Split (2)

train · 226k rows

question stringlengths 3 301	answer stringlengths 9 26.1k	context list
if 1 and 0 (data) are voltage values, how is voltage stored in a flash drive after you plug it out of the computer and stop the electricity flow?	Think of it as balls and buckets. It takes energy to kick a ball into a bucket, and it takes energy to remove a ball from a bucket, but unless someone does something a ball outside a bucket will stay out, and if the ball is in it will stay in. Each bucket is a bit, and it's state (0 or 1) will be determined by whethe...	[ "For use in a binary digital computer, the tube had to be capable of storing either one of two states at each of its memory locations, corresponding to the binary digits (bits) 0 and 1. It exploited the positive or negative electric charge generated by displaying either a dash or a dot at any position on the CRT sc...
why can't i (besides being a dick to the postal service) drop off a letter in a mailbox, with the return address being my actual intended address, to avoid using a stamp?	You can. I have a friend who got caught, and was banned from the Postal Service for several years.	[ "Mailboxes, on the other hand, often have a \"maximum\" setback instead of a minimum one. A postal administration or postmaster may mandate that if a mailbox on a street is too far from the curb for the letter carrier to insert mail, without having to get out of the vehicle, the mail may not be delivered to that ad...
why people prefer mega or the pirate bay than mediafire?	I use TPB for a couple reasons. Number one is nostalgia. Number two is respect. They've been around for 10(?) years or so, name another pirating platform team that has faced the level of pressure TPB has...Mega, maybe? These guys are serving prison time and still running TPB. They've made plenty money and could have g...	[ "The Pirate Bay (sometimes abbreviated to TPB) is an online index of digital content of entertainment media and software. Founded in 2003 by Swedish think tank Piratbyrån, The Pirate Bay allows visitors to search, download, and contribute magnet links and torrent files, which facilitate peer-to-peer (P2P) file shar...
What is the oldest, civilized and still existing nation?	Depends on how you define "civilized" and "nation". 6th edition of Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English defines "civilized" as: "1. a civilized society is well organized and developed, and has fair laws and customs". In historical use, from what I remember, a civilized state has the following characteristics: ...	[ "The society is divided into 83 provinces along with six independent regions and ten dependent regions. On 1 January 2007, members served in 112 nations on six continents with the largest number in India and the US. Their average age was 57.3 years: 63.4 years for priests, 29.9 years for scholastics, and 65.5 years...
What is the history of course and grounds upkeep at St. Andrews?	St Andrews was unusual in that between 1552 and 1805 they used rabbits. There was a financial incentive for this, because rabbiting was a huge industry when every part of a rabbit had a use and there was always an increasing supply. This benefitted both the landlords who sold on the rabbits and the commoners who caught...	[ "The Charleston Trust is a charity set up in 1980 to restore and maintain the home of the Bloomsbury Group artists for the benefit of the public. The unique collection at Charleston is illustrative of the art and lifestyle of the influential Bloomsbury Group and has been on show to the public since 1986. Charleston...
Could Russia ever have won the Cold War?	In his book, Predicting Politics, political scientist Bruce Bueno de Mesquita simulates the Cold War as a battle over ideology between different countries. He allows the salience of foreign policy to vary randomly in each run of the simulation; military, economic, and demographic capabilities are set at the outset...	[ "In January 2017, a former US Government adviser Molly K. McKew said at \"Politico\" that the US would win a new cold war. \"The New Republic\" editor Jeet Heer dismissed the possibility as \"equally troubling[,] reckless threat inflation, wildly overstating the extent of Russian ambitions and power in support of a...
why are there fourteen mountains over 8,000m, but none over 9,000m?	It's likely Mt. Everest is near to the largest size mountain earth will support. A larger mountain is more massive, which puts a strain on the material at its base. They deform the plates they sit upon, more mass will further the deformation. And depending on height and climate, can promote glacial development, which i...	[ "Thirteen of the fourteen 8,000m summits are Ultras (the exception being Lhotse), and there are a further 64 Ultras over in height. There are 90 Ultras with a prominence of over , but only 22 with more than prominence.\n", "The list contains 451 mountains with a prominence higher than 300 m, among which 24 are ab...
why is "the big crunch" an unpopular theory?	So you have this balloon hooked up to an air compressor. Youre watching this and you see its slowly getting bigger. We know its getting bigger because if we draw a bunch of dots on the balloon with sharpie, you notice all the dots are getting farther from eachother. The big crunch says that this air compressor will tu...	[ "The Big Crunch is a theoretical scenario for the ultimate fate of the universe, in which the expansion of the universe eventually reverses and the universe recollapses, ultimately causing the cosmic scale factor to reach zero, an event potentially followed by a reformation of the universe starting with another Big...
Why did Japan have oil problems dispite owning oil-rich provinces during WW2?	There are basically three elements to this. First. While the the Southern Resource Area was oil rich by Japanese standards it was significantly less productive than other areas of the world at the time. In 1940 while the US produced 183 million tons of crude, the Dutch East Indies produced 8 million tons of crude. Th...	[ "Japanese oil fields in Sakhalin and Formosa provided only about ten percent of the petroleum needed to sustain Japanese industry. Reserves of California crude oil at Japanese refineries would have been exhausted in less than two years at the rate of consumption when United States terminated exports to Japan on 26 ...
if millipedes have around 200 legs and are that little then why are they so slow?	If you had to organise 200 legs you'd be slow, too.[1] Actually - some centipedes are very speedy, because that's the niche they've evolved to fit, but millipedes aren't predators (that I know of) and have no need for speed. [1] Actually, they're self-organising - each segment responds in a set way to the movement of...	[ "Octopuses mainly move about by relatively slow crawling, with some swimming in a head-first position. Jet propulsion, or backwards swimming, is their fastest means of locomotion, followed by swimming and crawling. When in no hurry, they usually crawl on either solid or soft surfaces. Several arms are extended forw...
how is it humanly possible to survive a flight in an airplane wheel well given the lack of heating, pressure ond oxygen, which are vital for survival at a high altitude?	Luck. The young man in question was unconscious for most of the trip, luckily for him, but he was certainly dicing with death. Stowing away in a wheel well isn't a surefire way to kill yourself, but this risk is certainly unacceptably high. There's just enough oxygen and heat -- and plenty of pressure -- up there to m...	[ "The newest models of aircraft were capable of exceeding altitudes at which humans can breathe, even with 100% oxygen supplementation, introducing the risk of hypoxia. Bird discovered that an oxygen regulator in a crashed German bomber he was ferrying back to the U.S. for study seemed to contain a pressure breathin...
when did the united states do away with voting as a "legal" holiday?	It's a holiday under state law in a handful of states, but it has never been a national holiday. The problem with making it a holiday or having voting on the weekend is that there will still always be people who have to work. If the law mandated that everybody had the day off, then emergency services like police and ho...	[ "In 1939, William Randolph Hearst advocated, through his chain of daily newspapers, the creation of a holiday to celebrate citizenship. In 1940, Congress designated the third Sunday in May as \"I am an American Day.\" In 1944 \"I am an American Day\" was promoted through the United States Immigration and Naturaliza...
