question stringlengths 3 301 | answer stringlengths 9 26.1k | context list |
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what are the actual risks of talking about tienanmen square massacre in china? | You’ll get re-educated to be a more harmonious citizen in re-education camp if you have families that would make a fuss if you’re missing, if you don’t you’ll just disappear.
They actually talk about their version of the event in uni. The gist is: no protester die, many peace keeper die, there were no tanks. No info ... | [
"On June 19, 2007, a group of around 100 Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) lawmakers again denounced the Nanjing Massacre as a fabrication, arguing that there was no evidence to prove the allegations of mass killings by Japanese soldiers. They accused Beijing of using the alleged incident as a \"political advertisemen... |
Why are rashes red in colour? | Increased blood flow. Histamines and other inflammatory agents which are released at the point of cell damage or an immune response increase the flow of blood to the area, making rashes red and hot. | [
"A rash may be localized in one part of the body, or affect all the skin. Rashes may cause the skin to change color, itch, become warm, bumpy, chapped, dry, cracked or blistered, swell, and may be painful.\n",
"One form the rashes take is called \"heliotrope\" (a purplish color) or lilac, but may also be red. It ... |
Why is it that when I am eating cereal, and I have earbuds in, I can hear the crunch so much louder than usual? | The vibrations travel up your jaw to the ear bones. There's a brief [spiel](_URL_0_) that sort of explains the tie between the jaw and the development of the ear evolutionarily. You can look it up elsewhere for more info. | [
"On June 25, the company voluntarily began to recall about 28 million boxes of Apple Jacks, Corn Pops, Froot Loops and Honey Smacks because of an unusual smell and flavor from the packages' liners that could make people ill. Kellogg's said about 20 people complained about the cereals, including five who reported na... |
what's stopping me from taking a relatively large loan and leaving the country to live in another country? | With the exception of a small handful, all civilized countries recognize the jurisdiction of eachother's courts. You leave the country, default on the loan, get sued, get a judgment, then get enforcement proceedings in whatever country you're in.
If you go somewhere that doesn't allow this, then the only thing stoppin... | [
"A person who leaves the country to stay abroad for more than a year, loses municipal domicile immediately. However, exceptions are made for persons who retain close ties to Finland or work as diplomats, missionaries or aid workers.\n",
"Persons primarily seeking better economic opportunities may reasonably quote... |
what is a "reasonable doubt"? i know what the legal definition is, but i want to know what i means. | Identical twin brothers are accused of murder. Their identical DNA was found at the crime scene, proving one of them did it. Neither will rat on the other, so there's no witness testimony. Absent other evidence, neither brother can be convicted even though it's obvious one of them did it because a reasonable person ... | [
"Reasonable doubt is a term used in jurisdiction of common law countries. Evidence that is beyond reasonable doubt is the standard of evidence required to validate a criminal conviction in most adversarial legal systems.\n",
"What then is reasonable doubt? A reasonable doubt is an honest and reasonable uncertaint... |
how can services like cloudflare filter out ddos traffic without getting a false positive from, for example, an article getting posted on reddit and subsequently getting clicked by 10 million people? | So I'm not the expert here, ~~Debbie~~ wait wrong subreddit.
Anyway, the goal of DDoS isn't to bring down a server in the sense you and I usually think of it.
Loading a webpage works like this:
"Hello, server at _URL_1_? Are you there?"
"Yes."
"Hi, I would like the page _URL_0_"
"Here you go!" And it then vomits ... | [
"Spammers that target third party analytics directly can pollute statistics, but do not consume the affected site's resources. Filtering referrer spam from analytics tools will hide it from reports. However, spammers that do visit the affected site will consume server bandwidth. To prevent this misuse, they can be ... |
How many trees (better yet, houseplants) do I need to plant to be 'carbon-neutral' at home? How about for the car | first a general remark: you must realize that planting trees, doesn't make your household carbon neutral.
carbon neutral refers to producing biofuels from biomass (like wood, energy crops, algae, ...). these biofuels can me burned to generate energy, to drive your car, ... in the process producing CO2. Since these biof... | [
"When a tree is cut and the wood is used for products such as structural lumber or furniture, the carbon is stored for decades or longer. A typical home in North America contains 29 metric tonnes of carbon, or the equivalent of offsetting the greenhouse gas emissions produced by driving a passenger car over five ye... |
How do laboratories contain such astronomical levels of heat? | It should be noted that there is a difference between temperature and heat.
Say you have a bucket of hot water, vs a teacup of near boiling water. The teacup may have a higher temperature, but overall would be less effective at heating something up. So If you took a small kids pool, and poured in either the bucket of ... | [
"Presently, as through its history, the Laboratory develops instruments and procedures for examining materials across a wide range of temperatures and pressures — everything from near absolute zero to hotter than the sun and from ambient pressure to millions of atmospheres. The Laboratory uses diamond-anvil cells c... |
does shifting quickly up in manual car really save gas? | A really really good driver can save gas with good shifting, but 99.999% of drivers are not that good. I think the average driver would be hard-pressed to beat a modern automatic transmission. | [
"The most common reason to short shift in day-to-day driving is to improve fuel economy. By keeping the engine at the lower end of its rpm range less fuel is consumed. This is especially common in \"torquey\" vehicles, vehicles whose engine torque curve peaks at lower rpm than the power curve, because the higher to... |
Why do humans have such bad backs/knees? | Because of technology, we're adapting in different movement patterns, positions, posture. You could say the advancing of technology has changed the way we do things e.g. prolonged sitting, prolonged standing, etc etc
We're designed to stay fit and flexibility. We have become so reliant on technology that nearly all h... | [
"This leaves humans more vulnerable to medical problems that are caused by poor leg and foot alignments. Also, the wearing of shoes, sneakers and boots can impede proper alignment and movement within the ankle and foot. For example, High-heeled footwear are known to throw off the natural weight balance (this can al... |
why is tesla having higher networth than ford or gm, when the former hardly produces a small percentage of cars than latter? | Tesla does *not* have a "higher networth" than Ford or GM, it has a higher *market capitalization*. That is a very different thing and has a large speculative component, i.e. people are hoping that Tesla will take over a large segment of the car market *in the future*. | [
"These successful companies were built on sheer innovation and we can see how valuable they have become in the short time they have been around or have been focusing on innovation. When Tesla's value is compared to that of General Motors, we see that the market capitalization of General Motors is $53.98 billion tod... |
why is the japanese culture obsessed with robots? more specifically humanoid robots? | I am not 100% sure if this answers it but here goes.
When cartoons where first being developed to appeal to kids animation was super expensive and time consuming so people had to find a way to do it as cheaply and quickly as possible. Japan's animators found robots where very easy to animate because of their segmented... | [
"In Japan robots became popular comic book characters. Robots became cultural icons and the Japanese government was spurred into funding research into robotics. Among the most iconic characters was the Astro Boy, who is taught human feelings such as love, courage and self-doubt. Culturally, robots in Japan became r... |
How realistic are Western movies/games? | The "wild west" is an invention of hollywood through and through.
