Split (2)

train · 226k rows

question stringlengths 3 301	answer stringlengths 9 26.1k	context list
why do products that have a yearly title use the next year instead of the current one (e.g. ncaa football 2013, ford 2013 models)?	They're designed for the next year.	[ "In the United States, for regulation purposes (such as VIN numbering and EPA emissions certification), government authorities allow cars of a given model year to be sold starting on January 1 of the previous calendar year. For example, this means that a 2019 model year vehicle can legally go on sale on January 1, ...
what does it mean when energy drinks say 300% vitamin b6?	It contains 300% of you daily recommended intake of vitamin B6.	[ "vitaminenergy is an energy drink which consists of many of the same ingredients as vitaminwater, such as crystalline fructose, electrolytes, natural flavors, and vitamins (Vitamin B3, B5, B6, B12, and C) along with natural caffeine and ribose. Specific ingredients are added according to the flavor of the drink. Ei...
how does half sodium salt work?	It's something that is trying to approximate the taste of salt, but has less sodium chloride in it. The LoSalt product uses potassium chloride. Potassium is right below sodium on the periodic table of elements, so it will bond to chlorine in the same way. It has a salt like taste, but no sodium.	[ "Sodium permanganate behaves similarly to potassium permanganate. It dissolves readily in water to give deep purple solutions, evaporation of which gives prismatic purple-black glistening crystals of the monohydrate NaMnO·HO. The potassium salt does not form a hydrate. Because of its hygroscopic nature, it is less ...
Will I still be able to taste if my tongue is numb?	Depending on what specifically is causing the numbness, there is a possibility you will still be able to taste. The tongue is innervated by a variety of cranial nerves. The anterior 2/3rds uses the facial nerve (CN VII) for taste while sensation is from the trigeminal nerve (CN V). The posterior 1/3rd uses the gloss...	[ "Excessive absorption of benzonatate (a local anesthetic) in the oral mucosa will result in the rapid development of numbness of the mouth and throat. In extreme cases, the mouth and pharynx may become so numb that pulmonary aspiration may occur.\n", "When symptoms are present, topical anesthetics can be used to ...
Did the people in the front lines of ancient armies basically know they are going to die?	I replied briefly to this earlier but reading the thread now I think it deserves some more detailed attention. Here goes: On the Matter of Battle in Movies There's two ways Hollywood battles can go down. The first is what you see in Troy, with massive armies smashing into each other and men literally tumbling ove...	[ "BULLET::::- This is the first episode to feature multiple warriors on each team in an ancient match, and the only one where a member of the losing team is not known to be killed (Attila and his men were not seen killing one of Alexander's soldiers, so either he escaped or was simply not seen dying).\n", "BULLET:...
the impeachment of bill clinton	First of all, I don't believe there needs to be any real reason to impeach the president. To remove from office it requires a serious offense, but he wasn't removed from office. That being said the impeachment wasn't that he had an affair, it was that he lied under oath, which is kind of a big deal.	[ "The impeachment of Bill Clinton was initiated on October 8, 1998, when the United States House of Representatives voted to commence impeachment proceedings against Bill Clinton, 42nd president of the United States, for \"high crimes and misdemeanors\", which were subsequently detailed in 2 articles of impeachment....
Overarching explanations of history	> How do Historians view theories that attempt to explain all of history Historians are a varied bunch of people, but I'm studying history in the Netherlands and most professors seem to oppose these overarching explanations. It's all about acknowledging different perspectives and relativism nowadays. Knowledge is unc...	[ "Commager's biographer Neil Jumonville has argued that this style of influential public history has been lost in the 21st century because political correctness has rejected Commager's open marketplace of tough ideas. Jumonville says history now comprises abstruse deconstruction by experts, with statistics instead o...
How and why were the Mamluks ruled by Circassians from the late 14th until the early 16th century?	The Mamluks were a class of non-Muslim boys who were taken at a young age and raised as Muslim warriors. Many of these solders excelled as administrators and soon enough grew to the status of governors and such. But as time went on the influence of these Mamluks grew to a point where they did a coup and overthrew the A...	[ "The Mamluk Dynasty (sometimes referred as Slave Dynasty or Ghulam Dynasty) (), () was directed into Northern India by Qutb ud-Din Aibak, a Turkic Mamluk slave general from Central Asia. The Mamluk Dynasty ruled from 1206 to 1290; it was the first of five unrelated dynasties to rule as the Delhi Sultanate till 1526...
Probably simple/stupid: Does my behavior affect the genes I pass on?	Well, yes, no, and maybe. Once this gets closer to the front page someone can provide a better answer, but there is a certain influence from epigenetics with your phenotype. Epigenetics has to do with how and when certain genes are activated. The epigenome is influenced by many environmental factors (stress, starvati...	[ "From these examples, researchers have seen similar patterns in developmental genetics. It is imperative that many genes are silenced at the right time so that cells can maintain their identity and expressional integrity. Failure to do so often leads to symptoms such as cognitive abnormalities, if not fatality.\n",...
why south american countries are not and don't want to get involved in world politics?	Some South American countries are very involved in world politics. Brazil for example is a pretty big player, and Venezuela is heavily involved, if not particularly influential, in global politics. Some of the smaller countries though have made the same decision that small countries all over the world have made. That ...	[ "During the first decade of the 21st century, South American governments have drifted to the political left, with leftist leaders being elected in Chile, Uruguay, Brazil, Argentina, Ecuador, Bolivia, Paraguay, Peru and Venezuela. Most South American countries are making increasing use of protectionist policies, hel...
what is the difference between renting to own a home and purchasing a home, and what are the requirements for home-buying?	rent-to-own is an agreement between you and the real owner to transfer ownership after certain criteria are met. If you get a mortgage from the bank, your home is yours (but it is also collateral for the home loan).	[ "Rent-to-own, also known as rental-purchase, is a type of legally documented transaction under which tangible property, such as furniture, consumer electronics, motor vehicles, home appliances, real property, and engagement rings, is leased in exchange for a weekly or monthly payment, with the option to purchase at...
how does gas compression work? highschool chemistry taught me that various states of matter are the same thing just molecularly tighter. why is a compressed gas not just liquid?	Super compressed gas does become a liquid for most gasses (though I think a few gasses like hydrogen get kinda funky there instead). Compressing gasses brings the molecules closer together, but most gasses need to be compressed quite a bit (or cooled down a lot, or some combination of both) before they actually trans...	[ "Compressed gas is currently an experimental method of storing energy. In this case, compressed gas is simply stored in a tank and released when necessary. Like elastics, they have hysteresis losses when gas heats up during compression.\n", "Based on the assumptions that adiabatic compression is carried out (i.e....