Is blood pressure related to blood viscosity	The formula for blood pressure is: Heart rate • Stroke volume • Systemic vascular resistance * Heart rate = how many times the heart beats in 1 minute. * Stroke volume = how much blood is ejected from the heart each time it beats. * Systemic vascular resistance = the resistance to blood flow caused by the blood...	[ "Blood viscosity is a measure of the resistance of blood to flow. It can also be described as the thickness and stickiness of blood. This biophysical property makes it a critical determinant of friction against the vessel walls, the rate of venous return, the work required for the heart to pump blood, and how much ...
what thoughts go on in the mind of a typical mentally handicapped person?	There is no such thing as a "typical mentally handicapped person". Every individual is different and the brain is an extremely complex organ and development or injury affects every individual in different ways. A "mental handicap" may manifest completely different in two people depending on nature and/or nurture.	[ "Mental health and stability is a very important factor in a person’s everyday life. Social skills, behavioral skills, and someone’s way of thinking are just some of the things that the human brain develops at an early age. Learning how to interact with others and how to focus on certain subjects are essential less...
during the cold war, what's the point of splitting berlin? like, it seemed like a bad idea from the start?	It wasn't split during the cold war. It was split 4 ways after the Germans surrendered in WWII, into the Russian, American, English, and French zones. The idea behind splitting Berlin was that the allied powers defeated Germany, and thus each should be responsible for a section of the German capital.	[ "At first, this arrangement was intended to be of a temporary administrative nature, with all parties declaring that Germany and Berlin would soon be reunited. However, as the relations between the Western Allies and the Soviet Union soured and the Cold War began, the joint administration of Germany and Berlin brok...
What location does fat get used to create energy?	Ok so fat is called a Triglyceride or TAG and it is called that because it is made of three fatty acid chains. This structure is very stable and is unsoluable and is stored in docks called adipose tissue. When the body runs out of glucose and glycogen as fuel it starts burning fatty acids. A number of things need to ha...	[ "Fat is an important foodstuff for many forms of life, and fats serve both structural and metabolic functions. They are a necessary part of the diet of most heterotrophs (including humans) and are the most energy dense, thus the most efficient form of energy storage.\n", "Adipose tissue, commonly known as fat, is...
How can scientists measure the mass of an atom, and other subatomic particles to such extreme precision?	Particle masses can be measured in a few ways. Typically, subatomic particle masses are determined by the relationship between their energy and their momentum. If a particle is not moving, its total energy is E=mc\^2. If it is moving, then E\^2=(mc\^2)\^2+(pc)\^2, where p is the momentum and c is the speed of light. On...	[ "Since the electron mass determines a number of observed effects in atomic physics, there are potentially many ways to determine its mass from an experiment, if the values of other physical constants are already considered known.\n", "Typically, the mass of objects is measured in relation to that of the kilogram,...
why dont people have a problem with cuba being a problem?	There isn't a sort of flicked switch between free and oppressive. As countries go, Cuba isn't that bad. It's also poor, yes, but arguably because of US-imposed trade embargoes. All the money it spends on medical aid is also a very good PR move - it sends hundreds of doctors to developing countries. It also has ...	[ "Furthermore, Cuba has little to offer the United States economically. From the United States viewpoint, Cuba's one party semi-dictatorial form of government is especially undesirable due to characteristics such as its crackdowns on religious freedom, repression of the press, and repression of almost all criticism ...
What would be the implications if the existence of a magnetic monopole was found?	First, the existence of a magnetic monopole would imply the necessity of electric charge quantization -- the phenomenon that all electric charges are integer multiples of some fundamental charge, a property which is observed but for which we do not have a confirmed explanation. Secondly, many unified theories imply th...	[ "Modern interest in this concept stems from particle theories, notably Grand Unified Theories and superstring theories, that predict either the existence, or the possibility, of magnetic monopoles. These theories and others have inspired extensive efforts to search for monopoles. Despite these efforts, no magnetic ...
To what extent were the Romans successful against Persian horsemen?	So I wrote a post on why horse archers were so effective a couple of days ago: _URL_0_ As for Roman tactics against them, let's first look at Crassus' campaign. He was a rich man but a horrible commander, and actually was given a good route for his campaign. The King of Armenia offered him safe passage and extra cava...	[ "The Romans retired their frontier troops and the Persian forces susequently crossed the Tigris river. Shapur's tactic was to tire the Roman forces with a long march in the hot hours of the day before engaging them with his archers and cataphracts, thus, when the two armies came face-to-face, the Persian cavalry fe...
How accurate is Battlefield 1?	There's always room for discussion, but perhaps this previous topic found through the search function will answer your inquiry. * [Battlefield 1 Trailer Accuracy](_URL_0_)	[ "There is no serious historical evidence giving an exact place or time to the battle, nor any troop positions, numerical statistics, casualties, or much of anything of that nature. It is not even fully understood if the battle was in of itself a major engagement or merely a small battle or even a large skirmish. Di...
why did we shoot people that contracted rabies? (context within)	1. you're gonna die, and pretty soon, and it's incredibly painful. 2. you are likely to go nutso as the disease progresses and then bite someone, scratch someone or exchange fluids with them someone - you're contagious. In days of yore we took slightly more drastic approaches to dealing with this sort of thing....	[ "BULLET::::- Rabies, a fatal neurologic disease in animals and people, is caused by a virus. Animals and people are most commonly infected through bites from rabid animals. Infected cats may have a variety of signs, but most often have sudden behavioral changes and progressive paralysis.\n", "BULLET::::- Rabies –...
Were the Vandals any more destructive than other invading tribes during the fall of the Roman Empire, or was there another reason their name became connected with vandalism?	I'll only speak for one aspect of the Vandals in that, while certainly proving to be just as if not more destructive than the Huns and Alaric's visigoths--in terms of the sack of Rome they actually proved to be far less Vandal-like. Like when Attilla and the Huns were at Rome's doorstep, Pope Leo I once again rode ou...	[ "The Vandals were also weakened by the hostility of their Roman subjects, the continued existence among the Vandals of a faction loyal to Hilderic, and by the ambivalent position of the Moorish tribes, who watched the oncoming conflict from the sidelines, ready to join the victor and seize the spoils.\n", "The mo...
The negative side of the square root does not matter?	The square root symbol is just an object that we made up to keep track of certain quantities. The equation x^(2)-A=0 has two solutions in the real numbers for A > 0. Luckily we know that if x=b is a solution (so b is a number so that b^2=A), then x=-b is also a solution. This says two things: 1) We just need to know ...	[ "No square root can be taken of a negative number within the system of real numbers, because squares of all real numbers are non-negative. The lack of real square roots for the negative numbers can be used to expand the real number system to the complex numbers, by postulating the imaginary unit , which is one of t...
why are people scared of guns?	I get hunting, and have fired weapons myself (including a 20-gauge when I was a teenager, as well as a South African "R5" 5.56mm assault rifle on a range). So I don't "hate" guns, nor am I "scared" of them, but I still have major issues with the whole concept, philosophically. Step back a bit and look at the big pictu...	[ "In studies of nonfatal gun use, it was found that guns can contribute to coercive control, which can then escalate into chronic and more severe violence. Guns can have a negative impact on victims even without being discharged. Threats of gun use or showing a weapon can create damaging and long-lasting fear and em...
