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what's the deal with the guy with Lamborghini in the garage next to the bookshelf? | [
"He is trying to sell you on his self help program. That's it, he is a salesman with a pitch designed at a younger demographic and he advertises in places for his target audience (youtube)."
] | [
"1) Both use the same weather radar that belongs to a third company selling its data. 2) Both are using the same device model, there can be more than one of them. (As in: the Bugatti Veyron is the world's most powerful production car, but a few hundred people own Bugatti Veyrons.)"
] |
The difference between the UK, England and Britain. | [
"The UK is made up of four countries (England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland). Great Britain is made up of three of these countries (England, Scotland, and Wales), all of which make up one big island. England is just one of these countries, being below Scotland and to the right of Wales."
] | [
"This CGP Grey video does a really good job of explaining it all. _URL_3_"
] |
What is the scientific explanation for the different races? | [
"Genetically isolated populations of any species will naturally diverge. There doesn't necessarily have to be a strong selective pressure in place for this to happen; simple genetic drift is enough to make some small changes, especially in appearance. Some differences are almost certainly adaptations for different ... | [
"Because we didn't evolve to live indoors as much as we do. Also we are from Africa! Haven't had enough time for our bodies to fully adjust to latitudes with lesser amounts of daylight for parts of the year."
] |
Why do dogs have so much more, or seem to have so much more energy than us? | [
"Because they're doing exactly what they want. They don't have to convince themselves to perform menial tasks for some future reward like most humans do, and so their bodies don't rebel. You'll see that people who are doing exactly what they believe in/are passionate about have similar levels of energy."
] | [
"Part of it has to do with where you are in the REM cycle when it is time to get up. When you need to get up at a certain time, it is just as important to plan when you go to bed and how long you're going to be asleep when it is time to get up. So many people just set an alarm and stay up until they're tired or pl... |
What is the significance of Eigenvalues/Eigenvectors? | [
"control engineer here (we try to discribe a system with a mathematical modell and then try to find the best solution to manipulate it) eigenvalues are very important in any system that has more than one variable we want to control (like an autopilot for a plane that has to observe heigth, speed, direction and even... | [
"I guess I'd counter with a different question - how exactly does watching National Geographic really benefit you, besides the entertainment value? You state this as if it was self-evident, but really why is knowing the lifecycle of lions more useful then celebrity gossip? I'd definitely consider the former more a... |
What exactly is a headrush, and why do you temporarily lose your vision during one? | [
"Inadequate blood pressure in your brain, leading to a lack of oxygen supply to the neurons. Your circulatory system corrects for the reduced pressure quickly, which is why you don't become totally unconscious (usually)."
] | [
"Someone correct me if I am wrong but it goes back to when we had much hairier bodies and when alarmed we as well as a lot of other mammals would puff up our hair to make ourselves look bigger. Think of how when you scare a dog or a cat it hunches up and its hair stands on end, same thing happens to us just we dont... |
How aware were the Byzantines of the physical location and history of Troy? | [
"Charles Brian Rose in \"Troy and the Historical Imagination\" in *The Classical World* says that the location of Troy was well known at least until the 15th century. Mehmet the Conqueror visited Troy 10 years after he conquered Constantinople and claimed that he had finally avenged Troy for what the Greeks had don... | [
"The removal of the Elgin Marbles was [controversial at the time](_URL_0_). Most famously Byron thought it was a terrible thing. I don't know whether there was a similar reaction to the taking of Egyptian antiquities."
] |
why are the earliest sunsets not on the same day as the winter solstice? | [
"The solstice is the shortest day of the year, not the earliest sunrise of the year. Point of fact, it isn't even the earliest sunset of the year. The earliest sunrise may be around Dec. 5th and the earliest sunset is around the 9th-18th, but the days can still get shorter because the sunset is getting later and la... | [
"Now I am by no means a biologist, so I know I’m not answering or explaining but I can share a little of my own experience. I work free lance in the film industry so I will work long days weeks and hours for a period of time and then be unemployed while I try to arrange the next project. At the end of every shoot, ... |
An esteemed director of our institute has recently retired, I am looking for an interesting/unusual scientific gift for him, suggestions? | [
"I used a rubics cube, glued it to fix and labled the sides accordingly to make an epsilon tensor. Did it for a birthday gift to a physics nerd, he was amused. Dunno if your prof would like it aswell or if he even recognizes it. :) Budget ~10$"
] | [
"Not necessarily. This is one reason why it is difficult to age trees in tropical or temperate environments. California redwoods (*Sequoia sempervirens*), for example, do not reliably put on rings every year, and can be similarly difficult to age. _URL_2_ _URL_1_ Edit to add another link discussing alternative a... |
Why do most blockbuster movies go for the PG13 rating while the bestselling video games are rated M? | [
"Because nobody enforces the M rating, and teenagers frequently purchase video games with parents present, while they go to the movies with friends."
] | [
"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 electric field inside a conductor 0? | [
"Note that this is only necessarily true in electrostatics. The reason it’s true for static fields is that any free charge within the conductor will collect on the surface of the conductor. The charge density in the interior of the conductor is zero, then using Gauss’ law, you can show that the electric field must ... | [
"Yes, you would still feel it. For example, if you apply a force perpendicular to the surface of the frictionless object with your finger, then the object would exert an equal and opposite force on your finger. This is the so called normal force, which prevents your finger from penetrating the object."
] |
Maximum size of the universe | [
"> Is that common-sense thinking completely wrong? Yep. For two reasons. First off, the universe can expand faster than light. The limit of light speed applies to objects moving around in the universe, and not to the universe itself getting bigger. Secondly, the universe is believed to be the same \"shape\" now as... | [
"Is it just me or does a big crunch sound more optimistic than ever-expanding-into-darkness-and-cold? It'd be an epic end to the universe, maybe spawning another. I don't see how expanding forever is anything but terribly depressing."
] |
If water is completely saturated with one solute, would another type of solute still dissolve in the water? | [
"In dilute conditions the solubilities of compounds not sharing a common ion are independent, but this is only true in dilute conditions. Consider something like sugar and water. You can dissolve around 900 grams of sugar in 1000 grams of water (1L). Now the masses are actually kinda irrelevant here, but the number... | [
"They did a few years back. It was called Olestra, and it was supposed to change the way we eat (or so they claimed). Basically, the stuff was a fat-substitute that the body simply wasn't able to absorb or digest, so it was just passed through the body. Unfortunately, a problem arose with the stuff because you were... |
What is an 'automatic cryptocoin miner', and what are the implications of having one included in the new uTorrent update? | [
"Your computer will be doing calculations behind the scenes, which will only create profit for the owners of Utorrent. The computer will run hotter, slower and use more electricity."
