones - but this can't be the whole answer, as people get stitches while swimming! Another possibility is that as the heart rate incre... | [
"It is supposed to be a natural reaction that our ancestors used to survive. It would keep them away from the nests of dangerous insects such as termites. It was the body's way of trying to avoid the danger and keep alive. If you believe in evolution you could say that it is part of evolution."
] |
How to Bubbles work? [More Details in Description] | [
"1. Bubbles are almost entirely air, and with the soap membrane weigh only slightly more than the same volume of air would, so buoyancy makes them fall slowly. They also reach a pretty slow \"terminal velocity\" as they fall because of their low density. 2. Bubbles take on a shape that minimizes surface area, which... | [
"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."
] |
How does consciousness relate to the physical brain? | [
"How consciousness maps to its host \"hardware\" is one of the big questions of neuroscience."
] | [
"I love this question. There is a movie called Waking Life that addresses this idea. The whole movie is on YouTube right now for free and is awesome. Check it out. But at the minute 40:35 is when your question gets talked about. _URL_8_"
] |
How can Supermarkets just flat-out rip off a product | [
"First, a large portion of store brands are made by the same companies that make the name brand items. Second, the only way kellogs could sue over frosties is if they were to emulate trademarked elements of the packaging (ie character, font etc) in a way that creates a substantial similarity which could reasonably... | [
"Generally due to copyright and licencing issues. Different companies may own the rights to the same content in different countries."
] |
Do photons still move at C inside the event horizon, are they still photons inside the singularity? | [
"Photons right next to you always travel at *c*. Photons elsewhere generally do not travel at *c*, but rather some speed that depends on your coordinates. For more details about the coordinate-dependence of light and the local speed of light, you can read [this thread](_URL_1_), in particular [this post of mine](_U... | [
"The Bohr model can't really 'prove' Planck's black-body law. It assumes (ad-hoc) that angular momentum is quantized, without any rationale, really. (Except the one given later by de Broglie in terms of de Broglie-wavelengths) The Bohr model doesn't obey the uncertainty principle, the Schrödinger equation does. Not... |
Was there a Civil Rights movement equivalent in Europe? | [
"The negritude movement in France was very important. Look up Franz fanon, Leopold senghor, And Aime Cesaire. And I know I have some books on Afro British history somewhere. I'll drop the titles later."
] | [
"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 the females of many species have a longer average life span than that of their male counterparts? | [
"I don't know the answer to that exact question, and actually I have never heard that affirmation... but there is something I know for sure: for many species, sexual dimorphism (the fact for the males and females not to look exactly alike) tends to select females that can hide easily. One way to represent it would ... | [
"Estrogen and testosterone are actually exceptionally similar, estrogen is made from testosterone by one enzymatic step. It is possible that the xenoestrogens are more common in petrol substances because it contains an aromatic phenol group in comparison to testosterone's fully saturated ring. It is also possible t... |
Why do the hairs on the back of our neck stand up when we're scared or creeped out? | [
"Someone correct me if I am wrong but it goes back to when we had much hairier bodies and when alarmed we as well as a lot of other mammals would puff up our hair to make ourselves look bigger. Think of how when you scare a dog or a cat it hunches up and its hair stands on end, same thing happens to us just we dont... | [
"I learned about this researching how to help my kid be a better sleeper. Essentially, you are over-tired. There is a \"sweet spot\" for everyone regarding the time they should go to bed (just the right level of drowsy). Once you get past that, your brain thinks there must be an important reason for you to continue... |
TIL that a recent article "Coping With Chaos: How Disordered Contexts Promote Stereotyping and Discrimination," published in Science, was based on outright fraud. How common is falsifying data? | [
"You can get anecdotal accounts, but that isn't very helpful. Gathering hard numbers is difficult... Here's something I remembered from a while back: _URL_0_ \"out of the 155,000 researchers being funded via the NIH, there could be at least 1,000 unreported cases of research fraud occurring each year in the biomedi... | [
"There are two aspects to this question - how do we verify the integrity of a set of data, and how do we correct the data if we find corrupted bits? Data integrity is attacked by random corruption all the time, both on transmission and in storage (cosmic ray bit flips, random internet packet shenanigans), but integ... |
I'm under the impression that if Columbus had not bumped into the America's he and crew didn't have the supplies needed to reach Asia. If they knew circumference of the globe and speed of a boat why did this oversight happen? | [
"I've written a few things on Columbus before, which you can find [here](_URL_0_). As I touch on there, the big issue was that Columbus significantly underestimated the size of the earth, and this was the actual focus of disagreement on the viability of his trip."
] | [
"As the Universe expands, it deviates from flatness. So if you start off with a universe that is barely not flat, it will quickly become VERY highly curved. So we go out and measure that our Universe is [extremely close to flat](_URL_0_). This means it must have been yet closer in the distant past. How is that poss... |
Why do we feel sickened when we see a dead body? | [
"Your body responds with disgust or nausea when presented with things that may contain contagious bacteria that would harm you. This is a valuable instinct that protected some of our ancestors from deadly infections."
