query stringlengths 20 300 | positive listlengths 1 1 | negative listlengths 1 1 |
|---|---|---|
why car model releases and video game releases include the year after its current release? | [
"This is a number typically applied to third-quarter and fourth-quarter releases that are used in anticipation of the upcoming year. By September or October, nobody wants to buy the model for that year because they figure it's already old and a new version/model comes out in a couple months, so they might as well w... | [
"**For the Consumer** They get a new thing at a discounted price and don't have to worry about getting rid of the old thing. **For the Company** They can resell the old thing for more money than the discount they gave on the new thing, or they can otherwise use it for parts or raw materials to reduce costs on build... |
What differences (temperature, stability, etc.) cause ice to have different layers of clarity? | [
"Dissolved gasses in the ice cubes, and impurities in the water are forced into pockets inside the ice as it freezes. If you boil some distilled water for a few minutes this will purge out a significant amount of the dissolved gases. Then if you place the water in an ice cube tray and cover with saran rap it will ... | [
"A good example of this is in plastic grocery bags, which are made of low-density polyethylene (LDPE). Normally, LDPE has a very low crystallinity; the polymer chains aren't aligned in any particular manner. However, when you start to tear/stretch the plastic, you're sort of pulling some of the chains into alignmen... |
Is the net biomass of Earth constant? | [
"It changes depending on how much carbon is sequestered in non-biological traps, like carbonate rocks or fossil fuels. Carbon trapped in these is not a continuously cycling part of the carbon cycle."
] | [
"Yes, or else you could add (slowly) an infinite weight on a structure or bone."
] |
is melanism possible/seen in humans? | [
"It is actually a mystery why there *isn't* melanism in humans. Mammalian melanism is typically caused by hypermorphic mutations of MC1R, which regulates the activity of melanocytes, among other functions. However, even mutation of specific residues in lab mice that trigger melanism do not cause the same effect in ... | [
"Unfortunately I can't post it from my phone right now, but Radiolab covers this exact topic in their podcast titled Colors. It's an especially excellent Radiolab. Even if the question is answered in this post, it's worth checking out. Edit: [Here it is](_URL_0_)"
] |
How much power must the ISS expend, as a single unit, to maintain it's orbit? | [
"The amount of energy used varies quite a lot depending on the desired increase in the orbit, but the European ATV cargo ship, when it has been used to boost the ISS, would burn roughly 1,400 kg of fuel to lift the ISS orbit by 20 miles. Reboosts are usually somewhat smaller than that though, as the Russian Progres... | [
"I don't know for certain, but think about it: Plants are sedentary. They find a particular kind of environment that suits them well and, for the most part, stay in one place for their whole lives. They don't need to develop systems that allow for locomotion. They don't need to develop complex tissues and organs th... |
Why are all modern humans, regardless of race, considered to all be one species? Question came up while reading, explained inside. | [
"A species is a group that can successfully interbreed, that is produce offspring who are fertile. It's a somewhat messy definition since you don't always know where to draw the line, such as in ring species (look those up, quite interesting), but it's very useful and from it we know that all modern humans are of ... | [
"Might be better served by /r/AskAnthropology Ninja edit for spelling."
] |
Is it possible for a planet to have inconsistent seasons. Like the Irregular Summers and winters in the book series A Song of Ice and Fire? | [
"I'm a ASOIAF fan and I was mulling over this question the other day. As was said elsewhere in the thread, it might be justifiable to say eccentric orbits. But within ASOIAF lore, even this doesn't hold up. Seasons are irregular, meaning some winters are much longer than others, and the summers are just as long as ... | [
"There are some good answers involving entropy, but there's another one that's purely geometric. You can smoothly rotate between any two directions in space, but because time-space rotations are *hyperbolic* (not *circular*), you can't rotate smoothly between forward-timelike, spacelike, and reverse-timelike direct... |
Online Tipping: How does it work? | [
"Pizza Hut delivery driver here- usually when an online order is made I will deliver the pizza and bring the receipt for the customer to sign, once there, the customer will written in his/her top amount. When I bring the receipt back, whoever is working the register will keep the receipt and give me cash for the ma... | [
"doge is very real. doge is rise. doge to moon. moondoge. much rise. so happy. have doge. +/u/dogetipbot 5 doge Your first 5 dogecoins."
] |
how come when you pour water out of some glasses it pours smooth but some times it goes down the side? | [
"Water tends to want to \"stick\" to glass, and other surfaces. This is called adhesion. This is one of the forces acting to turn the water as it pours. The faster you pour, the more force that is required to turn the liquid to keep it attached to the glass. At some point, the water is moving too fast for the adhes... | [
"Non smart person here. My guess is it has something to do with light bouncing off particles in the air. Which is the reason why less light reaches the target. Because. of the dust and dander and other air born things absorb some and reflect the rest in different directions and those are the light rays we see."
] |
What is the object of sneaker collecting? | [
"Some brands, like Jordan's, appreciate in value but most \"sneaker heads\" I know just love sneakers. Compare it to someone who has a shit ton of DVDs or video games on some living room shelf."
] | [
"Nostalgia, too ~ a lot of older guys that now have lots of money are reliving their youth - they either had one when they were young & want another, or wanted one when they were young and can now afford to pay the big bucks to get one."
] |
If we were to create a bottomless vacuum on Earth and dropped a ball in it, could it ever reach a "terminal velocity?" | [
"So just to be clear, you mean you apply a constant force forever on something in a vacuum? In this case, it would accelerate forever. It wouldn't ever reach a terminal velocity, except in the sense that as it reaches high relativistic speeds its velocity asymptotically approaches that of light. However, in its res... | [
"The rules of thermodynamics can be loosely put as: Zero: The universe wants to play a game where it changes your internal energy. One: You can't beat the universe. You can only hope to tie it. Two: You can only tie the universe at absolute zero. Three: You can't get to absolute zero. Building a machine that never ... |
Why were full medieval suits of plate armor left exposed at the butt and hamstrings? | [
"There were a few reasons that I know of - Making plate cover those parts while retaining mobility was actually pretty much impossible. (i'm assuming my hamstrings you mean the back of the knee joint?) - when you look at plate suits by themselves they often appear to be full of gaps, however men-at-arms wore tunics... | [
"The answer is in the question. \"Parliament\". They're in positions of authority and the peasants can't be given the idea that the same rules apply to them as to their lords."