What was porn like in the 1960's?	An interesting read on the subject is the article An Empire of the Obscene in journalist Eric Schlosser's 2003 book Reefer Madness. It focuses on the career of Reuben Sturman, who was the biggest distributor of pornographic materials from the 60's onwards and a very big figure in the business until 1989 when he wen...	[ "Before the age of internet pornography and a general acceptance of the production of pornography, porn was an underground phenomenon. Stag films, also known as blue movies, were made by men for men. The projections of such films were itinerant and were secret exhibitions in brothels or smoker houses. Stag films we...
is it still solicitation for sex if i ask a hooker to make me a sandwich for what ever she charges then we both consent to have sex afterwards?	I am fairly sure this is how a lot of escort services work without getting into too much trouble. You pay for the "date" and if sex happens, well that's between two consenting adults! I think you may need an actual lawyer to answer this question as it is probably incredibly complex and would vary based on states/count...	[ "Defence counsel may argue the victim consented to the sexual activity. Determining if the victim consented can be problematic when the victim is intoxicated. A Nova Scotia court found there was no sexual assault because the prosecution could not prove the sexual activity was non-consensual. In that case, the sexua...
how hushing came to be the sound we use when we want people to be quiet.	I always wondered about the same thing and quite recently I discovered that the hushing sound is the most common sound you can make with your mouth to calm down a newborn baby: they naturally calm down when they hear vibrations and white noises. I wouldn't be surprised it just came out from this: a lot of pèarents who...	[ "By the end of the 20th century the sound of chirping crickets came to represent quietude in literature, theatre and film. From this sentiment arose expressions equating \"crickets\" with silence altogether, particularly when a group of assembled people makes no noise. These expressions have grown from the more des...
Why is Methionine commonly found first to begin protein coding regions?	The initiator tRNA appears to be one that is uniquely capable of a few things. One is that it can bind directly to the P site of a ribosome (the P site is the second of three chambers within a ribosome. Normally tRNA must first enter at the A site, then move to the P site where the amino acid they carry is added to the...	[ "Methionine is one of only two amino acids encoded by a single codon (AUG) in the standard genetic code (tryptophan, encoded by UGG, is the other). In reflection to the evolutionary origin of its codon, the other AUN codons encode isoleucine, which is also a hydrophobic amino acid. In the mitochondrial genome of se...
How were Jewish released from concentration camps received in their communities after the Holocaust? Did they return to their homes and jobs? What was their reception?	In Canada, Jewish survivors who immigrated from Europe after the Holocaust were often received cooly - even among the pre-existing Canadian Jewish community. Franklin Bialystok describes this process in his book, Delayed Impact: The Holocaust and the Canadian Jewish Community. He argues that Canadian Jewish communiti...	[ "Jewish survivors of the death camps and various work camps refused to return to their countries of origin, starting instead an extensive [[Berihah\|underground movement]] to migrate to the [[Mandatory Palestine\|British Mandate of Palestine]]. Jewish Holocaust survivors typically could not return to their former hom...
Are there any animals that migrate towards colder climate during winter ?	Not that I know of, no. In the event of winter, the most northern animals are observed to begin migrating south first, relative to more southern animals. Animals are motivated to migrate due to a variety of reasons such as spawning or seasonal grazing but for winter migration, it's almost certainly to get away from the...	[ "Normally when colder conditions arrive, animals go into a state of suspended animation called hibernation, when they go into a state of inactivity for long periods of time, which they do not come out of until more suitable conditions for them to survive in arrive. However, when animals live in an environment that ...
why isn't the universe filled with light... or is it?	You're on to something that puzzled scientists for a long time. It's known as [Olbers' paradox](_URL_0_) or the "dark night sky paradox". There are two reasons the night sky isn't bright. The first reason is that the (edit: observable) universe isn't infinite. An infinite observable universe would have an infinite ...	[ "Nothing which consists of corporeal matter is absolutely light, but that is comparatively lighter which is rarer, either by its own nature, or by accidental heat. And it is not to be thought that light bodies are escaping to the surface of the universe while they are carried upwards, or that they are not attracted...
aren't "gambler's fallacy" and "the rule of averages" at odds with each other?	Gambler's fallacy: "I flipped tails four times. THE NEXT flip MUST be heads because of this." Rule of averages: "If I flipped the coin a million times, I would have around 500.000 occurances of heads and tails each. So always betting on the same one (either heads or tails) will have the same outcome - me not getting (m...	[ "\"Even odds\" occur when the probability of an event happening is exactly the same as it not happening. In common parlance, this is a \"50-50 chance\". Guessing heads or tails on a coin toss is the classic example of an event that has even odds. In gambling, it is commonly referred to as \"even money\" or simply \...
Why does social interaction make me (introverts) tired?	There actually is a psychological difference in introverts' and extroverts' brain sensitivity to external stimuli. Extroverts are less sensitive to arousing environments than introverts are so being in a stimulating environment can become physically exhausting for introverts.	[ "Some online behaviors can cause stress and anxiety, due to the permanence of online posts, the fear of being hacked, or of universities and employers exploring social media pages. Turkle also speculates that people are beginning to prefer texting to face-to-face communication, which can contribute to feelings of l...
When you heat an unstable isotope, does it decrease its half-life time and does the opposite happen when you cool it?	Heating and cooling doesn't really affect the nucleus, unless you get to temperatures comparable with the typical excitation energies of nuclei (on the order of MeV, corresponding to temperatures on the order of 10^(10) Kelvin). The only exceptions are types of decay which involve the electron cloud. If you have a nuc...	[ "This relationship between the half-life and the decay constant shows that highly radioactive substances are quickly spent, while those that radiate weakly endure longer. Half-lives of known radionuclides vary widely, from more than 10 years, such as for the very nearly stable nuclide Bi, to 10 seconds for highly u...
what causes the giant noise that airplanes make when going over you?	It takes very powerful engines to lift and propel tons of metal and people and luggage through open air. Powerful engines tend to be loud, and this is why most people prefer not to live near a major airport.	[ "Aerodynamic noise arises from the airflow around the aircraft fuselage and control surfaces. This type of noise increases with aircraft speed and also at low altitudes due to the density of the air. Jet-powered aircraft create intense noise from aerodynamics. Low-flying, high-speed military aircraft produce especi...
why do we bother with antihistamines that make us drowsy when non-drowsy ones exist?	Newer antihistamines tend to cause less drowsiness than older ones, though drowsiness is no indicator of effectiveness. My guess for why there are still drowsy and non-drowsy varieties is that some people find it easier to sleep with assistance when they're sick.	[ "Antihistamine drugs can have undesirable side-effects, the most notable one being drowsiness in the case of oral antihistamine tablets. First-generation antihistamine drugs such as diphenhydramine cause drowsiness, while second- and third-generation antihistamines such as cetirizine and loratadine are less likely ...