Let's start with those saloons. A typical "wild west" saloon is a large open space filled with tables with a bar at one end and wing doors at the entrance. In reality a typical bar in the old west would have been long and narrow with few windows. And it... | [
"Discussing inspirations for the game, Kopiński stated \"we wanted to capture the best of all the western movies we love, so it can't be simply categorized as either a Spaghetti Western or a realistic Western. It's a blend of the best elements from both.\" He specifically cited Sergio Leone's \"Dollars Trilogy\" (\... |
why does my body feel "slanted" when i'm lying in bed when i'm drunk? | the reason you are dizzy while drunk is that not all of your senses are working like they should. If you sit your tactile sense, inner ear and eyes are getting clear information. Once you stand up your tactile sense goes missing, your inner ears are are not getting clear information (because the alc effects the blood a... | [
"Alcohol can also cause alterations in the vestibular system for short periods and will result in vertigo and possibly nystagmus due to the variable viscosity of the blood and the endolymph during the consumption of alcohol. The common term for this type of sensation is the \"bed spins\". \n",
"It also appears in... |
What is the least complex living being known to feel pain or any clear response to damage? | Depending on how you define pain, one of the simpler could be a type of [Cnidaria](_URL_0_), e.g. a hydra.
They have sensory neurons, and they're able to respond to damage. But I wouldn't say they can *feel* abstract concepts such as pain, since they don't have a brain.
Disclaimer: I have no formal education in any p... | [
"Invertebrate nervous systems are very unlike those of vertebrates and this dissimilarity has sometimes been used to reject the possibility of a pain experience in invertebrates. In humans, the neocortex of the brain has a central role in pain and it has been argued that any species lacking this structure will ther... |
Why are anti-depressants typically just re-uptake inhibitors instead of actual doses of serotonin or dopamine? | From what I remember is that serotonin and dopamine won't be able to cross the blood-brain barrier. Also the body will just start breaking them down. So they won't be very effective in getting to the desired sites. | [
"The majority of the tricyclic antidepressants (TCAs) act primarily as serotonin–norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors (SNRIs) by blocking the serotonin transporter (SERT) and the norepinephrine transporter (NET), respectively, which results in an elevation of the synaptic concentrations of these neurotransmitters, an... |
If your brain releases melatonin when it gets dark, is it the opposite for nocturnal animals, and it releases when it's light? | No. Melatonin is released from the pineal gland into the blood during darkness, regardless if the animal is diurnal or nocturnal. | [
"Melatonin is a hormone secreted by the pineal gland in darkness, normally at night. Its production is suppressed by light exposure, principally blue light around 460 to 480 nm. Light restriction, or dark therapy, in the hours before bedtime allows its production. Dark therapy does not require total darkness. Amber... |
During WWI & II (and/or in other relevant modern conflicts) how did belligerent powers actually make use of the industrial capacity of occupied territories? | It is well-documented that the Nazis (WW2) took over captured weapons factories and used them to turn out lots of weapons for use by the Wehrmacht. Examples include the FN-High Power, the Polish Radom, the FN M1922, the Norwegian Colt .45, and there are lots more. The Czech VZ 24 and VZ 33 rifles were produced on cap... | [
"Physical capital in the occupied territories was destroyed by the war, insufficient reinvestment and maintenance, whereas the industrial capacity of Germany increased substantially until the end of the war despite heavy bombing. (However, much of this capacity was useless after the war because it specialized in ar... |
how did we end up with a silent k, of all sounds, in words like knight and knife? | Silent letters are the ghosts of pronunciations past. The word 'knight', with its silent 'k', and silent 'gh', is cognate with the German word for servant, 'knecht', where every letter is pronounced. ... The 'e' isn't pronounced, but it changes the pronunciation of the vowel by lengthening it. | [
"The letter ⟨k⟩ is normally silent (i.e. it does not reflect any sound) when it precedes an ⟨n⟩ at the beginning of a word, as in “knife”, and sometimes by extension in other positions, such as “tight knit”. Exceptions include the town of Knoebels Grove ( ) located in Pennsylvania in the United States, the Germanic... |
Is there really a debate on the amount of people killed by communists regimes in the 20th century? | You might be interested in the historic debates around the Holodmor that I describe [here](_URL_0_).
As for the "100 million deaths caused by communism" - as far as I am aware, this claim specifically comes from the *Black Book of Communism*, published in 1997 by Stéphane Courtois et al. While Courtois and the contri... | [
"Rummel estimated the total number of people killed by all governments during the 20th century at 212 million, and he estimated that 148 million were killed by communist regimes from 1917 to 1987. To give some perspective on these numbers, Rummel pointed out that all domestic and foreign wars during the twentieth c... |
The Greek Gods and Jesus | Short answer, no. Long answer. Christianity was unique in that the miraculous birth story that is told of Jesus was through a virgin. But other than that, a miraculous birth isn't all that uncommon. In The Gospel According to Judas, Jeffrey Archer and Francis Moloney argue that the conception of Jesus is just one more... | [
"Some have argued that Christianity is not founded on a historical Jesus, but rather on a mythical creation. This view proposes that the idea of Jesus was the Jewish manifestation of Hellenistic mystery cults that acknowledged the non-historic nature of their deity using it instead as a teaching device. However, th... |
why are there more bugs out at night? | Because they have a better chance of not being eaten by birds, most of which sleep at night. | [
"Bed bugs are attracted to their hosts primarily by carbon dioxide, secondarily by warmth, and also by certain chemicals. \"Cimex lectularius\" only feeds every five to seven days, which suggests that it does not spend the majority of its life searching for a host. When a bed bug is starved, it leaves its shelter a... |
Tooth decay only because of poor dental hygiene or can genetics play a part? | I am not a dentist but my understanding is that genetics can definitely play a part. Inherited [amelogenesis imperfecta](_URL_1_) for example can cause [enamel hypoplasia](_URL_0_). | [
"Dental decay or dental caries is the gradual destruction of tooth enamel. Poverty is a significant determinant for oral health. Dental caries is one of the most common chronic diseases worldwide. In the United States it is the most common chronic disease of childhood. Risk factors for dental caries includes living... |
Why did the Abbasids revolt against the Umayyads? Was it because the Umayyads were hostile towards the descendants of the prophet(12 imams)? | To begin with, the Abbassids did not claim descent from Muhammad. The Sunni definition of Ahl al-Bayt is broader than the Shi'a definition. Sunnis consider *all* of Banu Hashim and their descendants to fall under Ahl Bayt. That would be the descendants of Ali, Abbas, Ja'far, Aqeel, and Harith ibn Abdul Muttallib. The d... | [
"Thus, the Abbasid branch of the Hashimites (descendants of ibn Abbas) and the Alid branch (descendants of Ali) each made their own separate efforts for overthrowing the Umayyads. The revolt of Zayd ibn Ali, a descendant of Ali, in the 730s, was ill-fated. Zayd, after being abandoned by many of his followers, fough... |
Anatomically, what muscles/tendons/etc. move the
jaw from side to side or front to back? | Side to side is accomplished by the [medial pterygoid muscles](_URL_2_) and the [lateral pterygoid muscles](_URL_0_)
Forward and backwards is accomplished by a couple muscles:
* Forward (protraction) is accomplished by the [masseter](_URL_1_)
* Backwards (retraction) is accomplished by the [temporalis](_URL_3_)
Of ... | [
"The lower joint compartment formed by the mandible and the articular disc is involved in rotational movement—this is the initial movement of the jaw when the mouth opens. The upper joint compartment formed by the articular disc and the temporal bone is involved in translational movement—this is the secondary glidi... |
what is a subsidy? | Very simply, a subsidy is when the government offers money to a group, usually corporations, to achieve various results. This can range from lower prices for the consumer, to help researching new technologies, to an effort to stabilize prices.