] |
How does Apple, Google, Amazon, etc. create the voices for virtual assistants? | [
"They make them record every possible individual sound a human could make, and then stitch those pieces together to make words."
] | [
"I actually read a really cool article about this a couple of days ago! [One of the reasons is that the rhythm and melody of a song can constrain a singer's natural speech so that their accent appears to disappear.](_URL_0_) Accents come from variations in cadence and intonation in speech. These variations are ofte... |
Why it's 0^0 indeterminate? | [
"Because the function *x*^*y* has different limits as *x*, *y* → 0, depending on how you take the limit. For example, if you let *x* = 0 and *y* → 0 you will get zero, because zero raised to a positive power is zero. But if you let *y* = 0 and *x* → 0 you get one, because anything nonzero raised to the power zero i... | [
"Say you have a banana and an apple. How many ways can you arrange those on a table? You can put the banana on the table. You can put the apple on the table. You can put both on the table, or you can put none of them on the table. There are four ways total that you can arrange these fruits. This represents 2 to the... |
how the Catholic Church gets out of every child molestation scandal unscathed? | [
"Your premise appears to be false. A number of Catholic priests/employees have gone to prison for their crimes."
] | [
"I don’t think there’s anything to explain. Sometimes we as humans are just hypocrites. Why is Bill Clinton given a pass on all the allegations against him? Why do people follow some bits of the bible and reject the bits they don’t like? Humans are strange."
] |
What newspapers were abolinisist in the 1850's? | [
"The biggest antislavery, but not abolitionist, paper of the 1850s is definitely Horace Greeley's. [It's also available scanned online, for free](_URL_0_). The LOC browser isn't the greatest experience sometimes, but usually zooming in and out a little will sharpen the images. For outright abolitionism, William Llo... | [
"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."
] |
if the majority of the sun's output is 'green' why does it appear to be 'yellow' | [
"The Sun's light peaks at green wavelengths but there's plenty of light across the visible spectrum, so sunlight appears nearly pure white. It appears yellowish here on Earth because the atmosphere scatters some of the blue light."
] | [
"It doesn't. It just provides energy that, say, allows plants to produce sugars from carbon dioxide and water, or to extract nitrogen from the air and make it available as nutrient compounds, or for your skin to make vitamin D."
] |
Did any other countries in the 20th century with significant ethnic minority populations implement an equivalent of the "separated but equal" policy? | [
"Poland had something a little like this for a bit. Jews were segregated in many areas, but still had legal rights. As in the US, they weren't actually equal, but the inequality wasn't as severe as in the Jim Crow era."
] | [
"The last time that happened was when Estes Kefauver won 13 of the 16 Democratic party primaries in 1952. 32 states, including the large states of Michigan and New York, did not hold primaries in 1952. The delegates for the national party convention in those states were chosen by State Democratic party conventions,... |
Imagine a typical (British) slave working in a Roman aristocrat's vineyard in AD97, Imagine a typical slave working in a Virginia plantation in AD1797. Which of them works the most hours (relative to the amount of sleep, rest or leisure they're allowed)? Which has the least calories in their diet? | [
"I'd like to hijack this and ask a follow up question: What sort of laws did the Romans have regarding treatment of slaves as opposed to the USA?"
] | [
"After being deprived of sleep for long enough the body will begin to \"replace\" sleep with calories. Your body still needs the sleep of course but it begins to do what it needs to do to continue working. If you ever want to see this in action, it is common among the crab fishing crews in the Bering Sea. I've seen... |
Why can't we wear contacts when we sleep? Also, what is preventing technology from letting us wear contacts 24/7? | [
"It depends entirely on the type of contact. The ones I have are designed for me to wear 24/7 (including while I'm asleep) for a month at a time. The main concern is the fact that your cornea (the clear part in front of your pupil) has no blood vessels. But it's still living tissue that needs oxygen, so it actually... | [
"Cost. Solar panels are still more expensive to make and install vs. tapping into existing infrastructure. Also, anywhere without good sun exposure will get crappy use from solar panels. The need for a second, backup source of power for extended periods of time would, effectively, make it cost more to do solar tha... |
Was there once an "L" sound in Japanese? | [
"There sort of still is. It's a popular belief that \"l\" and \"r\" are *allophones* of the same *phoneme*. A *phoneme* is a sound that is distinct from others on an underlying level due to various phonological features. *Allophones* of a phoneme are two different ways that a phoneme can be pronounced on the surfac... | [
"Alrighty guys, because apparently maturity and self-control are in short supply tonight, I'll go ahead and make this thread-level post. * **Your jokes are not funny.** Needless to say, they do not belong here. If your comment has no substance, do not post it. If any further jokes occur here, you will be warned, wi... |
I read that algorithms used by UPS allow them to limit the amount of left turns their trucks make. Do UPS drivers have a GPS unit that tells them where to drive all day or what? | [
"In short, yes. All the addresses for pickups and dropoffs for UPS drivers are put into a computer program, which tests hundreds of possible routes for the one that uses the least fuel, which often happens to be the one that avoids idling in traffic the most. They don't tell it to avoid left turns, it just usually ... | [
"This is a hold-over from the physical book era. When physical books had to be printed, publishers had local partners in many different places in the world that did local marketing, printing, and distributing to local bookshops. So if you were in New York, you didn't have to talk to a book shop in Switzerland. The... |
Drinking a hot drink on a hot day to cool down. | [
"The most roundabout way that I can see anything like this happening is that the caffeine in tea is acting as a vasodialator(sp?), opening the blood vessels, allowing more blood to reach his skin, and lowering his internal temperature? I could be way off though, as that was a total shot in the dark."
] | [
"There's several ways to make coffee that predate the coffee machine. The familiar drip machine is a development of the [chorreador](_URL_1_), basically just a cloth bag to hold the grounds. Modernized versions (basically just a filter holder that fits over your cup) are available, like [this one](_URL_0_). Another... |
Why do people rub their eyes when they’re sleepy? | [
"Rubbing your eye stimulates your tears and being tired causes dry eyes. But I I'm pretty sure rubbing your eyes can be really bad for you."
] | [
"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."