Clarification on Native American tribal distinctions	For the benefit of those who don't check /r/AskAnthropology, I'll post my answer here as well: There's a mix of synonyms and subdivisions here. Sioux is derived from the Ojibwe name for the Dakota-Lakota alliance they were fighting, the Očhéthi Šakówiŋ--the Seven Council Fires / Great Sioux Nation. So the breakdown lo...	[ "Native American politics remain divided over different issues such as assimilation, education, healthcare, and economic factors that affect reservations. As a nation living within the United States of America, the Native American people face conflicting opinions within their tribes, essentially those living on fed...
how do both eyes move in the exact same way? and why does it cause strain when they don’t (e.g crossing your eyes for too long)	When the nerve going to one eye is stimulated, somewhere along the way that same nerve stimulates the nerve of the opposite eye. So essentially both nerves for each eye are stimulated at the same time when your brain decides to look a certain way.	[ "The great importance of intorsion and extorsion produced by the two oblique muscles can only be understood when it is considered with regards to the other muscle actions present. The two obliques prevent the eye from rotating about its long axis (retina to pupil) when the superior and inferior rectus muscles contr...
why do some spam email subjects look so obviously fake?	For efficiency. To weed out all the smart people that won't fall for the scam so that personnel efforts are only spent on the few that are likely to fall for it.	[ "Spam is also a medium for fraudsters to scam users into entering personal information on fake Web sites using emails forged to look like they are from banks or other organizations, such as PayPal. This is known as \"phishing\". Targeted phishing, where known information about the recipient is used to create forged...
how can a musician be sure that what he wrote is not similar to something that already exists?	You can't be sure. Paul McCartney composed "Yesterday" in a dream, and spent a month playing it for anyone he could, to see if they recognized it. But there is no sure way to tell, other than to put the song out and see if anyone complains.	[ "\"“It appears that you personally wish to have some information regarding the thought which predominates in my symphony. Alas, I am going to scandalize you! I had no literary thought in the sense that you mean. When I write a composition to words, I become a slave to what convention terms the verities of musical e...
why is flashing headlights to warn others on the road about a speed trap illegal?	ex-cop here. In Alabama it would be "improper lights" charge because of the high beam or flashing them off. I always thought this was bullshit. I actually wanted people to flash their lights and warn others. The whole purpose of the "speed trap", as it were, was to get people to slow the fuck down....not to write tick...	[ "Though not all of its rules represent law, the Highway Code states \"Only flash your headlights to let other road users know that you are there. Do not flash your headlights in an attempt to intimidate other road users\". Drivers warning others about speed traps have been fined in the past for \"misuse of headligh...
If hieroglyphics were split into word-symbols and sound-symbols, and each word-symbol was NOT composed of sound-symbols, how did people know how to pronounce them?	First off, it's important to distinguish partial writing from true writing. Partial writing is things like pictographs, where an abstract representation is supposed to serve as a reminder for what's there, rather than an actual abstract representation of some idea or sound. These systems are not "primitive" or at least...	[ "As no bilingual texts were available, any such symbolic 'translation' could be proposed without the possibility of verification. It wasn't until Athanasius Kircher in the mid 17th century that scholars began to think the hieroglyphs might also represent sounds. Kircher was familiar with Coptic, and thought that it...
why can't i see millions of stars from the airplane window?	The internal sources of light inside the cabin are interfering and also perhaps your perspective, as you are panning mostly horizontally out the window and not vertically. It would probably work better if it was pitch black in the cabin, and the top of the aircraft was translucent.	[ "Due to skyglow, people who live in or near urban areas see thousands fewer stars than in an unpolluted sky, and commonly cannot see the Milky Way. Fainter sights like the zodiacal light and Andromeda Galaxy are nearly impossible to discern even with telescopes.\n", "Many celestial objects of interest are too fai...
how do you know when someone is gaslighting vs. when the person is just stupid/has a selective memory?	This is basically asking how you know when someone is doing something wrong maliciously and purposefully vs. accidentally and innocently. The truth of the matter exists only within their own mind, which no one else can ever really know. For such actions, we can only go off of their actions and responses. Look at the c...	[ "Gaslighting is a form of psychological manipulation in which a person seeks to sow seeds of doubt in a targeted individual or in members of a targeted group, making them question their own memory, perception, and sanity. Using persistent denial, misdirection, contradiction, and lying, gaslighting involves attempts...
How does our body tolerance to a certain compounds work?	(Nearly?) All drugs work by interacting with receptors. This is almost a truism, in the sense that a pharmacologist (one who studies the behaviour of drugs) calls anywhere a drug binds it's receptor, though in general, these binding sites are on specific proteins, and the whole protein gets referred to as the receptor ...	[ "Pharmacokinetic tolerance (dispositional tolerance) occurs because of a decreased quantity of the substance reaching the site it affects. This may be caused by an increase in induction of the enzymes required for degradation of the drug e.g. CYP450 enzymes. This is most commonly seen with substances such as ethano...
why do people not realize how dependent their life is on oil?	Many people know, but want it to change, and believe that an abundance of oil will lead to complacency in terms of finding a replacement, at the expense of the environment, whereas lowered supply and the associated costs will encourage research and development of something much more nature friendly.	[ "Our world is seriously dependent on oil, but humans are using it up so quickly to the point that it may eventually run out one day, and the Earth will not have enough time to replenish it. It will happen within a timescale between twenty years to a century, but what if all the oil ran out today?\n", "Because pet...
how come an alarm wont wake me up, but someone walking around outside my room will?	To me it’s familiarity. I get accustomed to the sound of the alarm so I tune it out. Someone walking however is not familiar so it wakes me up. For that reason I change the tune on my alarm about once a week	[ "In one common alarm sequence, the light in a window will flash and a bell or horn will sound to attract the operator's attention when the alarm condition is detected. The operator can silence the alarm with a button, and the window will remain lit as long as the process is in the alarm state. When the alarm clears...
what's the difference between 'ebitda' and just 'profit' that a business makes?	EBITDA is earnings before income tax depreciation and amortization. Basically the difference is EBITDA doesn't take into consideration what happened in the past. It looks at how you would have done this year if you didn't have the burden or benefit of what you did in the past.	[ "EBITDA stands for earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization. It is one of the best measures of a company's cash flow and is used for valuing both public and private companies. To compute EBITDA, use a company's income statement, take the net income and then add back interest, taxes, depreciati...
How "much" red, green, and blue light are there in sunlight?	[Here you go](_URL_0_)	[ "The particular color of a white light source can be simplified into a correlated color temperature (CCT). The higher the CCT, the bluer the light appears. Sunlight at 5600K, for example, appears much bluer than tungsten light at 3200K. Unlike a chromaticity diagram, the Kelvin scale reduces the light source's colo...