A great example in the US is farming. As we all know, farming is largely d... | [
"A subsidy or government incentive is a form of financial aid or support extended to an economic sector (or institution, business, or individual) generally with the aim of promoting economic and social policy. Although commonly extended from government, the term subsidy can relate to any type of support – for examp... |
Is radioactivity "contagious"? | Neutrons can transmute nearby materials to unstable, radioactive ones. This takes a lot of neutrons though, as is generally only seen inside nuclear reactors. For instance, the stable iron inside reactor pressure vessels can absorb neutrons and become radiative forms of iron.
56Fe + n - > 57Fe
57Fe + n - > 58Fe ... | [
"Unplanned exposure to radionuclides generally has a harmful effect on living organisms including humans, although low levels of exposure occur naturally without harm. The degree of harm will depend on the nature and extent of the radiation produced, the amount and nature of exposure (close contact, inhalation or i... |
Can water freeze above 0C/32F with additives? | As I recall, anything dissolved in water will always depress the freezing point. In the case of the article you're most likely thinking about, the idea is to install wind power pumps that will bring water from below the existing ice surface and put it on top. This will work to thicken up the ice, as ice itself has insu... | [
"The relationship between the different temperature scales is linear but the scales have different zero points, so conversion is not simply multiplication by a factor. Pure water freezes at 32 °F = 0 °C and boils at 212 °F = 100 °C at 1 atm. The conversion formula is:\n",
"Water normally freezes at 273.15 K (0 °C... |
What are the causes for a hurricane of this magnitude? (Hurricane Matthew) | There were strong hurricanes before there was global warming, and Matthew is pretty typical for a Caribbean storm. It's not likely anyone could pin this one on climate change, but if there were some trend that was different over the course of decades, then you could look back and say maybe that was due to climate chang... | [
"All Atlantic Category 5 hurricanes have made landfall at some location at hurricane strength, and all but two made landfall at some location at major hurricane strength. Most Category 5 hurricanes in the Atlantic make landfall because of their proximity to land in the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico, where the usual ... |
Why isn't Greenland a continent? | Basically it's arbitrary. Continents are decided based mainly on convention rather than specific criteria. Also Greenland is quite a bit smaller than say Australia. 2,166,086 square kilometers as opposed to 7,617,930 square kilometers. | [
"Greenland (Greenlandic: \"Kalaallit Nunaat\", ) is an autonomous country within the Kingdom of Denmark, located between the Arctic and Atlantic Oceans, east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Though physiographically a part of the continent of North America, Greenland has been politically associated with Europe (... |
Explain CPT symmetry and the implications of this article. | CPT symmetry means that if you flip C, P, and time, all of them, the particle will behave the same. It doesn't behave the same if you flip just C or just P or just T. | [
"\"CP-symmetry\", often called just \"CP\", is the product of two symmetries: C for charge conjugation, which transforms a particle into its antiparticle, and P for parity, which creates the mirror image of a physical system. The strong interaction and electromagnetic interaction seem to be invariant under the comb... |
Why did the muslims take so long to adopt the printing press considering how highly they value historical records and their sacred book? | Not to discourage further discussion, but you might be interested in [this previous answer](_URL_0_) from u/frogbrooks. | [
"By the 9th century, Muslims were using paper regularly, although for important works like copies of the revered Qur'an, vellum was still preferred. Advances in book production and bookbinding were introduced.\n",
"Printed copies of the Quran during this period met with strong opposition from Muslim legal scholar... |
how did newton figure out gravity? | The rotations of the planets were well known. however it was assumed that the orbits were circular. Newton invented calculus (though whether or not he was the first is a matter of debate) and proved that the orbits are elliptical not circular. | [
"Newton's contribution to gravitational theory was to unify the motions of heavenly bodies, which Aristotle had assumed were in a natural state of constant motion, with falling motion observed on the Earth. He proposed a law of gravity that could account for the celestial motions that had been described earlier usi... |
why is it that when i watch tv recordings from the 70's, 80's or 90's the quality is absolutely terrible, almost unwatchable, but back then they seemed perfectly fine? | Compared to everything else at the time, they looked pretty much the same. Also, you're probably watching on a much nicer screen now. | [
"On several occasions, malfunctions of either the television set or the Ampex recorder caused a tape to have serious video or audio problems. In some cases, no recording could be made, explaining some of the weeknight date gaps in the 1960s and 1970s. Some of the oldest tapes in the collection, mainly between 1968 ... |
What are your opinions regarding Martin Gilbert’s books of WW1 and WW2? | I read the WWI books by Gilbert, SLA Marshall, and Keegan about a decade ago. I enjoyed all of them as they offered quite different perspectives and focus.
Looking at them as strictly operational histories versus a more "war and society" approach, Gilbert's work falls into the latter whereas the other two are more s... | [
"Many laud Gilbert's books and atlases for their meticulous scholarship and his clear and objective presentation of complex events. His book on World War I is described as a majestic, single-volume work incorporating all major fronts—domestic, diplomatic, military—for \"a stunning achievement of research and storyt... |
why sometimes paintings that look like a wounded chicken drew them are considered art and could be sold for millions? | Art isn't all about who can make the most detailed drawings, aesthetics are huge in it. A very detailed and beautiful landscape would fit in nicely with a traditional theme, however minimalist or abstract themes are part of a contemporary theme.
There is also meaning in the paintings. A well drawn portrait may not ha... | [
"According to some native beliefs recorded by the Jesuits and others, the paintings were drawn by a race of giants—a supposition that has been discarded by scientific investigators since the late nineteenth century. This belief may have been suggested by the larger-than-life size of many of the human (as well as an... |
What caused the significant phenotypic diversity of Central Asia? | Central Asia has always been a contact zone between Caucasoids and Mongoloids. Indo-Europeans have inhabited the area for a long time, Tajiks are Indo-European speakers and also predominantly Caucasian phenotypically. Today's western China was once inhabited by Tocharians, who were Indo-Europeans, belonged to a haplogr... | [
"Historically, Central Asia has been a \"melting pot\" of West Eurasia and East Eurasian peoples, leading to high genetic admixture and diversity. Physical and genetic analyses of ancient remains have concluded that – while the Scythians, including those in the eastern Pazyryk region – possessed predominantly featu... |
how did someone like duterte rise to the power in the philippines ? | It really comes down to the fact that the Philippines has had a massive problem with drug usage in the past several decades. Along with that is a prosperous organized crime epidemic. Rodrigo Duterte, while he was mayor of Davao, did manage to get rid of a lot of the towns drug problems.