] | [
"I was curious, so I dug a bit and Google Translated their about page. > And now arcane text that I do not understand. To create paintings using convolutional neural network algorithm and artistic style by Leon A. Gatys, Alexander S. Ecker, and Matthias Bethge. For more information on this portal can be found at t... |
How and Why does the DEA keep marijuana as a schedule 1 drug? | [
"A little personal view, perhaps not the most informed: What I know is that marijuana has been legally considered that way because it's considered to be a \"gateway drug\" toward more damaging ones. However, in my opinion, the very reason why it's a gateway drug is because it's prosecuted the same way the other sch... | [
"Ha, I wrote a paper on this once. If I had to boil it down to one cause... I would say its the fact that in the US railroad infrastructure is (mostly) owned by private companies, which is fairly unique in the world. The US has the most sophisticated and impressive freight railroad transportation in the world (thin... |
How does running/walking for a cause work? | [
"Basically to participate in those thing you have to raise some money. Either from other people or pay it out of your own pocket.Some of those money goes towards charity that even it held for. Then you run/walk to show that you participated, and contributed. Not sure if there prizes for the people who comes first."... | [
"They might. It depends which store and which organization the money is going to. I believe the charity Ronald McDonald House is attached the McDonald's corporation, so the money is probably a tax write-off. But some stores literally just let charities put a little donation box in front of their cash register for n... |
How will new gun laws prevent mass shootings? | [
"I'm not taking a side here, just trying to answer your question: Often, guns are purchased legally and then resold illegally. You can look to Chicago for a good example of this, as traffickers commonly purchase guns legally in Indiana and resell them in Chicago. [(Source.)](_URL_0_) So, theoretically, restricting ... | [
"Hi there -- while we've approved this question, we would like to remind potential respondents of our [current events](_URL_0_) (AKA \"20-year\") rule -- it's fine to discuss events through 1997 (inclusive) and their effects, but not events after 1997. Thanks!"
] |
Why would obviously wealthy people spend millions of their own fortune for political campaigns? Is it really a good ROI? | [
"Smart rich people don't put their money in losing investments. It's really as simple as that."
] | [
"Karl Rove once challenged Dwayne Wade to a 1:1 basketball game. Wade was obviously the overwhelming favorite, but Rove convinced Wade that the best way for him to win was to let Rove's points \"trickle down\" into Wade's basket. Rove won 184-2."
] |
Is noise just the sound of electrons colliding in different ways? | [
"Essentially, yes. The reason your foot doesn't go through the ground is because of the electromagnetic interactions between matter. The fact that they can't collide means that the kinetic energy of your shoe is transferred. Some goes into the ground as heat, some goes back into your foot as heat and as reverberati... | [
"You've got a tube that connects your inner ear to your throat called a Eustachian tube. Normally this tube is pretty much open, except for a 'door' on the throat end to keep stuff out. When you've got a cold, the tube can get infected and it gets swollen, so even if the 'door' opens it can't equalize pressure bet... |
What kept the Spanish from colonizing the Atlantic coast north of Florida in the 16th century? | [
"They did, in fact, send expeditions northward. A fellow named Juan Pedro established a handful of settlements in Tennessee and the Carolinas, but these were eventually reclaimed by local inhabitants. The forts as far north as North Carolina were at one time of uncertain veracity, but recent [excavations]( _URL_0_)... | [
"There was no need to because: - Sweden already produced and sold iron ore. - Shipping is by far the cheapest means of transportation. Kiruna (the place where most of the ore comes from) is nearer to Narvik than to any other navable port/waterway. - Baltic sea tends to freeze. In the end, it would have been a total... |
Why is having “good” posture so uncomfortable? | [
"Because a lot of people lack the muscles in their backs to make the \"good posture\" their \"normal posture\". Trying to force yourself into a certain posture is almost certainly uncomfortable. But if you develop your muscles properly, the posture will come naturally."
] | [
"Old pictures took a long time to expose. We're talking tens of seconds. It can be difficult to hold a still smile that long. The results were often blurry. Still faces were encouraged in order to produce a sharper image."
] |
How to best describe/explain ionization energy and electron affinity? | [
"Ionization energy is the amount of energy that must go into an atom to remove an electron. As you remove more electrons, the amount of energy required becomes larger and larger because of the effective nuclear charge. This pulls the electrons closer and closer to the nucleus, which results in higher energy to pull... | [
"Look at the \"normal\" and \"misfolded\" states in [this admittedly ugly graphic](_URL_0_). The red and yellow dots are both a energy minimums, and the barrier separating them is high. Going from one to the other is hard. For something like a prion, though, the misfolded protein can associate with a normal one and... |
Manual vs automatic cars - how come with a stick shift, when not pressing the gas pedal there is engine braking. But with automatics, there is no engine braking to speak of? Wouldn't that make automatics alot worse at cornering? | [
"There is engine braking in an automatic, just not as much. Compare it to shifting the car into neutral and you'll see the difference. Automatics have a torque converter, which allows the engine to \"slip\" when the transmission is stopped. This is how you can bring the car to a stop without the engine stalling. As... | [
"Think of it as cleaning dishes. When you don't get all the grime off it goes mouldy now picture your ass. Leaving poop on it promotes bacteria and when you wipe sometimes you may have wiped too hard and take a layer of skin off, this is when some irritations occur and you end up with your so called 'Chapped ass'"
... |
Why do some people tolerate the heat better than others? | [
"Is it cause your husband is a red headed fat ass?"
] | [
"We actually don't quite know! There is evidence that it really is a genetic factor, but *exactly* what's happening to cause it isn't known. We do know that the so-called \"Asian flush\" seems to be a differing genetic factor. Environment, body size etc definitely play a big part in it too."