How many photons from a distant star hit the Earth at any given moment or per second, and does a unique photon strike every (very small) unit area of the side of the planet that faces the source?	> I was wondering if two people standing next to one another see distinct photons Any time you and another person see the same thing, you are actually seeing distinct photons. When you see something, it means photons from that object have been absorbed by your retina; the same photon can't be absorbed by the retinas...	[ "If we assume a 10 m diameter ideal ground-based telescope and an unresolved star: every second, over a patch the size of the seeing-enlarged image of the star, 35 photons arrive from the star and 3500 from air-glow. So, over an hour, roughly arrive from the air-glow, and approximately arrive from the source; so th...
how come women begin being biologically capable of having babies at an age (periods can start as early as 9) in which they are not developmentally/emotionally/physically capable to?	I see a lot of people mentioning evolution. Valid to some point. But a huge influence are endocrine disruptors like BPA. A few decades ago it wasn't common for girls as young as 9 to get their period. The chances of surviving a birth as a 9 year old are also pretty low.	[ "Precocious puberty can make a child fertile when very young, with the youngest mother on record being Lina Medina, who gave birth at the age of 5 years, 7 months and 17 days, in one report and at 6 years 5 months in another.\n", "These young girls, some as young as 12, are being force into sexual relationships w...
Why did the roles of Barrister and Solicitor develop separately in Britain?	Oo! A question that I can help answer in part! For what it’s worth, I’m not a historian, but I do have a degree in history. I’m currently a law student in Australia, which has a similar Solicitor/Barrister split profession. I can’t speak to how the American profession developed, but I can talk about how the English/We...	[ "In England and Wales, the strict separation between the duties of solicitor and barrister was partially broken down, with the Courts and Legal Services Act 1990 removing the monopoly of barristers to act as advocates and granting solicitors rights of audience in specified circumstances. Solicitors came frequently ...
How prevalent was Latin in Britain under the Romans and if it was when did it die out as a common language?	We can't know for sure, but it was probably somewhat similar to English in India: it was a language of administration and law, a literary language, and a common language, particularly in the towns. Unfortunately we just don't have enough writing from Britain to know for certain.	[ "With the end of Roman rule, Latin was displaced as a spoken language by Old English in most of what became England during the Anglo-Saxon settlement of the fifth and sixth centuries. It survived in the remaining Celtic regions of western Britain until about 700, when it was replaced by the local Brittonic language...
I'm looking for books focused on political history (preferably books focused on the 20th century, but I'm open to anything). Any suggestions?	I can only give limited advice about The Rise and Fall of Communism as I just skimmed through a few pages of the book in a local Barnes and Noble but it seems to be a well-written book; however, I would also suggest you look at another book about communism that came out not too long ago called *The Red Flag: A Histor...	[ "The Century is a book about politics, philosophy and literature by Alain Badiou, first published in French by Éditions du Seuil in 2005; the English translation by Alberto Toscano was published by Polity Press in 2007. The thirteen chapters of the book are presented as lessons derived from a seminar Badiou gave at...
Why do people with chromosome abnormality/ disorder have shorter life expectancies than people without?	Defects typically worsen things and do not improve them. Some defects have more negative effects than others. That is a matter of statistics. In very rare cases, anomalies turn out to be no "defects" but improvements, but the statistical probability for this is very low. So bottom line: If you introduce a random cha...	[ "Twin studies have estimated that approximately 20-30% the variation in human lifespan can be related to genetics, with the rest due to individual behaviors and environmental factors which can be modified. Although over 200 gene variants have been associated with longevity according to a US-Belgian-UK research data...
You're in a stopped car with the windows closed, a horsefly is 'hovering'; Upon accelerating the car, does the fly remain in the same position in space, or does it hit the rear window?	A fly's motion is based on the objects it is in contact with, as well as the gravitational pull of the Earth. A fly would be hovering because the force exerted upwards by the air on the fly's wings is balanced out by the gravitational pull of the earth. Now, if the car were to accelerate, it would bring all of the ai...	[ "Each side of the body must be synchronized and the two sides are also coupled. That is, the left and right wings and thus the left and right halteres always beat at the same frequency. However, the amplitude of the wingbeat does not always have to be the same on the left and right side. This is what allows the fli...
Does heat energy have "momentum"?	No. Heat may continue to diffuse through the object, which may cause it to appear to be increasing in heat for a short while (e.g. if you're measuring temperature at a different spot from where it's being heated) but the max temperature wouldn't rise without a heat source.	[ "The concept of energy emerged from the idea of \"vis viva\" (living force), which Leibniz defined as the product of the mass of an object and its velocity squared; he believed that total \"vis viva\" was conserved. To account for slowing due to friction, Leibniz claimed that heat consisted of the random motion of ...
why does curiosity often outweigh common sense?	I think it might have to do with our hunter gatherer ancestors. We have a need for knowledge of everything near us, so we can be aware of predators, food, and other things either beneficial or detrimental to our survival.	[ "Although the phenomenon of curiosity is widely regarded, its root causes are relatively unknown beyond theory. However, recent studies have provided some insight into the neurological mechanisms that make up what is known as the reward pathway which may impact characteristics associated with curiosity, such as lea...
how do the machines work that the tsa use to put swabs in after they swipe your clothing?	They use a technique called "ion-mobility spectrometry". What happens is they ionize the specimen swabs and then travel through a tube with an electric field and a buffer gas that opposes the motion. The speed at which it will pass through the tube indicates what the material is made of, and it is calibrated to trigger...	[ "The user clips the piece of clothing on two hooks and the item is pulled into the machine. Then a series of rollers and arms moves in all directions to straighten and fold it. The machine can fold shirts, tops, trousers and dresses, but not small pieces of clothing like underwear or large items like sheets. The fo...
Why don't we have infinite entropy in the universe?	Entropy increases over time. It's a fundamental law of thermodynamics. However, the universe in it's current state isn't infinite, it had a start at the Big Bang. At the Big Bang, the universe had an incredibly low entropy. Why this is isn't entirely known, and there's a lot of speculation on the topic. We currently e...	[ "Max Planck wrote that the phrase \"entropy of the universe\" has no meaning because it admits of no accurate definition. More recently, Grandy writes: \"It is rather presumptuous to speak of the entropy of a universe about which we still understand so little, and we wonder how one might define thermodynamic entrop...
why it’s so uncomfortable to stare into someone else’s eyes for too long?	It depends who it's for. Alot of the time it's a show of dominant behavior or even submissive depending on the person. This can lead to people being uncomfortable. Other times for fewer people it's the start of a soul gaze, which is something most tend to avoid.	[ "Visually, a glaring person tends to have their eyes fixed and heavily focused on a subject. This can sometimes be considered synonymous to staring but, in most of the cases, staring is caused due to curiosity and lasts only for a short duration, whereas glaring is caused due to contempt and lasts for a relatively ...
why is it acceptable for politicians to litter signs and pamphlets everywhere?	You can't stop people from mailing you stuff or leaving it at your house but most towns have regulations around those signs that they leave on people's lawns. My town has these regulations: \- Need to get an owner's consent to put a sign on their lawn. \- Person needs to track where they put them. Candidates are r...	[ "In addition, it gives the requester a placebo effect of doing something substantive, while not actually volunteering to help their candidate. Critics charge that \"lawn signs don't vote\" and dismiss their importance. Theft of lawn signs is treated like any other instance of petty theft, however, signs on the righ...
