Subset (10)

eli5 · 25k rows

Split (1)

train · 25k rows

query stringlengths 20 300	positive listlengths 1 1	negative listlengths 1 1
If carbonated drinks are stored similarly in canisters for fountains and aluminum cans, why does the fizz lost much quicker when transferred?	[ "Carbonated water loses the mixed CO2 in direct relationship with the amount of surface area the liquid has at any given point in time. Fountain drinks have the benefit of having been immediately carbonated by the fountain (since that's what a fountain does - carbonates water and mixes with syrup to produce a drink...	[ "There are two ways to keep consistent water pressure for a town/city. Method 1: start with a reservoir (or tank) that is higher than any building within the city. If it’s a water tower you may need a pump to pump water from a reservoir up into the water tower to keep it full. This is the method towns and cities u...
It is easy to spot a scammer. They use weird names with numbers in it. Why are they being so obvious?	[ "There was actually an article on this very topic. If I find it again, I'll post the link. Apparently, this is done to weed out the smart people and only get those that are gullible to respond. It's like reverse elimination. Eliminate those that would see through the scam as fast as possible. Write a horrible email...	[ "There are several ways. The main method imo, is mass buying games during promotional sales, they then sell the game with a slightly higher price than purchased remaining cheaper than the retailer. They buy games using vpns taking advantage of the Russian roubles low price where a game costing 20 quid will cost yo...
If your skin is an organ, why does it get itchy but your internal organs don't?	[ "because they're meant to be itchy, being itchy has its purpose, and the urge to scratch an itch has its purpose, internal organs don't need to be itchy because they can't be scratched" ]	[ "One of the things to remember here is that children are not just short adults. Many of the body systems work differently, and that includes the immune system. The immune response of the adult is, in some cases, more potentially damaging to the person than the immune response of the child would be. Also, children a...
— What happens if someone “speaks now” during a wedding?	[ "I've never been to a wedding where that line was actually included in the ceremony." ]	[ "A lot of reasons: Old movies had the soundtrack imprinted on the film, it was analogue and intrinsically noisy - like cassettes, the same was true of video. Also copying the film to make a new print or change the format would introduce more noise. To deal with that Cinemas had quite sophisticated analogue noise re...
Why is printer ink so expensive? And why hasn't competition driven down the price?	[ "Here are the reasons why I think it's so expensive: * Money is lost on the printers themselves, so in order to recoup costs the companies have high profit margins on their ink * Printer cartridges are intentionally proprietary; other companies aren't supposed to make cartridges for one company's printer. This prev...	[ "Think of radar as light. Essentislly it's light your eyes can't see. Now we want to see something, we shine a light on it. When you don't want to be seen, you paint your plane a color that makes the plane look like the rest of the sky around it. Blue or grey. Now to see the plane a radar development has to be made...
Why do so many companies to $ = £?	[ "Prices in UK have VAT included in them, so in the U.S. there will also be sales tax added at the register. That $9.99 item will likely have another 50 cents to dollar added based on state and local sales tax." ]	[ "They don't. In fact polls on gay marriage in the [US](_URL_0_) and the [UK](_URL_1_) show almost exactly the same results." ]
Did Hitler ever publicly comment on Roosevelt's death?	[ "Would it be too much off topic to ask if the Japanese commented on Roosevelt's death? I don't recall hearing anything at the time, nor afterwards. We were on Okinawa at the time, and although we heard scuttlebutt about various Japanese propaganda, it wasn't about the president. Then again, we were kind of busy at ...	[ "Hi OP and fellow readers. Until we get a good top-level reply, here are some past questions with quality responses: [What made Germany think Mexico would go along with the plan in the Zimmerman Telegram? submitted 2 years ago](_URL_0_) (/u/nilhaus's top reply seems to answer all of your questions) [Did Mexico de...
Why do Mars rovers work so much longer after their mission is over?	[ "With Spirit and Opportunity, there is a specific reason. It was expected that the solar panels would quickly become coated in Martian dust, and soon the rovers would not receive enough power to function. However, the Martian wind turned out to be quite effective at cleaning the solar panels, so while they look fai...	[ "Your question reminded me of this frikkin awesome documentary of about planned obsolescence. [Video snippet](_URL_0_), and the whole documentary, I can't find... but Im sure someone else may be able to. ELI5 version: Because companies want you to keep them in business." ]
What happened to the tons of lead in Notre Dame's roof, will it be a health hazard to firefighters or the river in the future?	[ "This site: [_URL_0_](_URL_0_), in French only, sorry, measures and reports air pollution levels due to fire at Notre Dame, and to this day, there is no significant decrease in air quality. But that's for classical pollution sources and measured over larger areas, so the measurements are not very local and very nea...	[ "They still use the arena of Nimes for concerts. Not as old as some of the other examples (70 ad), but they treat as if it was a modern arena which is quite impressive." ]
Does it take more energy/effort to warm something up, or cool something down?	[ "Depends on context. If your surroundings are warmer than what you are heating, then it take no additional energy to raise the temperature of the thing. If your surroundings are cooler, it takes no additional energy. If you are operating in a frictionless world, with perfect efficiency, both heating and cooling w...	[ "It's basically that, in cold climates, \"warm-blooded\" animals can keep on trucking while the \"cold-blooded\" ones are sleepy and slow, or hibernating, or actually dead from the cold. If you put [these guys](_URL_0_) and [these guys](_URL_1_) together on a tropical island, then the jackals are going to have to ...
why is boat speed knot but everything else km/h	[ "A knot is one nautical mile per hour. A nautical mile 1852 m is one minute of latitude, which is equivalent to one sixtieth of a degree of latitude. On land the distance depend on how the road goes but at sea you can follow a straight lines so you have to calculate the distance your self So by only looking at coor...	[ "> Because we're not filthy commies! Joking aside, that's just what was brought over. It's been relatively recent that Europe made metric standard. A few countries still use other systems locally, think some people in the UK use Stones (14lbs)" ]
What is the genuine cause of the shrinkage of schizophrenic brain?	[ "There have been several studies with different outcomes concerning the shrinkage of gray matter, but no definite explanation yet. But I stumbled across a paper which tried to falsify the hypothesis of the shrinkage being due to medication. “Because this differential rate of tissue loss was observed among subjects ...	[ "[Here is a basic sketch of soap's structure (surrounding a grease particle).](_URL_0_) The secret behind soap is its structure. More specifically, it's how different parts of its structure behave. The head of each soap molecule (the round thing) is hydrophilic, which literally means that it loves water (it dissol...