I think I figured out how to send information faster than the speed of light using the Quantum Eraser experiment, can someone please debunk me?	If you take a look at the [interference patterns you would get](_URL_0_) (about halfway down the pate) after running the experiment, you can see that you have to separate the "went left" and "went right" events after the fact before you can see their respective interference patterns. Otherwise, it your data just looks...	[ "The total pattern of signal photons at the primary detector never shows interference (see Fig. 5), so \"it is not possible to deduce what will happen to the idler photons by observing the signal photons alone\". The delayed-choice quantum eraser does not communicate information in a retro-causal manner because it ...
why are all computers used by clerks in the service industry (retail, airline, car rental, etc.) extremely outdated?	Because they work! It's not worth the cost of updating something that works, if it's not going to actually allow the company to make more money. In fact, in many cases, introducing new technology creates risks of things going wrong, so the company would view it even more severely than simply the expense of the upgrad...	[ "An accounting machine, or bookkeeping machine or recording-adder, was generally a calculator and printer combination tailored for a specific commercial activity such as billing, payroll, or ledger. Accounting machines were widespread from the early 1900s to 1980s, but were rendered obsolete by the availability of ...
what prevents people from ripping cash and having the bank give them back a whole bill for the half?	Well the note has serial numbers and other identifying markers on it. There's nothing stopping you except that you could be prosecuted for fraud.	[ "Cashless payments eliminate several risks, including counterfeit money (though stolen cards are still a risk), theft of cash by employees, and burglary or robbery of cash. The costs of physical security, physically processing cash (withdrawing from the bank, transporting, counting) are also reduced once a business...
How does a broken bone know how to exactly replicate how it was before it was broken? Position, thickness, ect?	They don't. Often bones will heal misaligned or improperly before they are properly medically treated and have to be re broken. This is the function of a cast/sling. It immobilizes the damaged arm whilst maintaining it's correct position so when it heals, the arm is as normal as can be. As for the actual repair, it i...	[ "When a bone is fractured as a result of an injury, the two fragments may be displaced relative to each other. If they are not, usually no treatment is required other than immobilisation in an appropriate cast. If displacement does occur, then the space separating the fragments fills with blood shed by the damaged ...
if annual inflation in the united states has averaged 3.3% over the past 100 years, how is it possible to have low prices today?	First of all, this may only makes a tiny difference in the answer, but until 1857 there was a [half penny](_URL_0_) coin. Have you ever been to a Farmer's market? While there are exceptions, most of the merchant at my local market try to sell everything in whole dollars to keep things simple. A basket of strawberries ...	[ "Official consumer price inflation in January–August 2008 reached 14.8%. By the end of November, food price inflation for an 11-month period reached 15.3%. Overall price inflation, taking into account consumer and industrial prices, reached 12.5% compared to 10.6% for the same period of 2007. Decline in short-term ...
If we lived in a colony on one of Jupiter's moon, how big would Jupiter appear in our sky?	If we lived on Ganymede, it would appear about 16 times as wide as the moon and the sun do from Earth.	[ "Jupiter has 79 known natural satellites. Of these, 63 are less than 10 kilometres in diameter and have only been discovered since 1975. The four largest moons, visible from Earth with binoculars on a clear night, known as the \"Galilean moons\", are Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto.\n", "Aside from the Sun, th...
Why has Fidel Castro's Cuba prevailed as a communist state for so long?	One that has tried have a certain level of success to keep the social contract that communist states work on, that of we will ensure your standards of living does not decrease as long as you do not question the state. The failure of this contract was one of the underlying caused of the collapse of communism is Russia a...	[ "Fidel Castro's staunch belief in a communist ideology and his criticisms of other international figures elevated the prominence of his rule. He launched a wide range of economic and social changes. Castro's Cuba became a key element within the Cold War struggle between the United States and its allies versus the S...
how is it possible for the hadron collider to reach a temperature of close to 1 trillion degrees without burning a hole through our planet?	Well the particles that reach that temperature are extraordinarily small, and only exist for the tiniest fraction of a second. Not only that there are extremely strong magnetic fields set up within the collider to prevent such things from happening.	[ "Until August 2008, the highest energy collider in the world was the Tevatron, at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, in the United States. It accelerated protons and antiprotons to slightly less than 1 TeV of kinetic energy and collided them together. The Large Hadron Collider (LHC), which has been built at...
Was there a unifying way to specify years or days in the contemporary ancient world? Did people in ancient Greece, Persia, Egypt and Mesopotamia (for example) have a singular calendar they used so they could agree on dates?	Well, I'm not entirely certain if you're asking whether they could agree on these things between civilizations, so that the Egyptians and Mesopotamians (for instance) could agree on what year it was, or whether within any of these cultural groups there was a commonly agreed calendar. In either case, though, the answer ...	[ "Historically, units of time in many civilizations are duodecimal. There are twelve signs of the zodiac, twelve months in a year, and the Babylonians had twelve hours in a day (although at some point this was changed to 24.) Traditional Chinese calendars, clocks, and compasses are based on the twelve Earthly Branch...
why do we like the taste of cola so much?	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)??	[ "The primary taste of Coca-Cola is thought to come from vanilla and cinnamon, with trace amounts of essential oils, and spices such as nutmeg. A 2015 study identified and measured 58 aroma compounds in common colas, confirming significant amounts of compounds corresponding to cinnamon, vanilla, nutmeg, orange and l...
I'm very interested in early Canada (and North America), including mythology. Any recommendations?	Due to their prolonged exposure as equals, the Mi'kmaq of Eastern Canada also have an interesting history (Chief Membertou) and mythology (Glooscap). I am a fan the Mi'kmaq story of creating the Moose and Beaver. Initially both were too large and proved destructive to the land. So they were each radically reduced so a...	[ "There is no single mythology of the Indigenous North American peoples, but numerous different canons of traditional narratives associated with religion, ethics and beliefs. Such stories are deeply based in Nature and are rich with the symbolism of seasons, weather, plants, animals, earth, water, fire, sky and the ...
why do people still die of lack of food & water? are there not the super rich and down to 1st world folks who even throw away tons of food? no way to solve it?	One major issue is logistics. Sure, rich people might be throwing away plenty of completely edible food... But how are you going to get that food over to Africa or another part of the world before it actually does spoil? And who is paying for that transport and distribution?	[ "The United Nations indicates that about 850 million people are malnourished or starving, and 1.1 billion people do not have access to safe drinking water. Since 1980, the global economy has grown by 380 percent, but the number of people living on less than 5 US dollars a day increased by more than 1.1 billion.\n",...
How are anti-cancer/life saving drugs tested?	This website answers your question about the use of placebo: _URL_0_ In short, placebo trials are use sparingly and must not cause undue risk of death to the patient taking the placebo. For example, if an effective treatment already exists the patient is unlikely to be allowed to participate in a placebo only control ...	[ "An adaptive trial design enabled two experimental breast cancer drugs to deliver promising results after just six months of testing, far shorter than usual. Researchers assessed the results while the trial was in process and found that cancer had been eradicated in more than half of one group of patients. The tria...