] |
Why doesn't the government calculate my taxes for me? Or better yet, why don't they just take the correct amount out of my paycheck so there's no such thing as "doing taxes"? | [
"That's precisely what the government does. They take the correct amount out of your paycheck. Except it's not a perfect system. Your taxes depend on not just how much you earn in a year, but what you spend your money on that year. So the *precise* amount you owe can't be computed until after the year's over, and a... | [
"The closest thing to that is assembly language. Assembly is a simple, low-level programming language that tells the processor in very explicit detail exactly how to accomplish a task. It has a very limited instruction set. So for example, in a high-level programming language you might say \"If the absolute value o... |
Is it true George Washington was the only U.S. President to personally lead his troops into battle? | [
"Do you mean as sitting President had directed a battle or just been present at one or just that they in general had led men in battle? The answer understably is different for each."
] | [
"Captains wont intentionally kill themselves no, but they are supposed to be the last ones off since they are responsibly for all crew and passengers. > \"The captain goes down with the ship\" is an idiom and maritime tradition that a sea captain holds ultimate responsibility for both his ship and everyone embarke... |
When and why did humans start feeling the need to say something when another person sneezes? | [
"Furthering the question: why not with coughing, which is so similar?"
] | [
"American here. We do this because we're taught to think of the US as a nation of immigrants, i.e. none of us are native to the land we refer to unless of Native American descent. We all recognize the bond we have as countrymen but we also take pride in our ancestral roots that brought us here in the first place. T... |
Why do MOBA game communities (LoL, HoN, Dota) foster such a poor social image? | [
"These are team events. Generally you cannot play them solo. Years of gaming have deeply convinced us that we are smarter than the average bear. After all, we beat the game, right? That's awesome! We're so cool! Not everyone could do that! In these team matches there must be a winner and a loser. Statistically spea... | [
"IRL car races, you have to earn your spot in the starting grid through qualifying. Since there are no qualifying in video games, you tend to start at the back. Haven't played a racing game in a while (outside of Mario Kart, but even that was a while ago), but IIRC you do move up in the grid based on your performan... |
Why do our bodies waste so much good water when we pee? | [
"- It would be quite troublesome to regulate the opposite: Excess water -- > Diarrhea every time. - The kidneys are much more efficient at filtering out electrolytes and water soluble molecules. It would also create a troublesome system of the bowels both needing to absorb as many electrolytes as possible, while wa... | [
"Think of your brain like a billion streams of water that flow over the surface of a rock. The more you use a certain stream, the more \"powerful\" that stream becomes by digging away that rock. Now even if you have a nice dug place for a stream, sometimes randomly that stream won't have needed to flow for a while ... |
How do the bigger name people like the Richard Nixon type or other big news scandal types keep making a living after their reputations are trashed or destroyed? | [
"In Nixon's case, former Presidents get a pension. In addition to that, Nixon was paid for his interviews with David Frost. Then, he also wrote several books in his retirement. His notoriety likely increased sales."
] | [
"Travel, opening campaign offices in each state, television and radio ads, and paying everyone who works for the campaign, from those who research your opposition, to those who manage your website -- it's a year+ long process with a lot more than a few speeches and shaken babies."
] |
Why is coffee so delicious when it is hot or cold but be so disgusting at room temperature. | [
"I really think it's just a matter of personal preference, no particular scientific reason behind it."
] | [
"The equation you posted is about the thermal energy change. (dT is temperature not time). The object in the freezer will cool faster because it has more convective heat transfer, temperature change due to a difference with the surrounding air. See [here](_URL_0_). You want to look at Q^dot not Q. Q^dot is the rate... |
with camera flash, why do human eyes appear red, while animals' eyes often appear blue, yellow, or green? | [
"The colour of your eyes under a flash is due to the reflection of the light from the retina (the back of your eye). The back of our eyes is pinky-red from blood (much like the rest of our insides). Many animals have a layer of reflective cells immediately behind their retina, called the [tapetum lucidum](_URL_0_).... | [
"Rod cells are much more sensitive than cone cells, and the periphery of your eye is much more rich in rod cells (vs. the cone cell rich center). Thus, the peripheral parts of your vision are much more sensitive to light than the center."
] |
Is the persecution of Christians really a myth? | [
"I'm certain there's a hagiographic element to it, as persecution was never a sustained thing, but episodic depending on the emperor in charge. I'm slightly saddened by the fact that this isn't an university published book and hence no peer-review. Edit: thinking about it, it might be worth remembering how Foxe's B... | [
"Can you please clarify what specific historical time or times and locations you are interested in? I may be able to answer your question, but as posed it isn't a historical one."
] |
Why are Power Loaders (from Aliens) not a real thing? | [
"A forklift is simpler, cheaper and does the job better. The same reason that tanks are better than walking mechas. Cheaper and more efficient."
] | [
"The amounts of water are far too great to move at any reasonable cost. Even though a truck full of Deer Park looks like a lot of water, it's negligible for a decent sized farm."
] |
Why are yogurt commercials always aimed towards women? | [
"Studies have shown that men tend to be more critical of ads that claim that certain foods have magical properties. Many yogurts are sold with the claim that they come with health improving probiotics, a claim which the manufacturers have never been able to demonstrate."
] | [
"Its the easiest way to get out of the kitchen for a 5 minute break."
] |
Does the rotation of the Earth have a measurable effect on the earth itself? Like the atmosphere, the weather, or the ocean? | [
"Absolutely. Being a meteorologist, the coriolis effect is the one with which I'm most familiar. In the northern hemisphere, it has the effect of making things turn to the right that would otherwise be on a straight trajectory. It's one of the major forces in atmospheric circulation."
] | [
"There are a few ways. Today we can do it by measuring distant stars parallax that changes slightly as we make a circle around the sun. We can look at other plants since we know their orbits and speeds. Finally, we can do what ancient people did, look at a pattern the sun makes in the sky. Each week exactly at the ... |
The difference between CPU sockets besides the structure of their pins. | [
"I think it's because different cpu-s require different chipsets to work(sadly you can't choose chipset, you have to buy it with motherboard). note: might be wrong, haven't checked it"
] | [
"I thought it was explained pretty well by this old tek syndicate video _URL_1_ Definitely worth a watch!"
] |
How do we figure out the rotational period of distant stars? | [
"For stars whose axis of rotation is not pointing toward us, we can measure the light (spectra) of the left and right sides of the stars. Since one side is moving away from us, and the other is moving toward us, there is a shift in the spectra (similar to the doppler shift that causes a car coming toward us to soun... | [
"Through exposure. Put a camera in a dark room and take a long exposure picture. They do the same thing for seeing things far away in space. The reason it takes satellites so long to get a picture is because they have been taking a long exposure shot the entire time."