how three-phase power works	[ "_URL_0_ Its pretty long but it is hands down the best explanation i have ever seen. And i went to school for it." ]	[ "Also worth noting that some 3D Film projections aren't vertically/horizontally polarised, but rather circularly polarised in different directions (otherwise the effect wouldn't work if you turned your head)." ]
What happens to the chemical compound of water when it's boiled? Is there less oxygen and a different taste?	[ "Nothing, boiling is not a chemical reaction. All you do is heat up the H2O and change the state of aggregation of a small portion of it from liquid to gaseous (resulting in bubbles and steam). Unless you trap the steam somehow a little bit of H2O is going away, but apart from that it remains exactly the same, chem...	[ "In the specific case of air in a whistle and water in a whistle, the what’s actually happening is this: the shape of the whistle causes a rapid rise and drop in air pressure inside the whistle. This is the vibration — sound. In text form the pressure goes HiLowHiLowHiLowHiLowHiLow. Unlike air, water does not comp...
How valid is the analogy between modern day USA and the Roman Empire?	[ "Not even a little bit. There isn't even a place to begin. It isn't apples to oranges, because apples and oranges are both fruits and thus in many ways quite comparable. You can say that the citric bite of the orange gives it more flavor but appreciate the greater ease of eating an apple--these are valid points of ...	[ "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." ]
In the US, prior to the invention of formula, how were babies with dead mothers fed?	[ "Wet nurses weren't only in existence in countries with nobility. Wet nursing was for a long time more about affluence and family wealth than noble title. In fact, the history of wet nursing can be traced back to ancient times. The United States has a history of the use of wet nurses, and many women who were alive ...	[ "Related question: how much opportunity was there for divorced women at the time to remarry or find other means of support (by themselves or family)? How much did it vary by region or socioeconomic status?" ]
Explain the Sigmund Freud thing to me LI5.	[ "Freud's psychological analysis concentrated on a lot of sexual dynamics. In a nutshell, everything we do is related to sex in one form or another. He also had a theory about young females having 'penis envy' - that upon discovering that boys had a penis and girls do not, girls become envious and filled with hate t...	[ "The id is your desire for this cookie. (::) The ego is your practical plan to get this cookie. (::) The superego torpedoes your plan because it's my cookie, and stealing is wrong. Munch." ]
Do traffic lights get free power?	[ "The government, usually the local city or county maintains street lights and local roads including stop signs and other signage. They are typically responsible for the maintenance of all said items. Unless the county also sells power, it likely is paying for the power. Even if the county is selling the power and m...	[ "Well, does it cost you anything to press? And if you don't press it, is there a chance you'll have to wait longer? That's why. No cost to do so, and potential cost for not doing so." ]
If the RIAA/MPAA sends someone a DMCA complaint or tries to litigate for downloading something they already own a legal copy of can the case be dismissed?	[ "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." ]	[ "Imagine a bully at school. It's the same one each day, taking the lunch money of the same handful of kids. You take note that kids seem bullied, and it's very easy to identify who the bully is, after all you only have to talk to a handful of kids to get something of note, plus everyone is pointing the same direct...
Why are Russia and China siding with Syria/Assad and blocking UN resolutions against the state violence towards civilians/rebels over there?	[ "Syria is a close ally of Russia and hosts Russia's only warm water port, in addition. China has a long-held policy of voting against getting involved in other countries. Or as one BBC correspondent suggested: When China looks at Syria it sees Tibet. When Russia looks at Syria it sees Chechnya." ]	[ "Greetings everyone. In the few minutes this sub has been up, it's attracting sub-standard responses. Just a reminder of a few of the rules: * no responses covering events/conditions post-1994, per this sub's \"20-year rule\" prohibiting discussion of current events * no anecdotes * no speculation OP: your question...
What is an extremely aerodynamic shape?	[ "pinewood derby cars move slow enough and over a short enough track that friction in the air is really a minor concern. just remember that a heavier car will hold the advantage in the downhill and loose less energy over the flat. make it as heavy as you can get away with, pointy and then if you can lube the axles....	[ "What you have in your possession is an American Class A tunic, more known as a dress jacket (or tunic). He would not have worn this in action. The patch on the right chest signified a honorable discharge from the Armed Forces and it is very likely that the uniform was worn by the veteran at reunions. The two patch...
Why do my dogs run in terror from the vacuum cleaner but just chill in the grass next to the lawnmower?	[ "Not any sort of expert but I wonder if it has to do with the pitch produced?" ]	[ "I think it might have some base i historical gender roles. The women in the village,cooking,weaving,yapping and watching the kids while the men are on the hunt,completely focussed on the kill/trail." ]
The universe is expanding, but gravity always works, no matter the distance. So will expansion ever start reversing?	[ "For a long time that is what peiple thought. It wass assumed that the universe would eventually collapse back into itself in an event called 'The Big Crunch'. In order to prove this theory astronomers needed to measure how the expansion of the universe has changed with time. As it turns out you can do that by look...	[ "[Searched](_URL_5_) Relevant [discussion](_URL_5_) Original question by [sirphilip](_URL_4_) > From what I understand black holes lose mass when entangled matter-antimatter particles pop into existence near their event horizon and the antimatter falls in allowing the matter particle to escape. > Why doesn't the ...
Why doesn't the suction power behind a fan feel as strong as the wind coming out of the front?	[ "Because it's diffuse. The air coming out of the fan is in a very narrow path - the fan's energy is pointing in one direction. The air going into the fan might be coming from anywhere behind it, not from any particular angle, so the moving air is harder to feel at any one spot." ]	[ "In the case with only one person sucking, they will still receive water, but only if they suck hard enough. The airflow across the T connection will generate vacuum pressure, sucking the water up the straw and, if there is sufficient vacuum pressure, into the T, aerosolizing the water. This is how many commercial ...