An object in orbit around a massive body is in a constant state of free fall, so why isn't it accelerating towards an infinite velocity?	For objects in a circular orbit, the force of gravity is always perpendicular to the direction of motion. That means that gravity does not pull the object to go faster in its current direction, but instead only changes the direction without affecting the speed of the object.	[ "In typical free-fall, the acceleration of gravity acts along the direction of an object's velocity, linearly increasing its speed as it falls toward the Earth, or slowing it down if it is moving away from the Earth. In the case of an orbiting spacecraft, which has a velocity vector largely \"perpendicular\" to the...
How does the electric field behave as a charged particle falls into a black hole?	> It seems to imply that to a distant observer, the field due to a charge at the event horizon of a black hole would have to be spherically symmetric around the center of the black hole (at least, assuming a spherical black hole). Ok, when people say a black hole is only described by its mass, charge and angular mo...	[ "A charged black hole is a black hole that possesses electric charge. Since the electromagnetic repulsion in compressing an electrically charged mass is dramatically greater than the gravitational attraction (by about 40 orders of magnitude), it is not expected that black holes with a significant electric charge wi...
Is it colder just before dawn or somewhere in the middle between dawn and dusk?	Assuming no strong cold or warm air advection is taking place, it's normally the coldest just before sunrise. You can clearly see the diurnal temperature trends in [this hourly weather graph for Phoenix, Arizona](_URL_0_).	[ "Daytime becomes longer as the summer solstice approaches, while nighttime gets longer as the winter solstice approaches. This can have a potential impact on the times and durations of dawn and dusk. This effect is more pronounced closer to the poles, where the Sun rises at the vernal equinox and sets at the autumn...
what is java?	I suppose you're here talking about computers and not the dance. ELI5 answer : Java is a programming language which allows to create programs. Long answer : Unlike other programming languages like C++, the code is interpreted by another program (called the JVM, Java Virtual Machine) which renders the result....	[ "Java is a general-purpose, concurrent, class-based, object-oriented programming language that is designed to minimize implementation dependencies. It relies on a Java virtual machine to be secure and highly portable. It is bundled with an extensive library designed to provide a full abstraction of the underlying p...
Why are so many followers of Islam/people in Islamic nations named after the prophet Muhammad?	Interesting, I always thought about it from the other point of view. If you consider a man to be the best human and a role model to pattern your life on, wouldn't it follow that it should be a very common name? Muslims are supposed to love the prophet Muhammad more than their parents and we know that naming children af...	[ "There were Jews, such as Natan'el, who accepted this model of religious pluralism, leading them to view Muhammad as a legitimate prophet, albeit not Jewish, sent to preach to the Arabs, just as the Hebrew prophets had been sent to deliver their messages to Israel.\n", "According to the sixth edition of \"The Col...
How accurate are orbital calculations?	Here's a taste of how accurate orbital calculations are: in 1676 Romer proposed that there was a finite speed of light when he noticed that Io, a moon of Jupiter, was some times 8 minutes ahead of "schedule" (predicted location) and sometimes 8 minutes behind. 8 minutes. 350 years ago.	[ "One of the major problems in trajectory and orbital estimation is to obtain a realistic estimate of the accuracy of the trajectory and other important parameters. In the orbital case, some of the parameters which may not be solved for are geopotential constants, survey, etc. These factors will affect the total unc...
Do ALL plants release pollen into the air?	Plants only produce pollen from their flowers (or cones, etc.). So if your friend would like some plants inside her house she just needs to make sure they don't flower (i.e. cut the flower buds off). Some plants flower more often or easily than others. Cacti rarely flower, in my experience. Ferns produce no flowers bu...	[ "\"Filipendula rubra\" is known for its air-borne pollen, however pollination is only effective (can create a seed) when pollen is transferred to a different plant, due to the fact that \"F. rubra\" is self-incompatible. The vast majority of pollen will be derived from inflorescences within the same clone and thus ...
how are well known illegal tv streaming sites able to stay up?	These sites do one of two things. They operate in a jurisdiction where it would be difficult to shut them down. If they are ever actually shut down, they simply create a new site and port everything over. It's usually a game of whack-a-mole. With law enforcement trying to shut them down but the sites simply coming b...	[ "There have been instances of users deliberately sharing their TV Everywhere login credentials, or having them sold without their owner's knowledge on the black market, in order to allow others to view programs without subscribing to the channel. Charter Communications CEO Tom Rutledge, and ESPN's executive vice pr...
To what extent was Cannabis consumed for pleasure in the ancient world?	Not quite your question, but [this older link](_URL_0_) might nevertheless be of interest for you.	[ "The Mediterranean region contains the earliest archeological evidence of human use; the oldest known seeds date back to more than 5000 BCE in the Neolithic age with purposes such as food, anaesthetics, and ritual. Evidence from ancient Greece indicates that opium was consumed in several ways, including inhalation ...
What would happen, if you create a perfect vacuum inside a stable container?	> Would the vacuum be strong enough to tear single molecules out of the container walls, or wouldn't it even be possible to create a container strong enough, or wouldn't anything cool happen at all? This prevents you from ever actually reaching perfect vacuum. Not from "tearing apart" the walls of the vacuum chamber ...	[ "A partial vacuum may be generated by increasing the volume of a container. To continue evacuating a chamber indefinitely without requiring infinite growth, a compartment of the vacuum can be repeatedly closed off, exhausted, and expanded again. This is the principle behind a positive displacement pump, for example...
A clarification on the date 13.0.0.0.0 in the Mayan Long Count	My understanding of how this thing got started (I'm trying to find a citation) is that the number 13 comes up repeatedly in Maya numerology because it's considered a lucky number. The ritual calendar, as you pointed out, uses 13 cycles of 20 days. Using this, the novelist Gary Jennings wrote [a fictional novel](_URL_1_...	[ "Unlike the 260-day \"tzolkʼin\" still used today among the Maya, the Long Count was linear rather than cyclical, and kept time roughly in units of 20: 20 days made a \"uinal\", 18 uinals (360 days) made a \"tun\", 20 tuns made a \"kʼatun\", and 20 kʼatuns (144,000 days or roughly 394 years) made up a \"bʼakʼtun\"....
today i read the ocean will rise 4ft due to ever faster melting antarctic glaciers, if this is true how will it affect coastal cities?	The authorities who should be planning for this are fixed in "LaLaLa-can't-hear-you" mode at present, and will probably remain so until their cities are flooded monthly. Knowing how engineers work, it will probably be large pumps and high sea walls, which are then largely ignored and eventually fail for lack of mainta...	[ "Initial press briefings focused on the increases to the estimates for potential sea level rise expected as a result of global warming, with the session led by Stefan Rahmstorf. Eric Rignot, Professor of Earth system science at the University of California, Irvine, said \"As a result of the acceleration of outlet g...
when i accellerate my car, why do i hear high-pitched noise through the aux input when nothing is plugged in?	Its noise off the generator or alternator. Cords like that aren't shielded like other people have said. Its basically RF interference coming from that because its often not shielded. Its usually not something noticed, and the stereo itself has filtering to block it. But when you plug something unshielded into it (y...	[ "No loss occurs when the signals at ports 2 and 3 are in phase and have equal magnitude. In case of noise input to ports 2 and 3, the noise level at port 1 does not increase, half of the noise power is dissipated in the resistor.\n", "Floating grounds can cause problems with audio equipment using RCA connectors (...
can someone tell exactly what it is that obama is doing for net neutrality?	It means that Obama put his hat in the ring and took a stance. That being said he cannot compel the FCC to follow what he wants. Basically after using Net Neutrality as part of his platform in 2008, and then staying on the fence about it for a while, he's finally given an opinion. This could sway the FCC to fall in l...	[ "Obama reaffirmed his commitment to net neutrality at a meeting with Google employees in November 2007, at which he said, \"once providers start to privilege some applications or web sites over others, then the smaller voices get squeezed out, and we all lose.\" At the same event, Obama pledged to appoint a Chief T...
