Subset (10)

eli5 · 25k rows

Split (1)

train · 25k rows

query stringlengths 20 300	positive listlengths 1 1	negative listlengths 1 1
How exactly does the immune system differentiate good bacterias with bad bacterias?	[ "Also good bacteria dont hang out everywhere, most places in your body you want to keep any bacteria out so immune cells attack most things. Bacteria in our skin and gut are technically outside of our body" ]	[ "The simplest kind just compares against a database of known malware. If it fits, it's malware. (Probably.) More advanced detection uses heuristics that try to determine whether an action being taken by a program or whether certain qualities are nefarious in nature. This allows for currently unknown threats to be s...
why are there more people in North America with allergies than in other parts of the world, such as Hong Kong?	[ "One possible reason is that antibiotics are more common in the United States. Source: _URL_0_ Another reason is that culturally it’s less acceptable in the US to let kids get dirty. They aren’t exposed to as many allergens, so they never develop a tolerance." ]	[ "One theory is that [we're too clean](_URL_0_). By keeping our kids clean and not letting them chew on UFOs (unidentified floor objects), we're either preventing their immune systems from building a proper \"database\" of pathogens early on, or we're preventing them from coming into contact with symbiotic species t...
Is it possible to reach a point in space, outside of any atmosphere, near our sun where the temperature would be a "comfortable" 70-80 degrees Fahrenheit?	[ "Ok, the issue is that the shape of your object is going to majorly affect the steady state temperature. Theoretically if you have the right balance of fins versus sunlight absorption you could make that 70 or 80 degrees almost anywhere. With the how deadly is space- pretty damn horrible. Radiation from the sun co...	[ "The Fahrenheit scale is: 0° is the temperature brine freezes 100° is the average temperature of the human body edit: formatting" ]
Fire. What is it and what happens to the burning object?	[ "[Richard Feynman](_URL_1_) ELI5's it pretty well in about 2 mins. Alan Alda had a contest and this [8 min video](_URL_0_) won." ]	[ "Cooking refers to any process which takes raw food and chemically changes it so it's cooked. Roasting and frying are both methods of cooking. Roasting involves placing the food in a hot oven, and relies on the high temperature of the air in the oven to cook the food. Roasting is often a slow process, because air i...
Why does our throat "tighten" when we're at the edge of tears?	[ "It's called the globus sensation which has associations with hypertonicity of the UES, the upper esophageal sphincter, as well as GERD. The purpose of the UES is to keep food in and air out. Stress, can cause the UES to tighten, the exact etiology of that action isn't known, but there is an association with stress...	[ "Looking at something exercises the rod and cone cells in the back of your eyeballs which then send the signal down your optic nerves to allow your brain to process the information. If the subject is very bright, then your rod and cone cells get overworked and start to become less sensitive to whatever type of ligh...
The air we breath in is mostly Nitrogen. What happens to N when it enters our lungs?	[ "Nothing! Nitrogen gas are N2 molecules, which is a triple bond between two N atoms. This bond is extremely stable, and it would require a lot of energy to break ( < = > forming N2 bonds releases a lot of energy = > explosives!). This means that the Nitrogen won't react with anything, and just moves in our lungs an...	[ "Of course he was fed, otherwise he would of died :P Nasogastric intubation is a medical process involving the insertion of a plastic tube (nasogastric tube or NG tube) through the nose, past the throat, and down into the stomach. For patients who are thought likely to need very long term support, nasogastric tubes...
Why do some people dislike Mother Theresa?	[ "One of the foremost (and probably most famous) critic of Mother Teresa was Christopher Hitchens, detailed in his book [The Missionary Position](_URL_0_). Basically, his criticisms boil down to her providing no medical treatment, receiving donations from dictators, baptizing the dying without their consent, and o...	[ "Or would you put it down to factors such as the Army, Parliament, the Major General rule, religion at the time?" ]
Since a mother and an unborn baby are connected, why don't they have the same blood type?	[ "Blood type and Rh factor is given by your genes. It is important to point out that the mother's blood doesn't mix with the baby's. That would trigger an immune response that would destroy the baby's red blood cells. This can happen if the mother is Rh- and the baby is Rh+ AND the mother has anti-D antibodies." ]	[ "It's all down to a rarely used feature of USB, device serial numbers. If your device has a serial number, Windows will recognise it no matter what port you plug it into. However, if (like most devices) it has no serial number available via USB, then Windows will treat it like it was a brand new device and create a...
Why does Black Friday still happen every year if its shrouded in violence and chaos?	[ "News programs like to overhype this kind of thing. For the vast majority of places, it's not really shrouded in violence and chaos - it's just lots of people and long lines. There's sometimes violence and chaos at football games, too, but they still happen every year." ]	[ "They don't actually know, and they don't actually care. That deal is the same price you can always get, regardless of when you call. They simply put a countdown in the advertisement to encourage impulse purchases." ]
How are background checks conducted?	[ "At the basic level, any time you have any interaction with law enforcement this meaning arrest or criminal action. This is entered into a computerized database. Note this is all public record. So say a company is hiring you and wants to check your background. They take your information and give it to a company who...	[ "I would suspect something like binaural recording would come into play. You can listen to the results here: _URL_0_" ]
Why is there more storms of a night time than during the day?	[ "The atmosphere is most unstable during the evening and most stable during the morning. When the atmosphere is stable the cooler air is closest to the surface with warmer air above it. During the evening after peak solar radiation has occurred and has been absorbed by the Earth the air near the ground is the warmes...	[ "It's just the odds. Cities take up an incredibly small percentage of the total amount of land. And sometimes they do hit cities, as people in Moore and Joplin and Birmingham can attest to. Think of it this way... take a taco out to a parking lot. Put it in the middle. Walk to the edge of the parking lot, and, with...
How are the Tsars and Tsarist governments perceived in modern Russia?	[ "I'll remind you that modern Russia is not history yet. A better question for this sub might be if modern Russian historians view the Tsars more positively. (Even if that was your intention, the phrasing is a bit iffy)" ]	[ "Hi, I've approved the post, but just a note to you and potential respondents: this subreddit has a 20-year rule against discussing current events, so any answers will have to cut off at 1997. If you're looking for answers that can include 1998-2012, do consider x-posting elsewhere, eg. a foreign affairs sub like /...