Was the Christianisation of Ireland peaceful?	[ "These should not discourage further responses, but here are some earlier detailed threads answering similar questions: _URL_0_ by u/depanneur , u/alriclofgar and others, and _URL_1_ again by u/depanneur, u/Lonnbeimnech and others" ]	[ "Sort of how hawaiis volcano is not particularly dangerous as it constantly and very gradually errupts. Good question, i would love a geologist to point out all the unidentified variables etc" ]
What actually happens when I read.	[ "Yuo can raed taht way beauce we dno't acluatly raed ervey letter in a wrod, we raed the shpae of the wrod. It's sungrisiprly esay to raed tihs, but relaly anoyinng to write lkie tihs, so the rset I copeid form the intnernt. \"i cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg. The phaonmneal pwe...	[ "This is called the [Moire Effect](_URL_0_). The stripes in the pattern interact with the stripes in your monitor. Normally it's in black and white, but because computer monitors use rows of colored dots, it creates a false color effect too." ]
why dont distribution companies make deals with amazon prime or netflix to show all their movies and tv shows and at least make some profit when the alternative of pirating is readily available?	[ "Buying things piece by piece is always more expensive than buying things all together. Netflix would love to have a deal where they get everything from NBC. But NBC makes more money licensing each show separately. So they do and they can because they own the rights to the shows they created. As for pirating, it ...	[ "It's way, way, WAY, too expensive. The power plant alone would probably be more expensive than the entire lifetime cost of an average bulk carrier. Not to mention the insane mess of regulation that is involved with running a nuclear reactor. Basically, big ships run on bunker fuel, and bunker fuel is ludicrously...
What would happen to the body if it is continually electrocuted, like the guy from "Taken?"	[ "Electrocution, by definition, means \"death by electric shock\". So it is impossible to continually electrocute someone. Either they are electrocuted, or not." ]	[ "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_" ]
What exactly is an "itch" at the dermal level? And why do I feel so relieved when i "scratch"?	[ "ELI5: Your skin (rather the cells making it up) will release a mediator, most prominently Histamin upon some outside or inside stimulants. Histamin is usually responsible for (and known for) causing allergic reactions, i.E hayfever. Histamin causes all that nasty stuff. Now, what happens once the cells release th...	[ "To make you stinkier. One of the ways that mammals communicate is through smell. One of the most important things we communicate is sexual compatibility/availability. There is a running theory that people with different MHC genes (that control a big part of your immune system) smell good to each other, while peopl...
(Biology) How would you die from cancer as opposed to chemo?	[ "I don't know how it feels to the person, but cancer typically involves death from organ failure, depending on where the cancer has metastasized to, and where it advances most. Basically, the cancer takes up too much resources (and inefficiently at that) and disrupts the gross morphology of the tissue/organ to the ...	[ "My money is on suffocation assuming the suit kept your temperature up well enough. Or CO2 poisoning if you want to be more specific." ]
why does the navy's new rail gun have and explosive discharge if it's powered by electromagnetic energy?	[ "[This thread](_URL_0_) at r/askscience should help you out a bit." ]	[ "It's similar to the principles behind a volcano. Pressure keeps building up and building up in one specific point. However, there is some strong material resisting that pressure, in the volcano case it is the dirt, rock, and metal sitting above it, and in the book case it's the pages sitting under the press. Howev...
Why did the Romans and Greeks have the same gods, but with different names?	[ "Greece was old when Rome was young and there was a heavy influence from their culture. They were close geographically and traded ideas along with goods." ]	[ "We don't, we go by the most logical and most common accounts. If there is a fight with 10 people, and 6 of them all say the same thing and the evidence backs it up, then the other 4 saying it was aliens was probably wrong." ]
Why sometimes some coins are worth more than their original value?	[ "Two reasons. First, because, sometimes, the value of the metal in the coin becomes higher than the coin itself. That's why U.S. pennies are not made out of pure copper anymore. Second, and more importantly, because people are interested in coins and collect them. Rarity comes into play. I have a mason jar full of ...	[ "Reddit's best/hot post scoring algorithms have gone through several iterations over the years, in an attempt to curb spam and increase relevance. It might be that older posts have scores that were calculated based on older algorithms, which causes them to be inflated." ]
How does the energy required to enrich fissile material compare to the energy released in reactors and bombs?	[ "Enrichment activity is in weird units called \"SWU\" (separative work units). There's a bunch of useful info here: _URL_0_ The example at the end is especially helpful. It says that to enrich enough uranium to power eight 1300 MW power plants, you need an enrichment plant with a capacity of about 1 million SWU per...	[ "If you are looking at it from an emissions or energy standpoint then yes. [This](_URL_0_) Peta site is a good source of info, such as \"It takes more than 11 times as much fossil fuel to make one calorie from animal protein as it does to make one calorie from plant protein.\" Interesting information on burger prod...
Is there a chemical that can be added to water to raise its freezing temperature?	[ "Actually, that's pretty tricky. The reason most additives will lower the freezing point of water is that the process of dissolution is energetically favorable and results in a lowering the chemical potential of the liquid phase, that is it makes the liquid phase more stable. This process is quite general, called a...	[ "Works for people too. The ethanol binds to the same sites (enzymes? I don't really know specifically) as the alcohols in the antifreeze. The ethanol bond is much stronger and thus displaces the antifreeze, preventing the antifreeze from doing anything. You keep those sites loaded with ethanol until the antifreeze ...
if salt was a form of currency in ancient times, how did commoners not "counterfeit" with sea salt or stuff they found themselves?	[ "Salt was buying power regardless of how one obtained it. I'm sure some people collected it themselves, but those who had the skills to earn more salt per hour doing other things did that instead." ]	[ "You can measure inflation using a price index. Record how much companies charge for a bunch of different kinds of goods and services across all parts of the economy. Track it over time. If one person burns a $100 bill as a joke, the signal will be weak and lost in the noise. If someone is burning massive piles of ...
How do poisonous chemicals actually shut your body down and kill you?	[ "It depends on the chemical. Cyanide overwhelms you with numbers of molecules. It attaches to blood cells and blocks their ability to grab oxygen to transport to the cells in your body. That is why people turn blue when they are poisoned by it (cyanotic). But yeah, every poison is different, so the mechanism of to...	[ "Inadequate blood pressure in your brain, leading to a lack of oxygen supply to the neurons. Your circulatory system corrects for the reduced pressure quickly, which is why you don't become totally unconscious (usually)." ]
Why is it that sometimes one volume of something sounds right but when you try to listen to something at that volume again, it is too loud or too quiet?	[ "In my experience, one’s awareness and cognitive state or mood comes into play. Interestingly, when I take stimulant medications music sound much louder and clearer than when I'm not on the medication. The mind also can 'ignore' noises after a period of time listening to them. In the same way we can block out whit...	[ "My LI5 explanation - You work out where you are and how you are moving from both your eyes, and the motion detection organs in your ears. When you are in a car, your eyes see the device in front of you, and it does not appear to be moving. But your ears pick up all the movement of the car. So your eyes are saying...