] | [
"Most people aren't sexually attracted to people their brain considers close family as an inbuilt protection against incest causing undesirable genetics. So most people live assuming that close family members don't have any sexual interest in them and behave accordingly with a greater acceptance of nudity, sleepin... |
Why is NATO's headquarters in Brussels? | [
"NATO HQ *was* in Paris to begin with. In 1966, Charles De Gaulle decided to remove France from NATO's integrated command, and he also ordered NATO headquarters out of Paris. The logic here was that De Gaulle did not want to have any troops on French soil if they were not under French command. NATO moved to Brusse... | [
"I suppose it's a combination of whether its a more pleasing sound and the familiarity with the \"old\" place. York and Orleans and even Hampshire are, or at least were, recognizable as the old place, but a small island in the English Channel is easier to overlook."
] |
Are Organelles randomly shuffled in animal cell? | [
"Of course there is structure! Eukaryotic cells are filled with cytoskeleton elements such as actin filaments or microtubules. Motor proteins such as dyneins and myosin can latch on to these filaments and carry cargo. For example, this is how many marine organisms change color: by moving pigment-filled vesicles tow... | [
"Your question is so broad as to be almost unanswerable. It depends on the disease and the rodent model. In neuroscience, it is very difficult to make the transition for certain diseases like schizophrenia or autism, where the mouse models generally aren't very good. For Alzheimer's, several drugs have advanced in... |
Why do humans speak so many different languages? | [
"Cultural or geographic isolation, plus time. Any living language changes over time, and people who aren't talking to each other quite regularly tend to change in different ways from each other. As differences accumulate, what were originally dialects of one language start to become impossible for each other to und... | [
"We are exposed to millions of pathogens daily. Getting into a long answer will require explaining the entire immune process which can get lengthy, check out these pages: [Innate Immunity](_URL_4_) [T Helper Cell](_URL_1_) [Complement system](_URL_0_) [Adaptive Immunity](_URL_2_) [Generation of Antibody Diversity](... |
what causes the pain we feel with food poisoning? | [
"All food has bacteria all over it. When you wait too long to eat some food, food that isn't cooked properly or is left at room temperature too long after cooking, there's some extra stuff on the food. This is because the bacteria poop on the food. When you eat bacteria poop, the bacteria that breaks down food in y... | [
"Basically, your brain knows when you're about to pull a splinter out (muscle movements, body positioning, etc) and can prepare itself accordingly for the stimulus that follows. For the same reason, its much harder to tickle yourself than it is to be tickled by someone else. Even if a friend/partner counts you down... |
Where does the money go when the NFL fines players? | [
"The money is given to charities and also the retirement fund for former NFL players."
] | [
"it goes to the thousands of people and hundreds of companies that work on the movie. & #x200B; for every named person in the credits, there's 100 people that aren't named. everything from makeup helpers, to guys that put up the set pieces, to second unit photography, to post production crew, to guy that orders t... |
Why did Kaliningrad remain with Russia after the fall of the USSR? | [
"Not trying to discourage discussion, but this has been asked a few times and this one in particular has a good response by /u/kieslowskifan: _URL_0_"
] | [
"Essentially, the Treaty of Oregon was signed before there had been any surveying done to see if setting the border at the 49th parallel would cause any problems like this. Once it was signed, they surveyed the land and realized Point Roberts would be an anomaly. The British Foreign Ministry tried to offer trading ... |
Why won't the ice in my drink turn with the glass? | [
"The contents of your glass have inertia. This means that when they're at rest, they prefer to stay at rest unless acted on by a force. When you rotate your glass, the friction between the glass and the liquid inside it is not a substantial enough force to cause the contents of the glass to spin."
] | [
"[This](_URL_0_) previous thread explains it as [entrainment](_URL_2_). When changing the diameter of your lips, the airflow is subject to the [Bernoulli effect](_URL_1_) where it speeds up. When the air moves faster, it draws in more surrounding air which is cooler than your body temperature, thus making it feel c... |
when sleep talking/walking what's going on in my brain? | [
"When you sleep, chemicals in your brain are distributed to temporarily paralyze your body. Perhaps your brain doesn't produce quite enough of those chemicals and the sleep talking happens in correlation to your dreams. Don't quote me, I'm kind of guessing from information I've heard in the past."
] | [
"They mapped her brain activity and used the information writing the program that controlled the arm. The Doctors told her to think about moving her arm at the shoulder in all different directions, this caused brain activity in certain, specific areas; the Docs record this information and applied it to the program.... |
Does it make a difference when you cough up phlegm whether you swallow it or spit it out? | [
"Not really. Phlegm is mucus and crud from your breathing parts. By coughing up the phlegm you are \"taking out the trash\" in your lungs. If you swallow it, the stomach acid will kill everything that was in the phlegm that your body wanted to get rid of. I think, for most people, it's a matter of the consistency ... | [
"What your describing first is the woman chosing to give birth to the child and put it up for adoption, rather than have an abortion. In this example you're talking about people applauding her for doing the HARD thing of actually bringing the child to term, and then giving it up to live in a better home than she ca... |
Could a complex animal be genetically engineered to allow for the growth of chloroplasts? | [
"> DNA engineered to produce everything the chloroplast needs to function … [one step ahead of ya](_URL_0_) > Exactly how the genes got from the algae to the slug isn't clear, but Pierce said research into this mechanism could lead to advances in gene therapy and genetic engineering. > Pierce said gene therapists... | [
"Within 5 years hopefully. _URL_2_ _URL_0_ _URL_1_ The cost is following the same curve as that of computers etc. Really quite worrying for farming industry based countries but undoubtedly better from an ethical and environmental standpoint."