Can you make a perpetual motion machine with magnets?	[ "> Can you make a perpetual motion machine with magnets? No. > I'm thinking along the lines of a ring or circuit with fixed magnets and a projectile with opposite polarity. You can't have an object of \"opposite polarity\", because [magnetic monopoles](_URL_0_) are not known to exist. Thus the projectile would ha...	[ "search askscience for a better answer but it would have to be very strong, I think there might be affects before you get strong enough to make the dimagnetism of water what kills you" ]
why did the book in the latest Hydraulic Press Channel video explode?	[ "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...	[ "As a follow up question: What are some good resources to read about the Hague Conventions which banned expanding bullets? I'm interested really in the difference of thinking between the goal of shooting someone. The ultimate goal is to remove that soldier from the field (I assume)? Is it that a hollow point to the...
After a solution has been frozen for a while, why is the concentration at the bottom of the tube higher?	[ "It is because freezing is a separation method - see [freeze fractionation](_URL_0_). When ice forms, it prefers to form with pure water, and this pushes any dissolved solutes into the remaining, non-frozen solution. This ends up concentrating the solution at the point of the vial where it last freezes. The reverse...	[ "Hydrogen bonding! In a solid state, the average kinetic energy of water molecules is low enough that hydrogen bonding can happen. This creates a highly ordered crystalline structure with lots of space between molecules. In liquid water, however, the kinetic energies of the molecules overcome the hydrogen bonding e...
How can the global economy survive while most countries are in debt, and that debt continues to grow?	[ "Can can communities survive with all the residents in debt on their homes and cars? The issue isn't that there is debt, it's being able to pay the payments when they come due... governments service their debt through tax collection and as long as they don't default and the debt servicing doesn't become such a burd...	[ "they do keep updating it and adding features, so your not exactly buying a 10 year old gopro for the same retail price. with that said, gopro is in pretty dire financial trouble because their market has been yanked out from under them by bigger competitors with less overhead and more efficient supply chains. They ...
Can bacteria go extinct?	[ "Its a bit hard to point to specific modern extinctions of bacteria due to issues the other comments point out, but they certainly due go extinct with regularity. An additional issues is that 'species' is not as clear cut in bacteria than in animals since they reproduce asexually and change exchange genetic materia...	[ "Its all CYOA. The company making the product can't advertise that it kills 100% bacertia. This is because of human error. If someone uses their product the wrong way, and gets sick, they can sue the manufacturer for false advertising, and in this society, they stupid person would probably win. Same thing with The...
what is physically happening inside my body when I get "the chills"?	[ "I don't have a great explanation for this, but it's called frisson. Check out /r/frisson for more info." ]	[ "Read the title...got goosebumps....wanted to find out why....no definite explanation yet?! Edit: 'comments' to 'explanation'" ]
How can sites like Green Man Gaming and Humble sell steam keys at significantly reduced prices than whats available on steam?	[ "Humble does NOT get their key from cheaper regions. They most likely get them from the developpers themselves, as part of their bundles, or on the humble store. Steam takes a pretty hefty tax on games, so if Humble or other websites can just take a lower tax, it's good for the devs, since they get more people to s...	[ "YouTube changed how they pay youtubers to be based on how frequently they upload and the length of their videos. Let's plays, and other game play videos can be very long and don't take much time to make. Not saying they're bad, but these videos are so perfect in the eyes of YouTube they get paid more than basicall...
How does the wind make noise, is it the friction?	[ "Kind of. It's caused by the air being disturbed by either denser air around it, or solid objects such as buildings and trees. These disturbances cause ripples in the air which we perceive as sound. Much in the same way as a rock sticking out of a pool of water creates ripples when the water around it begins to mov...	[ "You wouldn't hear anything as there would be no relative pressure change. If there was a very small difference in speed you still wouldn't hear anything as the frequency would be much lower than the human ear can detect." ]
What, theoretically, is the fastest speed we can reach in space?	[ "> (1) Does this mean that, given enough time, we could accelerate to 99% of the speed of light? Better than that, you can approach the speed of light but you can never travel at the speed of light, assuming that you have a lot of energy available. > And would we have enough fuel to actually accelerate to 99% of t...	[ "only if it's structure is perfectly non-[amorphous](_URL_0_) so that it wouldn't start contorting with the inertial effect commonly known as the [centrifugal force](_URL_1_). This would rule out glass and many plastics Also it would have to also be in a perfect vacuum so that air resistance, or friction with the a...
Is there any surviving footage of a real sword or pistol duel?	[ "Yes there is one I can think of [here](_URL_0_). This is SFW. This was the last authorized and official duel in France. In 1967 Gaston Defferre, at the time of duel socialist mayor of the city of Marseille insulted of moron the member of parliament René Ribière. Ribière asked that his honour be washed by the sw...	[ "Why would you assume they're public domain? Somebody spent a lot of money to get broadcast rights for the event & spent a lot of money sending a film crew to Korea to film it. It's very much under copyright & they're going to actively enforce those copyrights." ]
Is there a loophole to the Abel-Ruffini Theorem?	[ "Any finite number of iterations of Newton's method are only going to give you a polynomial expression for an approximation for the root, not the root." ]	[ "You can't wrap your head around it because it's often misused and misquoted: _URL_0_ We use it off handedly in conversations to serve a rhetorical purpose, usually to just emphasize how rare an exception is or to show how the specific exception isnt too far of a stretch from the original rule. For example, if Susi...
Why don't microwave ovens heat up air?	[ "Because water molecules are polar (have positively and negatively charged ends) so the oscillating EM field affects those molecules, but molecules that comprise air (O2, N2, etc) are non-polar, so the oscillating EM field doesn't affect them." ]	[ "They use a wavelength of light that is cancer causing. Do you want to sit under a cancer causing light? Plus, they aren't all that effective to stop, say a sneeze from transmitting to another person. It takes some time to kill the germs." ]
Why Oklahoma and Kansas get so many intense tornadoes	[ "Apparently it's because of how they are situated in relation to the Rocky Mountains and the Gulf of Mexico. The way cold air from the north meets moist warm air coming off the Gulf and the way the mountains shape that air flow makes it particularly easy for tornadoes to form in those places, so they get more of th...	[ "Thats photoshopped just so you're aware. The actual image is this: _URL_0_ They usually form in high altitudes, normally perpendicular to the wind direction. Long story short, They form when stable moist air flows over mountains." ]
Why does cracking your joints get easier if you do it a lot?	[ "My mom used to be a medical researcher. From what she explained to me, the most negative side effect is that when you pop any joint, you overextend the connective tissue surrounding the joint. Which I guess would eventually make it easier to pop your joints the more you do it. This overextension wouldn't cause to ...	[ "“Semantic satiation” is the phrase used to describe this. Basically, your brain becomes somewhat fatigued and numbed to the sound and the repition and over time as it tapers in neural response. This practice is actually described to combat speech anxiety where the repition of phrases decrease any associated fears ...