] |
Would a right handed person with a bionic right hand still feel more comfortable with that hand? | [
"Handedness is more about the way your brain is wired, than about the qualities of your limbs themselves. So a right handed person would most likely still feel more comfortable using their right hand. A common theory is that handedness is related to where your brain does most of its fine motor control. For most pe... | [
"mechanical, absolutely. the nanobot stuff is a bit far fetched though. you can start here if you want: _URL_1_ also this: _URL_2_ also this: _URL_3_ and this guy's work _URL_0_"
] |
If you get food stuck in your teeth for more than a day or two (like meat), what keeps this food from going rotten in your mouth and making you sick? | [
"Your saliva contains an enzyme called [lysozyme](_URL_0_), which kills bacteria."
] | [
"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 ... |
Why does fresh pasta have eggs but dry pasta does not? | [
"Dried pasta is designed for long life. So is made with flour and water and dried for a long time to remove all moisture. Fresh pasta is for eating fresh and has a limited lifespan. It has a different taste and texture to dried pasta. You can make fresh pasta with water in place of eggs, there just is no benefit to... | [
"In Italian, the emphasis in each word is normally placed on the [last-but-one syllable](_URL_0_). This gives the language a very unique sound, where the pattern of emphasised and non-emphasised syllables is quite distinct. Putting the \"-a-\" between words is supposed to simulate this. If the emphasis in an Englis... |
When a Black Hole evaporates, what happens to everything it swallowed? | [
"It is being turned into the Hawking radiation that the black hole emits as it evaporates."
] | [
"The general assumption is that it would just pass through. It's actually visible with telescopes too ! The [bullet cluster](_URL_0_) is the most famous example of this behavior. What is displayed here is in red is \"usual matter\" (galaxies, gasses, ...) while in blue is what is thought to be dark matter (inferred... |
What os the actual mechanism by which force causes things to move? | [
"[Here](_URL_0_) is a good explanation from Richard Feynman of why the question doesn't really have a good answer. I don't think there's anything I can add that he doesn't cover."
] | [
"When you wash something using water what you are trying to do is get the dirt/oils to lose its grip on what you are washing by grabbing it with the water and rinsing it away. The problem is that water and oils like grabbing onto different types of things. You can imagine water being made up of the original Velcro ... |
What is the purpose of police making you sign "consent forms" if you don't actually need to sign them? | [
"The *police* need them. That's why they're asking. If you refuse, they could theoretically use it as part of a case to a judge that they need a warrant or whatever, but I don't believe it'd be sufficient by itself. It'll depend on the document and region in question though. If you are handed a citation by an offic... | [
"Where it's used, it's accountability for the teller. Essentially you fill out the slip with $XXX dollars on it, then when they process the document the receipt is printed on the same sheet and should reflect the same amount. That way there is a cross-check and verification that both of you agree how much money was... |
Do animals learn that cars only stay on the road? | [
"Better than that, Crows have been observed to walk to the other side of the white line (in the US, the white line marks the outside shoulder of the road) wait for the car to pass, and walk back to doing whatever it was doing. Furthermore, some birds have been observed to know the speed limits of the road: _URL_0_ ... | [
"How do you know a year has passed without looking at a calendar? I imagine they sense the temperature/climate changes like anything else."
] |
How did Polish spelling emerge? | [
"Sorry I don't have an answer for you. I just wanted to recommend you post this over at /r/linguistics too! They'll probably be able to help you out!"
] | [
"While not a scientific answer to your question at all, I want to suggest the excellent movie [Before the Fall](_URL_5_) (German Titel: Napola – Elite für den Führer) to anyone interested in this topic, which is a story about pupils in an elite high school in the German Reich."
] |
How come you can only see fog at a distance? | [
"The whiteness or opacity of Fog is caused by particles of water which scatter light waves and it takes a certain number of Scatters before light no longer penetrates. More droplets, more scattering. Depending on the thickness of the fog you can see anywhere from a few thousand feet to just a few feet. this is all ... | [
"It's because the sense of smell gets exhausted easily and you might become accustomed to it. For the same reason, you might not smell your own perfume after a few hours, but other can smell just fine."
] |
In the case of a global emergency, how many humans would need to survive to repopulate the planet with healthy generations? | [
"Minimum of 30, a slightly larger population would be preferable to ensure a really healthy and diverse population but 30 is the minimum to account for multiple female or multiple male births of the next generation."
] | [
"I'm sorry to have removed this question, but this falls under a poll-type question and is prohibited according to our rules. The problem with questions like these is that they invite speculative answers and the risk is that the thread is going to end up more like an /r/AskReddit thread than a thread we want here."... |
Why does a wooden spoon over a pot stop it from boiling over? | [
"As water boils a pile of bubbles can build up on the surface, eventually spilling over the side of the pot. The spoon breaks enough of the bubbles to prevent a large enough build up that they spill."
] | [
"Food takes time to reach the stomach, and you'll notice if you eat and then wait you'll be less hungry. Chewing more simply takes more time to do, and so you get full with less food"
] |
Why were old photographs recorded in black and white? Why was color more difficult? | [
"Black and white film uses light sensitive silver, color film uses multiple different types of chemicals that were not discovered until much later."
] | [
"Shooting on film has a distinct look. Even after it's digitized, it still retains its filmlike quality. These days, film to digital transfer is done at very high resolutions, such as 4k (4 times the quality of traditional 1080p HD), so the details and nuances of film still exist in the digital world. There are al... |
If the moon was replaced with a black hole of equal mass would it have the same orbit as the moon? | [
"I think that, first order, the orbit of the black hole would be the same. A second order effect that might cause some slight differences could be the fact that the moon is not spherically symmetric (which is why it keeps one face towards us). The BH center of mass MIGHT not trace out precisely the same inch by in... | [
"Assuming the string holding the sphere is massless such that it is the only thing in the system that gravity acts on. 1) Yes it will still undergo simple harmonic motion (to the extent that the angles are small) 2) The period of the non-uniform sphere can be analyzed by considering effective distance between the c... |
Why is what's going on in Ukraine right now not already considered war? | [
"It's not a war because Russia hasn't formally declared war on the entire country and has only moved units into the eastern portion currently being contested. If they insert unmarked units there, it's not war because they still officially deny that the units are theirs, meaning that they're supporting the rebels by... | [
"[**Search before submitting**, especially when asking about current events. The search box is in the upper righthand corner of the page.](_URL_0_)"
] |
How does the automatic brighting setup of my cellphone screen work? | [
"There is a light detector on the front of your phone. If it detects bright light the screen brightens. If it detects low light the screen darkens."