Yes, he did it through murder a... | [
"The triumph of the peaceful People Power Revolution and the ascension of Corazon Aquino into power signaled the end of authoritarian rule in the Philippines and the dawning of a new era for Filipinos. The relatively peaceful manner by which Aquino came into power drew international acclaim and admiration not only ... |
Why is it, that an infusion with artificial blood cannot develop itself into cancer? | Blood cells lack a cell nucleus (though that does not mean that they are prokaryotes. That term is used to describe cellular *organisms* without a nucleus, not single cells) and other important cell organelles (mitochondria, ribosomes, rough ER, etc...). That means that not only are they unable to produce any proteins,... | [
"By manipulating the tumor environment, it is possible to create favorable conditions for the cells with least resistance to chemotherapy drugs to become more fit and outcompete the rest of the population. The chemotherapy, administered directly after, should wipe out the predominant tumor cells.\n",
"Angiogenesi... |
Can pyschopaths have traumatic disorders like PTSD? | Trainee clinical psychologist here. There's no current diagnosis of psychopath. That term, and sociopath, are a bit outdated and currently covered by antisocial personality disorder in the DSM-V (the manual used to diagnose mental health disorders).
It's a good question though. Theres no reason why the two shouldn't o... | [
"PTSD is a psychiatric disorder that requires an environmental event that individuals may have varied responses to so gene-environment studies tend to be the most indicative of their effect on the probability of PTSD then studies of the main effect of the gene. Recent studies have demonstrated the interaction betwe... |
What’s our early evidence for measuring horses in hands? Why has it persisted as the standard for measuring horses? | The hand is a unit of measurement that is used exclusively for the describing the heights of horses and other equids. Horses are measured from the ground to the top of the [withers](_URL_0_). One hand is equal to four inches. Although hands are expressed decimally, they are base four units. A horse who is 16.2 hand... | [
"References going back to at least 1937 suggest that the \"gauge\" of ancient rutways, and the distance between the wheels of carts influenced the railway standard gauge of the modern era which is . The argument is that this is shown by the evidence of rutted roads marked by cart wheels dating from the Roman Empire... |
What do we hope to gain or reveal through research and experimentation of quantum entanglement? | Some of the motivation is fundamental research. There has been much effort invested in conducting truly loophole-free [Bell tests](_URL_3_) as they establish that the non-classicality that quantum mechanics predicts in fact can be observed in nature. While the relation between entanglement, existence of Bell inequaliti... | [
"Quantum Entanglement Science and Technology (QuEST) is a research program, announced by the DARPA Microsystems Technology Office (MTO) in 2008. As a follow-on to the QuIST Program, its goal was to further accelerate development in the field of quantum information science.\n",
"D’Ariano proposed quantum entanglem... |
Can you easily break somebody's neck by twisting their head quickly, like in the movies? | I read this question answered a few months ago on here. Basically the top comment said that a person's neck muscles are super strong, so that unless the killer really surprises the person being killed, the person could tense up and fight them off. | [
"On the 2016 \"Talk is Jericho\" podcast, Nancy's sister Sandra Toffoloni clarified some details further. She said that over the weekend after the murders, the search history on Benoit's computer showed he had researched \"the quickest and easiest way to break a neck\". He had then later used a towel around his nec... |
Really small question about napoleonic french army jackets | Although I don't want to discourage others from answering, the forum on [The Napoleon Series](_URL_0_) has a number of reenactors lurking on it. | [
"The cloth caps worn by the original grenadiers in European armies during the seventeenth century were frequently trimmed with fur. The practice fell into disuse until the second half of the eighteenth century when grenadiers in the British, Spanish and French armies began wearing high fur hats with cloth tops and,... |
If muslims were known as descendants of Ishmael in the middle ages, were they to some extent already recognized as some 'third' Abrahamic group prior to the birth of Mohammed? | Did Islam exist before the birth of Mohammed? | [
"In Islam there is a tradition of prophetic lineage, particularly with regard to the prophet Abraham (Ibrahim) who had many prophets in his lineage - Jesus (Isa), Zakariyyah, Muhammad, David (Dawud)), etc. - through his sons Ismael and Isaac.\n",
"The earliest three generations of Muslims are known as the Salaf, ... |
what is sql? is it one of the simpler programming languages? | SQL = Structured Query Language.
It is a language meant for getting/updating data in databases. An example command (so to speak) would be
INSERT INTO table(col1, col2) VALUES(val1, val2) | [
"SQL ( \"S-Q-L\", \"sequel\"; Structured Query Language) is a domain-specific language used in programming and designed for managing data held in a relational database management system (RDBMS), or for stream processing in a relational data stream management system (RDSMS). It is particularly useful in handling str... |
why isn't canada outrageously wealthy due to their landmass? | Cold. Too cold. Transportation is tough when it's too cold. | [
"The result of cheaply distributed land and land reforms has been that modern Canada's land holding pattern is very egalitarian and large-scale. The majority of the population owns some land, often in large quantities. This is distinct from the few large landed estates and masses of tenant farmers typical of Old Wo... |
how are baitcar operations legal? what makes it not entrapment? | Entrapment is when an officer convinces someone to commit a crime they otherwise wouldn't. When bait cars are set up, there's no undercover cop standing there telling them they should break in. They're doing it purely on their own volition. | [
"Bait cars can be used as part of a honey trap, a form of sting operation, in which criminals not known to the police are lured into exposing themselves. Unlike a sting operation that targets a known or suspected criminal, a honey trap establishes a general lure to attract unknown criminals. Bait cars are not consi... |
As we understand black holes, how does gravity outside the event horizon affect items inside the event horizon? | > Let's say that there's a Jupiter sized planet orbiting around a black hole. Would items inside the event horizon be affected by the planet outside it?
Yes
> Also, would that not also affect where the event horizon was? Wouldn't the gravity pull from the planet slightly move the event horizon inward a bit?
... | [
"In astrophysics, an event horizon is a boundary beyond which events cannot affect an observer on the opposite side of it. An event horizon is most commonly associated with black holes, where gravitational forces are so strong that light cannot escape.\n",
"Any object approaching the horizon from the observer's s... |
Why do royalty take the style of their first name (ex. Queen Elizabeth)? | They do *technically* have last names -- descendants of Queen Elizabeth II have the surname Mountbatten-Windsor.