] |
Why do American cargo trucks have the engine sticking out in front of the driver whereas European trucks have the engine below the driver? | [
"US laws have maximum trailer restrictions, EU has total length restrictions so it makes sense to have as short of a prime mover as possible so you can have a longer trailer."
] | [
"If you keep the doctor in one place, he can spend more of his valuable time actually seeing patients rather than driving between potentially distant patient houses. Having patients drive to the doctor means the doctor gets to see more patients. Some countries (like France) still do paid doctor housecalls, but that... |
How insects are preserved in Amber and how we’re able to tell how old they are | [
"Amber is tree resin, it was liquid and sticky when it came out of the tree so all sorts of stuff got stuck in it fairly often. And since it's a carbon compound from a tree it can be radioisotope dated, some part of carbon in trees is always radioactive carbon-14 coming from the air where it's created by cosmic ra... | [
"I know at least as far back as the Middle Ages, Europeans used herbs and related plants in their homes and gardens. They planted certain plants aside others to deter pests. We call that companion planting these days. They also would chop up and spread such pest detering plants around the home or place inside bed s... |
Why are Earth solar panels blue and Space solar panels orange/brown. | [
"The orange color of the panels around the ISS and some other space applications is [Kapton] (_URL_0_), a polymer (polyimide) that is space rated for holding together electronics. We used to use it a lot when I worked for NASA. The solar panels around the space station are covered in sheets of flexible Kapton so th... | [
"You'd probably get no signal, though that doesn't interfere with scrolling through pages and opening apps. The absence of gravity could confuse your phone's accelerometer. I don't know if iPhone shows horizonal screens the way other smarphones (like Androids) do, I assume yes. You'd probably get unexpected layout ... |
Why do taxi drivers get tipped but nobody tips the city bus driver? | [
"Part of it is because it's not an individual and custom service that's delivered precisely to you, unlike a server at a restaurant who communicates with you or a hairstylist that spends 20 dedicated minutes with you, so it never became a part of the tipping culture. And bus drivers are usually either direct or in... | [
"The Taxes tanken from our checks are estimates. Sometime people pay too much or too little. When doing our taxes we figure out how much we really owed. Some payed too much and get a refund. Some paid too little and need to make up the difference"
] |
When they found the back box for the Lion Air plane that recently crashed, why did they keep it in a bucket of water after retrieval? | [
"Salt water is very, very corrosive. The higher the salt concentration, the more it damages connectors. If you leave it out, the water evaporates, raising the salt concentration and possibly corroding the connector you need to use to get the data out. Put it in a bucket of water, and add more fresh water as you bri... | [
"It very much seems like a terrible PR decision. Legally speaking, they're looking for a declaratory judgment, which would be a way to get a court to state that they're not liable, without having to wait to be sued. That's not too uncommon in complex liability cases where there are a lot of parties who might have s... |
how can you throw 59 missiles and only kill 6 people and also not destroying all the runway? | [
"The missiles are not that big and not designed to work efficiently on concrete and earthworks. The people on the base were warned before the attack and had either evacuated from the base or hidden in bunkers. And a runway is very difficult to completely destroy. A single missile can only make a small crater. And t... | [
"The same reason a lot of countries in the region don't have the same issue as Yemen has. It's a different country with a much more popular leader in Sultan Qaboos who has created a stable country with a relatively great economy based on oil and tourism."
] |
Why are cigarette butts not made of biodegradeable material? | [
"There are cotton and paper (and historically, cork) filters, but the treated non-biodegradeable filters are easier to inhale through and more flame resistant."
] | [
"It takes a while to implement the changes. How would you like it if the law changed overnight and you had to pay fees/go to jail next day without having a chance to adapt yet."
] |
why is it so much easier to go faster on bikes with thin tires (road bikes) vs ones with wider tires (mountain, etc)? | [
"A larger amount of the tire is touching the road - both because of pressure being lower on the mountain bike and the size being wider. Additionally - not that it matters for my slow ass - the aerodynamics of the road bike are better, including the positions you can get your body into, the wheels (a source of much ... | [
"Doppler effect. Think of sound as being invisible waves emitting from the source. Imagine an engine sitting still 100 yards away. It emits 1 wave per second. This is the \"normal\" sound. When the engine is traveling towards you, it is still emitting 1 wave per second, but between each emitted wave it is getting c... |
Why do so many destructive pathogens exist? Wouldn't one that does no harm to the host's body be more likely to reproduce and spread? | [
"Because they haven't evolved to coexist with the host (yet). There are 10x as many bacterial cells in the human body than human cells. These bacterial are beneficial to us, and we are beneficial to them. _URL_0_"
] | [
"You and your parents speak the same language, but you speak it a little differently. Maybe you and your friends think it is cool to say \"'What's up?\" instead of \"Hello.\" Your kids also speak the same language as you, but they also speak it a little differently. Instead of saying \"What's up?\" they just say \"... |
I have heard that the very earliest depictions of Jesus Christ have him with a wand, is their a reason for this or explanation? | [
"Not necessarily the earliest images, but among them. I wrote a lengthy response on magic wands at r/AcademicBiblical here: _URL_0_ Let me know if you have questions."
] | [
"Niépce's house is now a [museum](_URL_1_) and photography is not allowed inside, so unfortunately there is no modern photograph of the view from the window that I can find. That said, [on the website of the Harry Ransom Center](_URL_0_), you can see a sketch done by the historian Helmut Gernsheim, who rediscovered... |
What do historians look for to sort fact from fiction when it comes to legendary warriors? | [
"Do you mean epic or mythical heroes? By and large, they don't. That sort of 19th century style of directly separating fact from fiction isn't really regarded as a productive task any more. Rather, historians tend to pay more attention to things like performance, audience and reception to find out what the work can... | [
"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."
] |
My friend and I started a website for explainlikeimfive | [
"Good work. You should also try giving a link to more complicated explanation once the reader understands the initial analogy."
] | [
"Reddit is hosted on AWS, which is many massive server farms. One of the advantages of providers like AWS is that when high traffic hits, you can have your system automatically spin up additional servers to handle the load, and then to shut them back down once the demand goes down."