] |
The aspect of time and how it can affect length of exercise. | [
"eskimobrother, In my undergraduate studies I do recall one of my professors talking about some recent (recent as in 2007-ish) studies indicating that subjects who exercised on a treadmill while listening to music felt that time passed by more quickly than subjects who ran with no stimulus at all. Let me try and ... | [
"Math. After we were able to accurately monitor and figure out the body's course it was simply (not that simple) math and physics that told us where it would go. (EX: at day 12 month 5 yr 1981 it was here, on day 27 3rd month yr 1984 it was here, insert big math problem, and we now know that on day 1 month 1 yr 198... |
Why can't we go faster than light? | [
"Because acceleration isn't a linear progression. Let's say you are in a space ship, and firing your thrusters for 1 second increases your speed by 1 m/s. So you do that, and you are going 1 m/s. Then you fire for another second. But, because of relativity, you are a little heavier, and you only get another 0.99999... | [
"To say what would happen, you need a reliable theory. But there are no reliable theories in which ftl travel is possible. There are plenty of crazy theories with ftl travel, so I guess you could pick one and use that, but it would be no less scientific to save yourself the effort and just make it up :)"
] |
Will a refrigerator magnet eventually loose its pull over enough time since it is perpetually fighting gravity? | [
"Magnets don't use energy. The process of magnetising a piece of iron does not involve infusing it with huge quantities of energy. There is no energy to be transferred. So the question you are asking is really, how does a magnet do this without using energy? Think of it this way. The door of your fridge is not stay... | [
"Look at [this picture](_URL_0_). Pretty much gets the idea across. The lines in the picture represent magentic field lines. Note how the disk is sorta \"pinched\" between them. In that fashion the disk is held in place."
] |
Why did the British not stay in India post independence, unlike say Australia or New Zealand or South Africa or even Zimbabwe? | [
"It's not that they left, it's that they never came. The other countries you reference all had large British settler populations. They came, acquired land, and built economic livelihoods that weren't directly tied to the colonial administration or to British companies. By contrast, most Anglo-Indian families were e... | [
"It's a good ghost story, in the typical version - \"Settlement vanishes, the only clue is the mysterious word CROATOAN carved into a fencepost\". It's not much of a mystery to people who have done research on the area, though. The Roanoke colony was friendly with the local Indians, who had a settlement on the nea... |
Why are kiwi fruits and peaches hairy? | [
"To keep small bugs away -- it's hard for them to walk on the skin and get close to the fruit to bite into it -- and also the hairs add surface area to control moisture in the fruit. [Kiwi-specific info here](_URL_0_)."
] | [
"Evolution. People who didn't get that weird feeling when dangling their limbs from the trees they were sleeping on were killed by cheetahs."
] |
When a male puppy grows up without male role models, how does he know to raise a leg to pee? | [
"I volunteered at a shelter, and one of the dogs there actually laid down, kicked his back feet to the side, and peed. I wonder what kind of role models he had."
] | [
"I'm a girl with a cleft lip and palate. I have seen many girls with cleft lips and palates since I go to a cleft-specific hospital for treatment and follow operation smile extensively. I don't have a background in this, but when researching about genetic factors that I could pass to potential children, I found th... |
What happened to the Greek colonies around the Black Sea? | [
"The Greeks around the Black Sea were known as Pontic Greeks. They were divided into two major groups- North Pontic Greeks lived in the Crimea and what is now Russia's Black Sea coast while South Pontic Greeks lived along what is now Turkey's Black Sea coast. Their settlements were still intact from their foundatio... | [
"There are known cases of co-dependent species losing their associate. I remember, for instance, an essay by S.J. Gould mentionning a bahamian (I think...) hermit crab which could only fit in the shell of a certain species of snail, now extinct. That crab was apparently surviving by exploiting Pleistocene sand depo... |
Why does the black hole core of Galaxy NGC 3783 appear to be omitting matter? | [
"It is. They are called polar jets and happen frequently around dense objects with high rotational velocity as they accrete mass. It is believed to be because of magnetics of the central mass interacting with the matter being accreted. These jets are ejected at speeds similar to the escape velocity of the object, s... | [
"Spectrography. Every element has a unique emission and absorption spectrum - a set of frequencies at which it can absorb or emit light. This allows us to perform chemical analysis of many astronomical features - stars, nebulae, supernovae, and now neutron star mergers. The material we see is the material that was ... |
I am renting a furnished apartment featuring this large painting of Lenin. What historical scene does it portray? | [
"I did some Google reverse image search and it's apparently a drawing of [Lenin presenting the GOELRO plan](_URL_0_) in 1921 (though the painting itself was created probably later, one site I found claimed it's from 1940 but I don't know where that citation came from). I know very little about the time except that ... | [
"Can't remember specifics but something about nuns creating a shape that looked like children folding arms."