["For the most part, members of the Royal Family who are entitled to the style and dignity of HRH Prince or Princess do not need a surname, but if at any time any of them do need a surname (such as upon mar... | [
"For many centuries, the title \"princess\" was not regularly used for a monarch's daughter, who, in English, might simply be called \"Lady\". Old English had no female equivalent of \"prince\", \"earl\", or any royal or noble title aside from queen. Royal women were simply addressed or referred to as \"The Lady [F... |
why do you have to "charge" glow in the dark stuff? | That's actually pretty much correct.
It is called "phosphorescence" and basically means that it doesn't re-emit the light that it absorbs immediately (the way light shining on a red object would just absorb and then reflect back red light immediately at the same strength as the light that hit it, since it is all at on... | [
"Some examples of glow-in-the-dark materials do not glow by phosphorescence. For example, glow sticks glow due to a chemiluminescent process which is commonly mistaken for phosphorescence. In chemiluminescence, an excited state is created via a chemical reaction. The light emission tracks the kinetic progress of th... |
why are probabilities called densities? | Density refers to how tightly packed the elements of a set are. Density as the trivial relationship between mass and volume follows this.
Observing probabilities as the relationship of chances and incidences and mapping them to a unitary scale gives rise to the idea of distribution—how great a share of a unitary chan... | [
"When it's convenient to work with a dominating measure, the Radon-Nikodym theorem is used to define a density as the Radon-Nikodym derivative of the probability distribution of interest with respect to this dominating measure. Discrete densities are usually defined as this derivative with respect to a counting mea... |
how do drugs like kamagra and viagra affect the body? | Your question was so interesting that I looked it up. Thanks for making me learn something interesting
I'll try to explain Viagra (active ingredient sildenafil). Wikipedia says:
>
"Sildenafil is a potent and selective inhibitor of [cGMP-specific phosphodiesterase type 5](_URL_0_) (PDE5), which is responsible for ... | [
"Herbal viagras often carry a number of dangerous side effects. Primarily, they cause abnormally low blood pressure and can restrict blood flow to vital organs. There is also evidence to suggest some preparations may be toxic if taken in larger doses. Additional side effects and dangers of common herbal viagra adul... |
why aren't the joint chiefs five star ranks? | Because the joint chiefs don't individually control everything. They each have control in their respective branches, but they still have to coordinate with each other.
On the flip side, the president can't be expected to have the knowledge necessary to issue out advanced, detailed orders.
So what do you do when you n... | [
"As the table indicates, each of the members of the original Joint Chiefs was a four-star flag or general officer in his respective service branch. By the end of the war, however, each had been promoted: Leahy and King to Fleet Admiral; Marshall and Arnold to General of the Army. Arnold was later appointed to the g... |
Who was the first recorded Chinese person to visit or live in the United States? | My first thoughts of this is that there probably were no recorded records for the first Chinese person, because there was a robust international trade in goods and services by the time of the Pilgrims. People traveled throughout the world for tea and spices. So, it would make sense that at some point an adventurous p... | [
"Based on data collected in 1999, when 64,602 Americans resided in China, most resided in Hong Kong (48,220 in 1999), with smaller numbers in Beijing (10,000), Guangzhou (3,200), Shanghai (2,382), Shenyang (555) and Chengdu (800).\n",
"The historian William Mason stated that the first Chinese in Los Angeles were ... |
why is it best for someone with frostbite to warm up slowly? | It's not about you warming up too quickly. A very cold hand is also a numb hand, so you can't tell how hot the water you're putting on yourself actually is, so it would be very easy to burn yourself without realizing it until you've done serious damage.
Meanwhile it's not really important to have the hottest water ... | [
"Individuals with frostbite or potential frostbite should go to a protected environment and get warm fluids. If there is no risk of re-freezing, the extremity can be exposed and warmed in the groin or underarm of a companion. If the area is allowed to refreeze, there can be worse tissue damage. If the area cannot b... |
how did the states get their shapes? | Sometimes it was geographic boundaries like rivers or mountain ranges. Sometimes it was done via treaty with other countries (and they stuck when the state borders were formed). Sometimes they were just chosen arbitrarily (especially where the straight lines happen).
Obviously there are more details with every state, ... | [
"How the States Got Their Shapes is a US television series that aired on the History Channel. It is hosted by Brian Unger and is based on Mark Stein's book, \"How the States Got Their Shapes\". The show deals with how the various states of the United States established their borders but also delves into other aspec... |
Is there an evolutionary reason that most animals separate solid and liquid waste? | Animals don't separate their wastes per se. Solid waste is the result of processed food, liquid waste is the result of blood filtering via the kidneys. So the two different waste types come from different systems, and at no point are they really the same thing. Feces are from the beginning of the cycle, it's the bits o... | [
"Much detritus is used as a source of nutrition for animals. In particular, many bottom feeding animals (benthos) living in mud flats feed in this way. In particular, since excreta are materials which other animals do not need, whatever energy value they might have, they are often unbalanced as a source of nutrient... |
why don't reboil water? or is it ok? | Completely false. There's nothing wrong with boiling water a million times, other than the fact that you won't have much left. | [
"In many cases, effluent water from one process can be suitable for reuse in another process if given suitable treatment. This can reduce costs by lowering charges for water consumption, reduce the costs of effluent disposal because of reduced volume and lower energy costs due to the recovery of heat in recycled wa... |
Did Aircraft Carriers in World War II carry spare aircraft? | Yes, many aircraft carriers in WWII carried spare planes, though the type and number varied quite a bit by the type of carrier and the individual navy's doctrine (and the availability of spare planes, of course).
For example, Nagumo's carriers at Midway (_Akagi, Kaga, Soryu_ and _Hiryu_) were nominally supposed to ca... | [
"Seaplane carriers became obsolete at the end of the Second World War. A few remained in service after the war but by the late-1950s most had been scrapped or converted to other uses such as helicopter repair ships.\n",
"Despite the expensive reconstructions, both vessels were considered obsolete by the eve of th... |
On nutrition labels, why are sugars and carbohydrates listed as two separate entities? | To explain why, one first needs to understand the distinction between carbohydrates and sugars.
*Carbohydrates* - molecules composed of carbons, hydrogens, and oxygens. Another term more commonly used in glycoscience is "saccharide", but the two are more or less synonymous. While most people would probably think of ty... | [
"This is a list of sugars and sugar products. Sugar is the generalized name for sweet, short-chain, soluble carbohydrates, many of which are used in food. They are composed of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen. There are various types of sugar derived from different sources.\n",
"Sugar is the generic name for sweet-ta... |
if i bought a self driving car, would i need a drivers license? | California is still in the process of creating laws regarding this matter, so I can only give you a speculative answer.