] |
Why can't you wear white after Labor Day? | [
"The social elite of the 1800s had two basic groups. Old Money who were born into upper society and had generational wealth, and new money who were entrepreneurs and merchants who struck it rich and entered their ranks without having been born into it. So the Old Money people often went about creating complex socia... | [
"Common sayings and proverbs don't have to make semantic sense. Ex: \"It's raining cats and dogs\". In this case though, it does make sense. Think of the 'have' as meaning 'keep' You can't keep your cake, and eat it too. Historically speaking, the proverb existed both with 'have/eat' order, and 'eat/have' order. Bu... |
What would be the effect on a human body of the impact of an extremely energetic nucleus (100 EeV) from cosmic rays? | [
"Not much. The human body is thin for nuclear interactions. The particle might collide with a nucleus, then you get several secondary particles flying through the body. There is some probability of another interaction but the beginning shower quickly reaches the other side of the body before a lot of energy has bee... | [
"When electricity pass through a wire it creates an electric field around the wire. Similarly when an electric field is close to a wire, it makes a small amount of electricity pass through the wire. EMPs generate massive electric fields so they can make large amounts of electricity pass through wires over a large ... |
What makes butter "spreadable" or "easy spread" compared to regular butter? | [
"Well it used to be the addition of an oil, like olive oil that would soften the butter naturally and make it spreadable."
] | [
"Think of it as asking \"How can a push-mower and a riding mower have different speeds? They're both mowing the same amount of lawn.\" They're not saying the *data* is faster or slower. They're saying the browser *processes* the data faster. That is, it can render the web page you're viewing faster and possibly wit... |
Why does alcohol in mouthwash not make you drunk through your palate? While you use a straw in alcoholic drinks so you get drunk faster because the alcoholic drink goes through your palate? | [
"You aren't ingesting enough alcohol to get drunk. > While you use a straw in alcoholic drinks so you get drunk faster because the alcoholic drink goes through your palate? That's just 100% false. A straw makes no difference, only the amount of alcohol and how much you're ingesting over a certain period of time."
... | [
"There really wouldn't be much of a point. A well trained horse will know to avoid obstacles, not run into other horses, and even know how to take you home without any input from the rider if it's familiar enough with the rider's usual habits. Point being, with horses, yes, you can give them commands, but it's a l... |
Why is the existence of dark matter such a widely accepted theory? | [
"Dark matter is more of a catch-all term than anything. Basically, there is more gravity than there \"should\" be. The explanation is \"dark matter,\" the definition is whatever is making this anomaly happen."
] | [
"Politics. It's an easy issue to use to paint your opponent as \"evil\" regardless of which side of the debate they are on."
] |
If I flip a coin an infinite number of times, is it possible for it never to land on heads? | [
"What you are asking about is the distinction between [almost surely](_URL_0_) and surely: basically, the distinction between something happening with probability 1 and it being guaranteed to happen (or equivalently, the distinction between something happening with probability zero and that thing being guaranteed n... | [
"Well one way is by selected specific people for your study. The studied that showed evidence that vaccines caused autism actually dropped people from the study who had children not become autistic, found children who had family history of autism to include in the study, and kept the numbers small. Another way coul... |
Why arent the harmful effects of smoking tobacco dose dependent? | [
"The amount of smoke that fills your lungs from one cigarette is already an overdose, so, basically, the difference between overdose and multiple-overdose is not that big. It's like, the difference between \"healthy lungs\" and \"lung cancer\" is much bigger than the difference between \"lung cancer\" and \"multipl... | [
"Crops are a lot less diverse than weeds. When we develop a crop, we plant the exact same plant over and over again. In extreme cases like the Cavendish banana (the one you probably eat), all the plants are genetically clones of each other. So if one disease works against one plant, it would like work against th... |
How do your eyes adjust to darkness? | [
"Additionally to your pupil dilating, you have two different types of receptor cells in your eyes called rods and cones. Cones are used for color vision and during well-lit conditions, whereas your rods are used for black and white vision, peripheral vision, and dimly lit conditions. Part of your eyes adjusting to ... | [
"No. You need to breathe *less* oxygen, so that your body will adapt to low-oxygen situations, so that when you then go running with a normal amount of oxygen, your body will use it more effectively. This is why athletes train at high altitudes. And it takes days to weeks for this to take effects."
] |
Can we effectively mine landfills? | [
"I saw a segment in a Louis Theroux documentary about a guy who makes a living 'mining' gold on/in the sidewalks of NYC. He'd dig in the cracks of the sidewalk and find little bits of gold, diamonds and other precious metals/stones that had been dropped over the years and ground into the dirt. Apparently he made a ... | [
"Would depend on what the weather is like and how big the methane lakes are. Not sure but interesting question."
] |
How did you know which branch you were drafted into? (WWII) | [
"I answered a question similar to this [here](_URL_0_), but I'll repost it below."
] | [
"Usually it's referring to how government contracts are awarded. Contractors submit bids for how much it will cost to do a particular job for the government, and the government is required to choose the contractor with the lowest cost estimate. So like Apollo astronaut Alan Shepherd said: \"It's a very sobering fee... |
- What is String Theory? | [
"This is a bit long of a video, but Michio Kaku does well to explain this better than any of us can. It kind of is his theory to an extent. But in essence, string theory is the theory of everything. It boils down to an equation based on the four fundamental forces (electromagnetic (includes light), gravitation, wea... | [
"All the deep web is, are things that aren't indexed by search engines. Stuff that's not on Google, Yahoo, etc. Look up TOR and check out .onion sites if you're really interested. But be VERY careful what you click on."
] |
We live in a time where a fairly powerful computer can sit in your pocket. So why the hell are photocopiers still the size of a small car? | [
"You can easily get photocopiers around the size of (and often integrated with) a desktop printer. Larger ones for business use are typically larger because they are designed to accept large quantities of paper, in various sizes and typically use larger-capacity toner cartridges instead of simple ink cartridges, so... | [
"They're cheap, small, simple, don't require any real maintenance and don't require any skill to get a somewhat-acceptable tone out of or get correct pitch. They also don't have to sound terrible - breath control for proper tone production isn't typically taught to the kind of students who are playing recorder to b... |
Why linux will be good for gaming | [
"The underlying structure of linux is great for speed. The basic decisions made for high speed processing for servers can map very nicely into high speed performance for gaming. All that is needed is solid support from hardware manufacturers. But with things like Nvidia deliberately crippling their linux drivers be... | [
"It costs 35 dollars and have basically zero setup or learning curve."
] |
The top used Internet Browsers and how they're different. | [
"Please don't shoot me, but I'd say Wikipedia's [article](_URL_0_) is fairly informative for this topic."