] |
Does being in the sun for 30 minutes have the same effect as being in the sun for 5 minutes 6 times (with a pause in between)? | [
"So this doesn't *directly* answer your question but it gets close. [This](_URL_0_) dermatology research paper studied the cumulative lifetime impact of UV exposure and reached the conclusion that even low level, long term, intermittent exposure increased the risk of skin cancer. That result seems to support the id... | [
"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... |
[Biology] Since air is only about 25% oxygen, does it really matter for humans what the rest of it is, as long as it's not toxic? | [
"Helium-Oxygen is sometimes used in divers tubes, because it performs better at deep pressure ( ~~helium is less likely to form bubbles in your blood vessels when you resurface than nitrogen is~~ *EDIT:* So people tell me that it's actually because nitrogen is narcotic at high pressures). Xenon cannot be used as i... | [
"We also like different colors and smells and tastes. These things are probably associated (or at least they would have been before fake food) with nutritional aspects of the food - like creamy things have fat, and acidic things might have vitamin C, and colored foods have anthocyanin or vitamin A etc. Rats can mak... |
Why is 300 Billion dollar debt so detrimental to Greece while the United States has a 19 trillion dollar debt? | [
"This one's very simple luckily. It's the size of the economy relative to the debt. While 19 trillion is a lot bigger than 300 billion, America's economy is still far more than 70 times bigger than Greece's. It's the debt to GDP ratio that matters, and it's a lot worse than America's."
] | [
"Let’s say you and Billy were talking about a classmate named Eric who sometimes doesn’t do his homework. > Billy says, “I bet you Eric will miss a homework assignment this year.” > You say, “That’s not true!” > Billy says, “Oh yeah? Let’s bet on it. I’ll give you $1 for each day Eric does his homework. Bu... |
Why does the quality of screenshots and gifs decrease as it is shared on social media? | [
"Almost every site you upload an image to won't store it in its original form. It'll re-encode it in its own preferred resolution and compression level. Jpeg and similar image file formats are lossily compressed, meaning it throws out some fine detail in the image that's unlikely to be noticed in order to get a sma... | [
"I don't want to get into information that will allow you to do illegal stuff, not what eli5 is for, but I'll tell you this. It saves the files in a specific location on your phone, for most android devices its all in the same place, and its accessible with pretty much any file browsing app. It isn't really hidden ... |
As adults, why are we sometimes afraid of the dark when we go to bed even though we know there is nothing to be afraid of? | [
"Instinct. You can't see predators coming for you when it's dark."
] | [
"Two social psychological concepts come to mind here. State dependent memory encoding and Erickson Arousal theory of learning. State dependent learning states that what ever state of mind you are in during encoding is the state of mind where recall would be optimal. Erickson arousal theory states that learning is m... |
How do companies like Snapchat, Twitter and free apps in general, make a profit? | [
"As a general rule, you are either the customer or the product. If you are paying for a service, that is how they make money. If the service is free, they are selling something about you (making you see adds, demographic information, what you do on the site, etc.) to someone. It is also possible that the service is... | [
"When you use you web browser to read a forum, basically what happens is: 1. Your browser requests the data for a particular url 2. The forum's server responds with the data 3. Your browser formats that data (HTML, CSS, and Javascript) properly to display the page ANY app that wants to can do steps 1 and 2, and sim... |
How does Braille work in pictorial languages like Chinese or Japanese? Do they have Braille? If not, do they have a substitute? | [
"They use phonetics same as English. Unlike deaf signing, braille has international uniformity."
] | [
"There are usually stop markers. I can't speak for any other train systems, but in the NYC Subway system, there are markers hanging down from the ceiling (something like \"10\", or \"8\", black number on white or white number on black). That's to signify where the front of a train with that many number of cars shou... |
Why was acting quality in movies and TV shows a lot worse a few decades ago? | [
"In the early days of film, and then television, the actors were using stage-acting techniques, which have to be larger-than-life in order to play even to the audience at the back of the house. That was the kind of acting people knew, and expected. Over time, expectations changed, and more realistic depictions evo... | [
"Very hard to judge because its so subjective a question. 'people from the 1500s', for example, is a wide sample. which class? from which country / area? gender? Perhaps interesting (although undoubtedly difficult) research to undertake would be to try and find signs of depression or other related mental illnesses ... |
How do the physiological mechanisms that keep a bird's head in place as its body moves work? | [
"You forgot to link to the [chicken steadycam](_URL_0_) video."