How seriously will the loss of the 30,000 dairy cows in TX and NM impact milk availability and pricing across the US?	[ "30,000 cows is on the order of .5% of the total US dairy cow herd, so there will be no significant impact nationally. There could be short-term regional shortages." ]	[ "Let's say toll roads are run by Wal Mart. They then offer a discount - you can drive to Wal Mart for free, but still have to pay a toll when you go anywhere else. Sounds good, right? But then next year they double or triple the toll. Soon you can't afford to shop anywhere EXCEPT WalMart. Every other store then go...
Do historical bibliographers do all the research for their books, or do they have research teams do it?	[ "I can't say for sure for everyone especially in the fiction field since I seldom if ever have time to read fiction, but I've done a fair amount of uncredited translation work for friends who published, mostly in terms of word flow since my fluency with certain languages is much better than theirs. Generally though...	[ "There are trail crews, usually park or forest service, that spend full summers building and maintaining trails. you can imagine the fitness required for these jobs. If there are significant material needs (too heavy to carry), helicopters would be dispatched to airlift the materials to a desired location. A lot of...
How a scope can increase accuracy while being offset from the barrel?	[ "Bullets do not travel in straight paths. Gravity makes them slowly dip down as they travel. [Cross hairs](_URL_0_) have what are called mil dots which are offset from the actual center. If that wolf were very far away you would have to aim above him to let the bullet drop to it. The inch or two difference between ...	[ "I sounds like what you're describing are optical aberrations, most likely [Spherical Aberrations](_URL_1_) or [Coma](_URL_0_). It's nothing to worry about though, It's mostly due to viewing a distant light off axis. Might be worth checking out some of the other aberrations too if you're interested" ]
Does the cultural practice of cutting down and transporting trees for Christmas decoration affect the environment in a significant way?	[ "Most Christmas trees are grown on tree farms, not harvested from forests. In order to get the ideal shape for the tree, the tree needs space to grow, must be trimmable, kept free of critters, disease, etc. A christmas tree takes about 7-10 years to grow, and during that period of time it is extracting carbon from ...	[ "Hello everyone, Unfortunately, we have already had to remove a number of poor quality responses in this thread, including many asking about the deleted comments, which merely compound the issue. Please, before you attempt answer the question, keep in mind [our rules](_URL_7_) concerning in-depth and comprehensive...
Why is it that your face swell like crazy when you remove your wisdom teeth?	[ "It's like an injury. Inflammation caused by trauma to the tissue in your mouth. Wisdom teeth are large and have deep roots thus there is more inflammation and swelling." ]	[ "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...
Could a generated magnetic field protect a spacecraft and astronauts from charged particles and em radiation?	[ "There is still significant research to be done and hurdles to overcome with this. However, US Patent application ID US 12/990,420 is for a magnetic radiation shiled. > In order to provide an effective shield, the strength if the shield magnetic field at the source is perferably at least 1x10^-4 Tesla. To obtain a...	[ "Microwaves can induce electric current in metallic (or any conductive) objects. They are, quite literally, antennas. And while normally antennas receive signals of low power, these are high power signals meant for transferring energy. The effect of these currents depends alot on the object's makeup. \"Pure\" meta...
Why do I get much more drunk when I haven't had anything to eat?	[ "So your stomach is a processing center. Before food can pass to the intestines where it's further digested and absorbed, it has to meet the stomach standard. But when your stomach is full of food, it can't just process the easy stuff first and send it on. Alcoholic beverages by themselves contain no complex carbs,...	[ "It's highly unlikely you're going to die. What is happening is that as you stand up your blood pressure drops. This can cause you to feel dizzy or even go temporarily blind as the blood takes a second to make it to your now elevated head. [More info](_URL_0_) in case you're curious." ]
Did minor arguments really make people kill each other in the Ancient World?	[ "I'll just point out that this isn't limited to the Ancient World. People kill each other over \"not something to kill someone over\" all the time, though. There's an example of this exact same thing (two people not giving way on a single track road) from 19th century Corsica in Roger V. Gould's *Collision of Wills...	[ "Sorry, we don't allow [\"trivia seeking\" questions](_URL_0_). These tend to produce threads which are collections of disjointed, partial responses, and not the in-depth discussions about a particular topic we're looking for. If you have a specific question about an historical event, period, or person, please feel...
Why does light seem brighter after you have been in the dark for a long period of time?	[ "In the dark, your pupil dilates to allow more light in. As a result, the same intensity of light would appear brighter. The analogy would be if you're trying to talk to someone in a club: you'll have to yell over the background music. Imagine talking like that and the music suddenly cut out - you'll be _very_ audi...	[ "Your body reacts to food with a spike of insulin in your blood levels to prepare for all the glucose that is coming so it can be stores properly. When you didn't eat anything for a while your insulin levels are on the low side of the normal range. When you eat something, but not a lot, it goes up in the way it wou...
Why do people say "human race" when it is clearly a species?	[ "Because the term \"race\" has existed for hundreds of years and had various meanings, long before the modern science of taxonomy came about and properly defined species and races." ]	[ "Large breed felines are all different species. All domesticated dogs are the same specices - with specific traits (size) bread into it over centuries or millennia. Dogs started from wolves thousands of years ago." ]
If there are first and third world countries, what is a second world country like?	[ "Back when the term \"third world\" was coined, the \"first world\" was the NATO-aligned states and the \"second world\" was the USSR and its sphere of influence. The third world was the non-aligned states. Obviously the \"second world\" hasn't existed since the early nineties, so the \"third world\" is an anachron...	[ "1. We know quite a bit about Gothic. We have a significant portion of the bible that was translated into it, along with some other shorter texts and inscriptions. 2. Anglo-Saxon kingdoms in England were more recent in history, and they left more direct linguistic and cultural heirs that would be more likely to tak...
If the universe was formed in a single event, why isn't it homogeneous? As in, why do stars and planets have vastly different compositions if they originated from the same point?	[ "The leading theory is that during the period of cosmic inflation, in which the universe expanded much faster than the speed of light, quantum mechanical fluctuations were collapsed and then magnified as they expanded, which lead to the fluctuations that caused galaxies and the like. Planets and stars have differen...	[ "> ...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...