Why can carrion birds, like vultures, live off of the leftovers and not feel sick?	[ "Three basic strategies: 1. They don't really eat rotten meat; generally they prefer to eat freshly killed carcasses. 2. They have very acidic stomachs and urine- most bacteria are not tolerant to acids. 3. They have VERY strong immune systems which are resistant to most bacteria known to cause diseases in animal...	[ "You're overthinking it. [Here](_URL_0_) is a scientific article about it, but it's still kind of complicated. The easiest way to think about this is the 10:1 rule. For every one pound of meat you, need ten pounds of feed for it. This means that if you ate the feed directly (eg, corn), you would use only 1/10 of...
How you can wake up from a dream and a few minutes later when you fall back asleep, fall back into the same dream	[ "It's part of lucid dreaming called dream re-entry. The short period of being awake is like a switch on your brain that tells you, \"Hey, you're the captain of the ship again!\" So whenever you dream of something pleasant, your mind allows you to continue experiencing the same thing. This can be done under varying ...	[ "A lot of the data your brain uses to control balance is visual. Try walking a balance beam with your eyes closed. This phenomenon happens sometimes because your brain doesn't realize that the object it is using as a stationary frame of reference for your movement, is itself moving. Your brain really thinks you ar...
How does a big budget Hollywood movie get paid for and where does the money actually come from?	[ "Studios, apart from money, already have resources to produce these. It's like asking if a VW Beetle is manufactured purely by just spending money. There's a factory already in place, and they purchase the raw materials and sell the result. So the studio will pay for these things, and they keep the returns. The dis...	[ "How to train a dragon took 90 Million CPU hours to render (_URL_2_). They used HP servers.(_URL_0_) Big Hero 6 (199 Million Core Hours). The render farm used on this production was able to produce 1.1 Million core hours a day. (_URL_1_). I am guessing there are using 55,000 Intel Xeon Core Server farm to render th...
Why do manual transmission cars stall? What exactly is happening?	[ "Inbetween firing cycles, your flywheel retains momentum, this is to keep the engine turning inbetween the \"explosions\". If you run it too slow, that flywheel doesnt have the momentum to keep it going inbetween strokes, so the engine stalls out." ]	[ "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...
What's the difference in unleaded and premium gasoline?	[ "Both are unleaded. The difference is the octane rating, which affects how quickly is burns. Engines with a higher compression ratio need premium to prevent knocking." ]	[ "All the other reasons people are giving are valid, but I think for the majority of people it's down to advertising, pretty packaging, and the idea that spending more will get you something that's better." ]
How much of history is decided by so-called "great people" and how much is just the situation that creates them?	[ "What you are asking about is called [Great Man Theory](_URL_0_) and while certainly there will be preferences in academia overall for or against certain theories the truth is that it is opinion (albeit based on evidence and logic). None can answer \"what ifs\" as a fact by the nature of the question. What I will ...	[ "Hi - we as mods have approved this thread, because while this is a homework question, it is asking for clarification or resources, rather than the answer itself, which is fine according to [our rules](_URL_1_). This policy is further explained in this [Rules Roundtable thread](_URL_3_) and this [META Thread](_URL_...
Why does the color red fade faster than other colors in direct sunlight?	[ "Ultraviolet and blue light are absorbed by red objects. Because they are the highest energy they cause the most reaction (fading) in the object. I don't know the actual precise chemical reactions that might be involved." ]	[ "For the same reason that running scissors over a ribbon causes it to curl. The act of shading the paper not only lays down the pigment, but stretches the paper slightly, deforming it." ]
Can viruses actually be considered to be living? How/why did they come to exist? And why are they so hard to cure?	[ "1. It depends on who you talk to. As an Animal Biologist, I don't consider them to be alive because they cannot reproduce on their own and have no observable metabolism (they don't eat/poop) 2. Great question. I don't know. We do know they are ancient. There are many viruses that attack bacteria and that those bac...	[ "Here's an analogy. Let's say you're trying to find the solution to a very difficult maze. Everyone might be stuck trying to find their way out, but you're the first to find the solution. How do we know your solution is correct? You showed us the path - it's easy to verify that the path is correct, even though *fin...
I am amazed that New Horizons is able to send information 4 billion miles using a 15w transmitter. When receiving data from New Horizons, are there times when the information is missed?	[ "To cope with small amounts of missed or corrupted data, the signal transmitted by New Horizons includes error correction. Specifically it uses a code known as \"CCSDS Rate 1/6 Turbo Coding\". That means the raw bit rate is six times the decoded data rate, but enables even a marginally-weak signal to be 'reconstruc...	[ "The Hubble Space Telescope is a takes its pictures digitally. In a digital image, the resolution is the number of pixels in an image. Taking a picture of the same thing with multiple cameras and then overlaying the pictures would not increase the resolution. That's just not how cameras work. However, if the 10 Hub...
How exactly does a speedometer work?	[ "Your wheels have a set circumference. The speedometer measures how many rotations the wheel makes in a given amount of time, then multiplies it by the circumference to get distance traveled. Let’s say your wheel had a circumference of 1 mile and it made 8 rotations per second. Then you would be traveling 8 miles p...	[ "_URL_0_ The wikipedia article is excellent and better than any of the answers in here so far. If you have specific parts you don't understand, ask away and I can help explain them to you." ]
How have scientists figured out what the continents and tectonic plates used to look like billions of years ago?	[ "Based on the location of mountains and volcanos you can work out when plates are pushing together or moving apart. Based on the composition of rocks in different areas you can work out when two areas used to be close to each other but aren't now." ]	[ "They probably didn't. [Sweet potatoes, a south american crop, are found in Polynesia](_URL_0_), and [chicken, an Asian bird, is found in south america](_URL_1_), both pre-contact. Also, [Polynesia DNA is found in south america](_URL_2_)." ]
Why is it socially unacceptable to call your parents by their first name?	[ "For parents it implies that you no longer consider them parents. It basically says that they are meaningless to you and that you no longer love them." ]	[ "Interesting; also, standing ovations at performances. Just as you said, they're somewhat expected now, despite the fact that they were probably once \"special\". I once heard this discussed on NPR (I think both topics were mentioned) & I hope someone has an answer!" ]
Can we "stand still" in space?	[ "Turns out, there is no such thing as \"standing still\". You must measure your speed against another object. So you have your speed \"with respect to\" the Earth, your speed \"with respect to\" the Sun, your speed with respect to the centre of the galaxy etc. None of these are any less valid than any other. So if ...	[ "There are two things that are going to have an effect here. 1) Doppler effect (which depends on the relative locations of you and the stationary observer) 2) Relativistic effects (time dilation primarily) In any case, the effects will likely result in the fact that the radio reciever won't even recognize your sign...