Where did the Sumerians "come from"?	The Sumerians didn't come from elsewhere, nor did they go anywhere. They were the native inhabitants of lower Mesopotamia, and that's where their descendants remained long after Sumerian died out as a spoken language. I wrote more about this in [Mesopotamians and Sumerians.](_URL_0_) Pay particular attention to the bit...	[ "Sumer (or \"Šumer\") was one of the early civilizations of the Ancient Near East, located in the southern part of Mesopotamia (modern-day Iraq) from the time of the earliest records in the mid 4th millennium BC until the rise of Babylonia in the late 3rd millennium BC. The term \"Sumerian\" applies to all speakers...
How were the properties of yeast discovered?	So, I took a medieval bread class once upon a time. There's a couple of things going on here. To understand yeast bread, you have to go back to beer. Beer was kinda and accident, and from my limited understanding can cultivate wild yeasts for fermentation. Anyway, people had beer for centuries before they decided to g...	[ "Scientists before Pasteur had studied fermentation. In the 1830s, Charles Cagniard-Latour, Friedrich Traugott Kützing and Theodor Schwann used microscopes to study yeasts and concluded that yeasts were living organisms. In 1839, Justus von Liebig, Friedrich Wöhler and Jöns Jacob Berzelius stated that yeast was not...
during ww2 how was post made possible between the uk and germany?	You go through a neutral 3rd country. For Europe popular choices were Switzerland (usually involving the International Red Cross for sending mail to POWs and civilian internees) and Portugal (for everything else). The British Mail service, in order to avoid appearing to colaborate with the enemy, enlisted the help ...	[ "In 1940 further changes were introduced followed through the rapid conquest of Europe. Eventually a series of postal agreements were set up between Germany and the occupied countries providing an extended usage of Feldpost service. Countries such as the Netherlands had close to 50,000 pro-Nazi volunteers that duri...
how do clicky pens work, and what is the mechanism called?!	Here is a great animation: _URL_0_ As you can see from the animation, the inner surface of the pen is grooved. The button has a "holder", which holds the pen shaft in place and slides back and forth on the grooves. The shaft has a complementary part that fits into the holder. The holder is designed such that the shaft'...	[ "Pen clicking is repeated pressing of the button of a retractable pen which produces a clicking sound. In its normal use, the button is only pressed when someone wants the nib of the pen to be exposed so they can write with it. This makes a noise, which varies in tone, dynamic and timbre depending on the size and m...
what is hawking's radiation, what exactly are these pairs of "virtual" particles? and how exactly are they formed?	According to quantum mechanics, particle-antiparticle pairs can spontaneously come into existence. Since their combined energy is zero, the universe allows such particle pairs. Usually, they annihilate each other after a short time; however, if they form near a black hole one part of the pair can fall into the black ho...	[ "In the coordinate system of a distant stationary observer, Hawking radiation tends to be described as a quantum-mechanical particle-pair production effect (involving virtual particles), but for stationary observers hovering nearer to the hole, the effect is supposed to look like a purely conventional radiation eff...
What was the international view of the U.S. Civil Rights Movement as it was happening?	BackStory (an awesome US history podcast) addressed this in their show about the Civil Rights Act of 1964. LBJ's work on the Civil Rights Act was very much shaped by the Cold War, as segregation was some seriously bad PR for the US, especially when diplomats from African countries in the process of aligning with the US...	[ "The civil rights movement (1896–1954) was a long, primarily nonviolent series of events to bring full civil rights and equality under the law to all Americans. The era has had a lasting impact on United States society, in its tactics, the increased social and legal acceptance of civil rights, and in its exposure o...
how do my cats understand when i'm calling them?	Most cat owners put on a different voice than normal when calling their pets. Think about animals, they make different sounds based on the general point they're trying to put across. A cat for example makes different types of sounds depending on when they want something from you (food, need to go inside/outside/inside...	[ "The most familiar vocalisation of adult cats is a \"meow\" or \"miaow\" sound (pronounced ). The meow can be assertive, plaintive, friendly, bold, welcoming, attention-soliciting, demanding, or complaining. It can even be silent, where the cat opens its mouth but does not vocalize. Just like humans who talk a lot ...
do massive fires contribute to climate change like emissions and pollution?	a small percentage of overall pollution, but it is only a very small fraction of the overall scale of pollution. In contrast Human pollution is much much larger. EDIT: This guy below sounds smarter than me, listen to him my answer isnt as detailed (/u/Tokyojokeyo)	[ "Climate change poses a challenge to the management of conventional air pollutants in the United States due to warmer, dryer summer conditions that can lead to increased air stagnation episodes. Prolonged droughts that may contribute to wildfires would also result in regionally high levels of air particles.\n", "...
Was wondering what parts of an autistic brain develop slower than others, and at what rate?	I don't think it's been figured out completely yet, but one of the most popular theories is improper development of the [amygdala](_URL_0_) in autistic people. This theory explains only some of the observations of autism. For example, avoiding eye contact may be because it stresses them out. Since autism seems to aff...	[ "His neuromorphology research, conducted in collaboration with other researchers from around the globe, has found there are drastic differences in the brains of autistic individuals. The studies that he conducted show that minicolumns (or 'brain strands') of autism spectrum individuals have more cells, but they are...
Did Russia impose grammatical changes on East Germans?	There really was not that much of an imposed change on the German language in the GDR. Most of the differences between the two Germanies were lexical. Some of this was partly the fault of division. For example, in the GDR Kaufhalle/Konsum were used for grocery stores while in the FRG Supermarkt became more commo...	[ "Joseph Stalin mostly reversed the implementation of Korenizatsiya in the 1930s, not so much by changing the letter of the law but by reducing its practical effects and by introducing \"de facto\" Russification. The Soviet system heavily promoted the Russian language as the \"language of inter-ethnic communication\...
is it bad to sleep with wet hair? i been hearing from everyone that it is bad. if so why?	As someone who sleeps with wet hair almost every night and has been doing so for decades I can debunk this is a old wives tale. Wet hair does not make you prone to bacterial or fungal infection. Its just allowing your hair to air dry while you're laying down. Air drying hair does not require "additional blood" to the s...	[ "There are a range of possible reasons for the objection to hair in food, ranging from cultural taboos to the simple fact that it is difficult to digest and unpleasant to eat. It may also be interpreted as a sign of more widespread problems with hygiene. The introduction of complete-capture hairnets is believed to ...
do caterpillars turn into liquid and then reform into a butterfly in the cocoon? or do they keep some of the same parts?	Here's an interesting podcast about that very thing: _URL_0_ The upshot is that yes, they turn into goo. But also, it's been proven that memories persist through the goo stage. So somehow, something carries through the chrysalis. It seems like there may be more to memory than we currently understand.	[ "To begin the pupal or chrysalis stage, the caterpillar attaches itself with a silk pad and hangs upside down on a leaf. About 24 hours later, its skin splits, exposing a dull, bronze-coloured case known as the pupa or chrysalis. The pupa hangs for about a week without movement. Within the pupa, the caterpillar is ...