] | [
"Yeah, yeah, we get it, cuz of the sugar. But why COLA?? -- vs. any of dozens of other sweek drinks out there?? What is it about the taste of COLA that makes it the most popular flavor of drink (or soda/pop type drink)??"
] |
Why would a train driver opening and closing the doors be less safe than the guard doing that? | [
"Conductor and Driver are pretty much completly useless. Some subways in Paris don't have drivers or conducters anymore. Neither do trains in Spain around the parts of Barcelona."
] | [
"I could answer this for you, but since I found it so wonderfully explained in detail [elsewhere](_URL_0_), I will instead point you there instead of typing the full explanation here. A very brief explanation of what is there though is to say that each time the food is cooled from hot to cold and passes through tha... |
If the UK's debt is equivalent to £45 per tax payer, why can't the UK government just tax everyone £45 and clear the debt completely? | [
"UK government debt is around 1.56 trillion which is actually more like £26,000 per person. You're getting mixed up between the deficit and debt. The deficit is how much more we are spending per year than we take in through taxes. Government debt is how much the government owes overall."
] | [
"Say you had a brother who sells yu-gi-oh cards locally for a living. Over the years, he gives you (in reality SA buys) thousands of the rare cards he is selling. $750,000 worth. One day, you and your brother get into a fight and as \"payback\" you dump your $750,000 card collection at the street corner for $100,0... |
How do mantis shrimp and humans eyes and image processing differ? | [
"Mantis shrimp eyes have 12 different color receptors, but no ability to combine the results from different color receptors. This means they can see a large variety of colors, but only those colors. Human eyes see 3 (2 for colorblind people; 4 for some people) different colors; but can combine the feedback from col... | [
"I found this article about it: _URL_0_ Here's the tl;dr of it: Atoms emit photons occasionally. Our retinas occasionally pick these photons up, even if the source is inside your own body. Plus, photons can sometimes stimulate other nerves directly."
] |
Did the Confederate States military ranks carry over from the Union Army? | [
"Though the previous rank was an important consideration, there was no automatic transfer of rank. This was almost irrelevant, as experienced officers were given promotions to higher ranks - the larger wartime army required more general officers, more colonels, etc., and so experienced officers were commissioned to... | [
"A follow-up question of sorts: Did other monarchies, Duchies etc. use legendary people as part of the numbering for names? Like, suppose the Duchy of Toyota had a legendary founder Duke Camry, did the first actual Duke Camry take the name \"Camry II\""
] |
Why does smoking the same amount of pot from the same batch affect you so differently from day to day? I.e. sometimes it’ll barely affect you and sometimes it’ll knock you on your butt. | [
"TL;DR: the less stuff your body has going on, the more you will feel it. & nbsp; Okay so, this is all anecdotal and based off of my experience and base knowledge of the body. You ever notice you feel way more high when you smoke on an empty stomach? Basically, your bloodstream has a ton of stuff it carries around... | [
"Once you have fought off a specific cold virus, your body has gotten good at fighting it off. So if you encounter it again in the near future, your body will fight it off this time before you even get symptoms."
] |
Eating live bacteria in yogurt: why is this helpful? Does my gut have the same bacteria as yogurt? | [
"Just going to answer this part, because the rest is basically inconclusive studies all over the place. > Do I normally have in me the same bacteria found in commercial yogurt? Yes, your gut flora does contain *Lactobacillus acidophilus* and *Bifidobacterium animalis*. Some yogurt companies like to add catchy name... | [
"* A \"Sell-By\" date tells the store how long to display the product for sale. You should buy the product before the date expires. It is a stock control system for the stores. * A \"Best By (or Before)\" date is recommended for best flavor or quality. It is not a purchase or safety date. It is a guarantee for the ... |
Why is the term "socialist" a dirty word in American politics? | [
"In most Americans' eyes, socialism is irreversibly tied to communism, which is synonymous with the Soviet Union, the US' geopolitical rival for most of the latter half of the 20th century. The USSR was communist, and also socialist, so both have always had a bad connotation. Most people don't understand that you c... | [
"There is a fear, founded or not, that the government will require specific actions or information in order to provided service. Example: \"Oh, you want kidney stone procedure done? Sure, but first we need to see all of your grocery store receipts to see if your diet is causing the problem\" or \"Yes, we will be ha... |
Mental Illnesses and therapy | [
"Your question...is not a question, and it's not really clear what specific information you're looking for. ELI5: what do you actually, specifically, want to know about mental illnesses and therapy?"
] | [
"Genetically speaking it exists because it poses a survival advantage. Sometimes the guys who go out hunting get killed by the tiger, and the ones who gather nuts and berries near the cave live to pass on their genes. Also some studies show that depresses persons have a more accurate appraisal of the world. So in... |
Seeing as how the universe is constantly expanding, will the constellations observed from earth change shape over time? | [
"The constellations don't change because the universe is expanding, they change because they are composed of stars in our own galaxy, and they all have their own motions relative to that. Here's [what they will look like 50,000 years from now](_URL_0_)."
] | [
"Very long exposures. Also they use different sensors for different parts of the spectrum and then add all of the pictures together. It is not like you or I taking a picture which happens in a second or less. Hubble may look at something for many hours at a time and the do it again on another day and so forth until... |
How would charging a charger work? | [
"There would be losses. As the pack charges up, it also heats up. That heat eventually dissipates out into the air around it and is essentially lost. That heat comes from the energy stored in the other pack so if you constantly charged one pack with the other and then swapped and charged the other pack, eventually... | [
"We aren't really sure why, but it doesn't seem that something like that can be done. Think about it like your bladder; you can build up a need to urinate, but you cannot urinate so much that your bladder is more than empty."