] | [
"Many humans have a built-in hormonal feature that makes us relaxed or even depressed when it's dark for a long time. This helped our ancestors to conserve energy during the long winters or long rainy periods, when there was nothing to do and less food supply."
] |
Are there any good biographies on Ben Franklin? | [
"You should start with his autobiography, and then read *Benjamin Franklin: An American Life*. However like most of the famous founders there are a multitude of good biographies of Franklin."
] | [
"I have exactly what you need: _URL_0_ That website is truly awesome if you are interested in such things. You can even take into account different weather etc. It's by Standford and is considered accurate."
] |
Why is that staring at the sun damages your eyes? | [
"The same way that staying out in the sun can give you a sunburn. UV rays are very harmful to your corneas. This is what snow-blindness is - it's a sunburn on your cornea. Other kinds of light blindness (flash blindness, for instance) are usually retinal related. Retinal pigment epithelium is very sensitive to ligh... | [
"Same reason you don't keep turning the ignition key for hours in your car when it won't start -- there's no point in doing it, it won't get better."
] |
What is the range of opinion in the mainstream particle physics community regarding the probability of the existence of quark substructure? | [
"Seems you're already aware of the answer you'll get, so I won't elaborate on that. A quark's hypothetical components are called preons. [Here's the original paper on them](_URL_1_) [And here's one written this year](_URL_0_)"
] | [
"While what /u/masterkrabban says is right and there is a lot of debate, if you wanted just the most widely accepted personality theory you would probably want to stick within [the big five](_URL_0_) model. The crazy thing is that the standard test for it [the NEO](_URL_1_) is actually a privately owned test and no... |
If you're never supposed to button the bottom button of a suit with multiple buttons, why aren't all suits one button? Also, who decided buttoning the bottom button was a fashion faux pas? | [
"From [wikipedia](_URL_0_): > A custom still sometimes practised is to leave the bottom button undone. This is said to have been started by King Edward VII (then the Prince of Wales), whose expanding waistline required it. Variations on this include that he forgot to fasten the lower button when dressing and this ... | [
"There's an important distinction to be made here about what boiling means, that is \"boiling\" is the process of water going from liquid to steam. So in a pot of 'boiling' water, the only water that is actually turning to steam is the water in contact with the hottest part of the pot, at the bottom where the pot c... |
How does transposing work and why does it exist? | [
"When we say that a instrument is in F#, that means that when you write a C on the music sheet for this instrument and that the player play, you hear a F#. Transposition is made for 2 reason : - it's easier for player to read written music : all note will be around the line of the music sheet and you never need to ... | [
"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... |
Chris Angel "MindFreak" | [
"Lots of his tricks involve a planted audience member. There was one act where he pulled a woman in half, but it was really two short people coordinated. Then there was another one where he put his hand through a black guy, but the guy had a rigged jacket and makeup to make his hand look white. You can figure out a... | [
"The new US Immigration Czar claims he can look into the eyes of a child and read their future criminal record. Has the government ever employed a wizard before?"
] |
How does a cryptographic attack know when it's succeeded? | [
"For the large majority of crypto systems, they don't have this nice property that any plaintext can map to a given ciphertext. To achieve this property you need extremely impractical key lengths. With a cryptosystem like AES you might only have a 128 bit key for a message that is much much much longer than 128 bit... | [
"The supreme court had previously held that making private copies available for use by others was legal in Canada (see BMG vs. John Doe). As such, there was no legal copyright infringement that copyright holders could use as leverage to get (the subpoenas required to get) ISPs to disclose the identities of the file... |
How do sink holes happen? What happens to them once they are created? | [
"Some subsurface activity has weakened or removed part of the underground. An example might be water dissolving soluble stone, like limestone, leaving a void. Material above that void is going to want to collapse into the void under the influence of gravity. They may search for people/material in a sinkhole, but t... | [
"Well... first of all. the ones that are not buried underground we almost certainly already know about, so there's a big factor, so the \"new\" ones that are found are going to be in a spot, such as underground, that we don't know about. Many of these sites are quite old, and over time, flooding and changing climat... |
Why aren't we coughing or sneezing while we sleep? | [
"*basically* it's because the part of your brain that causes the reflex of sneezing isn't very active. It also doesn't respond to stimulation of dust etc"
] | [
"When humans dream their brain reacts like it is real. Your brain has you walk, talk, etc. To prevent your body from acting based on the dream, you release a chemical that causes the signals from your brain to do nothing. Like cutting the strings on a puppet. But some people do not release the chemical, or not ev... |
If global warming is supposed to make the earth warmer than it should be, then why are the winters in places like the Northeast United States getting colder? | [
"On average, the world - including New England - is warmer. But one of the patterns that has emerged over the past few years is a very, very deep jet stream that pulls very cold air from the Arctic south. When this happens, the places that wouldn't normally get this air get a lot colder than they usually do - but t... | [
"It's a series of thermo-regulated systems, this regulation system is called **vernalization**, and some plant species strictly depend on it The plant embryo, contained within the seed, doesn't grow unless triggered to do so, since the nutrients contained within the seed's endosperm are just enough for the bud to d... |
Why can't we put metal in a microwave? | [
"What's happening is your fork is acting like a radio antenna. Microwaves, which are oscillating electric and magnetic fields like all photons, induce currents in conductive objects that are large enough to absorb the photon. Electrical current makes things hot and produces a lightshow. The plasma from the sparks i... | [
"We're not supposed to use our phones at gas stations?"