What factors led to (why did the emperor order) the destruction of Zheng He's fleet, end of Chinese exploration, and continuation of Ming isolation in the 1400s?	There were several reasons regarding the fleets themselves: Zheng He's fleets were expensive, the Ming were involved in wars against the Mongols and Vietnamese, the government bureaucracy was quite suspicious of how eunuchs dominated the venture, and the emperors were no longer as interested in the prestige of the voya...	[ "Already in May 1421, during the reign of the Yongle Emperor, an order was issued for the suspension of Zheng He's maritime expeditions, apparently on account of their cost (although the order apparently did not affect the 6th voyage of Zheng He, staged around that time). Zhu Gaochi, as soon as he was enthroned as ...
Looking for advice on a good optical microscope to purchase and it looks like this subject hasn't been covered here yet. What microscope do you use at home?	I don't know of too many scientists that have personal microscopes at home. That being said, the ones that my students used when I was TA'ing were $3000 each and I consider those pretty basic. My lab's microscope was in the $40,000 range, and the confocal I used cost $325,000. For under $200 it will be a cheap "toy" mi...	[ "Microscopes traditionally are the core product of A. Krüss Optronic. The company offers a great variety of stereoscopic and monocular instruments, dedicated to medical, biological, and technical applications, as well as photographic and video accessories.\n", "The optical microscope, often referred to as the lig...
In the "wild west" time era, when a bank robber robbed the stagecoach or a bank, who lost that money? Was it the bank or the individual who banked it?	I can reply to the bank question, but not the stagecoach one. TL:DR: The bank, unless the robbery caused the bank to fail, in which case both. Here's how banking works: banks take deposits from people and lend out the cash to other people. The deposits are liabilities of the bank - that is, they owe that money to the...	[ "On October 8, 1932, the then First State Bank of Cedar Hill was robbed by Raymond Hamilton, a sidekick of bank robbers Bonnie and Clyde. After taking the money, he locked the employees in the vault and made his getaway. When Hamilton got wind of reports that some of the cash had been hidden during the first robber...
How well trained were war and hunting dogs in the Roman Empire and/or medieval Europe compared to today & how did they train them assuming their knowledge & tools for dog training was much less than we have today?	I can't answer with specific reference to the Roman Empire although I suspect that much of my answer is transferrable from Medieval skills to Roman skills. Firstly I'd like to challenge the assumption that "knowledge and tools for dog training were much less than we have today". A good dog trainer needs no tools oth...	[ "Dogs in warfare have a long history starting in ancient times. From war dogs trained in combat to their use as scouts, sentries and trackers, their uses have been varied and some continue to exist in modern military usage.\n", "Early in recorded history there are records of dogs being trained for the purpose of ...
why are most/all sniper rifles bolt action? why can't they use a semi-automatic mechanism like most other weapons?	I could be wrong on this, but the bolt action rifle would minimize extraneous movement that might alter the trajectory of the bullet. Remember that even small fractions of a degree might be the difference between a hit and a miss, so it's important to keep everything as still as possible. In a semi-automatic mechanis...	[ "The choice between bolt-action and semi-automatic, usually recoil operated or gas operated , is usually determined by specific requirements of the sniper's role in a particular organization, with each design having advantages and disadvantages. For a given cartridge, a bolt-action rifle is cheaper to build and mai...
In the early 1500s pre reformation Europe what was the difference between an indulgence and a confession?	Well, Confession is having your sins absolved, that is, return to a state of grace and avoid a path leading to damnation. A reconciliation, if you will. But there is still a need to make up for the consequences of sin, most notably the offense the penitent has caused to God. Now ordinarily this is achieved after the de...	[ "In Protestant Reformation history, confessionalization is the parallel processes of \"confession-building\" taking place in Europe between the Peace of Augsburg (1555) and the Thirty Years' War (1618-1648). During this time prior to the Thirty Years' War, there was a nominal peace between the Protestant and Cathol...
what, biologically, causes lethargy and feelings of being "in a fog"? why do we sometimes feel this way, even with no apparent health issues?	We actually are not quite sure what fully causes the feeling of being tired or lethargic. One simple explanation that has the most proof appears to be that a chemical called adenosine builds up in our brain throughout many of our daily activities. Adenosine is the byproduct of many metabolic functions (such as ATP bein...	[ "Clouding of consciousness, also known as brain fog or mental fog, is a term used in medicine denoting an abnormality in the regulation of the overall level of consciousness that is mild and less severe than a delirium. The sufferer experiences a subjective sensation of mental clouding described as feeling \"foggy\...
how do people remove vocals from a song for adverts for example?	Most songs nowadays are composed using layers on a track. So all it really takes is removing the layer. It's trickier with older songs that didn't use this production method.	[ "\"SingingCoach\" utilizes a pitch recognition technology that was developed by Carlo Franzblau and engineered by his team of programmers. Its technology uses a white tracking line on screen to record and display the pitch of one’s voice in reference to the \"in tune\" bars of the song. This allows the user to unde...
The Arab world around the 10th century is known by many as the(/an) Intellectual Golden Age. What made this area so fertile in scientific advancements, and what happened at the end of the period that may have led the area away from such a reputation?	There are a couple of narratives that attempt to explain this. The traditional narrative proposed by later Muslim scholars is that when the Abbasid dynasty usurped power from the Umayyads in 750 CE, this represented a shift in power from Arabs to the numerically and culturally much stronger Persians. From this, we have...	[ "The Islamic Golden Age was also an important early stage of globalization, when Jewish and Muslim traders and explorers established a sustained economy across the Old World resulting in a globalization of crops, trade, knowledge and technology. Globally significant crops such as sugar and cotton became widely cult...
Who were the first prominent Southerners in government [Congress/White House/SCOTUS/Armed Forces/etc...] after the Civil War and did they face extra issues getting in?	General James Longstreet joined the Republican Party after the war and was appointed as the head of Louisiana's Reconstruction-era militia. He was despised by many fellow Southerners, despite heroic service in the Confederate cause, especially after the 1874 Battle of Liberty Place - Longstreet, commanding black troo...	[ "Francis Strother Lyon (February 25, 1800 – December 31, 1882) was a prominent Alabama attorney and politician. He served two terms in the Confederate States Congress during the American Civil War after being an antebellum member of the United States Congress.\n", "Thomas Alexander Harris (1826 - April 9, 1895) w...