] | [
"As a physicist, the thing that really made sense was to realise that lift is due to vortex binding, much like the Magnus effect, which is mathematically the same as a current in a uniform magnetic field. In other words, one should be able to understand this with the same mathematical machinery of potential flow (w... |
Why do humans have to brush their teeth to keep them healthy, while other species don't? | [
"Because of sugar. It wasn't until \"recently\" in human existence that we started using artificial ingredients in our food and other byproducts. Our bodies were design to only eat meat and vegetables, things we could find out in the wilderness. Our genetic code didn't prepare our bodies to fight off the large amou... | [
"because we are the greatest tool makers in the animal kingdom.. It took millions of years of learning and passing down tool making before we figured out how to farm plants with our tools, once people started sitting around with free time our tools became more complex and our understanding of the world grew. fast ... |
E. M. Forster once wrote that Dante "places Brutus and Cassius in the lowest circle of Hell because they had chosen to betray their friend Julius Caesar rather than their country Rome". is that at all a reasonable interpretation of Dante’s intent? | [
"It's more complicated than that. Although you could view the betrayal of friendship as playing a part in their fate, it was more their betrayal of a fatherly figure, or their failure as filial subjects. Dante had a soft spot for monarchs. Just read De Monarchia, in which he argues for a universal empire. In fact,... | [
"It's an adaptation of Roman names for days. Latin: French: English: Roman deity dies lunae: Lundi: Monday: Luna dies Martis: Mardi: Tuesday: Mars dies Mercurii: Mercredi: Wednesday: Mercury dies Iovis: Jeudi: Thursday: Jupiter dies Veneris: Vendredi: Friday: Venus dies Saturni: Samedi: Saturday: Saturn dies solis... |
Why do we get sores in our mouths after eating more sugar than normal? | [
"Hi! You don't. Consult with a doctor or dentist about this. _URL_0_ _URL_1_"
] | [
"You know how a lemon battery works? One metal object, another different metal object, and an acid electrolyte between them. Replace the former metal object with foil, replace the latter metal object with your fillings and replace your saliva for the lemon juice. Now you have electrons whizzing between the foil and... |
Did regiments from the Southern states fight for the North in the Civil War? | [
"Yes, southerners did fight for the north, Tennessee especially. Eastern Tennessee was a pro-Union area despite the secession of the rest of the state and its people actively aided the federals during the war. Men from the region had both joined up with the Union army as well as performed acts of sabotage etc again... | [
"I don't understand. A bunch of cities defected after Cannae. Livy gave a list: * Apuliani * Atellani * Bruttii * Calatini * Campanians * Crotoniates * all the Greeks on the coast * Hirpini * Locri * Lucanii * Metapontines * Tarentines * Uzentini Are you asking why the Latins didn't defect?"
] |
Can lightning occur in very dense dust clouds in space? | [
"No, lightning cannot occur in dense dust clouds in space. That's assuming that \"lightning\" means \"narrow visible discharges.\" Lightning, or any electric discharge taking the form of thin plasma streamers, is a trademark of electric discharge through gas at fairly high pressures. Lightning requires pressures a... | [
"You're right to be confused. It is 100% wrong as depicted in the movie, and a lot of people of wondered about why they made such a grave error considering the rest of the movie was *somewhat* realistic. It is likely that the reason this happens in the movie is that it makes things more dramatic. Artistic license i... |
How does something get stuck in a hole ? | [
"Combination of swelling, sweat and the fact that when you try to pull your finger out the skin starts to get collected on the other side making your finger essentially fatter"
] | [
"If you're talking about \"ear\" phones, manufacturers generally mold each bud to fit in a specific L or R auditory canal. If you put them on the wrong way, they do not seal the canal, allowing the pressure waves to travel out instead of to your drum."
] |
Why is it so hard to produce an alcohol-free beer that tastes like the real thing? | [
"Because your sense of taste is quite sensitive, so it's basically the same as trying to produce a robot or puppet that looks and moves exactly like a live human. In addition, if you think about it, you're asking about an alcohol-free beer that tastes like the real thing, but you're implying that it also has to loo... | [
"Something that could be \"close\" is Quorn. It's a fermented fungus that grows in huge tanks where you add vitamins, minerals, sugar and oxygen. The growing process of the fungus is controlled and not natural but it's not some edible rubber that is manufactured from crude oil."
] |
How can people release new records when deceased? | [
"Old tracks that were recorded and never released."
] | [
"They are already ex-military most of the time plus Govt doesn't get the \"official responsibility\" for any mishaps. Google Raymond Davis Pakistan for an example. There must be hundreds other as well but seemed to illustrate how well entrenched these practices are"
] |
How it would feel to have Alzheimer's. | [
"Memento (Christopher Nolan, 2000) is a film that you might want to look into. According to a neurologist, a doctor for your head, named Christof Koch \"[Memento is] the most accurate portrayal of the different memory systems in the popular media,\" The film portrays a character who suffers from a sort of Amnesia, ... | [
"I call this \"question rape\" Basically my girlfriend will go to work in the morning and say to me as I'm sleeping - Can you clean + Hoover ect and ofc I say yes I never remember saying yes and tell her off for question raping me"
] |
Why is it that most measurements have been standardized but not others (ie. hands on horses, bushel of apples) | [
"In general use, standardized measurements are already the norm. More specialized measurements (barrel of oil, bushel of apples) are mainly used in industry, and are mainly a legacy issue (people don't feel like changing how the industry operates, so they keep on using barrels of oil as a measure)."