] |
Could humans adapt features through evolution that are related to our use of technology over the course of a few million years? | [
"It seems unlikely in my opinion. For natural selection to work, it requires that individuals with undesirable traits die or otherwise be prevented from reproducing. Agriculture and medicine have made it possible for virtually anybody to live out their years regardless of how marginally bad their genes are. Unless ... | [
"The foods one I can answer. We evolved to like high caloric foods because we needed the calories when we were struggling to survive. Thus fatty or sugary foods taste good to us because it used to be great to eat them. Well now it's too easy to overindulge and weve made processed foods that have way more fat or sug... |
Is the Raman scattering process more likely for symmetric molecules than asymmetric ones? | [
"This is a deceptively deep question that has to do with spectroscopy selection rules. If you google \"Raman scattering selection rules\" and take a look at some of the results you'll learn a lot. In this case there's a complimentary distinction between IR spectra and Raman. In a very crude sense, because of the se... | [
"Many missions do use multiple slingshot encounters (aka \"Gravity Assist Maneuvers\"). If I recall correctly, the Rosetta mission performed two Earth GAMs and a Mars GAM. Cassini performed two GAMs past Venus, one past Earth, and another at Jupiter. However, this takes time. In order to pull off the double-earth s... |
How do sellers on popular e-commerce websites like ebay and a4c sell original Apple products like earpods at such low prices? | [
"Former Sprint sales rep here; I can't specifically say where any one retailer gets their stock, but I know in our (Sprint Store) case, Apple would regularly supply us with extra cables, headphones, etc, in case any in stock were damaged or missing, and we would receive them with replacement phones for service orde... | [
"Those people either have youtube partnerships, meaning that a violation of copyright will trigger negotiations between them, the copyright owner, and youtube about how to monetize the video, usually with ads being placed on the video and money going to the copyright owner, or they are the owners of the copyright t... |
Cultural sources to make history fun | [
"I honestly don't know what's fun with middle schoolers these days, but the University of Illinois has a \"Teaching with Digital Content\" project you might find useful, [here are lesson plans](_URL_0_) and [here's the digital content collection.](_URL_1_)"
] | [
"This sounds like a \"polltype question\" which is not appropriate for askhistorians. sorry."
] |
How often is there a new 'oldest person alive'? | [
"According to Wikipedia there have been 55 different 'oldest person alive' since 1955. So roughly a new one each year. _URL_1_ (See the list box at the bottom) EDIT: Better list _URL_0_"
] | [
"When you search reddit the rank of each submission can change dramatically within seconds, especially those not on the front page. By the time you reach the lower ranks, the posts you read before drop or rise to another page. What can also happen is the same news story or event is posted at once because many reddi... |
How did plants evolve thorns as a defence mechanism? | [
"_URL_0_ _URL_1_ _URL_2_ I don't have an answer, just google-fu. These links seem relevant. Delve and enjoy."
] | [
"Add-on question to this: At a glance I want to say that just looking at the mating habits of extant large lizards or crocodilians would give you a very good idea; however given birds are the only living direct descendants (of theropods at least) and some have very different sexual organs in the form of cloaca, I'm... |
Recently, a planet made mostly out of diamond was discovered in a nearby system. What tells us it's made mostly of diamond? | [
"We can use ~~spectroscopy~~ to determine elemental composition, light levels of the star being obstructed by the planet to determine it's size and orbit speed, and the wobble of the star itself as an indicator of the mass of the planet. When you know the mass and size (and therefor the density) as well as what ele... | [
"Unfortunately, Liquid water, needed for even the most extreme plants, is extremely rare to completely non-existent. Liquid water will not last long on the surface due to the almost complete lack of atmosphere. In addition, with such a limited atmosphere, plants would not be able to survive/function properly and wo... |
Might sound dumb, but what's a rational number? | [
"A rational number can be written as the *ratio* of two integers: q = a/b, like 3/5. In other words, fractions. This includes whole numbers, since, e.g. 7 = 7/1."
] | [
"You know how authors write long stories using letters and words and the rules of grammar and writing? Its just like that. With enough knowledge of how to read (math), these kinds of explanations make sense. Dont feel bad that you cant read it. Its just like if you tried to read a story in a language you dont know.... |
Why do cats sleep so much? | [
"Animals will rest as often as they can after spending the time necessary to obtain food, shelter, mates and resources for offspring. Animals that need to spend large amounts of time obtaining these things, like grazzing animals, will only sleep a few hours a day. Animals that can get what they need in a short time... | [
"Melatonin. It's a hormone that relaxes your body and by the time you wake up your body is full of it."
] |
why did the fur on our bodies dissapear if some humans moved to colder climates? | [
"The fur on our bodies was gone forever. Then we went north. We killed animals and stole their fur. Then we made big fire. Fire is warm. We live in north now."
] | [
"Evolution has shaped our preferences to help us survive and thrive, *in the lifestyle our ancestors had for thousands of years,* which is a farming or hunter/gatherer lifestyle. The desire to conserve energy, and only use it for the physically challenging tasks you had to do, was a good adaptation."
] |
what is the free mason society? | [
"As it stands today I'm pretty sure it's basically just a fraternity of men attempting to \"better\" themselves through the values set forth in the society. Years ago they were much more relevant and if you look at their notable alumni list, it's quite extensive and has had its fingers in almost every facet includi... | [
"I did not know the female folk had their own thing, that's pretty rad. I would also like to know why."
] |
How is it that both SSRIs and SSREs are both effective antidepressants, despite having the exact opposite mechanism of action? | [
"Theyre not necessarily opposite function. Ssri's increase the amount of serotonin in the synapse, which allows more serotonin to saturate receptors. Ssre's however, despite their name, do not increase serotonin to be removed from the synapse, they increase the sensitivity of serotonin receptors, meaning more serot... | [
"A news article and paper (Madera et al. 2009, see below) were forwarded around my department a few months ago about how women are described differently than men in reference letters and the consequences of that. They found that: 1) people described in reference letters that used \"communal\" or \"emotive\" words t... |
What happens if you take a deciduous tree before autumn from the northern hemisphere to the southern hemisphere? | [
"It likely keeps growing as if it were still summer. Plants and trees often use temperature as a cue to change what they are doing (grow, produce flowers etc.). In the absence of the cue there is no response from the plant. There is a similar connection with sunlight and darkness. Grow the same plant outdoors and i... | [
"It would come down eventually due to drag. There was actually a bag of tools 'dropped' from the IIS, which came burning down 9 months later. [Link](_URL_0_) To see for yourself, try out [Kerbal Space Program](/r/kerbalspaceprogram), it's quite a silly game, yet it gives you a good idea on what orbit is and how mu... |
What is the purpose of "aerating"/agitating liquids in areas such as factory holding ponds or wastewater evaporators/boilers etc.? | [
"When they release it back to nature, they want the micro-organisms to have a head start, so that it is digested as soon as possible. Air lines are a really cheap way to increase this effect."