Why do businesses always form in Delaware	[ "Taxes. Delaware does not have a state corporate income tax for corporations that are based in Delaware but do no business in the state. Basically, if you operate your business entirely in, say, Iowa (the state with the highest state corporate income tax), but put your corporate headquarters in Delaware, you don't ...	[ "On phone so short unsupported answer: it's the only place where humans/climate/etc haven't killed most or all of the megafauna." ]
What is the difference between pleading "guilty", "not guilty", and "no contest" in court?	[ "Guilty: I did it. Not guilty: I'm not saying I did or didn't do it, but you'll have to prove it. No contest: I'm not saying I did it, but I'm not arguing with the charges." ]	[ "This week, a sample game is \"San Francisco -4.5 NY Giants 44.5\". You can make four different bets based on that line: Bet $110 to win $100 if San Francisco beats the Giants by 5 or more points. Bet $110 to win $100 if either the Giants beat San Francisco, or the Giants lose to San Francisco by 4 points or less. ...
Is there a trade off that makes it hard for a virus to be both very contagious and very deadly?	[ "Yeah, viruses that are overly virulent kill their hosts before they are able to transmit the virus to new hosts, so more deadly viral lineages tend to burn out before being widely transmitted. So there's an evolutionary trade off between high virulence and a strain's ability to maintain itself in a population." ]	[ "From my understanding (will need to edit in a source one I track it down,) the different hemispheres are actually pretty consistent as far as spread and symptom patterns go. In fact, they used data from this past southern hemisphere season to identify that this upcoming season will be rough for the northern hemisp...
Is there a dimension, n, such that the n-th dimensional analogue of a circle/sphere cannot exist?	[ "The unit circle is the set of all points (x,y) so that x^(2)+y^(2)=1. By the Pythagorean Theorem, this is the same as the the points a distance 1 away from the origin. The unit sphere is the set of points (x,y,z) so that x^(2)+y^(2)+z^(2)=1. By the Pythagorean Theorem, this is the same as the the points a distance...	[ "Think about things bouncing around. Imagine a box with a fan in it. Put 20 balls in ithe box. Now imagine a basket to one side just the right size for the balls. Turn on the fan. The balls jump around randomly. At some point a ball will fall into the basket. This will happen at a given rate which will depends on h...
Why do computers use Red, Green, and Blue (RGB) instead of the three primary colors, Red, Yellow, and Blue?	[ "The difference is between additive and subtractive colors. When adding more of the color source makes the result brighter, usually from emitting light sources like light bulbs, LEDs (computer monitors), the sun, the primary colors are RBG. When all additive primary colors are present you get white. When adding mo...	[ "> If I shine two lights at wavelengths of 700nm and 450nm into my eyes, I see purple which is a wavelength 400nm. Actually, purple isn't a single wavelength. 400nm corresponds to violet, not purple. Purple is not a \"real\" color at all. It exists in our brains as what happens when you combine light from the opp...
Why does a charged gate in a transistor attract electrons?	[ "> Does that mean the potential of an electron is inherently negative? It means the charge on an electron is negative." ]	[ "Those anti theft scanners use electromagnetic fields to detect those magnetic sensors that are attached to the clothing (and removed by the clerk upon checkout). As you walk past, these electromagnetic fields will induce some alternating current in your earbuds, and that's where the buzz comes from." ]
Why did most of earths life evolve to have male and female?	[ "At first glance, it might seem that having sex is a disadvantage compared to asexual reproduction as your offspring have only 50% of your genes vs being an exact copy. It is currently thought that by mixing genes to give novel individuals instead of identical copies of the previous generation is an advantage becau...	[ "People with eyebrows got laid more than the weird looking baldies so their genes got passed on." ]
Why do live leaves freeze and dead leaves do not (as readily)?	[ "I don't necessarily think the leaves are warmer but life is based on water and life tends to lives where water does not freeze. The leaves that are living have water while the dead leaves have none meaning that it could not freeze over. It's a guess, though Also many plants and animals have adaptations that preven...	[ "It is because of the [Venturi effect](_URL_0_). If you blow your air your mouth wide open, the speed of the air you blow is slower than if your mouth is almost close. The Venturi effect says that the pressure of a gas is inversely proportional to its speed, and the pressure of a gas is also proportional to its tem...
How long have humans been seafaring?	[ "/r/askscience would be a good place to crosspost this. Humans traveled to Australia around 50,000 years ago. That's incontrovertible evidence that humans had seafaring boats by at least that time. In 2010, human artifacts were discovered on Crete and dated to around 130,000 BC, which really pushes back the launch...	[ "The questions you're asking could quite literally be a book (indeed, I would recommend to you N.A.M. Rodger's The Wooden World). However, not to leave you like that, I would invite you to take a look at some answers I've provided elsewhere on this sub: _URL_0_ _URL_7_ _URL_10_ _URL_9_ _URL_5_ _URL_6_ _URL_3_ _...
Huntington's Disease is autosomal dominant and displays anticipation (earlier onset with more severe symptoms); does this mean that eventually the huntingtin gene will go extinct?	[ "Sporadic cases of HD occur 6-8% of the time and are thought to occur during sperm development. So there is enough sporadic cases to keep the disease from dying out completely. There is a term for this I believe but I can't remember. If I find it later, I'll update this comment. Source: _URL_0_ Edit: Apparently no ...	[ "I wrote a detailed response about Tom Holland's documentary [here](_URL_0_), using primary source to argue that something very similar to modern Islam did exist quite early on. Also worth noting that Crone and Cook's Hagarism thesis is not taken seriously anymore (or even at the time) - it literally used only th...
Were ancient Asian cultures aware of the existence of North America, because of the Bering Straight?	[ "There was more or less continual contact between Siberia and what's now Alaska in pre-Columbian times. Here are a few older answers that address this: _URL_2_ _URL_1_ _URL_0_ and also check out this roundup of older threads: _URL_3_" ]	[ "I forgot to say, two books to check out: Yuri Slezkine's Arctic Mirrors (thoughtful, academic) and Bruce Lincoln's Conquest of a Continent (readable, entertaining, somewhat sensationalist)." ]
What stopped Britain from successfully conquering the entire world?	[ "The British Empire was not developed through a grand scheme, but through gradual development. Trade deals with local chiefs could expand to settlements and extraterritorial rights, and eventually to a protectorate or formal incorporation into the Empire, over the course of centuries in many cases. British colonial...	[ "I suppose the same thing that prevents you from shooting pedestrians with a sniper rifle. Either a sufficiently developed human conscience, a healthy fear of legal repercussions, or at minimum a better hobby." ]
If we could only eat one food, which would be the healthiest?	[ "what are we constituting as one food? For instance pizza could be considered multiple \"foods\"." ]	[ "[Here](_URL_0_) is a good NPR article answering that exact question. ----------------------------------- To start, we need something for a currency. Life is way easier with something for a currency. So what do we use? We need: * Something rare but not too rare * Something that's not a gas * Something that won't ex...