Can light from every galaxy reach us, or just a few?	[ "Imagine a ball with spikes. Those spikes are rays of light. Every ray of light consists of photons. If you extend spikes, they won't hit everything in the room. But if there is nothing between us and a spike, spike will reach us. So if you speak about entire galaxies, at least something should hit us, but it's nev...	[ "Oh, but we do. It is an effect called gravitational lensing. Generally the effect is so small that it isn't noticeable without very sensitive instruments, but near massive sources of gravity like a black hole, it is definitely noticeable. One common example is what is called [Einstein's Ring](_URL_0_), click the l...
What's the difference between licensed debt collectors and loan sharks?	[ "You've already described the line: licensing. Loan sharks aren't known as sharks just because of their tactics. It's because they work illegally. That means they can do things that licensed debt collectors cannot, like physically harm you, or other illegal actions." ]	[ "NPR recently did a piece on this. Part of it is if the artist charges $200 then the artist is a money grubber. If a scalper does it, it is expected. Here is the piece. _URL_0_" ]
What makes adhesives sticky?	[ "Mechanical and chemical bonding. Mechanical bonding refers to the adhesive actually filling into the cracks of the substance it's bonding with. Chemical bonding is more complex. Secondary bonding is the key here, it encompasses Hydrogen bonds and dipole bonds. Different adhesives use different type of chemicals (t...	[ "When you step out of bath the water will stick together and fall off you, but when you're taking a shower, the water drops will stay on your body." ]
If you were free falling towards the Earth and shot a handgun in front of you what would happen?	[ "In free fall, you would eventually reach terminal velocity. When you fire the bullet, friction will act on the bullet and it will eventually reach terminal velocity (much slower than its initial velocity). I'm going to assume that the bullet reaches terminal velocity before it hits the ground - otherwise you would...	[ "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_" ]
Why is it that cats biting people is considered playing or explained with "you annoyed it, what did you expect", while dog bites often lead to the dog being put down?	[ "When my dog was alive he bit and nibbed at the family all the time while playing, and it didn't hurt for the most part. My cat also does this, she will bite just hard enough to let me know she is playing or I need to let her go. The type of dog bites you are referencing (dog being put down) is based on the dog fee...	[ "If you ask for 1 pen, it costs you two dollars. If you ask for 100 000 pens, they will only cost you one dollar each. I prefer selling you 100 000 pens at half price, than selling you 1 at full price and have 99 999 sitting around doing nothing. In a similar way, if you ask for a small amount of money, you pay a b...
The controversy about "chemical imbalances" being the cause of mental illnesses and the current consensus on this hypothesis.	[ "SSRI or Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors, basically attempt to increase the level of the neurotransmitter serotonin in your brain. Serotonin is, like all neurotransmitters, a chemical. Generally whenever someone is prescribed a medication for a mental illness it is because the psychiatrist has deemed that t...	[ "There are 330 million people in America and each one has a different opinion about how the government should function and what it should and shouldn't do. Nearly all of those people are more or less logical, so which one is correct? The one who wants to avoid any negative consequences with a very cautious, plodd...
Why do all young mammals just want to play all the time but lose that interest as they get older	[ "Because for them “playing” is actually learning valuable skills like hunting and survival. Plus, they’re kids, they like to have fun. Just like human kids like to play but then slow down or stop as they get older." ]	[ "Part of the presence of pain is its purpose. Your nervous system continues to remind your brain the pain you've experienced so you know to protect it. For us, that means going to a doctor for a broken finger. But in nature, that means \"I need to guard this finger until it heals, or else I may die. If I try to ...
How do airship ballast work?	[ "_URL_0_ This link from the official website explains it. It looks like they change the buoyancy by varying the inflation level of helium bags. By changing the ratio of decompressed helium and compressed helium, they can alter the buoyancy without altering the weight. As a scuba diver I exploit this same effect to ...	[ "This is my field of research. My group in graduate school loaded ultra-short SWNTs (US-tubes) with [Gadolinium ions for MRI contrast enhancement](_URL_0_), with [AtCl for alpha therapy of cancer](_URL_3_), with [molecular iodine for CT enhancement](_URL_2_), and with [cisplatin for anti-cancer drug...
If a person is frozen, is there any way to unfreeze them?	[ "When a person freezes, the liquids in their bodies crystallize. This breaks the cell membranes, leading to death. There's research looking into ways to prevent this (there is a frog that does it) in humans, but so far it's all research." ]	[ "Each state has their own laws on who is eligible to vote. For example, Maine and Vermont allow all felons to vote, even while in prison. Florida, on the other hand, has very strict rules. All felons lose their right to vote and can only have it restored after a five-year waiting period and with permission from a s...
If Radioactive Isotopes are unstable and decay, how can we reliably know its half life? Is it actually stable?	[ "The relative variances decreases with the number of atoms. If you only have ten atoms, after a year you might have five, but you could conceivably have any number of them. Ten isn't a very big number. If you had 10,000 atoms, after a year you'd likely have between 4900 and 5100. It would be very very unlikely, say...	[ "I wouldn't go so far as to call it revolutionary. It was simply a quite conventional piece of artillery with the required performance. High velocity,good accuracy and a fairly compact breech. What helped it stay in service for so long was the development of improved ammunition, particularly the fin stabilized sabo...
How does something like a footprint (dinosaur) end up as a fossil?	[ "Imagine a dry lake (if you've ever seen HOLES then this is a good one to think of). If an animal was walking along the shoreline (or even near the final place the water evaporated), its foot prints would be set into the mud. The mud would then harden when the water evaporated, leaving a stiff mold behind. Let's sa...	[ "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 are movies graded/rated? Who gives the rating/grade? And what is the criteria that a movie needs to meet to get each rating?	[ "(This is for the US) The short answer is that it's a private, independent board whose membership is kept secret (supposedly to avoid being influenced). There are no stated criteria whatsoever for each rating. The board watches a movie and issues a rating, which can be appealed but usually isn't. Movies are often r...	[ "FAQ here. Yo ho ho! Yer not alone in askin', and kind strangers have explained: 1. [ELI5: Where do internet providers get their internet from and why can't we make our own? ](_URL_7_) ^(_ > 100 comments_) 1. [ELI5: Where do ISP companies get their internet from? ](_URL_7_) ^(_4 comments_) 1. [ELI5: How do internet...