] | [
"Ice cream needs to be constantly stirred while it freezes. That way you entrain air into the mixture and get a nice texture. A home ice cream maker has three parts - a bowl, a paddle, and a turntable. The bowl is filled with coolant, which you freeze. When you pour the ingredients into that bowl, they will eventua... |
Is the universe running out of hydrogen? | [
"We are slowly burning through the hydrogen. However, of the mass we can observe (i.e. excluding dark matter and dark energy) 74% by mass is still [hydrogen](_URL_0_). This is only slightly changed from the ratio immediately after the big bang (about 1% difference)."
] | [
"not *disproven* per se, but yeah, it seems to strongly indicate that Big Crunch won't happen."
] |
Why does someone with verbal Tourette’s often use swear/crude words? Society is the only thing that makes those words taboo, so why does it seem people with Tourette’s get stuck saying them? | [
"There is actually a specific part of the brain that is dedicated to housing these sorts of 'taboo' concepts. Anything that we're brought up to believe is taboo more or less gets stored here. The specific variety of Tourettes that causes the 'involuntary swearing' tick (there are many more cases of this disorder wh... | [
"Because bugs crawl on us, and some can be dangerous. Think about two phenotypes: A human with a shudder response to bugs, and a human without. In the wild, the human who shudders and reacts strongly to a bug on its skin gets the bug off of its skin as quickly as possible. If you've just walked through a spiderweb ... |
Why can't recovering drug addicts have alcohol? | [
"Some recovering drug addicts do drink alcohol without abusing it. Though, the statistics seem to say that most recovering addicts cannot drink alcohol without also abusing it. Most recovery programs teach that if you are an addict to once substance, you have the increased likelihood to abuse other addictive substa... | [
"Likely the store was not able to sell it for a high enough price, compared to the price the distributor was willing to give for the return. It literally would cost them money to sell you the product, making it \"toxic\" As for the later call, they probably were denied the return, meaning they had to get rid of the... |
What is the difference between a daily, bi-weekly, and monthly contact lens? | [
"It's mostly about the quality of the contact lens. A daily lens will be thin and prone to drying. Particles from you eye and air will accumulate on it and it won't be much durable, so using it more than 1 or 2 days might causes problems. They will be less comfortable, might irritate your eyes and will easily rip i... | [
"Plan B one time shot of hormones, birth control long term doses of hormones, finding the right birth control requires a doctor to adjust as needed. There is not a one size fits all birth control pill."
] |
How are people able to look at a Rubiks cube, then blindfold themselves and solve it in under a minute? | [
"If you can solve a Rubik's Cube normally (using your eyes throughout) then it's a good start to learn blindfolded solving. Many people use different methods for blindfolded solving, mainly to do with the method they solve by in the first place and how they visualise the cube in their heads. Chester Lee did a TED t... | [
"They have a hand accelerator and hand brake installed in their car. [There are lots of companies that can install those kind of controls in almost any car.](_URL_0_)"
] |
Did WW2 result in armaments production increases in the USA that were not reversed at the end of the war and if so, to what degree? | [
"War production was cut back hugely from the spring of 1945, and the peak GDP of the previous year wasn't matched until 1951. The War Department cancelled contracts worth nearly $23 billion in August 1945 alone, and 2.5 million workers were released from war jobs in the first month of peace. GDP was down by 11% in ... | [
"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... |
How do black and white pictures get colored? | [
"You \"draw\" in colors on top of the picture with programs like Photoshop, _URL_0_ etc. Mostly its just an educated guess what the colors are, and may not actually be the correct colors."
] | [
"It is down to the combination of the genes you get half the genes from your mother and half from your father but those genes are an almost random selection of those genes which go to make up each so can be combined in trillions of different ways. Like saying you get half a pack of cards from one parent and half fr... |
What happened to the Pictish people who lived on Shetland before the Vikings? | [
"Hope this helps, as it is a discussion which was raised in a module that I had last year over Britain c. 800-1300. To the best of our knowledge, we don't know. There are tombs from 4000-3000 BC, but we don't know for sure if the native population (which likely may not have been Pictish, due to geographical isolati... | [
"There are lots of ways for animals to traverse the earth, not to be trite. Addressing your specific example, this wiki. _URL_1_ Indonesia was at one time linked to the rest of the islands in that part of the world, when sea levels were lower due to so much water being bound up in polar glaciers. When the glaciers... |
How are frictionless surfaces made? | [
"A frictionless surface does not exist. There are surfaces with extremely low friction, but a completely frictionless surface does not exist and is likely impossible."
] | [
"Two events separated by s=0 are null separated or light-like separated, and one event can fire a laser at the other event."
] |
Why is the Milwaukee protocol not recommended? | [
"_URL_0_ \"The Milwaukee protocol (MP), a procedure reported to prevent death after the onset of rabies symptoms, has been performed over 26 times since its inception in 2004 but has only saved one life. Overwhelming failure has lead health officials to label the protocol, a red herring.\""
] | [
"Reading that page hurt my head so very very much. There is so much shit and garbage on that page it is ridiculous. No, these people are completely nuts. And for any of the points they did make that *are* valid - experiments performed after the results they discuss have disproven the original results - or the origi... |
If you killed someone on the Four Corners Monument, which state's laws would you be prosecuted with? | [
"[Slightly NSFW.](_URL_0_) Since it's a serious crime that is inter-state, the federal government will likely step in. Also, it's a national monument and in Indian Reservation territory, even more reason for it to be the FBI. Double also, simply searching Google about this (\"four corners jurisdiction\") bro... | [
"One search isn't going to do much. They have hugely complicated algorithms in place to find what they are looking for. It might raise a flag, but a single flag isn't going to do much. By the way, just because you don't live here doesn't mean we aren't watching *Creepy Smile*."
] |
Why do you see the world in a blue hue after closing your eyes and facing the sun for a while? | [
"I don't know what you're talking about but could it be because the sunlight is shining through your red blood vessels so your eyes adjust to the red and as a result the blue is 'overexposed', so to speak?"
] | [
"I just explained this in another thread, but essentially it is called the \"Bernoli principle\" and like others have pointed out, it has to do with pressurized air. When you pucker your lips, air is pressurized as it leaves your mouth. When it leaves your mouth, it expands into the air and as it expands it absorbs... |
How and why do we wake up when we hear a noise? | [
"The why is evolution. Sleep is a dangerous time for any creature. Predators or natural disasters could kill you and everyone around you pretty easily. Our brains evolved to wake up to unusual noises, because unusual noise could mean danger. The humans without that adaptation died a lot more often than those withou... | [
"Evolution. People who didn't get that weird feeling when dangling their limbs from the trees they were sleeping on were killed by cheetahs."