Pauli's Exclusion Principle - Does It State All Electrons Everywhere Must Occupy Different Energies?	No. It says that two identical fermions (like electrons) can't occupy the same energy state. For example, two spin-up electrons can't both be in the 1s orbital (the closest to the nucleus). However, in two adjacent atoms, the electrons in the 1s orbital will both have the same energy, but still not be degenerate becaus...	[ "The Pauli exclusion principle helps explain a wide variety of physical phenomena. One particularly important consequence of the principle is the elaborate electron shell structure of atoms and the way atoms share electrons, explaining the variety of chemical elements and their chemical combinations. An electricall...
the mafia and all its groups (camorra, la cosa nostra, sicilian, etc.)	I can't give you a run down of all the groups but I can give a general description of the Mafia. Picture Sicily as a schoolyard playground. Everyone's playing and having a good time, but some kids start bulling other kids. When the teacher is told, they don't do anything and mostly just look the other way. A few kids...	[ "The Camorra (; ) is an Italian Mafia-type crime syndicate, or secret society, which arose in the region of Campania and its capital Naples. It is one of the oldest and largest criminal organizations in Italy, dating back to the 17th century. Unlike the pyramidal structure of the Sicilian Mafia, the Camorra's organ...
Is it really safer to let the tap run for 30 seconds before drinking the water?	Generally, modern homes have pipes that are small and water is often in demand. This leads to water that is moved often and never really gets a chance to sit still in one place for too long. The pipes which are made of usually copper of plastic are in themselves terrible environments for many pathogens. The fact that ...	[ "The article quoted Erik Olson, an analyst for the Natural Resources Defense Council, as saying \"This is a really big deal... If schools go over 20 parts per billion, they immediately take the water out of production.\" WASA recommended that residents let the tap run for 30 seconds to one minute before using it to...
How the hell does press & seal wrap work?	“Glass, as well as some plastics, has a net negative charge on its surface, so a wrap that has an opposite charge is going to cling quite well to these surfaces,” [SOURCE](_URL_0_) Another site has a more chemical approach: *"I found that most kitchen plastic wrap is made of low density polyethylene, also known as ...	[ "When the seal is pressed onto the printing surface, the procedure differs according to plant or silk based paste. For silk based paste, the user applies pressure, often with a specially made soft, flat surface beneath the paper. For plant based paste, the user simply applies light pressure. As lifting the seal ver...
In what direction do our eyes look when in complete rest?	I'm a med student. Actually There isn't any specific direction. If i assume complete rest is a "deep sleep" . It's gonna be a REM or Non-REM sleep stages which could be any random direction and our eyes are continously moving fast (In REM) and slow (non-REM)	[ "The eyes are never completely at rest. They make fast random jittering movements even when we are fixated on one point. The reason for this random movement is related to the photoreceptors and the ganglion cells. It appears that a constant visual stimulus can make the photoreceptors or the ganglion cells become un...
Was Albrecht von Wallenstein really a traitor or were the charges against him trumped up?	A reply to /u/ManicMarine Ugggggghhhhh ... this is such a good question and such a complex topic at the same time ...... ! :D First we must set the scene properly in terms of how the "military fiscal state" was [evolving in that era](_URL_0_). He had set up a "state within state" system whereby he controlled not onl...	[ "On 17 February, Scherffenberg was arrested in Vienna. On 18 February, a second patent was released accusing Wallenstein of conspiracy and condemning him to death, its publication was delayed so as not to split the army in two. Wallenstein's letters refuting the accusations against him remained unanswered, after re...
how do i shop for and buy my first car?	Look at a bunch of adverts for cars that are the price you can afford. Keep the price on the cheap side. You are only learning about cars at this stage. Pick out a few that you like. It doesn't matter why you like them for now. Make a note of the milage and age of the cars and what condition they are in, e.g. is the pa...	[ "Carwoo was an anonymous automobile marketplace that enabled its users to purchase cars without providing personal information to dealers until after an offer was made and accepted. Once a buyer accepted an offer, their information was transferred to the dealer. Rather than buyers bidding up the price, salespeople ...
After the Peace of Westphalia in 1648, how did Europe manage to continue business as usual so shortly after?	Business as usual in what way? Because Europe really didn't just keep trucking along. The 30 Years War more or less reworked the political landscape of Europe and the way diplomacy was run. You mention the Swedes invading Poland and I think that's a great example of how things changed. At the outset of the war, one...	[ "In the Wars of Religion of the 17th c, 1648, ber Oct The Peace of Westphalia, of the European settlements of 164ood the nature of t8, brought an end to the thirty years between Spain and the Dutch and the German portion of the Thirty Years War. Peace plans were formed in the towns of Munster and Osnabruck, 1648. T...
why do so many large and small companies prey on the poor and less fortunate by gouging them on everyday items and needs?	People with low incomes also have the fewest options in what products they can buy. That makes them a captive consumer base and means that companies can charge them more than more affluent people with more choice in products and services. Poor people are also much less likely to have received a good financial educatio...	[ "Although opportunities are great, many businesses are not taking advantage of them because market conditions surrounding the poor can make doing business difficult, risky and expensive. Where poverty prevails, the foundations for functional markets are often lacking, excluding the poor from meaningful participatio...
why are yellow teeth considered unattractive?	They didn't used to be. Toothpaste and dental care took off though and eventually white teeth became preferable - it equals health and indicates that you take good care of your body and self.	[ "Sometimes white or straight teeth are associated with oral hygiene, but a hygienic mouth may have stained teeth and/or crooked teeth. For appearance reasons, people may seek out teeth whitening and orthodontics.\n", "The discoloration of teeth over time can result from exposure to substances such as tobacco, cof...
If water can only boil (212 degrees) why do simmering liquids boil around the edges?	every molecule is not at that temperature at the same time. It is a gradient from the energy source to the furthest point. When you put a simmering pot on the stove. The heat is transferred from the fire to the pot body which conducts heat really well.the water immediately touching the walls of the pot will get the h...	[ "Normally, boiling water does not boil over. When fats, starches, and some other substances are present in boiling water, for example by adding milk or pasta, boiling over can occur. A film forms on the surface of the boiling liquid; for example, cream can boil over as milk fat separates from the milk. The increase...
what happens in our brains when we hold in emotions and then snap?	Your front brain simulates consequences and chooses the best action to take. When you're emotional, this usually means stopping you from doing something like punting your co workers. Sometimes one or multiple emotions become really strong and it takes lots of effort to stop you from acting on them. Effort makes your b...	[ "Neuroscience has shown that emotions are generated by multiple structures in the brain. The rapid, minimal, and evaluative processing of the emotional significance of the sensory data is done when the data passes through the amygdala in its travel from the sensory organs along certain neural pathways towards the l...
How did people in formerly-French regions of Canada react to the news that France was backing the independence rebellion of their neighbors to the south?	In essence, indifference. The general sentiment was that France had abandoned New-France in favor of the French West Indies, that were much more profitable than the rather onerous North American colony. This is also a sentiment that can be found in the lesser rates of volunteerism in WWI, although at that point, it's ...	[ "Although some Canadians took up arms in support of the rebellion, the majority remained loyal to the King. French Canadians had been satisfied by the British government's Quebec Act of 1774, which offered religious and linguistic toleration; in general, they did not sympathize with a rebellion that they saw as bei...