] | [
"Relate it to Coke bottles: 20oz bottle: $1.50 -Easy to carry and drink quickly -Fit in cup holders -Convenient -Good for on the go 68oz (2liters): $1.09 -Large, bulky -Unconventional for casual drinking -Better for taking home Both of the bottles have the same product, but the have different markets, or who they a... |
Why don't we use giant parachutes for passenger air planes to help save them from a fatal crash? | [
"No. First off, and I am sure someone who knows the math will chime in, but a parachute capable of slowing down a 700,000 pound airplane would be impossibly large and heavy. Secondly, and this is a key point about any kind of parachutes: almost all air disasters occur within 200 feet of the ground. The stories abou... | [
"We have made functional fusion reactors, the Joint European Torus actually works quite well, and the ITER should be significantly better but isn't completed yet. So far fusion isn't *commercially* successful because it takes more power to create the fusion than it gets back out and cannot run continuously but it d... |
How did a mix of fruit, dairy, veggies, grains, and meat/fish end up being the recommended "ideal" diet for humans when historically that seems like a difficult menu to consistently have access to? | [
"Well malnutrition has been extremely prevalent through human history, and nutritional science is fairly new. Once we had the science to try to determine the ideal we did, up until then a lot of people got sick for nutritional reasons. An easy example is average height, which is often linked to nutrition. Areas (an... | [
"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... |
In terms of law, if someone killed 3 people to save 10 others what would happen to them? | [
"Depends on the circumstances. If by \"killed three people\" you mean let them die to save others from a sinking boat, then nothing (except possibly PTSD and a lot of guilt). If you mean that they chose to shoot these three people in the head, then it would mean three counts of murder. You don't get to murder peopl... | [
"First off, don't use the term 'leech' - it implies that you do LOTS of downloading. Second, you won't get a dismissal; the MPAA/RIAA would LOVE to get a court ruling that says you can't download copies of stuff for which you own (other) liceneses."
] |
when cooking meat, why is it ok to use the same utensils at the end when the meat is cooked as you used at the start, when the meat is raw? | [
"It isn't okay to do that. It does spread bacteria over the meat."
] | [
"You are confusing honing with stropping. When you sharpen a straight razor you DO push blade first. You only lead with the spine of the razor when STROPPING. Honing (AKA Sharpening) is essentially grinding the metal down to the shape of a blade. This is done on a wet stone (AKA honing stone), blade first STROPPIN... |
Why don’t birth marks and freckles go away if your skin cells are always being replaced? | [
"So birthmarks and freckles are really just areas of the skin with more coloration. There’s a special type of cell called a “melanocyte” that produces the stuff that makes skin dark. These special cells rest on the bottom layer of the skin, the layer that sheds less often. When we lose dead skin cells they’re usual... | [
"Look at it like a chess board: After 100+ moves, it's hard to set every step back until you're in the start position. It's easier to remove all the pieces from the board and start all over. ^This ^was ^explained ^before"
] |
how/why is suspension with pay a form of punishment? | [
"It's not a punishment. Suspension with pay is what you do when there's evidence something's up (so you can't let the person keep working), but nothing is proven yet (so it would be unfair to take their wages)."
] | [
"I'm a journalist. I can tell you straight up : it's for audience. These videos create shock, which is the best hook television news has over the viewer. The whole ethics speech they'll give you about people having the right to see it is BS. Television is a business, news or not, sadly. This is even more true in th... |
Why don't we see insects evolving at extraordinarily fast rates? They have such short/quick life-cycles and outnumber other animal classes on Earth by such a vast margin, so wouldn't this expedite the evolutionary process by increasing the chance of DNA mutations? | [
"Short generation time should indeed lead to \"faster\" evolution if you measure the rate of substitution in years. However, large population sizes if that's what insects have (they have a high taxonomic diversity, but I don't know much about their average population sizes) would not increase the rate at which new ... | [
"Basically quantity vs quality. Animals that give birth to multiple babies because more babies means a better chance that some will live to reproduce while animals, like humans, tend to be much more involved in the growth of the child ensuring they live on to reproduce e through care and protection."