You would need a drivers license to operate a self driving car in case the system malfunctioned. With that same line of thought, it's plausible that laws will govern that there be a licensed "driver"... | [
"There will certainly be a requirement to show a driver's license, and only those drivers appearing on the contract may be authorized to drive. It may include an option to purchase auto insurance (motor insurance, UK), if the renter does not already have a policy to cover rentals—another important consideration for... |
how are we able to hold our breath for so long? how do our vitals still receive oxygen? | You do not consume all of the oxygen in the air you take in during one breath. Inhaled air contains about 21% oxygen, exhaled contains about 16%. So you can see how you would have enough oxygen in a single breath for a while (minutes). The actual urge to take fresh air comes from wanting to get rid of the CO2, which de... | [
"Oxygen (O) must be present in every breathing gas. This is because it is essential to the human body's metabolic process, which sustains life. The human body cannot store oxygen for later use as it does with food. If the body is deprived of oxygen for more than a few minutes, unconsciousness and death result. The ... |
why can't windmills based out at sea have a tidal power element at there base to allow for tidal-energy too ? | Because that would merely cost, while only increasing energy production by a very small margin.
Wind turbines are placed in areas with high wind, and ideally on sandbanks to reduce installation costs. The chance that this matches with a place where tidal forces can be gathered cost effectively, is unlikely. | [
"Tidal Farms utilize tidal stream generators that are grouped together to produce electricity. These generators use the moving tides to turn turbines that are very similar the wind turbines used on land. The power of the ocean and the turbines advance technology guarantee a much more predictable energy output then ... |
Why do some birds have forked tails? | Upturned wing tips increase lift in smaller wings we now use this in aviation as the upturn cuts the wingspan by a third and reduces drag.
The forked tail makes the bird more agile at high speed in the air hope that helps | [
"Most birds' tails end in long feathers called rectrices. These feathers are used as a rudder, helping the bird steer and maneuver in flight; they also help the bird to balance while it is perched. In some species—such as birds of paradise, lyrebirds, and most notably peafowl—modified tail feathers play an importan... |
why are universities treating education like it is corporate business? | You named them. More faculty, more housing, more classrooms. Universities are very expensive to run. Qualified professors aren't exactly a dime a dozen, and most universities I've seen are running low on space to expand, since they were either built in a major city or a city has grown around them.
| [
"Universities have taken a growing interest in creations that have revenue-generating potential, like online classes or lecture slides, while also showing concern for products that may be used by comparable institutions, potentially reducing their competitive advantage. In order to stay on top of others academicall... |
Math and operational warfare: how much and which type of applied mathematics was employed in tactical operations during the ww2? | I'd like to caveat by saying that while I certainly consider myself to be an avid student of the field artillery, and fairly knowledgeable in the science of Gunnery, I would not consider myself to be a historian, or a leading expert in the matter.
Unfortunately also, I am deployed at the moment, so I don't have access... | [
"Accounts of the success of operations research during the war, publication in 1944 of John von Neumann and Oskar Morgenstern's \"Theory of Games and Economic Behavior\" on the use of game theory for developing and analyzing optimal strategies for military and other uses, and publication of John William's \"The Com... |
Is it true that one pound of body fat is equivalent to 3,500 calories? | Yes. One pound of body fat is not purely composed of pure triglycerides. There is also cell membranes and organelles and water too. So a cell of adipose tissue is maybe 85% triglycerides by weight. That yields enough grams of fat molecules (and at 9 Calories per gram) to yield about 3500 Calories in one pound of bo... | [
"The assumption that a pound of human fat tissue represents about 3500 calories in the context of weight loss or gain is based on a review of previous observations and experiments by Max Wishnofsky published in 1958. He noted that previous research suggested that a pound of human adipose tissue is 87% fat, which eq... |
How did pre-Colombian societies in and around the Caribbean deal with the "Hurricane Season" | There's always room for discussion, but perhaps the section [Natural Disasters](_URL_0_) from our FAQ will answer your inquiry. | [
"Widespread rainfall occurred throughout Central America in early October 2008 due to the passage of a tropical wave through the region. Later, another tropical wave approached the region, which was believed to have left the west coast of Africa on September 17. The wave developed a low pressure area on October 10 ... |
how does the measles virus wipe out your body's "memory" of immunity to other viruses and why is this not common in other viruses? | The virus has a proclivity for immune memory cells as targets for infection. This causes the death of the immune memory cells from the action of the virus itself and from elimination by the healthy aspects of the immune system in fighting the infection. This widespread destruction of the immune memory cells, which are ... | [
"The virus replicates in those bone marrow cells, which disrupts the development and replication of leukocytes (white blood cells), eosinophils, and basophils. Because of this, thrombocytopenia could also a potential result. Erythrocytes, which are enucleated red blood cells, seem to be infected while they are eryt... |
running, sprinting, and jogging. what's the difference? | Running is what you'd call the action itself; sprinting and jogging are just different speeds of running.
I would say that sprinting is running as fast as you can-- think of how fast the athletes in the 100m dash at the Olympics go, or what you would do if you were being chased by a bear.
Jogging, on the other hand,... | [
"Jogging is running at a gentle pace, its definition, as compared with running, is not standard. One definition describes jogging as running slower than . Running is sometimes defined as requiring a moment of no contact to the ground, whereas jogging often sustains the contact.\n",
"Jogging is a form of trotting ... |
What family ruled for the longest length of time? | If we look at this as skeptically as possible, accepting only the most well-attested historical records, the Imperial House of Japan is the best bet. The Solomonic dyansty in Ethiopia claims to have ruled earlier, but a lot of their claims are very poorly documented and they don't even claim to have ruled continuously.... | [
"The longest-living member of the British royal family has been Princess Alice, Duchess of Gloucester (1901–2004), who lived 102 years and 309 days. Princess Alice, Duchess of Gloucester became the oldest ever member of the royal family when she surpassed the age of 101 years and 238 days in 2003, the age at which ... |
asian keyboards | Most of them look pretty much like U.S. keyboards.
You usually type the Japanese or Chinese characters phonetically with standard letters. Then a list of possible matches appears where you are typing, and you can click or arrow to the correct choice.
Most Japanese characters also have Japanese phonetic characters dir... | [
"Chinese, Japanese, and Korean require special input methods, often abbreviated to CJK IMEs (Input Method Editors), due to the thousands of possible characters in these languages. Various methods have been invented to fit every possibility into a QWERTY keyboard, so East Asian keyboards are essentially the same as ... |
why is it easier for me to remember numbers that are hyphenated (social social security numbers, phone numbers) but hard to remember a long stretch of only numbers? | Our memory works best with "chunks" of related information. If you tried to memorize "5896325658" on its own (*disclaimer: that is not my phone number; I just made that up*), you might get confused and mix things up, because you're trying to remember 10 "things": the digits in the sequence.