Are the any sources where I can find events that happend during the last years of Nebuchadnazzer II of Babylon ?	The primary book for the reign of Nebuchadnezzar II is in French (Arnaud's Nabuchodonosor II, roi de Babylone). DJ Wiseman's Nebuchadrezzar and Babylon is useful, as is Ronald Sack's Images of Nebuchadnezzar: The Emergence of a Legend. Vanderhooft's The Neo-Babylonian Empire and Babylon in the Latter Prophets...	[ "It is one of two identified Chronicles referring to Nebuchadnezzar, and does not cover the whole of his reign. The ABC5 is a continuation of Babylonian Chronicle ABC4 (The Late Years of Nabopolassar), where Nebuchadnezzar is mentioned as the Crown Prince. Since the ABC 5 only provides a record through Nebuchadnezz...
how did specific geographic locations become good/high end parts of town and others become bad/dangerous parts of town?	I'm sure you know the three most important words in real estate: Location, location, and location. Nice areas have proximity to some desireable feature--be it parks, the waterfront, downtown, public transit, nice views, historical areas, nice looking bridges, any or all of these things. These desirable features drive...	[ "The original townsite follows a unique design. It is laid out on northeast-to-southwest and northwest-to-southeast roads. It is purported that the reason this was done was to allow sun to come into every room in the home at some point during the day. The northwest-to-southeast roads were numbered and called avenue...
If the earth was to stop rotating around its axes; how cold would the dark side get ?	Planets that "have stopped rotating" are known as being tidally locked. Earth's moon is tidally locked to the Earth, and so only one side faces us at all times. If a planet is close enough to its parent star it will become tidally locked. Observation of exoplanets determined to be tidally locked indicated extreme wi...	[ "Eventually, the Earth stops spinning altogether. The scorching light of day lasts for six months, while the remaining six months of the year are ice-bound darkness of night. The planetary landscape now consists of one ocean approximately 10 miles deep in the north, one in the south and a girdle of land around the ...
Did ancient or medieval armies conscript soldiers regardless of their physical capability?	I have insufficient knowledge of Chinese history and the armies of Antiquity to answer the question from those specific angles, but where it concerns the recruitment and mobilization of the common man in Europe in the Middle Ages, the physical condition was definitely of little concern. I've written about the [approxi...	[ "The army had no regimental structure and the soldiers were not directly recruited by the emperor. Instead, individuals, such as nobles or local leaders, would recruit their own troops, referred to as a \"mansab\", and contribute them to the army.\n", "Until the 11th century, the majority of the conscripts were f...
why is snowden in trouble for whistleblowing? shouldn't whistle blowing be a good thing?	It's a great thing until someone whistle blows you. Then they're a snitch. The government is equating it with giving classified data to the enemy like treason, espionage and the like. Really it's bullshit but that's their reason.	[ "Edward Snowden went to the press with revelations about the NSA due to the experience of previous whistleblowers, such as Thomas Andrews Drake, William Binney, J. Kirk Wiebe, Ed Loomis, and Diane Roark, who initially reported their concerns within the system and faced intense retaliation.\n", "On the heels of th...
How is uranium made into a gas for Gaseous Diffusion/Electromagnetic separation etc...	It is usually worked on as "hex," or [uranium hexafluoride](_URL_0_)	[ "The separation of uranium requires the material in a gaseous form; uranium hexafluoride (UF) is used for uranium enrichment. Upon entering the centrifuge cylinder, the UF gas is rotated at a high speed. The rotation creates a strong centrifugal force that draws more of the heavier gas molecules (containing the U-2...
How fast are we travelling?	There is no absolute reference frame, but the closest there is is the [cosmic microwave background](_URL_0_) reference frame. That is, roughly speaking, how fast we would be moving if we never accelerated since the Big Bang. The sun is currently moving 370 km/s from that reference frame. Earth is moving 30 km/s compare...	[ "BULLET::::- Major Joseph W. Rogers became the first person to travel faster than 1,500 miles per hour, and almost reached 2,500 kilometers per hour, breaking the world speed record at , in an F-106 Delta Dart jet fighter.\n", "The Apollo 10 crew (Thomas Stafford, John W. Young and Eugene Cernan) achieved the hig...
Who was the first comedian?	In terms of early examples of written humour (as it's very difficult to find stand-up comedians without written record), one of the earliest examples is the satirical script of the [Instruction of Dua-Khety](_URL_0_), an Ancient Egyptian work written in the 2nd millenium BCE (Between 2000 and 1700 BCE). It describes m...	[ "The Comedians was a British television show of the 1970s (later reprised in the mid-1980s and early 1990s) produced by Johnnie Hamp of Granada Television. The show gave a stage to nightclub and working men's club comedians of the era, including Russ Abbot, Lennie Bennett, Stan Boardman, Jim Bowen, Jimmy Bright, Du...
What would happen to a person if they slept ~24 hours each day?	I think they already invented it: [coma](_URL_0_)	[ "Randy Gardner holds the scientifically documented record for the longest period of time a human being has intentionally gone without sleep not using stimulants of any kind. Gardner stayed awake for 264 hours (11 days), breaking the previous record of 260 hours held by Tom Rounds of Honolulu. LCDR John J. Ross of t...
Has an American ever been arrested/tried for War Crimes or Crimes Against Humanity?	Apologies to the moderators, as I'm reasonably certain that I am breaking the 20 year rule here. Depends on how you count it. The acts described took place in the mid-90's up until 2003. The trial was in 2006-08, with the appeal continuing to 2010 and post-conviction proceedings well into 2012. *** Charles Taylor w...	[ "He was one of arguably only two Canadians in history to have faced prosecution for war crimes (the second being Omar Khadr, who in 2010 pleaded guilty to what the Guantanamo military commission termed war crimes committed in Afghanistan, though that conviction is under appeal).\n", "After the war, survivors Glen...
what would happen if a country launched a nuclear missile on the us?	The Emergency Alert System (EAS) would be activated over radio & TV informing people to seek shelter. Depending on the launch, it may even be destroyed as soon as it went up. The US invests heavily in Ballistic Missile Defense, using a network of satellites, land- and [sea- based radar](_URL_1_) and [AEGIS-equipped ...	[ "If the United States launched a nuclear attack against Russia (or China), the targeted country would be left with only a tiny surviving arsenal, if any at all. At that point, even a relatively modest or inefficient missile defense system might well be enough to protect against any retaliatory strikes.\n", "BULLE...
the system for numbering interstate highways.	Primary routes have two digits. Odd numbered highways run north and south, with lower numbers in the west and higher numbers in the east. Even numbered routes go east-west, with the lower numbers in the south and higher numbers in the north. Three digit routes starting with an even number are loops within or around a ...	[ "There are 70 primary Interstate Highways in the Interstate Highway System, a network of controlled-access freeways in the United States. They are assigned one- or two-digit route numbers, whereas their associated \"auxiliary\" Interstate Highways receive three-digit route numbers. Typically, odd-numbered Interstat...
if jehovah's witnesses believe there are such a limited amount of seats reserved in heaven, why do they push so hard to get more converts?	Because they believe converting people will get them into heaven. Really, it is just a pyramid scheme.	[ "Despite this position by Islamic religious leaders, Muslims are oftentimes uncertain about whether or not Islamic tradition considers organ donation to be forbidden. This uncertainty stems from ambiguity caused by conflicting opinions among some Islamic leaders regarding this issue. Moreover, a lack of support alo...