Is the Battle of Midway movie historically accurate?	Hi there! More can always be said, but you might also be interested in this [megathread on the battle](_URL_0_). It's still somewhat active, so feel free to post follow up questions there.	[ "The Battle of Midway is a 1942 American documentary film short directed by John Ford. It is a montage of color footage of the Battle of Midway with voice overs of various narrators, including Johnny Governali, Donald Crisp, Henry Fonda, and Jane Darwell.\n", "Midway, released in the United Kingdom as Battle of M...
Why was the Provisional Government of Russia in 1917 so short lived?	In the most simple terms, they didn't really do much. There was an insistence from the PG that people were going to have to wait for changes like constituent assemblies or land redistribution until after the war had ended. The original leader of the PG, Milyukov was also forced to resign after he promised the allies th...	[ "The Russian Provisional Government () was a provisional government of Russia established immediately following the abdication of Tsar Nicholas II of the Russian Empire on 2 March [15 March, New Style] 1917. The intention of the provisional government was the organization of elections to the Russian Constituent Ass...
how can bad moonshine cause blindness?	"Alcohol" is a fairly broad family of chemicals. Some alcohols you are probably familiar with include isopropyl alcohol (i.e. rubbing alcohol) and ethyl alcohol ("drinking alcohol"). When you are making moonshine you get a mixture of several different types of alcohol. Ethyl alcohol is there, obviously, since that's...	[ "Improperly produced moonshine can contain impurities (methanol) or adulterants that can be hazardous to public health. Illness and deaths caused by moonshine in the United States are exceedingly rare, though underreporting is likely to be present in the statistics. In December 2011 it was reported that 168 people ...
I heard that Nazi SS soldiers would have sex with deployed regular soldiers wives often and were ordered to, is that true?	After the begin of the war, when the first casualties reports of the Poland campaign came in, Himmler issued an internal order to the SS and Police. (Although being an "order" it was more like a memo) The order explained that due the nature of war men will die, this was nothing bad as they died for a "higher cause". Ye...	[ "Although far from the scale of those committed by the Wehrmacht or Red Army, rapes of local women and girls were committed by British troops during the last months of WWII in Germany. Even elderly women were targeted. Though a high-profile issue for the Royal Military Police, some officers treated the behaviour of...
did the Minoans speak an Indo-European language?	Normally, we would want to keep the issues of language and culture completely separate. But with Crete in this period, we are still struggling to find the linguistic and cultural connections of Crete to the rest of the Mediterranean. One thing I would say is that we cannot speak of the identities present in Crete in t...	[ "According to the most widely held hypothesis of the origin of the Indo-European languages, the Kurgan hypothesis, their common ancestor is thought to have originated on the Pontic-Caspian steppe. The Tocharians were an early Indo-European branch in the Tarim Basin. At the beginning of written history the entire st...
how are vpns legal with things like the patriot act in place?	VPNs are perfectly legal ways of segregating data from a public network. There is no law that says that using a VPN is illegal for general use. Virtual Private Networks are essentially small "pocket internet" sites, containing special logins that prevent outside access. Many companies use VPN networks to transmit data...	[ "In June 2015 legislation to force ISP's to block access to websites that link to copyrighted material was passed through the Senate. The new legislation will allow rights holders to obtain court orders to block overseas content that are found to contain copyrighted material. The legislation does not however extend...
how does the ocean go through two tide cycles in a day, where the moon only passes 'overhead' once every 24 hours?	The moon has a stronger pull on objects close to it and a weaker pull on objects farther from it. * The water between the earth and moon is closest to the moon * The Earth's body is at a moderate distance from the moon * And the water on the opposite side is farthest from the moon. The moon pulls these three parts at...	[ "The cycle of tides is dependent on the phase of the moon, with the highest tides (spring tides) occurring near full moon and new moon. As the lunar cycle is about 29.5 days, successive tides are approximately 24/29th of an hour later each day or about 50 minutes but many other observations and considerations are r...
Why does the month precede the day in American calendar system and when did it originate?	Even historically Europeans used both, as did a lot of other people. [Records show that in Europe the y/m/d and m/d/y formats were both used](_URL_0_). And it differs - traditionally the Times in the UK have written it the American way, I think, as did the Guardian until pretty recently. The Encyclopedia Britannica als...	[ "The year used in dates during the Roman Republic and the Roman Empire was the consular year, which began on the day when consuls first entered office—probably 1 May before 222 BC, 15 March from 222 BC and 1 January from 153 BC. The Julian calendar, which began in 45 BC, continued to use 1 January as the first day ...
cookies...and that's not the kind you eat	Billy, pretend you own a deli. You make some pretty sweet sandwiches and lots of people in town come to your place for lunch. Over time, there's a ton of people coming to your deli! So many that you can't even keep track of them any more. What are you gonna do Billy? What are you gonna do! The line is going out the doo...	[ "In the United States and Canada a cookie is a small, flat, baked treat, usually containing flour, eggs, sugar, and either butter or cooking oil, and often including ingredients such as raisins, oats, or chocolate chips.\n", "A cookie is a baked or cooked food that is typically small, flat and sweet. It usually c...
: why is my computer downloading 36 mb/s, but my game is only downloading at a 4 mb/s speed ?	Your computer is reporting the transmission speed in Mbps (megabits per second). Steam, or whatever you're using to download your game is reporting the transmission speed in MBps (megabytes per second). One megabyte is eight megabits. That doesn't account for it exactly, but I'd wager you've done some rounding.	[ "The MS-DOS port of the game was very loyal to the arcade game in terms of graphics and speed. However, it was notoriously difficult to run because of the high amount of conventional memory needed to run (580K out of 640K) and would usually need either a boot disk or memory tweaking (or both) in order to load.\n", ...
how to work out percentages (help!)	What do you mean by work them out? Like if 68 people out of 212 tested positive, how to figure out what percent that is?	[ "The PUE metric has several important benefits. First, the calculation can be repeated over time, allowing a company to view their efficiency changes historically, or during time-limited events like seasonal changes. Second, companies can gauge how more efficient practices (such as powering down idle hardware) affe...
how do animals actually get put down at the vet? what happens biologically?	Typically, they are given 2 intraveinous shots: the first is a deep sedative which puts them into a deep unconscious state, similar to the first step of anesthesia. The second step is to give them an overdose of anesthetic, similar to the second step of anesthesia. The long and short of it is that it's typically the s...	[ "Some veterinarians perform a two-stage process: an initial injection that simply renders the pet unconscious and a second shot that causes death. This allows the owner the chance to say goodbye to a live pet without their emotions stressing the pet. It also greatly mitigates any tendency toward spasm and other inv...