But, if you can break it do... | [
"The memory system suffers from inhibition. This is why it is difficult to hold two different phone numbers in working memory at the same time. Although it may seem that inhibition impedes our memory system, it allows humans to focus on the relevant details and ignore irrelevant ones when required to make quick dec... |
Would surface area impacts gravitational pull ? | Gravity is a dependent on mass, not shape, so it doesn't matter how much of the surface is exposed. We're pulled to the center of the Earth, not the surface. The surface just keeps us from falling to the center of mass. | [
"Free-air gravity anomalies are relatively easier to measure than the Bouguer anomalies as long as topography data is available because it does not need to eliminate the gravitational effect due to the effect of mass surplus or deficit of the terrain after the gravity is reduced to sea level. However, to interpret ... |
Would it be possible to communicate from inside a black hole by changing its rotation rate? | When you are on the inside, you contribute to the total mass of the black hole. You've brought whatever mass you had outside to now be part of the black hole. The same is true of angular momentum. You can add to the angular momentum in some way but once you are inside the event horizon, that angular momentum now contri... | [
"Both of these types of lines can be used to visualise black holes, and the ways in which spacetime warps around them. They may also help to explain phenomena such as the 'kicks' observed in simulations of merging black holes as they are flung away from their host galaxies, and may also help in the search for gravi... |
why is it when a child is learning to speak, the most common constant expressed is a "w"-sound? | It's because it's a really easy sound to make. Children learn easy sounds like /m p b w/ etc. first, and then they learn harder sounds later on. | [
"Sound is at the beginning of language learning. Children have to learn to distinguish different sounds and to segment the speech stream they are exposed to into units – eventually meaningful units – in order to acquire words and sentences. Here is one reason that speech segmentation is challenging: When you read, ... |
Was Qing imperial policies in Xinjiang, Yunnan, Tibet, etc. comparable with European colonial policies? Was the Qing Empire a "colonial" empire? | I don't really know enough about "colonial" policies in general to compare them to Qing policy in Tibet (it should be noted that China itself as a Qing imperial possession in the strictest sense). I mean, the "colonial period" lasted five centuries and was vastly different based on the colonial power and the colony. I.... | [
"With respect to these outer regions, the Qing maintained imperial control, with the emperor acting as Mongol khan, patron of Tibetan Buddhism and protector of Muslims. However, Qing policy changed with the establishment of Xinjiang province in 1884. During The Great Game era, taking advantage of the Dungan revolt ... |
how were 5v and 12v decided on as the "go to" voltages for so many electronic devices, specifically computers? | Voltage of chemical cells is one factor. For chemical sources of DC voltage (i.e. batteries, rechargeable or not), you can't really alter the voltage easily, the best you can do is add multiple cells to get a multiple of their inherent voltage.
Alkaline non-rechargeable batteries provide around 1.5V. You can't run a 0... | [
"In the United States and Canada, national standards specify that the nominal voltage supplied to the consumer should be 120 V and allow a range of 114 V to 126 V (RMS) (−5% to +5%). Historically 110 V, 115 V and 117 V have been used at different times and places in North America. Mains power is sometimes spoken of... |
When did adult baptism go mainstream. | After the Reformation, the only sect of Christians that practiced adult baptism were the Anabaptists, as indicated by their name. This aspect of their practice caused persecution by Catholics, Lutherans, and Calvinists.
It moved towards the mainstream with the Methodists in the 18th century, and became more widely sp... | [
"In 1609, the Baptist movement taught that baptism is for adults (believers' baptism) according to their biblical understandings. The children's presentation thus developed in parallel with this movement and was widely spread in Baptist churches and in all Evangelical movements in the 20th century.\n",
"Thirteen ... |
because natural selection is not happening to humans with modern medicine, what does it mean for the human race in the near and distant future? | Natural selection is 100% happening. All modern medicine has done is changed the selective pressures. Things that exerted significant pressures before may not now, things that did not exert significant pressure in the past may now. | [
"Adaptation to space may involve resistance to radiation, photosynthetic and solar-sail organs, artificial and robotic organs, and adaptation to microgravity. If humans are so altered, will humankind still survive? Do we aim to preserve the human species, or help its evolution? By biotic ethics, the human species w... |
Are North and South poles of a planet or magnet interchangeable? | The right-hand rule sets the convention, which says that the north pole of, say, a bar magnet is the pole from which magnetic lines diverge and the south pole is the pole into which magnetic lines converge. We could have just as well defined the north and south pole the opposite way. (It would require a redefinition of... | [
"Although for many purposes it is convenient to think of a magnet as having distinct north and south magnetic poles, the concept of poles should not be taken literally: it is merely a way of referring to the two different ends of a magnet. The magnet does not have distinct north or south particles on opposing sides... |
Is the vacuum of outer space fundamentally the same as the empty space between particles like electrons and proton? Or are they different somehow? | An atom is not mostly empty space. This is a common misconception. The electrons, protons, and neutrons that make up an atom are not little solid balls separated by vast expanses of empty space. They are quantum objects that act somewhat like waves and somewhat like particles. In an atom, the electrons act mostly like ... | [
"According to quantum field theory, the vacuum between interacting particles is not simply empty space. Rather, it contains short-lived virtual particle-antiparticle pairs (leptons or quarks and gluons). These short-lived pairs are called vacuum bubbles. It can be shown that they have no measurable impact on any pr... |
What would happen if you antibacterialized your digestive system? | This happens frequently on very strong antibiotics. It causes digestive disorders and colonization of the gut by unfriendly microbes, notably Clostridium difficile (C. diff), which causes severe diarrhea, is hard to disinfect and is easily spread between patients and healthcare workers.
_URL_0_ | [
"Antimicrobials that reduce the number of the strict anaerobic component of the gut flora (i.e., metronidazole) generally should not be given because they may enhance systemic infection by aerobic or facultative bacteria, thus facilitating mortality after irradiation.\n",
"The ability of \"L. plantarum\" to produ... |
why do zambonis need to be so big? | To hold more warm water so they can clean/smooth ice more effectually.
How whole internal parts works I am not 100% on. But playing hokey for 10 years you tend to notice things. I know it picks up the ice it scrubs off and melts it for more water to use. As well as it needs weight so the tires/treads can actually mov... | [
"The Zamboanga Peninsula is a peninsula of Mindanao, the second largest island in the Philippines. It is a large, semi-circular peninsula located in northwestern Mindanao, forming the Moro Gulf and part of the border between the Sulu Sea and Celebes Sea. Politically, the majority of the Zamboanga Peninsula belongs ... |
How did Pangaea form into one island, given the randomness of plate tectonics? | In fact supercontinent cycles are a fairly regular occurrance as far as we can work out, with a periodicity of about 250-500 million years. _URL_0_
The driving force for plate tectonics is subduction of oceanic crust - in other words the closure of oceans. The natural product of that is bringing continents together. T... | [
"Pangaea's formation is now commonly explained in terms of plate tectonics. The involvement of plate tectonics in Pangaea's separation helps to show how it did not separate all at once, but at different times, in sequences. Additionally, after these separations, it has also been discovered that the separated land m... |
why does sleep deprivation make you see spiders/bugs on your peripheral vision? | I'm pretty sure you are asking why sleep deprivation causes hallucinations, well, sleeping is important for your body, but it's the most important thing for your brain, because during a sleep cycle the brain gets rid of toxins that have accumulated. If you don't sleep these toxins don't go away and grow in number inste... | [
"Sleep deprivation has been shown to negatively affect picture classification speed and accuracy, as well as recognition memory. It results in an inability to avoid attending to irrelevant information displayed during attention-related tasks. (Norton) It also decreases activation in the ventral visual area and the ... |
How did Romans and Greeks treat the ideas of war and peace? | There were people who have a lot of different viewpoints just as you have right now in our society. There was also a lot of discussion on war and peace as is now the case.