] |
Wednesday What's New in History | [
"This isn't so much \"what's new\" as in \"what's doing the rounds again.\" [The sometimes observable, sometimes not, correlation between castration and living longer](_URL_19_) is popping around the internet again. As far as I can tell the io9 story is the original impetus this time, but you know how most news is ... | [
"BTW, for those that are downvoting this question, I would appreciate it if you could take a moment to explain the motivation. On reddit in general I could care less if something I write gets downvoted, but here in askHistorians it decreases the chances something I ask will get answered so if I am breaking some sor... |
Is it (theoretically) possible to create a 'reverse microwave' that could cool down food/drinks? virtually a 'stop the molecules from dancing'-machine.. if not: why can't we reverse the process? | [
"It's much easier to set particles in motion (heat) than to slow them down (cool). But you can use electro-magnetic radiation to cool things, like this: _URL_0_, and even this: _URL_1_"
] | [
"It is Newton's first law, the law of inertia, that you can use to describe this situation: The ice will remain at rest until an external force acts upon it. If you move the cup from side to side, you're pushing on the side of the cup, the cup is pushing the uncompressible water on one side and pulling the water f... |
What is that sensation in your forehead when something like a finger or pencil is really close? | [
"Anxiety about objects being close to a very sensitive part of your head, coupled with the fact that it is picked up by 3 or even 4 of the 5 major senses. Yep, hearing too. Your hearing can detect not only left and right but the entire spatial ambience in a room, a kind of rudimentary sonar, which is why you can de... | [
"Here's [one possible explanation](_URL_0_) from a guy who won an Ig Nobel prize for his research: > “It turns out the sound waves associated with primate warning cries, particularly chimpanzee warning cries, are remarkably similar in appearance to the aversive, middle frequency sound waves produced by fingernails... |
What did the average Soviet Union Citizen think of the 1969 Moon Landing? | [
"I'd like to know how this event and other achievements in space by the USA were reported by the media of the Soviet Union and other Eastern Bloc states. Was there a live broadcast of the first moon landing available for Eastern Bloc viewers?"
] | [
"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 /... |
Why is the “number of jobs created” the benchmark for how well an economic policy is valued? | [
"It often isn't. When politicians propose policies in public facing ways, they tend to phrase it as a way to create jobs because that happens to be politically popular. The Republican tax cuts, for example, could just as easily be framed in terms of GDP growth or boosting investment, but saying \"it creates jobs\"... | [
"By not defining what they mean by \"#1.\" If they don't say it's the #1 movie at the box office, or the #1 movie according to critical rating, or #1 highest rated movie on metacritic user reviews, or such, they're not lying. By not quantifying it they can easily decide for themselves what it means, and argue that ... |
I've been told that if you were to watch something fall into a black hole, you'd never see it actually hit the singularity... | [
"We are reasonably sure that there isn't a singularity... What makes you think there is one? The singularities are predicted by general relativity, which is a classical field theory. We know that classical theories are not correct, as quantum mechanics needs to be taken into account. Typically, a singularity is a s... | [
"The \"sound barrier\" only exists in fluids like the atmosphere (and it changes depending on the properties of the fluid). The speed of light is fundamentally different. Really, you can't even *approach* the speed of light since no matter what you will always observe light (and any massless particle) to move at th... |
Why do people sneeze differently? | [
"I really want to know the answer to this because my husband insists he has to make this yelling noise when he sneezes, and I don't think he does."
] | [
"Ok, just reading this post made me clear my throat. I'm genuinely curious and hope a psychologist or scientist will answer this :)"
] |
Why does mint make everything feel cool? | [
"The main chemical responsible for mints flavor, menthol, triggers the same receptors in your mouth that are responsible for feeling temperature-cold. So when you then eat/drink something else cold, the receptors are triggered again on top of that and the effect is magnified."
] | [
"Spearmint's a plant, *Mentha spicata.* Peppermint is a hybrid, the result of a cross between spearmint and another plant in the same genus, *Mentha aquatica,* called watermint. They're different plants, in other words, which have similar but different flavors when eaten straight or used as a flavoring."
] |
- Why is it that salt and pepper are the only two prevalent spices to be found on the dinner table? | [
"Blame the French. Basically there was a super picky French emperor that disliked most other spices so he banned them. French cuisine adapted and became the dominating cuisine of Europe and consequently the rest of the world."
] | [
"In addition to [Pompeiian graffiti](_URL_1_) and other [epigraphy](_URL_3_), much of which was quite crude, we also have the books for a number of comedic plays by [Plautus](_URL_4_) and [Terence](_URL_0_) and satirical poems by [Horace](_URL_5_) and [Juvenal](_URL_2_). And what were they like? Much like humor in ... |
Friday Free-for-All | July 17, 2015 | [
"I put [a challenge](_URL_2_) to the fine folks of /r/BadHistory a moment a go, so if anyone here would like to play along, here's what you've got to do: Take [this map](_URL_2_) and fill in as many Native American nations as you can recall. **EDIT**: I've decided that later today, I'll go through all maps that peo... | [
"Here's an ancient forum post from 1997 that you might find interesting...though you actually have to click the links to navigate. Also, I wonder if that's _the_ John Conway leaving replies there... _URL_0_"
] |
If charging an already fully charged device harms its battery, why can't it just stop charging once it's at 100%? | [
"There already is a mechanism that prevents modern phones from overcharging, we don't have to worry about this anymore. Once it reaches 100% it stops charging and once it's at 99% it starts again. Repeat until you remove the charger."
] | [
"A few reasons. 1. They have a legal duty to do their best to deliver a positive return for investors. 2. Issuing more stock to the market is a good way to raise capital. For that to work, you have to have a high stock price at the point at which you sell your stock. 3. Many companies' executives are paid, in part ... |
What does it mean to 'master' a song? | [
"Mastering is almost exclusively about volume optimization so that the recording will sound consistently good regardless of the device it is played on. They raise the volume on quieter parts of the recording, equalize the different tracks to correct any minor imperfections, and then as far as an album goes they lo... | [
"Strangely, (at least it seems strange to some people) regular old film is extremely detailed, somewhere around 25 megapixels per image. In order to distribute a movie, it gets converted to an easier-to-use format, but this process loses some of the detail. This isn't a problem because if they convert it to DVD, fo... |
Why are bicycles able to stay upright when moving, and not while stationary? | [
"Aha I know this one! The bike wheels are acting like gyroscopes, the spinning keeps the wheels moving forward and as long as they're spinning it'll stay upright because the energy required to knock it over is *more* than the energy needed to keep it upright. This is why when you push a bike, say down a hill, it'l... | [
"The Universe is a dynamic place. Stars have been observed to move around, some quite fast. We have seen a number of [supernovae](_URL_6_) throughout the centuries, including many in other galaxies in more recent years. [Supernova 1987A](_URL_3_) has changed since we first saw it (this is really the post-supernova)... |
How do blankets work? Why do they allow me to become warm even when the outside is cold? | [
"your body makes heat. this warms the air around your skin. the blanket holds that air close to you."