Before typewriters and other methods were developed (printing press), how did people hand-write important documents with such precision? For example, the Declaration of Independence. The lines seem to be perfectly level and aligned with uniform typography. How is that possible to do by hand?	[ "The answer by u/rimeroyal to [this question](_URL_0_) goes into this process in some detail, with a focus on the Middle Ages." ]	[ "If you lived a few thousand years ago, you could make a good map of the constellations of the zodiac piece-by-piece at night. Then, at sunrise or sunset, you could measure the angle between the sun and celestial objects that are visible even in daylight: the Moon, Venus, and Jupiter are the best choices. You then ...
If white is more reflective than black, why can't I see my reflection in a white car but I can see it clearly in a black car?	[ "White isn't necessarily more reflective than black, at least not in terms of the coherent reflection of a mirror. The reflective part of a car's paint is the glossy coat on top of the colored part. Assume that the glossy coat in both cases is equally reflective. It will reflect a certain amount of light toward you...	[ "Vantablack consists of a lattice of alligned carbon nanotubes of specific width to trap the electromagnetic waves of wavelengths specific to visible light. Within the layer of vantablack that is coasted onto a substrate the light continuously bounces between the nanotubes becoming more and more absorbed, of which ...
How massive would two spheres have to be in space until I was unable to hold them apart with my arms due to gravitational attraction?	[ "If the masses were localized in your hands because of excessive density, if they weighed ten million kilograms each then the force between them would be about 375 pounds." ]	[ "Basically, you have to be weaker if you want the kind of fine muscle control we have. Chimps and gorillas physically could not do the kinds of things we can do with our hands - sculpture, art, writing, etc. - because of the way their muscles are attached to their bones. They have better leverage because their an...
The near perfect roundness of celestial bodies... wassup with that?	[ "Short answer: gravity. If you have a clump of matter, gravitational potential energy is minimized when the clump is spherical. Thus, if an object is fluid enough or massive enough, and doesn't have any other significant forces such as rotation, it will be spherical." ]	[ "bananas were actually artificially bred to be the shape we see them as today! while originally bananas weren't actually spherical, they weren't AS long and thin as they are now. quick googling brings up this article: _URL_0_ with some pics apparently link is weird on mobile so be careful, it was just one of the f...
How does local anesthesia work so that you can feel pressure but not pain?	[ "Stillnoeyedeer is right about the mechanism of local anesthetics, but not about what causes you to feel pressure and not pain. There is a preferential blockade for the more thinly myelinated Alpha-delta and non-myelinated but thin C fibres, which happen to carry sensation from pain and temperature. The thickest fi...	[ "It's actually the gravitational force on your body in relation to your insides. Think about holding a bucket of water while going over a hill in a car, and then descending the hill very quickly. The water will rise out of the bucket because the water was just moving upward and is still carrying some upward momentu...
How did the view that "Pureblood" wizards were superior to those of Muggle heritage come about?	[ "The rise in distrust of Muggleborns came primarily after the passing of the International Statute of Secrecy in the 17th century, after which the magical community withdrew from larger interaction with the Muggle world. The isolation from the Muggle world largely fueled pureblood supremacy movements in later centu...	[ "If it's okay, I'd like to ask an add-on question: could anyone, theoretically, do the exam, or was it restricted to the middle classes? I mean, clearly a peasant would probably fail because of their poor education, but were they allowed to try?" ]
why do americans pull out their wisdom teeth earlier than other countries despite it not being a problem at the current state when they're about to get pulled out?	[ "In America we have good dentists. They are able to look at our teeth and tell us whether or not the teeth will be a problem in the future. If the teeth are going to be a problem anyway, why not remove them before they're an issue?" ]	[ "Horse meat isn't rare at all. You can get it in many parts of europe. Tastes ok too. Anyway, that's culture. The same reason we think that bacon and eggs is a breakfast food, and don't eat grasshoppers." ]
What were the Consequences of the 4th Crusade?	[ "The 4th Crusade had some very important consequences, the most significant would likely be the drastic weakening of the Byzantium Empire, which led to the rise of the Ottoman Empire. Constantinople had been a bastion of the Christianity and an extremely wealthy city, but the 4th crusade devastated the city. The em...	[ "I have been puzzled for a few weeks why I could not find any printed listings of all the singers in the Naples Royal Chapel, considering it was a pretty major music group through the early modern period, and boasted many distinguished singers and composers, such as Scarlatti, and Caffarelli. Turns out most of tho...
How does a computer program uninstall itself?	[ "When a computer program is running, parts of it, and sometimes all of it is copied from the hard drive to RAM. Once there, it is free to delete the what is on the hard drive and continue running. When it is done, it signals the operating system, which will remove it from RAM." ]	[ "Google itself explains it on [this](_URL_1_) video on youtube. [This](_URL_0_) one is also good (also from Google)" ]
What law(s) is preventing me from using physical force to evict a squatter from my residence?	[ "I wonder if it's legal to give them notice of fumigation then 24 hours later flood the property with tear gas?" ]	[ "One way is to word everything as a question. So if your headline reads \"Is Kim Kardashian a Hobbit?\" then nobody can sue you because, hey, you're just asking questions. Another strategy is to use so-called weasel words. Instead of saying \"Kim Kardashian is a Hobbit\", you say \"Some people have claimed Kim was...
How would a telegram get from Kentucky to London in the 18th century?	[ "I just want to point out that there seems to be some confusion between the thread title and question asked. A letter and a telegram are two very different forms of media. The telegram, as understood as being the electrical telegram developed in the first half of the 19th century (and not the optical telegram whic...	[ "> Is there a telephone line stretching across the ocean? Close. Undersea cables. They're quite a lot bigger than a telephone line. [Here's what they look like](_URL_1_), and [here's a map of where they all connect from/to](_URL_0_)." ]
What is actually happening when your immune system is "weakened" e.g when you've been working alot with no rest, sleep etc	[ "The big dog here is cortisol, a glucocorticoid hormone made in times of stress or low blood sugar (or maybe both, if you're too busy to eat.) Glucocorticoids have a really huge number of possible functions, but in general, they reduce inflammation and blunt production of immune cells. We use synthetic cortisol or ...	[ "The body can get energy from two sources (well 3, but since you are a kid I'll ignore alcohol. Also, I don't think that's stored in the body for any length of time anyway) fat and sugar. When you eat the body immediately starts using all that delicious sugar it got. After a while it starts running out of sugar an...