An interesting shift took place in the general discussion due to the coming of Christianity. War and the pacifist moral of Christianity don't mix ... | [
"This illustrates one of the central differences between the two cultures and their view on education: that to the Greeks beauty or an activity could be an end in itself, and the practice of that activity was beneficial accordingly. The Romans, on the other hand, tended to be more practically minded when it came to... |
what determines a person's sense of humor? | Mostly psychological. When a person has good sense of humor, it generally means they are happy, socially confident and likely to have a healthy perspective on life. But this has exceptions because humor has a dark side. There are people who use self-defeating humor; also humor is used to criticize and manipulate oth... | [
"People of all ages and cultures respond to humour. Most people are able to experience humour—be amused, smile or laugh at something funny—and thus are considered to have a \"sense of humour\". The hypothetical person lacking a sense of humour would likely find the behaviour inducing it to be inexplicable, strange,... |
Putting something in orbit | I am currently working on a project that will do exactly this. My group has completed several high altitude balloon launches (+100k). During these launches we have tested things like low temp solid fuel motor ignition as well as methods of triggering ignition with accelerometer based altimeters. The end goal is that wi... | [
"A space gun by itself is not capable of placing objects into stable orbit around the object (planet or otherwise) from which it launches them. The orbit is a parabolic orbit, a hyperbolic orbit, or part of an elliptic orbit which ends at the planet's surface at the point of launch or another point. This means that... |
how does time lapse video with the different angle work? does someone slowly move the camera to a different location to create that smooth movement? | jop, stepper motors and stuff, actually many people build those themselves because its really not dark magic. _URL_0_ | [
"However, to achieve the effect of a simple tracking shot, it is necessary to use motion control to move the camera. A motion control rig can be set to dolly or pan the camera at a glacially slow pace. When the image is projected it could appear that the camera is moving at a normal speed while the world around it ... |
I keep hearing Pro-choice People say harsh abortion laws will “take us back to the Dark ages”. How acceptable/unacceptable was abortion in the Early middle ages? | Answering this question is difficult, not least because record survival from this period is scanty and one-sided. The most prolific writers in late antiquity and the so-called ‘dark ages’ were theologians. If we dig deep enough, we might find some secular laws related to abortion in the context of homicide, but again, ... | [
"In English law, abortion did not become illegal until 1803. English folk practice before and after that time held that fetal life was not present until quickening. \"Women who took drugs before that time would describe their actions as 'restoring the menses' or 'bringing on a period'.\" Abortifacients used by wome... |
how does russia maintain and sustain #2 military in the world with economy smaller than brazil or italy (#10)? | By spending a larger portion of their money on their military. This is how North Korea keeps a large army on a small GDP, they don't spend as much on food. It's all a matter of choices. | [
"Russia has a large and sophisticated arms industry, capable of designing and manufacturing high-tech military equipment, including a fifth-generation fighter jet, nuclear powered submarines, firearms, and short range/long range ballistic missiles. The value of Russian arms exports totalled $15.7 billion in 2013—se... |
Did royalty ever get an inkling that birth defects was a cause of marrying their family members? | People tend to think that the European royal houses were long, unbroken lines stretching back into the mists of time, aka "the Middle Ages". In fact, that's not the case at all, and intermarriage between royal houses was rarer -- and was not repeated, close cousin marriage -- until only a few hundred years ago (roughly... | [
"Members of untitled families today may be descended from illegitimate children of royalty as primogenitors. Since illegitimate children of royalty were seldom permitted to marry into other royal families because of their unacceptable status, these children tended to marry upper-class or middle-class families from ... |
How long did NASA truly expect the Mars Rovers to function? | All components, and the system as a whole, are calculated for a given reliability. Usually it's like 95% for the expected mission duration. If it does survive to this date as expected, odds are it won't fail right the next day. So the probabilities may be like 95% for a year, 85% for two years, 75% for 3 years and so o... | [
"BULLET::::- \"Opportunity\" (MER-B), Mars Exploration Rover, launched on July 7, 2003 and landed on January 25, 2004. \"Opportunity\" surpassed the previous records for longevity at 5,352 sols (5498 Earth days from landing to mission end; 15 Earth years or 8 Martian years) and covered a total distance of . The rov... |
why do you hear a whoosh noise if you put a glass on your ear? | Blood flow in your year. I guess you can hear it because it is amplified in the enclosed space of the glass. | [
"Because its sounding portion is made of glass, the glass harmonica is a type of crystallophone. The phenomenon of rubbing a wet finger around the rim of a wine goblet to produce tones is documented back to Renaissance times; Galileo considered the phenomenon (in his \"Two New Sciences\"), as did Athanasius Kircher... |
how a noun can become a verb, like google or photoshop? | People just start using the word as a verb and it becomes popular.
There's not much more to it than that. | [
"A verb from noun creates a sentence that means \"to be \"noun or adjective\"\" when adding a -i. When the suffix is combined with the fa- prefix it can change the meaning of the sentence to \"to cause/let something become \"noun or adjective\"\". \n",
"A verb can be nominalized by preceding it with the definite ... |
how do electronic ph sensors work? | An electric pH meter is essentially just a voltmeter. An acid solution is essentially half of a battery, so the pH meter brings the rest of the battery along and measures the potential difference between the two leads on the probe. Once you've determined the voltage of your "battery" the Nernst equation gives you the r... | [
"The design of the electrodes is the key part: These are rod-like structures usually made of glass, with a bulb containing the sensor at the bottom. The glass electrode for measuring the pH has a glass bulb specifically designed to be selective to hydrogen-ion concentration. On immersion in the solution to be teste... |
if light slows down in water, how does it speed back up again when it comes out? | There's a way to think about this problem that was--IIRC--in Stephen Hawking's *A Brief History of Time*.
Imagine a big famous actor walking through a room. They travel at a constant speed that we'll call A. The actor always moves at speed A, no matter what. When the room is empty, they're able to walk into the room ... | [
"Assume that water flows in the pipes with speed \"v\". According to the non-relativistic theory of the luminiferous aether, the speed of light should be increased when \"dragged\" along by the water, and decreased when \"overcoming\" the resistance of the water. The overall speed of a beam of light should be a sim... |
Can two things ever truly 'touch'? | Yes, because touch and contact are words defined by our experiences, which means that it isn't an issue of scientific nomenclature. | [
"Donald Walton stated in his book that touching is the ultimate expression of closeness or confidence between two people, but not seen often in business or formal relationships. Touching stresses how special the message is that is being sent by the initiator. \"If a word of praise is accompanied by a touch on the s... |
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