] | [
"Your microwave oven is pushing several hundred watts into a pretty small enclosed space. It's not transmitting heat -- it's exciting water molecules in your frozen burrito. Your Wi-Fi access point is pushing less than a watt and scattering it in all directions, which is why it will do nothing to your burrito."
] |
What's the point of Congress passing bills to protect us if they can just be repealed later? | [
"Well, what's the point of having a congress at all if they can't change anything?"
] | [
"Each flu has it's own \"strain\". A type. A shape and identity. Once it gets into your body and starts reproducing, it doesn't matter much if you get a few additional cells of influenza in your body, it's a drop in the ocean. And once your immune system identifies and develops a resistance to it (based on it's s... |
What proportion of the genes in a genome are actively expressed at any one time? | [
"> whereas a large fraction (53%) of expressed protein-coding genes were constitutive (expressed in all cell lines), only 7% were cell-line specific (Supplementary Table 7 and Supplementary Fig. 10). [*Landscape of transcription in human cells*. Nature 2012.](_URL_4_) So about half of all genes are expressed in all... | [
"Here's an [article at livescience](_URL_1_) that says essentially what others in this thread are saying. * We don't know how much oil reserves are in the Earth. * There's no defined length of time that is required for organic material to be converted into petroleum. * The rate at which oil is created is ~~likely~~... |
What will replace integrated circuits once they reach the smallest size possible? | [
"The smallest size possible was thought to be 1 micrometer not so long ago, so any predictions on when the transistor gate length will definitely be too small is a bit early in my opinion. Architectures using silicon and conventional field effect transistors, in theory, can go down to 3nm gate length, 10 times smal... | [
"Actually this is a topic that has turned up recently. Solid state format has outpaced disc formats from almost every direction. It could be done. Nintendo has entertained the idea of going back to cartridge."
] |
If humans were to see in the inferred spectrum, how would that effect our vision? | [
"You would perceive that information in a translated way. Remember, what you see is not what's in front of your eyes. It's information that was collected by your eyes, signaled to your brain, and then, your brain makes the \"image\". An ability to see in infrared would add more information to that picture, but that... | [
"We don't. We must choose to accept that what we sense is in fact in some semblance real. There is no other way to live a sane life."
] |
what is the hardest part of sending a rover to the moon? | [
"The hardest part is, ironically, what you can't plan: the landing location. Of course you can pinpoint an exact spot, but if your rover is unlucky enough to land on a rock big enough to tip it over, your mission is dead. It's just that easy."
] | [
"They're trying to develop a rocket that can land vertically and be used again. Due to laws regarding airspace and (mainly) safety regulations, they can't try this over land, so they built a barge out in the water where they can legally develop the technology."
] |
Is there a limit to how much space Flash drives (like SD cards and such) can hold? | [
"Yes, it's usually printed on them. ... Memory space on flash drives depends on how many transistors which can be fitted on an integrated circuit, and that number doubles every 2 years according to [Moore's law](_URL_1_). Currently we can make ICs with a half pitch (half the distance between transistors) of 22 nm. ... | [
"The brain is made up of neurons, which are essentially just cells. We have a pretty fixed amount of neurons over time; what changes is the number of connections between neurons. Whenever you learn something new, your brain creates a bunch of connections in your brain that represent that. When you're young, your br... |
If defendants are innocent until proven guilty, why are courts allowed to treat them as though they are guilty up until their trials? | [
"Courts are not allowed to do that. You are, in the eyes of the law, innocent until proven guilty. If you are referring to bail, that's something very different. You can be held before trial---at least in most places---either because the court finds that you are likely to skip out on the trial, or because they hav... | [
"I'm a journalist. I can tell you straight up : it's for audience. These videos create shock, which is the best hook television news has over the viewer. The whole ethics speech they'll give you about people having the right to see it is BS. Television is a business, news or not, sadly. This is even more true in th... |
What is the difference between a virus and a bacteria? | [
"Bacteria is a tiny, single-celled organism. Bacteria can exist on its own in the world, or inside of other living things: plants, animals, you, me. Not all bacteria are bad, though, and we have beneficial bacteria living inside our bodies every day. Whereas Viruses are also microscopic beings, but they behave diff... | [
"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... |
If Americans changed to medicare for all or universal healthcare, would their increase in taxes be more, less, or equal to the amount they pay for medical now? | [
"Almost certainly less. In every country with a universal health care system [medical costs are substantially less than in the US.](_URL_0_) Their [health care outcomes are better](_URL_1_) than in the US too."
] | [
"Someone vaccinated against a disease can still be infected by a variant strain (this is why you need to get a new flu shot every year, not the because the old one has somehow \"worn off\"). Viruses mutate into new strains rather quickly and easily, but to do so they need to replicate, which means they need a host,... |
How and why did Japan go from being a fairly isolated and (to my knowledge) relatively antiquated nation to a superpower in less than a century? | [
"I recommend reading this excellent answer by /u/t-o-k-u-m-e-i to a similar question: [How did Japan industrialize so quickly and so successfully?](_URL_0_) The answer covers a wide range of factors within a well-presented timeline."
] | [
"* larger population from which to pool athletes * better nutrition, medicine, sanitation and means fewer athletes succumb to illness and injury * the rise of a class of professional athletes who do nothing but train to run fast * better training techniques, sports nutrition, running surfaces, and running equipment... |
How are humans made from carbon? How does something that's a rock in nature become part of a living being? | [
"Chemistry is more complicated than \"everything made from carbon is a rock\". Carbon makes gases, liquids, solids and all sorts of biological compounds. As a common example, oxygen and hydrogen are both gases but they become water when you combine them into a molecule."
] | [
"Mutation + gene duplication + billions of years = amazing things. The part you seem to be asking about is the duplication part. A genome doubles in size by accident, and suddenly you have a lot of room for new evolution."
] |
Could an EMP safely disarm a dead man's switch or would it only activate it? | [
"Depends on the nature of the switch. If it's electronic, it might. If it's electronic and shielded from EMP, it should survive. If the switch is mechanical, the EMP won't disable the switch, but it might disable whatever the switch is connected to."
] | [
"CPU cores communicate cache line locking and staleness information between each other using a bus protocol such as [MESI](_URL_1_) or [AMBA/AXI](_URL_2_). These protocols are then used by the CPU to implement atomic instructions such as `lock xadd` on x86 and `ldrex/strex` on ARM. Edit: Here's an article that give... |
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