Before VHS, were people completely unaware of previous decades' movies?	Certainly not. It was more common for theaters to play classic movies back then. Additionally, classic movies were excellent material for television stations to play and were one of the big draws of early cable television. Indeed, the television broadcast rights for motion films became a major source of revenue for pro...	[ "BULLET::::- March 14 - The film \"A History of Violence\" becomes the last major Hollywood film released to VHS. After this point, all VHS releases are either rental-only, available only as screeners or through special programs (such as the Disney Movie Club), or are from indie companies.\n", "By 1980, VHS video...
why dogs never seem to get dizzy?	Maybe because your a pussy...but try spinning a dog in an office chair or something of that sort and you will see a dizzy dog.	[ "Symptoms are not necessarily distinguishable from other kinds of distress. A dog might stand uncomfortably and seem to be in extreme discomfort for no apparent reason. Other possible symptoms include firm distension of the abdomen, weakness, depression, difficulty breathing, hypersalivation, and retching without p...
How much did drinks at a saloon cost in the Old West?	Most communities differentiated between one-bit and two-bit saloons. Really sleazy places would charge just a nickel for a beer, a whiskey, or a cigar, but they were relatively rare. Most saloons were one-bit places (with a range of quality in establishments charging these prices). Communities could only support a few ...	[ "Imported beer had been very expensive during the initial gold rush, costing around $100 a barrel, or approximately $1 a bottle. The Dawson City Brewery had been established in the city by a businessman called T. Krozner in 1898 to manufacture a local alternative, but this had closed by 1902 as the city's populatio...
Is immunosuppression required in organ transplantation between monozygotic twins ?	In contrast to solid organ transplantation, in hematopoietic stem cell transplantation recipients receive immunosuppression for prevention or treatment of graft-versus-host disease (reverse rejection, if you will). [This](_URL_0_) pretty large (but now dated) case series of syngeneic stem cell transplants found that mo...	[ "An Isograft is a graft of tissue between two individuals who are genetically identical (i.e. monozygotic twins). Transplant rejection between two such individuals virtually never occurs, making isografts particularly relevant to organ transplanations; patients with organs from their identical twins are incredibly ...
why does adding white vinegar to the laundry take care of bad smells and why don't laundry detergents already contain these properties?	General rule of thumb, most of the stains you're trying to remove require a high pH(more basic/alkaline). Vinegar, being an acid, actually lowers the pH making commercial laundry detergents less effective. The smell is likely coming from your washer itself, which the vinegar helps to remove odors from. Source: I work ...	[ "White vinegar is often used as a household cleaning agent. For most uses, dilution with water is recommended for safety and to avoid damaging the surfaces being cleaned. Because it is acidic, it can dissolve mineral deposits from glass, coffee makers, and other smooth surfaces. Vinegar is known as an effective cle...
karat markings on gold	There are other ways to test the purity, mostly used by jewelers. You can submerge the item to get a measure of its volume and compare to its weight, thus getting the density; golds of different purities will have different densities. You can also test the metal against known-purity samples in a jeweler's shop, how t...	[ "The karat (US spelling, symbol K or kt) or carat (UK spelling, symbol C or ct) is a fractional measure of purity for gold alloys, in parts fine per 24 parts whole. The karat system is a standard adopted by US federal law.\n", "Karat weight (K or kt) is a traditional fraction-based system used to denote the finen...
Can faecal particles in bathroom spread bacteria and viruses?	hepatitis is not an airborne disease, but im assuming this means in typical scenarios, but in general, about 50%!! of fecal matter is bacteria, so you can get other infections from not wiping properly (ie. UTI), or not washing you hands. Heres some more info on your risk tho: "The greatest aerosol dispersal occurs not...	[ "Preliminary research has shown the fungus is 100% effective in eliminating bed bugs exposed to cotton fabric sprayed with fungus spores. It is also effective against bed bug colonies due to \"B. bassiana\" carried by infected bugs back to their harborages. All subjects died within 5 days of exposure.\n", "More r...
what is nash equilibrium?	The Nash Equilibrium is a point where neither player can unilaterally improve their position by changing strategy (if their opponent stays the same). This is not the same as the best outcome. In the prisoner's dilemma, both confess is the Nash Equilibrium - neither player benefits by changing from confession to silenc...	[ "The Nash equilibrium is the traditional solution concept in game theory. It depends on the cognitive abilities of the players. It is assumed that players are aware of the structure of the game and consciously try to predict the moves of their opponents and to maximize their own payoffs. In addition, it is presumed...
why is texting and driving not illegal?	It's illegal in a huge number of jurisdictions already. Where do you live?	[ "The Government of Sweden, as of 22 December 2012, has stated that texting while driving is not an offence that can lead to a ban, but that it is looking to clarify the \"Highway Code\" to include it under reckless driving. In 2013, Sweden outlawed mobile telephone activities if it affects driving in a negative way...
Why do we see hydrogen's spectral lines in absorption in the sun's spectrum?	These light bands are missing because the light is passing through that gas, and that gas absorbs some colors of light. Stars run on hydrogen, so there's lots of it around, at all levels, including between the bright photosphere and you. That hydrogen absorbs some colors of light, leaving those absorption bands.	[ "The observed spectra consist of neutral hydrogen Lyman alpha absorption lines which are broadened by radiation damping. These systems can be observed in quantity at relatively high redshifts of 2-4, when they contained most of the neutral hydrogen in the universe.\n", "The visible spectrum of light from hydrogen...
why do women develop stretch marks on their breasts when gaining weight, but not when getting breast implants?	I have implants. Went from a small B to a DD...I have stretch marks from it. Only a few small ones, but they are there. It just depends on your body.	[ "Many women, such as beauty pageant participants and transgender people, create cleavage by using tape underneath and across their breast, bending forward, tightly pulling them together and up. Types of tape used include surgical micropore tape and athletic tape. Some also use a strip of moleskin under the breasts ...
Why doesn't dark matter give off blackbody radiation?	It is currently thought that dark matter does not interact through the electromagnetic force, and so cannot emit or absorb light in any form (which also makes it really rather hard to find), and instead only interacts via gravity and the weak force, the particle for which is imaginatively named the [Weakly Interacting ...	[ "As \"dark matter\", baryonic dark matter is undetectable by its emitted radiation, but its presence can be inferred from gravitational effects on visible matter. This form of dark matter is composed of \"baryons\", heavy subatomic particles such as protons and neutrons and combinations of these, including non-emit...
A perspective/scale question: In a hydrogen atom, if the proton was the size of a tennis ball, (say 6.5 cm), on average how far away from the proton would the electron be orbiting?	A hydrogen atom is 1.1 angstroms in diameter, a proton 1.7 x 10-5. so the atom is 64706 times bigger than the proton. That means your scaled up atom would be 4206 meters across, or about 2.1 km from center to "orbit".	[ "The internationally accepted value of the proton's charge radius is based on a suitable average of results from older measurements of effects caused by the nonzero size of the proton on scattering of electrons by nuclei and the light spectrum (photon energies) from excited atomic hydrogen. The official value updat...
how do scientists know what a person's face looks like when reconstructing it form a skull?	Your skull helps define your facial structure. Then layer on things such a muscle, fat, et cetera as appropriate until it looks right. There's a level of guesswork associated with it, but it's still more accurate than not.	[ "Like the face, the skull and teeth can also indicate a person's life history and origin. Forensic scientists and archaeologists use metric and nonmetric traits to estimate what the bearer of the skull looked like. When a significant amount of bones are found, such as at Spitalfields in the UK and Jōmon shell mound...