If ultrasound are inaudible can they harm our ear ?	[ "Yes, for mechanical damage. Here's a quote from Wikipedia: > Ultrasound is thus not separated from 'normal' (audible) sound by differences in physical properties, only by the fact that humans cannot hear it. So, it will still cause damage at the same rate as other frequencies for mechanical damage. You just w...	[ "Edited: I have heard two things... * Rockets sent up to record various aspects of the test. * Vertical smoke flares which are used to observe the shockwave Edit 2: [Seems like it is a combination of the two](_URL_0_): > Sounding rockets or smoke flares may be launched just before a device explodes so that their v...
Could the speed of neutrinos be the true speed of light because the vacuums in which we previously tested were not as devoid of matter as we thought?	[ "the speed of light in a vacuum is not only measured empirically but is also derived theoretically." ]	[ "The P=NP problem is basically asking \"Is it just as fast to solve a math problem as it is to check the answer?\" P and NP are a couple ways mathematicians talk about how fast certain kinds of math can be done. Some think these might be just as fast as each other, but they haven't managed to prove it one way or th...
Why does a solid state hard drive cost so much more than a USB flash drive of the same size?	[ "Here's a pretty good explainer. _URL_0_ Basically it comes down to different memory, different promises (reliability and service life), and different marketing." ]	[ "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 isn't pirating enforced and what effect does the pirate bay take down accomplish?	[ "Pirating isn't enforced because it's.... Well its illegal.... And the takedown of thepiratebay was an anti-pirate/piracy action. So there" ]	[ "Normally when you download a file like off itunes or wherever you download the whole thing from one other computer or server. The easiest way I can picture torrenting is like plumbing, normally you only have one water pipe coming into your house that feeds all of the faucets etc which can result in low water pres...
Car insurance. If im insured, can i drive anyones car with their permission? If im insured by one parent can i drive the other parents car? How does car insurance work in general? Is the driver insured or is the car insured?	[ "Legally, the car is insured. Individual people are not. However, the insurance policy will usually dictate who an \"authorized driver\" is. So both your parents' cars are individually insured. Most likely they each list the other parent as an authorized driver. If they want you to be able to drive either car witho...	[ "Yer not alone in askin', and kind strangers have explained: 1. [ELI5: Whistling ](_URL_6_) 1. [ELI5: How does whistling work? And how is it different from blowing? ](_URL_0_) 1. [ELI5: How does whistling work? (Wind/air pressure to sound with whistles, bottles, or lips.) ](_URL_4_) 1. [ELI5:How does whistling work...
Friday Free-for-All \| April 14, 2017	[ "Ran across something that fit my mood today: > I’m not reading anything these days. It’s all wind and shadows. Books, books, books — great God, there’s no end to them. New writers, new publishers springing up, all cloaking ancient whores with new petticoats. Scarcely a new thought in ten thousand. Books — the mos...	[ "Simple answer, it can't be done. That is a reddit-level site \"feature\" which is part of their anti-spam measures. Longer answer, there are ways which it could be 'hacked', through CSS tricks or link flair. The problem there is that it would require either an incredible amount of manual work from the mods, or els...
Is Global Warming still a worry?	[ "Is [this the article](_URL_0_) you are talking about? If so, it is a pack of lies. I don't have time to go through the whole piece, but the first two \"signs\" are both wrong. Lie #1 - The world is warming. There hasn't been a \"halt\" in warming since 1998. March of this year marked the [337th month in a row]...	[ "That's quite a big topic. The [IPCC](_URL_0_) would be a good place to start; there are reports that cover most of those questions." ]
Why are Aeroplane seatbelts only waste seatbelts and not like car seatbelts that cover the chest and waist? Wouldn’t it be technically “Safer”?	[ "In a plane, the seatbelt is really there to stop you from bouncing upward in heavy turbulence or a bad landing. If the plane goes through something very rough, that seatbelt will stop you from hitting the ceiling and falling into the aisle as an obstruction. Planes don't have (relatively) low speed, head on colli...	[ "Breasts and thighs cook at different rates. If you cook them the same amount of time, you are likely overcooking the breast and perfectly cooking the thighs. Also, tenderness is a combo of the structure of the meat and moisture level. Chicken breast has almost no fat or connective tissue. When you cook it, you are...
What is the difference between non-rechargeable batteries? Examples: Duracell, Energizer, Rayovac, the generics that come with some items.	[ "Different battery designs have different capabilities- the most common characteristics being: * Capacity- how long will it maintain a constant voltage. * Drain rate- how well it performs and lasts under high-drain (flashlight, motors) and low-drain (clocks, thermostats) devices. * Shelf life- how long it will hold...	[ "There is nothing illegal in just mentioning a competitor. If they are using the competitor's trademarks that is still perfectly legal. The point of a trademark is to avoid brand confusion. So as long as it's clear I'm selling you Kirkland Brand Crispy Rice and not Kellogs Rice Krispies it's perfectly legal to ment...
What is the most potent non-opioid painkiller?	[ "It depends. (I wish the answer was more clear-cut but there are examples why this is not the case) A person suffering from neuralgia may find moderate to no relief from NSAIDs, opioids, or acetaminophen; rather be better treated by an antiepileptic such as gabapentin or pregablin. A person suffering from postherp...	[ "Uk Language? Pills will get you proper munted. Like out yer bonce. It'll make you think chubbers are buff and pull shapes all night. Draw makes you want to cotch. Then you get bare munch and need to smash a mint Aero and Potnoodle, maybe a maccie d's. Chang will make you Brap." ]
We know it happens and can measure it. We can observe it. However, what actually causes gravity?	[ "This is one of the biggest hurdles in creating a unified theory of everything. The general theory of relativity and quantum theory explain gravity in different ways. In general relativity, gravity is not a real force, but an effect of matter curving spacetime. If you think of the route of a plane flying from New Y...	[ "Put a slinky in a long glass tube and fix one end of the slinky to one end of the tube. Now lay the tube on your desk. The slinky is all curled up . Next, stand the tube upright. One end of the slinky is fixed to the top of the tube and the bottom of the slinky dangles down. What if you held the tube at an angle.....