Is it possible to inhibit a neurotransmitter (dopamine, for example) in only one part of the brain?	[ "Potentially. Different neurotransmitters occur in different concentrations in different parts of the brain and the receptors that they interact with occur as different subtypes and in different densities in different regions. So a drug, either agonist or antagonist, may preferentially act upon on anatomical region...	[ "We aren't really sure why, but it doesn't seem that something like that can be done. Think about it like your bladder; you can build up a need to urinate, but you cannot urinate so much that your bladder is more than empty." ]
Is it possible to freeze fire?	[ "As fire is hot gas, freezing it would just give you frozen CO2 and maybe some soot." ]	[ "Water can be crystallized under sufficient pressure. If you check out a [phase diagram](_URL_0_) for water you'll see that, at a given temperature, a sufficient increase in pressure will cause it to crystallize." ]
What do I do with father’s work? Historian Dad with dementia moved into nursing home. I don’t know what to do with his work documents	[ "I think I may know him, or else it's a heck of a coincidence. If the case, and given how well known his work is, it won't hurt to talk to Special Collections about his files or papers. If they aren't able to take them (and our budget situation is horrendous), they could tell you what programs have the resources to...	[ "This Week's Rundown! /u/textandtrowel on [\"How did medieval Islamic historians write about/conceptualise the history of their religion? Please also tell me about who wrote history in the medieval Islamic world, why, and what written history was used for in medieval Islamic society.\"](_URL_0_) /u/prufrock451 on [...
What happens to an uninsured patient with catastrophic injuries in the U.S.?	[ "Everyone receives emergency care, regardless of their insurance. If you can't pay it, eventually the hospital will write it off. So ultimately the taxpayers pay for it, indirectly. Once you're stable, don't expect stellar care, but hospitals don't typically kick people to the curb to die." ]	[ "The usual suspects. Credit score tanks. Collections calls start flowing in. Stuff gets repo'd or your wages get garnished until the debt is repaid. Of course it might vary by state and by whatever agency granted the loan (federal vs state vs whatever), but the basic pattern of \"this person owes us money\" doesn't...
What's the first recorded mention of a dragon that we know of? How did the myth of dragons originale in the first place?	[ "Similar questions to this have been asked a bunch of times here. See [this post](_URL_0_) by u/itsallfolklore or [this post](_URL_1_) by u/artfulorpheus. New answers with more information are of course welcome." ]	[ "While we wait for a direct answer, you might be interested in these two knockout posts by /u/The_Alaskan: * [Marijuana was prohibited in 1937, yet Nixon is said to have started \"the War on Drugs\". What did Nixon do that wasn't already being done since 1937?](_URL_0_) - which argues for viewing the 1970s/80s \"wa...
Is there a scientific reason why all space station/space ship interiors are white?	[ "It has the advantage that the contrast is very high, it will reflect light, so the environment is bright and neutral. White \"makes\" a room bigger than e.g. black and the reflected light will be more like sunlight than every other color." ]	[ "Inflatable beach balls are mostly empty space, too. The thing is, light bounces off the outside surface of the beach ball and back into our eyes, just like it bounces off the electrons around an atom's nucleus." ]
What is exotic matter?	[ "Usually it refers to matter which interact in the opposite way with gravity than usual matter. I.e. something with \"negative\" gravitational mass, that would repel instead of attract. This doesn't exist, as far as we know, it has never been observed and it leads to weird and \"bad\" consequences if it exists. If ...	[ "This is a small complaint, but you don't have a theory about antimatter. You have a conjecture. I don't know enough about the topic to say if it has any possible credence or not, but a theory requires a lot more work than \"hmmm, maybe it's this!\" This is not supposed to discourage you wondering or asking, just h...
Why do religious Christians care so much about the legality of gay marriage, but not about the legality of cheating on your spouse?	[ "Two reasons: 1. You're making a false comparison by comparing the criminalization of adultery against the subsidization of marriage. Gay marriage being illegal doesn't mean you go to jail for it - it just means that you can't file paperwork with the government. In contrast, adultery being illegal means they pu...	[ "For the cathedral, they wouldn't just be building a new roof, it will be a restoration process which takes time. It is also a cultural heritage site which means it's important to history and protected by many rules and laws. Any plan to rebuild should be reviewed and approved by the pertinent authorities and the p...
We attribute pollution to death tolls. Why can't we sue or press criminal charges against the united states government for being complicit in these deaths?	[ "> We attribute pollution to death tolls. First of all, you have that backwards. \"To attribute A to B\" means that B causes A, and I'm pretty sure you don't mean that death tolls cause pollution. Second, expecting the government to be responsible for deaths caused by pollution would be like expecting the governmen...	[ "Just because there weren't insurgencies in the modern sense doesn't mean there weren't rebellions and uprisings. Rome had a notoriously difficult time keeping down the people of Germania, Gaul and Britannia, for example but the rebellions usually played out through more traditional military conflicts. One disadva...
Is it possible to "alloy" a metal with a molten salt/ionic liquid?	[ "What you're looking for is called a \"binary phase diagram\" - these things describe which phases are present in equilibrium at a given temperature and composition, for a mixture of two compounds. Read up on phase diagrams [here](_URL_0_), if you want. The basic idea is that some things are miscible, others only t...	[ "Okay think about it like this. Suppose you have a liquid and you don't know anything about it. You want to know if it's water. So you take an 1/8 of a gallon of water and weigh it. Then you weigh 1/8 gallon of the mystery liquid. Then a quarter gallon of each, then 3/8 gallon of each and so forth until you've we...
Why is it so hard to say you’re wrong?	[ "People are emotionally invested in their ideas. We feel as though because we believe in something, it must be right or we would be stupid for having believed in it. So when something comes along and gives us evidence that we are wrong, our brain's first reaction is often to push to reject it because it's a direct ...	[ "Because most people will see it as a lower value. Just like stuff are advertised for 19.99 and a lot of people will think of that as \"less than twenty.\" 3.699 gets rounded in people's heads as three-sixty, not three-seventy. In a couple of days you can train your self to see the real value, 19.99 actually means ...
The differences between a nation, a state, and a nation-state.	[ "A nation is a group of people with several factors in common like land inhabited, religion, ethnicity, language, or culture. A state is the government over an area of land A nation-state is a state that governs an area that primarily consists of one nation." ]	[ "Hi, this is just a reminder to posters to abide by our [subreddit rules](_URL_0_) and remember that unless you're posting an in-depth reply about the history of the issue, your post will be deleted. Pay particular attention to the rules about soapboxing and the 20-year-rule. We don't need discussion of present-d...