Is it possible that Hernán Cortés wrote The Conquest of New Spain?	The authorship of the La Historia Verdadera is something that has been debated a bit more than the author of this article lets on, although I don't know of any other scholar off the top of my head that has made the assertion that Cortes himself wrote the piece. Historians have pointed to the fact that there is very ...	[ "The author of the document is unknown, and is referred to as a Companion of Hernán Cortés (or simply \"The Anonymous Conqueror\" or \"Gentleman of Cortés\"). The account, firstly published in Italian in 1556 by Giovan Battista Ramuso as part of his work \"Delle Navigationi et Viaggi\", has been translated to Engli...
Why did no outside force intervene in the Soviet invasions of Czechoslovakia in 1968 or Hungary in 1956?	Same reason no one interfered with US invasion of Dominican Republic. It was our sphere of influence. Just like Eastern Europe was USSR's. No one was willing to risk global war. During the Cold War it was the countries more distant (Vietnam, Angola, etc) that were really up for grabs and fought over. The Truman Doctrin...	[ "In 1968, the Soviet Union and Warsaw Pact allies invaded Czechoslovakia to halt the Prague Spring reforms. In the aftermath, Brezhnev justified the invasion along with the earlier invasions of Eastern European states by introducing the Brezhnev Doctrine, which claimed the right of the Soviet Union to violate the s...
how did diabetics check their blood sugars before personal glucometers?	Glucose monitors have been around for over 35 years. They were just bigger and slower. Before then it was controlled through highly restrictive diets and insulin and oral medicines and everyone kinda hoped for the best. Bloodwork was limited to labs and hospitals.	[ "A history of blood sugar level results is especially useful for the diabetic to present to their doctor or physician in the monitoring and control of the disease. Failure to maintain a strict regimen of testing can accelerate symptoms of the condition, and it is therefore imperative that any diabetic patient stric...
How does our skin know when it’s time to produce more melanin?	I believe it does so in response to cellular damage caused by UV light—hence why tanning beds cause you to get darker. If the cell notices an increase in UV damage, it creates more melanin. Not a very scientific answer as I don’t know the exact mechanism, but I hope that helps a little!	[ "Both the amount and type of melanin produced is controlled by a number of genes that operate under incomplete dominance. One copy of each of the various genes is inherited from each parent. Each gene can come in several alleles, resulting in the great variety of human skin tones. Melanin controls the amount of ult...
Would people living in Europe during the Middle Ages have called their time period the Modern Age, or something else?	Medieval authors tended to divide history into six ages, which were mapped to the first six days of Creation in Genesis (and sometimes to the different stages of human life). Although variants existed, the most common schema came out of Augustine who situated the first age as from Adam to the Flood, the second from No...	[ "The European Early Middle Ages are generally taken to run from the end of the Roman Empire, around 400 AD, to around 1000 AD. During this period, Christianity made a significant impact on European culture.\n", "The history of Europe covers the peoples inhabiting Europe from prehistory to the present. During the ...
Do objects get hotter as they move?	You may be confusing external, bulk, translational motion with internal, microscopic, random motion. They are independent. In a vacuum, an object's temperature will remain the same no matter how fast it is moving linearly through space. It must according to Relativity. Depending on what reference frame you choose, the ...	[ "An object's or space's temperature increases when heat energy moves into it, increasing the average kinetic energy of its atoms, e.g., of things and air in a room. Heat energy leaving an object or space lowers its temperature. Heat flows from one place to another (always from a higher temperature to a lower one) b...
is there a relative speed maximum, which is equal to 2*speed of light?	Yes, there is a relative speed maximum. It's, paradoxically, c. There exists a [velocity-addition formula](_URL_0_) that is a consequence of the special theory of relativity. You can calculate for yourself how fast the planets would measure each other. For example, if both went at half the speed of light, the other ...	[ "In special relativity, there is an unreachable speed, the speed of light. We can add speeds without end, but they will always be less than the speed of light. The sums of all speeds are limited by the speed of light. Additionally, the composition of two velocities is inferior to the sum of those two speeds.\n", ...
at what point did the first cells decide that it was okay to eat each other? and why? couldn’t they have kept dividing just as the first living cell did? did they divide to survive or just to eat each other? or both? what mechanism even decided those?	They didn't "decide". That's a conscious motive that you're applying to the simplest organisms. The simple answer is that you need more stuff to make more cells. Just like building a house, you need to get more lumber, bricks, drywall...etc to build more houses. The easiest way to get the biological molecules an orga...	[ "Some cells divide asymmetrically by budding, for example \"Saccharomyces cerevisiae\", the yeast species used in baking and brewing. This process results in a 'mother' cell and a smaller 'daughter' cell. Cryo-electron tomography recently revealed that mitochondria in cells divide by budding.\n", "In 1847 Theodor...
how can people steer their bikes when they don't have their hands on the handles?	They lean. When you lean on a bike your center of mass isn't over the wheels anymore. That puts a torque on you and the bike. If your bike weren't moving that would mean you would just fall over. Since the bike is moving and you have a lot of angular momentum, it turns the direction that you are moving. NOTE BEC...	[ "A curved fork and angled vertical tubing provides stable, non-twitchy steering, enabling the rider to ride with one hand, while freeing the other hand for signalling or to secure a load on the rear rack. Europeans commonly use the free hand to hold an umbrella or cell phone, or to hold the shoulder of a child ridi...
why do you cry when someone asks you “are you ok?” when you are trying not to cry	because sometimes its the fact that someone is showing you that they care makes it easier for you to let it out	[ "According to John, \"Woman, why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?\" is the first thing Jesus says upon his resurrection. The first part \"Why are you crying?\" repeats the statement made by the angels in . Jesus adds \"Who is it you are looking for?\" This question, which Jesus has asked others previo...
what exactly constitutes the 'art-pop' genre in music?	There was a time, like in the 70's, when the distinction actually meant something. The radio stations were mainly playing "pop" (am stations) and "rock" or "disco" and "r & b" (fm stations) The stuff people were listening to that didn't get play on the radio (outside of college stations) was more "artsy." Think The Ve...	[ "Art pop (also typeset as art-pop or artpop) is a loosely defined style of pop music influenced by pop art's integration of high and low culture, and which emphasizes the manipulation of signs, style, and gesture over personal expression. Art pop artists may be inspired by postmodern approaches or art theories as w...
how are fruit juice concentrates made? if juice comes from the fruits themselves how is it put into concentrated form?	Juice contains water so you just boil it until that water is gone to make a more concentrated juice	[ "The process of extracting juice from fruits and vegetables can take a number of forms. Simple crushing of most fruits will provide a significant amount of liquid, though a more intense pressure can be applied to get the maximum amount of juice from the fruit. Both crushing and pressing are processes used in the pr...

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