How does a seed "know" when to start growing?	[ "It knows when it reaches a certain temperature and light. It will need a drink of water when dry they get thirsty too." ]	[ "They don't. It's a marketing ~~lie~~ gimmick. I used to work for a company that did a similar thing by mail. New customers were supposed to sign up by a certain time for special rates but as a specific matter of policy we'd give those rates to anyone who mailed back the special offer." ]
If infrared light is hot, then why doesn't visible light cook us? Visible light has more energy than infrared, right?	[ "Infrared is only considered \"heat vision\" because human bodies emit a lot of infrared radiation. Everything is emitting thermal radiation all the time. But what frequencies of radiation get emitted depends on how hot the thing is. For things that are about the temperature of human skin, most of the emission is i...	[ "A physicist's perspective: no, it can't. Calories represent the total chemical energy contained in the banana, and unless energy is added from the outside world (through photosynthesis*), this can't increase after the banana is picked. The banana tastes sweeter as starches and complex sugars are converted into sim...
Why do you jolt awake, when having dreams of drowning, falling, etc?	[ "If you ever fall, you body has a natural reaction in place to keep you from falling; it tenses up your muscles (specially the ones that keep you standing) to get you upright again. Same with taking deep breaths if you feel like you are suffocating (drowning). When sleeping, your mind may actually not know its drea...	[ "There are a few factors at play here. Part of this is not physics but physiology. Your chest and abdomen are simply more sensitive than the bottom of your feet. From a physics standpoint, jumping feet first does a few things: first, it means that only your feet actually deal with breaking through the surface of t...
Why is the history of math so separated from math itself in education? Wouldn't it be more interesting if this weren't the case?	[ "Because it doesn't teach you math. Flip it around. Imagine you are studying literature but before you can get to the actual writing you have to spend 20 percent of the class on linguistics. Imagine you are studying medicine but spend part of the class learning the mechancs about how an mri works. Imagine taking a...	[ "Hi everyone. Since this is the kind of question that can attract non-expert responses, just a friendly reminder that all responses must comply with [sub rules](_URL_0_), and that [personal anecdotes](_URL_1_) are explicitly not permitted in /r/AskHistorians." ]
Why is it that 60° in air feels fine but when you get in a 60° swimming pool it feels cold and comfortable?	[ "The reason why 60 degree air is so much more comfortable than 60 degree water is that water is about 25 times as thermally conductive as air is. This means that water at any temperature transmits its heat (or absorbs yours) 25 times more quickly than air of the same temperature. It is this reason why it is possibl...	[ "Atoms bonding together to make compounds fundamentally changes how those atoms as a combined entity behaves as opposed to how they behave separately. It all comes down to the strength of the interactions between atoms and molecules, and how many different ways these molecules can absorb heat energy. When oxygen a...
Not trolling, but I always thought a "jewish" person was someone who identified w/ judaism, but some people use jewish to be an ethnicity?	[ "but if someone says they're \"jewish\" in reference to their ethnicity, then what do they usually mean? Does it mean that they are of isreali ethnic origin?" ]	[ "Psychologist: A person who has obtained a PhD in Psychology. They may or may not practice psychotherapy (many just research). Psychiatrist: A person who has obtained an M.D. and specialized in the field of psychiatry. They may or may practice psychotherapy. They are also the only psychotherapists who are allowed t...
How can you put information “in” electrons/subatomic particles when making a quantum computer?	[ "Is usually done with things like spin states. Spin is a property that electrons and other subatomic particles have (akin to more commonly known properties like mass and charge), spin can either be ‘up’ or ‘down’ or, in quantum systems, a combination (superposition) of both ‘up’ and ‘down’. And the up and down stat...	[ "It depends on your favorite interpretation. Copenhagen: Things collapsed because there were measurements in the universe. Many worlds: Things are still entangled but we only see a part that \"looks\" classical due to decoherence. And so on. > How can we even suppose a freshly prepared qubit, if it contains hidden...
why "...of colour" is now an acceptable term, when "coloured people" has been accepted as a negative racial pejorative for decades.	[ "It is always progressive to call people what they want to be called. It is always pejorative to call people what they don't want to be called." ]	[ "Estate used to be a much more vague word - being used as fluidly as to describe something you have a vested interest in. For example, you could say \"TaspiWunder's estate in the solid gold dildo they funded on Kickstarter has no effect on the company's decisions, but reflects their belief in the project.\" You can...
How can there be Chinese billionaires if China is supposed to be communist?	[ "Because China hasn't ever acted like communists. Communists believe in a stateless, classless and moneyless society built on horizontal power structures using democracy to elect representatives to their government. China's \"Communist\" revolution set up a new state with highly centralized authority without any sa...	[ "Celebrities generally don't hold positions of power in the economic system. Wall streeters and executives do, and they use that power to perpetuate the inequality." ]
how is the quality of a projector measured? in resolution, like other displays? do projectors even have a resolution?	[ "Yes, like monitors, projectors have predetermined native resolution which is one of the key specifications used to determine the visual quality of the projected images. Like a monitor, a high resolution projector will be able to produce higher detail images than low resolution projectors. As /u/h0nest_Bender has p...	[ "The retail stores can buy in bulk. And when they do, they get a special discount from the manufacturer. This is part normal, and part enticement from the manufacturer to get their product out there. Typical electronics markup from manufacturer to vendor is 20-30%. That 30% allows the vendor to discount the device ...
Why is the inflation target a range of 2-3%? What is bad about it dropping below this range?	[ "The economy is all about people spending money and money changing hands, which is affected by inflation. Imagine you have £100 or $100 in your hand. With that £100 you want to buy a load of things. Due to steady inflation, that same amount of money is less powerful the longer you hold on to it. If you know the th...	[ "Insulin shots aren't supposed to go into muscle, they are supposed to go into fat. Your tummy, butt and triceps area are the recommended areas to use. Some people say outer thighs, but some don't. Also, when injecting insulin, you must rotate the areas you inject or lumps _URL_0_ Source: Daughter is Type I diabe...
During the American revolution about what % of the Colonist population fought against England?	[ "Not my field. But with some quick math! [The population of the American Colonies in 1780 was 2,780,400](_URL_1_) The [American Revolutionary War](_URL_2_) had 35,000 Continentals, 44,500 Militia, 5,000 Continental Navy sailors (at height in 1779) for a total of 85,000 colonist combatants. So 2,780,400/85,000*[som...	[ "> I've heard a lot about the Domesday Book, but it just doesn't seem very important Allow me to disabuse you of this notion. The Great Survey, called the Domesday Book from the 12th century onward, is not only the model for every public record that came after it, but also the most comprehensive and important work ...