] |
How much force does it take to force a door open if it's locked with a maglock? Why is a thin piece of tape enough to stop the lock from working? | [
"Just skimming the Wikipedia page, it says the direct electromagnet ones are usually 600 to 1200 pounds of force: _URL_0_ What surprises me is the power usage. The \"conventional light bulb\" is 60 watts. I thought a huge magnet would take more power than that."
] | [
"Your brain has a gating mechanism. Basically if you feel the same sensation for an extended time, your brain decides that feeling isn't important anymore and ignores it. This includes all sorts of things, like the feeling of your teeth on your tongue, your lips touching, the clothes on your skin, your phone in you... |
What would happen if two gas giants (say Jupiter and Saturn) would collide? | [
"SPH modeling suggests you'd end up with one planet. There doesn't seem to be a lot of data that I can find on this. _URL_0_"
] | [
"You and your friend each have a large, thick water balloon. You have gotten bored of playing with them so you decide to throw them into the sink because you are five and that seems fun. You both throw your balloons into the sink at the same time and they compress together, they were tough but the combined weight... |
In the Great War, Canada sent troops overseas in numbered battalions. In the Second World War, they were sent as regiments. Why the change? | [
"In World War II, as opposed to World War I, there was much more of a drive to keep a distinct Canadian identity on the battlefield. The action you mention was part of that drive. Pierre Berton's *Marching as to War*, among other works, argues that shifts in the Canadian political and social viewpoint during the in... | [
"Congress consists of both the house of representatives, which is very similar in function to our own house of commons, plus the senate. Senators are pretty much what they are here - the upper house of the legislature, except theirs are elected. There are two per state. Governors are like our provincial premiers. T... |
Why do gaming PC retailers typically sell an "unbalanced" system with a higher end CPU and lower end GPU? | [
"It is partly due to the fact that peoples eyes glaze over when confronted with the multitude of stats on the GPUs compared to the relative fewer stats on a CPU. So the company can skimp on the parts of the PC that are less transparent. And at the same time put a smaller power supply in and save even more."
] | [
"Okay. So let's say that you want to bake a cookie just like the ones that grandma makes. You could try to eat her cookie, and then using your knowledge of baking sort of reverse engineer it, but it would be an incredible hassle and very hard to do. But if you had the recipe she used, it would be very easy to figur... |
Why can't I wake someone up when sleepwalking? or can I? is that true or a myth. | [
"Because it could startle them and they might attack you. It is a myth that it will give them a heart attack or put them into a coma. \"They\" say the best thing you can do is gently lead them back to bed."
] | [
"There's two schools of thought to this. First is that there is a code in warfare and part of it is to not target medics. It's a guideline so it's not like there's anything really preventing you from doing that but it's \"frowned upon\". I'm not 100% if there is a convention behind this to support that line of reas... |
Do meteors ever hit satellites? | [
"Space is big. Really big. You'd never believe how vastly, hugely, enormously big space is. Meteors and satellites, on the other hand, are pretty small. There's loads of space for them up in space, and we only have one recorded instance of a satellite being hit by one big enough to actually cause it any damage. The... | [
"> Jackie Mitchell was able to strike out both Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig in succession, which shows women aren't incapable of competing with men. That's not a valid conclusion. In a sport where a .300 average is good, it is not unusual for two top hitters to get retired back to back. They also happened to be the fir... |
Does the rule preventing homosexuals from donating blood make any sense? | [
"The rule is in place to save lives, because gay men are at a higer risk of getting HIV, and since gay men make up a rather small amount of the population, it is safer and easier to just exclude them from donating blood. _URL_0_ This article is okay, search for \"What to Do About Gay Men\" for the tl:dr. Also, _UR... | [
"Hospitals, like most services in the U.S., are a business. It is hospital policy to not perform such operations unless some form of payment is secured. This payment could be credit, of course, where the person then pays their credit debt; or in some cases, a payment plan can be established where that patient is in... |
How do bind people earn an income? Is there a government program besides disability that supplements income? | [
"Bind people aren't invalids, they're just blind. Some of them are only legally blind. They can still see colors and light. They can do most things others can do, including engineering, math, science, cooking, or running businesses. I know a blind guy who runs a snack bar on an Air Force base -- he makes bank selli... | [
"check out /r/darknetmarkets if youre surprised people doing illegal shit can still monetize it online. They sell drugs on the internet, and very rarely do people get caught. Shit's cray. and no, in the case of illegal internet sites (clearnet or darknet), the Identity of whoever runs the site is usually unknown. I... |
Circlejerking and/or the /r/circlejerk subreddit | [
"A real circlejerk is a group of people masturbating together. They pleasure themselves over the same thing, together, sharing the moment. Now what a circlejerk is on Reddit is when a group of people obsess over something and keep talking about how great it is. Reddit does this a lot with things the hivemind likes.... | [
"Schools were trying to teach creationism alongside actual science. So some guy made up a religion called Pastafarianism that basically had it's own ridiculous theories on how the world came to be. He posited that if you were going to teach creationism alongside actual science, you should be forced to teach every t... |
why is it that sometimes you hear someone saying your name when listening to music with earphones in ? | [
"Your brain knows that there is a chance someone might be calling your name but you wouldn't hear it because of all the music. So it is extra aware in case somebody tries to talk to you. This extra awareness can cause the brain to think that a very similiar sound to \"John\" is actually \"John\" so it thinks somebo... | [
"You could have [tinnitus](_URL_0_). You should see a doctor if you want any further information, since asking for medical advice is not allowed in this forum."
] |
Why was Uber's culture a big deal? | [
"> Customers didn't care one bit. So honestly what was the problem? Some customers did care. I personally started using Lyft more often and now prefer their services. The company culture also drives innovation. Companies with a strong culture and work environment are more productive. You can retain the best and br... | [
"They have a history of exploitative and careless behavior: [click](_URL_0_), [click](_URL_2_), [click](_URL_3_). The more recent frustration is stemming from their comments on water and their usage of it in California [during a drought](_URL_1_)."