Scandinavia was one of the few European areas that was never in control of the Roman Empire. What did Scandinavian civilizations think of the Roman Empire at its greatest extent?	[ "I have a side question here. I sometimes hear that Tacitus visited what would be modern day Finland. Is there truth to these claims?" ]	[ "It's because that's where Simon Peter (\"Saint Peter\") founded the Christian Church. Peter is seen by Christians as Jesus' primary disciple. When Jesus met Simon, he said [\"Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by my Father in heaven. And I tell you that y...
Why do tennis balls smell so...... good?	[ "Tennis enthusiast here: I actually don't know what gas is actually in the can, but tennis balls are fulled with either nitrogen gas or sulfur hexafloride. The cans themselves are pressure packed, and what you smell when you crack open a can is the smell of plastic-tainted air and rubber. *Or that's my spin on it....	[ "A few reasons, first you may remember from high school chemistry the ideal gas law. PV=nRT, where P=pressure, V=volume, n= number of moles, R is a constant and T is temperature. If you spray a pressurized gas (the propellant in the can), which is typically butane or propane, as the gas comes out of the spray nozz...
None Singular or Plural.	[ "None can be either singular or plural depending on context (according to [Fowler](_URL_0_)). I'd tend to use the singular when the opposite would be \"one of\", and the plural when the opposite would be \"some of\". I'd lean towards \"none of the teachers are competent\", but definitely say \"none of the teachers ...	[ "Their system might not allow for a zero dollar sale. They also still have to track all tires for inventory management. Also management can pull up sales to see how many of those deals they sold. Edit- Grammar. I can't believe I mixed up They're and Their" ]
Licensed merchandise	[ "The company that makes the mug pays a license fee to the owner of the logo and it is rolled into the price of the mug when it is sold to the vender." ]	[ "The Romans had tacky shot glasses shaped like gladiator helmets." ]
California wildfires happen every year. Why? And why cant we prevent them when we know they are coming?	[ "Preventing them is actually what created the problem. Forest fires are a normal part of nature: they burn off the undergrowth and, when they happen normally, prevent huge wildfires. For many decades people have been suppressing these natural fires because we build houses and like nice un-burned forests. The result...	[ "Let's say you want to travel to Chicago from Atlanta by car. Can you predict your exact position at any given time? No. You can predict where you are going to be in the next few seconds but as you look further ahead you lose accuracy. Sure, you could say, \"I'll be near Indy around 6pm on this road, but you don't ...
If mosquitoes can transmit Ebola and other viruses, can they also transit HIV?	[ "No. The reason is HIV is a virus which doesn't last long outside the human body. The virus dies very quickly after leaving a human. HIV stands for human immunodeficiency virus. The HUMAN part of the name is really important. Give these a listen if you're interested _URL_0_ _URL_1_" ]	[ "Actually, you're not far off with the butterfly net hypothesis. Here's how it usually went in broad terms: 1) European traders showed up with manufactured goods that Africans wanted/needed. In exchange, the Europeans wanted slaves. 2) Because there was an economic incentive to do so, various tribes/groups of Afric...
Why wouldn't a barter system work in today's world?	[ "So let's say I manufacture computer mouses. I need metal, plastics, lasers, and coding. We'll say I have all the other parts I need manufactured in house. So I trade computer mouses to miners for metal? And I pay my coder in mouses? Doesn't really work. Barter requires you to have the goods on hand that the person...	[ "If you read \"The Giver\" and don't know the answer to your own question, you need to read the book again. It is spelled out in black and white (no pun intended) the problems with this perfect society." ]
At the time how expensive was a portrait by a renaissance master?	[ "Can't speak to prices but it would definitely have been for upper class folks in terms of affordability. But in regards to who did the actual paintings most masters had apprentices who would start off making the paints and supplies and then eventually would learn do larger parts of the paintings. The master would ...	[ "Correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't Louis XVI caught during the flight to Varennes when someone actually recognized him when he went to pay for something because his face was on an assignat?" ]
How do cast of "Jackass" survive all their stunts without a scratch?	[ "Pretty sure they get a few scratches, broken limbs, torn ligaments, etc. But the human body is pretty tough. We live in a very safe, physical-risk-averse culture; its easy to over-estimate how dangerous many things are. On the other hand, freak accidents can happen- rarely. Sometimes people survive falling crazy...	[ "I've always wondered this too. I know for sure they get money from the ads on their page because of the amount of viewers coming in each day. I've also heard that its by the number of views per video or total subscribers. That I'm not to sure about tho." ]
why is the US debt at an all time-high, while Germany has a budget surplus for the fifth year in a row?	[ "So to get it out of the way first, running a debt isn't \"bad\". In fact the US's debt is considered a good thing. As the US can issue debt so cheaply that they can make more money by issuing debt than not doing it. So for now, the US is issuing debt because it WAY more valuble to do so, spend money now, which wil...	[ "Let's say you have a 7 lane interstate. At each end there is a toll booth. In the past payments were processed manually and there was a receipt that had to print, but the printers were slow. Only do much traffic could get through. Fast forward to the future where you pay with the touch of a button and get an insta...
I've heard about the coldness of space hundreds of times, but... if I died out there would my body temperature fall faster than if I died on Earth?	[ "yes. It is colder, but it takes longer to reach that temperature. You cool predominantly via radiation." ]	[ "* Your brain needs the right amount of oxygen in order to work properly. * Oxygen travels to the brain in your blood. * When under high g-forces, blood is either forced down to your legs, away from your head (causing a \"black out\"), or up into your head from the rest of your body (causing a \"red out\"). * An ox...
Does our sun have gravitational pull on the closest star? What about very far away stars?	[ "Yes, there is no limit to the range of gravity. However, the strength falls off with the square of the distance, which means that the gravitational pull between two stars is extremely low. The gravitational acceleration felt on Proxima Centauri, the nearest star other than the Sun, due to the Sun is 16 orders of m...	[ "A long time ago in places like Greece, Rome and even before that in really, really long ago places like Sumeria, and Egypt people made up stories about the stars/planets and the pictures they thought groups of stars made. These stories were usually about beings they considered to be gods or demigods (the word demi...
Why does removing a battery and replacing the same battery (in a wireless mouse for example) work?	[ "The contacts on the battery and your device can develop a layer of corrosion as they're exposed to oxygen. This layer does not conduct well. By replacing it you're scraping the contacts clean allowing better conductivity. When the batteries get low, this can make the difference between a usable amount of current a...	[ "Think of it like a hose... and a room made of sponge. The light bulb is a hose, spraying water (light) everywhere. The room is a sponge, absorbing the water (light) all the time. The moment you turn the light off, it's like closing the faucet to which the hose is attached. It stops spraying water (light) everywhe...