How do the Earth's magnetic poles sometimes reverse and what effect would it have on civilization if it happened now?	[ "To answer your second question, we have no idea what happens when poles switch. There doesn't seem to be drastic deaths and changes to the fossil record when it switches, but there still isn't definitive data to explain what will happen. It could theoretically leave us vulnerable to more harmful types of radiation...	[ "This question is pretty tough to imagine. Here's something that might help: Imagine you live on a [Möbius strip](_URL_0_). You're facing straight down at all times. You leave a ghost image of yourself as you go around the strip. Travel fully around and you get back to where you started, still looking the same way....
How binary code affects how energy passes through a transistor	[ "transistors are switches without moving parts. When a current is applied, they bridge a gap in a circuit. When the circuit is open it's a 0. When it's closed it's a 1." ]	[ "This video by Numberphile explains Encryption fairly well. Not exactly what you are asking but it might help non the less as it does touch on why primes and factoring help with the process. Edit: [A link to the video might be handy](_URL_0_) The key is that there is a number, an astonishingly huge number (Twitter...
Why is it that people don't feel pain when they've been cut/shot until they see the wound?	[ "They're in fight or flight mode and if they stopped because they were in pain from their injuries that would impact their chances of survival. Pain is to tell you to stop doing something because it's causing injury. However, while in fight or flight mode there's no benefit to stopping what you are doing to protect...	[ "When we do the same mundane task over and over and over, our brain basically shuts off. We just continue doing the mundane task as a brain \"sub routine\" and we drift out. Car accidents are exciting and different, it wakes your brain up. Something is happening so now you're active in your involvement in driving. ...
Why aren't more books written on thin paper, such as that used in bibles?	[ "Mainly cost. Making lightweight offset paper involves an expensive chemical process to extract lignin and replace it with a different pigment to keep the resulting paper opaque. Besides that, people that buy physical books typically do so at least partly for \"the feel of the book\" which isn't the same with thin...	[ "_URL_0_ Short answer: the physics change with the scale. If you built a house exactly to scale, but 3 times its normal size, it would collapse under its own weight. Conversely, if you build the house at 1/10th scale, you could probably drop it several times its height without much damage." ]
Is water absolutely necessary for life?	[ "We do not know of any way life could exist without water and carbon. We can speculate, but we don't know. We know that life can exist in the presence of water and carbon. This does not mean that water and carbon are known to be necessary for life." ]	[ "Hi, this question was asked not too long ago, I recommend you check out this link: _URL_0_ That should answer your question. In short, I believe you would nut suffer from dehydration in the traditional sense, but various other problems arise, which I suggest you explore that link for more info." ]
Why is graffiti usually done with bubbly letters?	[ "Easier to write. When you're using your entire arm, making a freehand straight line across 3 feet is actually very difficult. All lines will naturally have a curve to them. They style then over the years develops to accentuate and embelish that. There are taggers out there now that are using pre-cut stencils, whi...	[ "At the time, it was the best means of transporting water. Meaning, it was cheap, malleable & most, of not all plumbers were able to literally, make pipes & fittings while on the site." ]
How do we know that global climate change is directly influenced by man & not just correlation?	[ "There have been plenty of studies proving that. Here's the simple answer: 1. The average global temperature is increasing much, much faster than it ever has before. 2. We have a model of humans' effect on climate whose predictions line up with our observations." ]	[ "many political assassinations could be linked to him? Think the answer may be in the question if you control the media and the legal system you can get away with nearly anything." ]
Why is Vincent Van Gogh so important?	[ "I'm no art expert, but in my opinion his style was substantially different than most of the impressionists. When you look at a Renoir, Monet, Manet, Pissaro, etc. you see an essentially \"realistic\" scene, but one which has been created through unusual techniques (such as pointillism). Van Gogh takes this a ste...	[ "VSauce on Youtube made a very good video on this, I highly recommend you check it out: _URL_0_" ]
How does a curveball work?	[ "eli5 explanation: The spin on the ball makes the wind move fast on one side, slow on the other. The ball then gets moved by the different speeds of wind on the ball. edit: I was explaining it like I was explaining it to a 5 year old. The laces do in fact help create the differences in \"wind\" (friction against th...	[ "I could try to explain it to you, but this video is all you really need: _URL_9_" ]
What is cellphone unlocking? Why is this issue all of a sudden so pertinent?	[ "When you buy a cheap cell phone ( with a 1 or 2 year contract ) you're only paying a fraction of the phone's cost in advance. The rest of the cost is included in your monthly payments. The carrier who sponsors your phone wants to keep you as a customer so they 'lock' the phone so it won't take a SIM card from anot...	[ "\"Just about everyone here\" Where is \"here\" for you? It sounds like your question's premise is based on a small sample set based on personal observation. Before your question is addressed, you should be making sure the premise is valid..." ]
The exact purpose of histamine, and why it can become harmful to allergic peoples?	[ "Histamine is a chemical in your brain that tells your body to respond to harmful intruders. It's what makes itchy bites swell and feel hot. Unfortunately it can also have more serious effects, when it feels that the intruder is more harmful. If It' a peanut you've just eaten, your body thinks it should swell your ...	[ "Because what's considered \"high amounts\" of things in air is actually quite a tiny amount. For example, pollen count is measured in grains of pollen per cubic meter of air, and the websites that I see to track it have \"very high\" pollen levels at around 10. That's 10 grains of pollen per cubic meter. Hardly so...
What are some good books comparing Asian and Western history/society?	[ "You'll be interested in the 'Great Divergence' debate. Some of the more important works are: * William H. McNeill's The Rise of the West * David Landes' The Wealth and Poverty of Nations * R. Bin Wong's China Transformed * Kenneth Pomeranz's *The Great Divergence: China, Europe and the Making of the Modern W...	[ "Hi - we as mods have approved this thread, because while this is a homework question, it is asking for clarification or resources, rather than the answer itself, which is fine according to [our rules](_URL_1_). This policy is further explained in this [Rules Roundtable thread](_URL_3_) and this [META Thread](_URL_...
How the universe expanded to light years across within the first second after the Big Bang.	[ "Nothing inside the universe can travel faster than the speed of light. The universe itself and its expansion is not restricted by the speed of light." ]	[ "The biggest proof isn’t exactly mathematical but observed. There is a 4 kelvin background radiation uniformly spread everywhere we look. It is thought to be the remnants of the explosion. Nasa actually has a pretty comprehensive list _URL_0_ It was less like someone sat down and did the math and more like someone ...

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