] |
why are dogs so different, but cats all look the same? | [
"Humans have spent thousands and thousands of years making various dog breeds for various purposes (herding, rat killing, guarding, companionship). Cats pretty much domesticated themselves, and they aid us without much prompting (kill vermin). We didn't see much use for various different sorts of cats, because they... | [
"Please use the search function. _URL_11_ _URL_12_ _URL_13_ _URL_11_ _URL_12_ _URL_11_ _URL_12_ _URL_13_ _URL_12_ _URL_13_ _URL_13_ TL;DR: Why is a bad question with no good answer. We can't tell entirely with other animals, because we can't directly communicate though anecdotally, many seem to."
] |
A common "accommodation" for special education students is to remove one wrong answer from any multiple choice question. Doesn't this mathematically hurt the student who guesses because of the Monty Hall problem? | [
"No. Removing an option during the initial guess gives you a better shot in pure guessing. Instead of 1/4 you get 1/3 for example. The monty hall problem doesn't come into it at all. The monty hall is saying after guessing, if you have the chance of basically changing \"do you want to keep the one you chose, or swi... | [
"This is a hold-over from the physical book era. When physical books had to be printed, publishers had local partners in many different places in the world that did local marketing, printing, and distributing to local bookshops. So if you were in New York, you didn't have to talk to a book shop in Switzerland. The... |
how do we absorb things at all from vegetables if we can't break the cellulose wall? | [
"We can break the wall by chewing or cooking as mentioned before, but also bacteria in our gut will break down the cellulose. It's a mutually beneficial relationship. The bacteria get tasty cellulose, and we get the nutrients from the plant matter."
] | [
"Also, why the hell can't Redditors digest Taco Bell?"
] |
How do cats/dogs realize, that human infants, are infants at all ? | [
"The dogs don't necessarily know that the baby is delicate before being trained. Keep in mind, dogs are highly socialized animals that pick up on cues very quickly, often without you noticing what is going on. In terms of babies, we of course treat them delicately and physically protect them. When introducing a dog... | [
"You may seem as a better provider and do not conquest for territory as much (i.e. you don't hog the litter box) you're like a savior that opens the tuna can. Also, you're like 8 times their size, make friends in high places etc... [Edit] Omg gold on my 6th or so post in my reddit career?? I... I.. I'd like to than... |
How do phone/computer chargers work? | [
"Without more explanation of what you want to understand I'll explain very simply. Your phone and computer have batteries that need to be charged. They need direct current input at a specific voltage. The charger takes the alternating current coming out of the wall at either 120 or 240 volts and converts it to dire... | [
"Imagine a bathtub full of water, the water represents electricity. The bathtub has a faucet, which represents the generation of electricity. Imagine now that there are little holes in the bottom of the bathtub, all plugged up. When ever a home needs power, unplug the drain and let the water flow out. Now imagine ... |
Why do humans involuntarily scream when in serious/life-threatening pain? | [
"Because we're social animals. It is a distress call, which serves to warn other people that something dangerous is around and/or to alert other people that an individual is in a lot of trouble and potentially needs help."
] | [
"Not everything has a evolutionary purpose. Evolution works by a random mutation occurring and it not being detrimental enough to prevent that animal from reproducing. Evolution does not have a goal, and does not seek \"the best\" for something. As for why do we laugh? We are social creatures and laughing helps to... |
Why don't you sneeze in your sleep? | [
"Your muscles get somewhat paralyzed when you sleep. Parkinson disease sufferers muscles relax when they sleep."
] | [
"Probably just because you haven't practised doing it one way but do practice the other way because you do it out of habit. I've never really thought can do it both ways without a problem, and if you tried for about a week you probably would be able to as well. I think this because I remember what it was like learn... |
How does soap clean you? | [
"Soap breaks up the oils on your skin into smaller drops, which can mix with the water. It works because soap is made up of molecules with two very different ends. One end of soap molecules love water - they are hydrophilic. The other end of soap molecues hate water - they are hydrophobic."
] | [
"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."
] |
Prices of shares go up and down each hour. So why don't people just buy, and sell when the price gets higher and keep doing this until they are rich? | [
"They do! But it's not quite that simple. You can't buy and sell at the same price. At a particular moment in time, if the quoted price for a share is, say, $20, you may find that you can buy at $21 and sell at $19. This is how your broker makes his money. So if you sold when the price had gone up by only $1, you'd... | [
"Each builder is going to do what they want. Google pictures of Beijing some time, they have entire large blocks of buildings the same style and height. They also are far more regulated about how they build. I imagine in a more free market economy, each builder wants their building to be \"their building\" and not ... |
Why are you restricted to bringing such small amounts of liquids on an airplane? (Shampoo, toothpaste, etc...) | [
"It's a post-9/11 measure concerned with the idea that terrorists might bring the liquid components of an explosive onto a plane in larger liquid containers."
] | [
"If you're talking about movies - theatrics. The point of a movie is to entertain; if the protagonist could defuse a bomb simply by dumping a kettle (or better yet, peeing) on it, it would be anticlimactic. If you're talking about real life, hopefully an engineer can chime in. In the interim, based on my pedestria... |
Why don't celebrities sue gossip magazines and tabloids for defamation? | [
"If I'm remembering my journalism classes correctly, it's because tabloids are very careful never to make assertions from \"their own\" perspective. So for instance they will never say \"So-and-so slept with such-and-such.\" It's always going to be \"*According to our sources*, so-and-so slept with such-and-such.\"... | [
"Firstly, most experienced musicians know to wait a while after writing a song, just in case they realize the similarity. Then, between the recording studio, record company, and all editors, there will be at least ONE person able to identify stolen rythems and beats. Of course, plagiarism in the music industry isn... |
Why are "yellow" and "red" derogatory terms for races, but "white" and "black" are acceptable? | [
"Basically it comes down to historical usage. If a term gets used long enough in a derogatory manner all other usages become irrelevant. Mental retardation was a common term in the medical community, which literally means \"slow,\" but enough people started using retard or retarded as an insult and now it's not rea... | [
"Analog TVs had a circuit called the [\"color killer\"](_URL_0_). It was designed to eliminate any color from the screen when B+W programming was being received. The B+W signal did not have a [color burst](_URL_1_) reference signal, and it is the absence of this color burst which triggers the color killer. Static m... |
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