How is extra virgin olive oil "extra virgin".	[ "From wikipedia: Virgin means the oil was produced by the use of mechanical means only, with no chemical treatment. The term virgin oil with reference to production method includes both Virgin and Extra-Virgin olive oil products, depending on quality. * Extra-virgin olive oil Comes from virgin oil production only,...	[ "Better cuts of beef, better prep (like dry aging), better chefs to cook it. Also in a higher end restaurant you are going to be paying more for everything basically for the better service, atmosphere, location, etc. A nice steak at a high end restaurant is totally different from a $10 steak at TGI Fridays or somet...
Why do mushroom clouds have a cylindrical stalk?	[ "Convection. Heated air from the explosion rises, carrying ash upwards to form a column. When this air cools off and spreads out you get the 'head' of the mushroom as well." ]	[ "What did a \"successful\" balloon-bomb campaign look like in the imagination of Japanese planners?" ]
Why doesn't one of the "big Internet companies" offer Google Fiber-quality services?	[ "Because there is no incentive for them to do so. They rake in the cash with their lower end broadband. I've heard centurylink is putting fiber into new developments." ]	[ "They did a few years back. It was called Olestra, and it was supposed to change the way we eat (or so they claimed). Basically, the stuff was a fat-substitute that the body simply wasn't able to absorb or digest, so it was just passed through the body. Unfortunately, a problem arose with the stuff because you were...
How'd the Big Bang Start?	[ "> Any panelist who could provide a definitive answer is not here, because he/she is away collecting their sack of Nobel Prizes and Fields Medals and making out with cruise ships full of supermodels. > The Big Bang was the origin of space and time. Space/time did not exist before the Big Bang, they were 'created',...	[ "This video from Sagan will help. I couldn't explain it in a better way. _URL_0_" ]
In ocean searches for lost ships / planes, who pays the private companies for their time and resources?	[ "I am assuming there is a some kind of compensation if something is found, but I think it is mostly PR. Take a merchant ship that isn't needed in port urgently who happens to pass through the search zone. Go ahead and \"Look for remains\" while just continuing its rout with some guys on double shifts checking out t...	[ "Because there are no laws that govern the entirety of the internet. There are laws in countries that limit what the people living inside of its borders can do with the internet, but those laws dont apply if you arent in that country. All pirate bay has to do to stay operational is to find a country that doesn't ca...
How are your ears and your nose connected?	[ "Your middle ear is connected to your oral cavity via the [Eustachian tubes](_URL_0_). One of the functions of the Eustachian tubes is to ensure that your hearing is not affected by changes in atmospheric pressure. If you've ever experienced a sudden change in altitude (e.g. driving down a long, steep hill), you'll...	[ "I dont exactly know what your talking about do you have a photo of a reference of this ?" ]
How come a full lobster is listed as market price but lobster tail usually has a steady price?	[ "Lobsters are sold live, lobster tails are frozen. There are many more market forces that come into play for transporting live lobster." ]	[ "Ha, I wrote a paper on this once. If I had to boil it down to one cause... I would say its the fact that in the US railroad infrastructure is (mostly) owned by private companies, which is fairly unique in the world. The US has the most sophisticated and impressive freight railroad transportation in the world (thin...
How can you "double" temperature?	[ "Every substance has a specific heat, defined as the amount of heat required to raise the temperature of a unit mass of that material by one degree. This means that doubling the absolute temperature (i.e. °K) requires twice as much heat. This doesn't work if we're talking in °C, because 0 °C doesn't mean zero heat....	[ "Because when you put the second earbud in, the sound waves resonate with your head (which acts like a subwoofer case) and it amplifies." ]
Why does 2008 still feel like a couple of years ago?	[ "Probably because with each year that goes by, you have a longer frame of reference to what time feels like? I don't think I phrased that well, but what I mean is that if you are 5, one year is 20% of your entire existence. If you are 50, one year is 2% of your life. So, to get the same feeling of \"long ago\", it ...	[ "Put simply; this election isn't one to use as a judge of what the system normally brings to the table. Watch the Obama-McCain and Obama-Romney debates for a better idea of what it typically is." ]
Protein powder acting like iron filings near a magnt	[ "Have a picture of this? My guess would be that it's static electricity, magnetism's close cousin. When you run the plastic scoop through the powder it either gains or loses electrons (hard to say which one without knowing exactly what both the scoop and powder are made of). This is a lot like shuffling around with...	[ "This is my field of research. My group in graduate school loaded ultra-short SWNTs (US-tubes) with [Gadolinium ions for MRI contrast enhancement](_URL_0_), with [AtCl for alpha therapy of cancer](_URL_3_), with [molecular iodine for CT enhancement](_URL_2_), and with [cisplatin for anti-cancer drug...
What is JFKs wife reaching for at the back of the car after her husband was shot?	[ "I believe many historians believe she was reaching for a piece of his skull and/or brain. One of those irrational moments where humans try to make everything right. [Jackie on the trunk](_URL_0_)" ]	[ "Edit: STSCI people have [posted an explanation](_URL_4_). There's also a [youtube video](_URL_3_) which explains it around 1:45. The long and short of it is that Hubble was tracking background stars throughout those images, and its orbit around the Earth meant that the comet had noticeable parallax which cause...
Why do universities keep conducting their own investigations on rape allegations? Aren't they just opening themselves up to lawsuits?	[ "Basically, the University launches their own investigation to determine if the student actually broke their Code of Conduct. If the student was found guilty in court, you can probably bet that it's only a formality. In some circumstances, a person who is acquitted in a court of law will still be expelled from the ...	[ "Nope. It confirmed a prediction of the [Standard Model of Particle Physics](_URL_0_). The Standard Model doesn't say anything about supersymmetry (often abbreviated to SuSy) or the multiverse. SuSy is a hypothetical extension to the Standard Model. It's a pretty extension, but to date there is absolutely no experi...
Can we quantify the size of the internet?	[ "I have seen articles which discuss the \"size\" of the internet as the physical volume taken up by the servers and hard drives which store all of the information on the internet. Obviuosly it was only approximate, but I can't find the article now. Really the issue is one could define many other metrics for \"size....	[ "Not my field, but the most plausible candidate I've heard of is Paul Otlet in the early 20th century: _URL_1_ _URL_0_ I disagree that his idea of \"electric telescopes\" maps clearly onto our idea of \"computers,\" as the second article claims, but Otlet definitely had the idea of a global information network (as ...

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