] |
Why isn't there enough money to go around? | [
"Money isn't imaginary. Money being imaginary is a misnomer, money is *debt* and its value is partially determined by supply. If you create more of it, the rest of it goes down in value. The easy answer is \"inflation\" - if you create more money, the money that already exists will be worth less goods and services.... | [
"You might want to watch Inequality for All, it's a documentary available on Netflix. It actually addresses this exact question"
] |
Why do most governments use asphalt instead of concerts for paving roads? | [
"Concrete is hard and rigid, but asphalt is hard and a bit more flexible. This allows pressure of cars to drive over it without causing damage. Concrete being more brittle makes it more likely to crack. If it does crack, concrete is harder to fix. It requires a lot more work and time to take the bad chunk out and ... | [
"In addition to what others have said nations often sell export variants of hardware. These versions are usually less capable than what is in the selling nations' arsenals. When the US sells planes they will usually have a less capable avionics and radar systems. US tanks are sold with export armor that is less cap... |
How quantum computing works | [
"Veritasium has some good videos on quantum computing. * [How does a quantum computer work?](_URL_2_) * [How to make a quantum bit.](_URL_1_) * [What is quantum mechanical spin?](_URL_0_) [Also amazingly there are already encryption algorithms that are resistant to quantum computer's fast integer factorization](_UR... | [
"The Quantiferon test is a brand name for a form of interferon gamma release assay. Simply put if your immune system recognizes tuberculosis then it will release a substance when exposed to the antigen for that substance, a chemical marker specific to that infection. The first two zero results are for exposure to d... |
The first basic fusion that will happen in a star is two hydrogen atoms fusing and becoming helium. We know that other elements will be produced by fusion, like Neon, Iron, etc. What is the sequence after the atom is helium for subsequent fusion... H > He ...? | [
"Carbon comes next, fused from three helium nuclei. Once carbon shows up a few things can happen. The [alpha process](_URL_0_) reactions start to occur slowly and build up small amounts of heavier elements while the helium burning phase is occuring. What happens next depends on the mass of the star. Stars around th... | [
"\"Fixing\" nitrogen gas, that is, turning into a chemically useful form like ammonia, nitrate, etc., is actually a very difficult chemical step. The N2 molecule is very stable, and breaking those bonds takes some real work. Up until the early 1900s, the only organisms on earth that could do it were some species of... |
If I dug a hole from north to south pole and jumped right into it, what would happen? | [
"The tunnel would collapse on itself because of the massive pressure. If that didn't happen you would just keep falling. Because of the air resistance you wouldn't make it to the other side, eventually stabilizing at the core where the gravity pulls equally from all sides."
] | [
"This video created by Vsauce 3 (Jake Roper) does a very good job explaining this: _URL_1_ I hope this answers your question. He also did another video on a simmilar line of - could you survive: _URL_0_"
] |
How sleep-deprived was the Nazi and Wehrmacht leadership throughout WW2, and how much of their bad decisions could be attributed to sleep deprivation? | [
"I would like to pose a follow up question: Were stimulants like Pervertin (Methamphetamine) only common in the ranks of 'normal' soldiers, pilots, tank crews etc., or were they also used by high ranking officers?"
] | [
"You're asking a question that requires both broad and detailed understanding of a couple of hundred years of military history, which perhaps explains why it's taking a while to generate fresh answers. While you're waiting, you may find it interesting to review some previous responses, particularly... [What specif... |
How does a shell, for say a hermit crab or clam, come into existence? | [
"Shells (ignoring, for a moment, those animals that inhabit the shells of others, like the hermit crab) are similar to bones, and grow in basically the same way that bones grow."
] | [
"this has already been answered, but I just wanted to say this was such an awesome question. I love the questions that I'd never really thought about before. it's like a clarity Clarence moment for me, like 'oh, why did I never think of questioning this?'"
] |
How does long exposure photography work? | [
"That is a long exposure , most newer dslr/mirrorless cameras can take long exposure images like this. You set your shutter speed for a long time and it keeps the shutter open so it tracks any movement (the stars in this image). The road and background are clear because they obviously don't move."
] | [
"_URL_0_ The wikipedia article is excellent and better than any of the answers in here so far. If you have specific parts you don't understand, ask away and I can help explain them to you."
] |
Should there be labels explaning the type of post?[Politics],[Economics],[Games],[Technology]...etc | [
"I like the idea, but I think this would just amount to clutter. Unless we had a highly regulated, organized taxonomy that every user of LI5 knew by heart, people would just be making up arbitrary categories. Is there a difference between [Politics] and [US Politics] or between [TV] and [Purple Dinosaur Based Chil... | [
"They used to not be able to read the warped text. Processing plain text and processing an image of text are different. And since the image is distorted it cant figure out the word in the text. Some newer captchas ask you to select from a set of images. Now the computer would have to analyze each image for the item... |
Is the form of a galaxy influenced by the black hole in its middle? | [
"Yes! Galaxies are hugely affected by the black holes found in the center of galaxies. Here's why: Black holes don't just take matter in, they also spit it out, and with a lot of force. In other words, black holes inject energy into their surrounding environment. Why is this important? Because without some form of ... | [
"Any physically straigth line will always appear arc shaped if it covers long enough area of your vision. Its just our brains can make us realise they are really straigth if there is enough context. For the case of milkiway center there isnt. Cameras can cause further confusion. Its like inverse version of the prob... |
How does metabolism work? | [
"This is a bit of a broad question but ill try my best to answer: Metabolism is actually an umbrella term to include *catabolism* and *anabolism*. Catabolism refers to the breaking down of biomolecules. For example, your digestive system breaking down a piece of steak down to individual aminoacids is catabolism. Ca... | [
"_URL_0_ The wikipedia article is excellent and better than any of the answers in here so far. If you have specific parts you don't understand, ask away and I can help explain them to you."