How is CERN able to produce the highest man made temperature without completely destroying their collider?	It is a very tiny high-temperature system contained in a vacuum. Two lead nuclei collide and for a brief instant, a very high temperature medium is created. This medium expands and cools, "freezing" back out into a spray of particles within the vacuum. So this high-temperature medium created in the collisions is never...	[ "BULLET::::- Physicists collide gold ions together to produce a quark–gluon plasma, similar to that which existed in the first instant after the Big Bang. In doing so, they momentarily produce what Guinness World Records reports is the highest man-made temperature ever: 4 trillion degrees Celsius (7.2 trillion degr...
how difficult would it be to intentionally build an immunity to a lethal poison, a la the princess bride?	There isn't a blanket answer to this. Some poisons you simply cannot develop an immunity to, and they will end you no matter how hard you try. If you were curious, the practice itself is named Mithridatism.	[ "The third case, \"The Poisoned Bride\", addresses the poisoning of a local scholar's daughter, who marries the son of the former administrator of the district and dies mysteriously on her wedding night. This case contains a surprising twist in its solution.\n", "The princess does not wish to marry a common ex-so...
how does the naming of marijuana strains work?	somebody makes a strain...and then names it, hence the sometimes rather silly names. theres no organized "Marijuana Naming Committee"	[ "Varieties are developed to intensify specific characteristics of the plant, or to differentiate the strain for the purposes of marketing or to make it more effective as a drug. Variety names are typically chosen by their growers, and often reflect properties of the plant such as taste, color, smell, or the origin ...
why does dinner usually cost so much more than other meals i.e: breakfast	The general response is that patrons have a higher tolerance to paying more at dinner time. Culturally, dinner is often seen as the most important meal. Because of this, you can add in more expensive ingredients, different flavors and go way beyond for dinner. Breakfast, however, this isn't a whole lot of wiggle room.....	[ "Dinner usually refers to the most significant and important meal of the day, which can be the noon or the evening meal. However, the term \"dinner\" can have many different meanings depending on the culture; it may mean a meal of any size eaten at any time of the day. Historically, it referred to the first large m...
A question for historians about research and methods.	Would you feel comfortable revealing at least the general time period and place? That would be helpful for putting you in the right direction without having to say anything specific. If there's a university library near you, you could try that out. Some have departmental research librarians who can help you find rele...	[ "His 1897 work \"Introduction aux études historiques\", written with Charles Seignobos, is considered one of the first comprehensive manuals discussing the use of scientific techniques in historical research. The \"Introduction to the Study of History\" takes a very detailed view at finding a way to make history as...
Why are certain elements more common in certain parts of the earth's crust?	Each element has a different "geochemical affinity" or flavor. We break them down into 4 groups: atmophile elements like to hang out in the gas phase so they're concentrated in our atmosphere (e.g., noble gases, N); siderophile elements behave similarly to Fe so they're concentrated in our planet's core because...	[ "The abundance of the chemical elements on Earth varies from air to crust to ocean, and in various types of life. The abundance of elements in Earth's crust differs from that in the Solar system (as seen in the Sun and heavy planets like Jupiter) mainly in selective loss of the very lightest elements (hydrogen and ...
I have a question pertaining to dental hygiene.	There could be a few different explanations. We all have a ton of different bacteria (normal flora) in our mouths but not all of us have the same types of bacteria. Cavities(caries) are actually an acquired, contagious disease, as the bacteria that produce the acid to form the cavities are not with us when we are born....	[ "Oral hygiene is important as dental biofilms may become acidic causing demineralization of the teeth (also known as dental caries) or harden into dental calculus (also known as tartar). Calculus cannot be removed through tooth brushing or with interdental aids, but only through professional cleaning.\n", "Oral h...
how saudi arabia, venezuela and other oil export depending countries are dealing so differently with low oil prices.	Imagine you have several households, and all of them have one family member with a pretty decent income as salesmen (oil revenue in this metaphor). However, some of them have to commute further than others, and have other expenses that mean they get to keep less of their total pay. If sales drop low enough, it actual...	[ "Both countries are major oil and gas exporters and have clashed over energy policy. Saudi Arabia, with its large oil reserves and smaller population, has a greater interest in taking a long-term view of the global oil market and incentive to moderate prices. In contrast, Iran is compelled to focus on high prices i...
How are inorganic bones in our organic bodies? How did they ever evolve?	~~I'm marking this to respond later. It's an interesting discussion.~~ OK, so bone as a tissue. Bone is a living, organic tissue. It receives 25% of the resting cardiac output and helps regulate calcium and phosphate metabolism as well as provide structure to the body. There are 4 main cells types in bone: osteoclasts...	[ "Several hypotheses have been proposed for how bone evolved as a structural element in vertebrates. One hypothesis is that bone developed from tissues that evolved to store minerals. Specifically, calcium-based minerals were stored in cartilage and bone was an exaptation development from this calcified cartilage. H...
why do we gag when we push ourselves too hard when exercising?	Well there could be many possible reasons as to why you would gag. For your situation, exercising hard for an extended period of time will draw blood away from the stomach, which is why you feel nauseous. This nausea can induce a reflex depending on how your brain interprets the stimuli as a threat or not which is d...	[ "A gag is designed to prevent speech or the subject making noise. This may be by blocking the mouth partially or completely to preventing the tongue, lips, or jaw from moving. Gags may cause suffocation, so a gagged person should never be left alone.\n", "The gag reflex involves a brisk and brief elevation of the...
How do electromagnetic waves "look" likr in 3D? How do waves really work?	Great Question! The answer is quite simple but also kind of boring: depends on the wave. Here is a picture of a running electromagnetic wave which is the standard picture physics students see when they are told to imagine a light beam as a wave. However, waves don't need to be just sin or cos. Usually they are describ...	[ "Waves are up to four-dimensional arrays that can carry not only numbers, but also characters (text), or date-and-time entries. Waves can carry meta-information, for example, the physical units of each dimension. Igor offers a wide choice of methods to work with these waves. It is possible to do image-processing wi...
why do we censor things like nudity and swears to children when eventually, they'll be predisposed to it and consider it "normal"?	> ELI5: Why do we censor things like nudity and swears to children when eventually, they'll be predisposed to it and consider it "normal"? This is sort of an open-ended question, but I'll give it a shot. People are certainly not predisposed to swearing, and in many circles it is not considered "normal". And while...	[ "In censorship debates, the term means cultural works (including art, literature, films, television and music) that are considered by most people to be generally appropriate for children while at the same time palatable to adults. Frequently, the term \"Think of the children\" is used during a moral panic to censor...

Subsets and Splits

No community queries yet

The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.