] |
Why is the response to a "plus-size" obese model so overwhelmingly positive even though it depicts a "risky" health status? | [
"Because they give hope to those who aren't as thin and beautiful as society wants them to be. Personally, I don't like it. I've never heard of Tess Holiday up until now after googling and she is not \"plus-size\". She is freaking obese. A part of me believes that these \"plus-size\" models make fat people justify... | [
"Why wouldn't they be? If 4lb boxes of cheerios cost > 4x more than 1lb boxes of cheerios, you could combine 4 1lb boxes and get a 4lb box and profit. But you can't combine 4 televisions into one big television. I don't know about TVs, but in general, larger objects with tiny features tend to be more difficult to m... |
Why do some British singers like Amy Winehouse sound American when they sing but others like Lily Allen still sound British? | [
"I think it has to do with their singing style. Many singers seem to lose their accent because a lot of what we hear as an accent is dependent on intonation and the way vowels are pronounced. When you sing, intonation is more determined by melody than by language, and vowels tend to be elongated. The means by which... | [
"English experienced some major changes around that time that Spanish did not. In 1066 the Normans, who spoke French, took control of England. The fact that the ruling class spoke French greatly affected the native English language and a lot of French words made their way into the language. Additionally, there was ... |
Can anyone explain what I am seeing in this video - Attaching a camera to a helicopter rotor | [
"You're correct--if the frame rate of the camera matches up with the rotors (or an integral multiple of the rotor rate), you'll see a consistant image. Additionally, the rotor blades of a helicopter can flex and distort in flight, which results in the \"bending\" of the image that you see."
] | [
"Google pays people that get more viewers coming back to Youtube to watch their videos a good portion of the ad revenue generated. Basically just a small scale version of TV shows getting picked up by a network"
] |
Are there any societies (past or present) that practice funeral preparations other than burial or cremation? | [
"[_URL_0_](_URL_0_) Think cannibalism, burial at sea, there are plenty of variations on burial as well. I think the most interesting is the use of scavenger animals for disposal: **Warning of somewhat graphic pictures @ bottom of page:** [_URL_1_](_URL_1_)"
] | [
"Molecular structure gets changed in glaze firing, called vitrification. Bisque firing burns out organic matter and clay undergoes quartz inversion: bisque isn't needed, but is very convenient for glazing and is less fragile than bone dry greenware. There are many many different types of firings and clay compositi... |
How come roaches rarely fly even when their life is threatened? | [
"My guess is that roaches don't believe they can actually be killed"
] | [
"A) Endeavor is being moved to Los Angeles to be put on display in a museum. B) The space shuttles are pretty much flying bricks. They're meant to fall out of the sky allowing some degree of control. Their wings cannot provide the needed lift, and the engines aren't designed for forward movement through the atmosph... |
Why can't you curse at cops? | [
"It's not illegal to curse and yell at cops, that would be absurd. It is, however very very very bad for you. Police are in a position of authority, and they have the power to investigate and arrest you. Do you really want to try to cuss out the guy who's trying to determine whether or not you did something illegal... | [
"The bacteria that grows on meats (esp chicken and pork) are matured and the meat may be rotten by that date. If cooked, bacteria is killed and the meat is given a new state, which is cooked. Think of it as the meat being given a new life after getting close to dying."
] |
After watching Django Unchained, how often did slaves rebel against their owners, and is there evidence of any ever succeeding? | [
"Yes, the best example is the uprising on Haiti, where the slaves fought a particularly bloody war against French colonials. The wiki article gives a decent enough summary."
] | [
"This question is getting a lot of traffic after being [tweeted by @reddit](_URL_5_), so I thought I'd welcome those of you that haven't visited /r/AskHistorians before to the subreddit. Please do bear in mind that in order to keep the quality of answers here high we have [strict rules on comments](/r/AskHistorians... |
What mental or biological factors make people want to be scared by a horror movie? | [
"Being scared triggers your fight or flight response. Basically, your brain tries to decide if you should stay and fight what you're afraid of, or run away. In doing this, it releases a chemical called adrenaline. Adrenaline makes your heart beat faster and your muscles work better. Like any chemical/drug, you can ... | [
"I haven't watched it yet, so no spoilers please, but Basically it has to do with utilising Netflix's metadata parser. You may be familiar with how you can click a button to skip the intro of a show, or to immediately go from the credits of one ep to the start of the next episode without having to sit through the i... |
Can someone ELI5 how coffee and other energy-supplements work? | [
"When you get tired, stuff builds up in the brain that literally makes it harder to think. Caffiene (the part of coffee that wakes you up) plugs the holes that this tired-stuff (adenosine) gets into, so you can think just as easily as usual. The sideffects are usually because thinking that much makes your brain thi... | [
"When you take a pill it's not 100% the labeled medication. There are other ingredients that help it do its job and release when and how it is supposed to. Sometimes a medicine needs more extra ingredients to do its job so you end up with a bigger pill."
] |
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