question stringlengths 3 301 | answer stringlengths 9 26.1k | context list |
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Would the new hydrophobic material weve been seeing online have negative impacts on water treatment plants and the environment? | Generally if it's really hydrophobic it will either sink to bottom or float to the top of the pool of water it's in, making it relatively easy to clean in a treatment plant. Think cooking oil for example. Let it aggregate on top, then scrap it off, easy-peasy.
If it gets out into the world that's another story. If it'... | [
"Vollertsen's research has made an impact on the understanding of microplastics and their perceived effects on the environment. He has concluded that modern sewage treatment plants reduce the discharge of microplastics by up to 99.7%. Furthermore, Vollertsen's research has provided the foundation for an eco-friendl... |
why don't human foetuses be small enough to be easily carried and delivered by the mother? | They do come out and grow bigger. But that's a trade off. The smaller they are when they come out, the more likely they are to die after they come out, and the longer they will have to be intensely cared for by their family, rather than being able to exist at least semi-independently. I am sure it could have come out... | [
"A \"fetus in fetu\" can be considered alive, but only in the sense that its component tissues have not yet died or been eliminated. Thus, the life of a \"fetus in fetu\" is akin to that of a tumor in that its cells remain viable by way of normal metabolic activity. However, without the gestational conditions \"in ... |
What is an example of a heartwarming tale from your researched point of history? | I posted this over in /r/chemistry, but I think it's an awesome story so I have to share.
The Nazis made a habit of confiscating Nobel Prizes. When the Germans invaded Denmark, George de Hevesy dissolved Max von Laue's and James Franck's Nobel Prizes in Physics in aqua regia. He left the jars on a shelf in his lab, ... | [
"The Broken Heart is a Caroline era tragedy written by John Ford, and first published in 1633. \"The play has long vied with \"'Tis Pity She's a Whore\" as Ford's greatest work...the supreme reach of his genius...\" The date of the play's authorship is uncertain, and is generally placed in the 1625–32 period by sch... |
Roman Historians - I'm having trouble wrapping my head around the crisis of the third century, any good book recommendations? | Adrian Goldsworthy's *How Rome Fell* does a pretty good job of it, but to be perfectly honest it pretty much stays confusing. | [
"The prologue of the book provides an overview of the main argument. It begins in San Francisco during the great 1906 fire that destroyed the city, then moves on to Rome, 2003, with some reflections on the remnants of a once powerful global empire. The prologue finishes with a perilously fast car ride along unfamil... |
Would I be able to communicate with a neanderthal? | Body language might be a bit of a blind alley; it's not nearly as universal as you might think. Take pointing, for example. Directing someone's attention with an outstretched finger is as natural as it gets, right? Wrong. Some cultures point with their entire hand, or their elbow, or a stuck-out bottom lip. The princip... | [
"Most specialists credit the Neanderthals with speech abilities not radically different from those of modern \"Homo sapiens\". An indirect line of argument is that their tool-making and hunting tactics would have been difficult to learn or execute without some kind of speech. A recent extraction of DNA from Neander... |
How did colonies such as New York grow so large while others like Salem and Plymouth are still small communities? | /u/uncovered-history has provided a [previous answer](_URL_3_) about why Jamestown didn't work out. The town was built on a swamp, which made the nearby seaport town of Norfolk and the adjacent community of the "Middle Plantation" (later renamed Williamsburg) to be more attractive settlements for newcomers. It was also... | [
"New York's strategic central location and port made it key to controlling the colonies. The British assembled the century's largest fleet: at one point 30,000 British sailors and soldiers anchored off Staten Island. General George Washington barely escaped New York City with his army in November 1776; General Sir ... |
Is the moons phase different depending on your location on earth? | In the Southern Hemisphere, people see the moon 'upside down' so the side which is shining (sunlit) seems the opposite from the Northern Hemisphere. Full and New moons come at the same time in both hemispheres, but the intermediate phases will be rotated by 180 degrees. | [
"In western culture, the \"four principal phases\" of the Moon are new moon, first quarter, full moon, and third quarter (also known as last quarter). These are the instances when the Moon's ecliptic longitude and the Sun's ecliptic longitude differ by 0°, 90°, 180°, and 270°, respectively. Each of these phases occ... |
why is the u.s. so outraged that n.k. continues to test missiles? | North Korea is run by an almost totally opaque and hyper-paranoid military cult that routinely kidnaps foreign nationals, attacks its neighbors, and threatens mass murder over twitter insults. The other nuclear powers are not nearly on that same level of crazy.
Just because you have a gun does not make it hypocritical... | [
"In July 2014, the U.S. government formally accused Russia of having violated the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty by testing a prohibited medium-range ground-launched cruise missile (presumably R-500, a modification of Iskander) and threatened to retaliate accordingly. Concern in the U.S. was al... |
How many possible universes exist according to multiverse theory? | There's no such thing as multiverse theory in science. | [
"The Multiverse hypothesis proposes the existence of many universes with different physical constants, some of which are hospitable to intelligent life (see multiverse: anthropic principle). Because we are intelligent beings, it is unsurprising that we find ourselves in a hospitable universe if there is such a mult... |
what is sharp and flat in music and how do they differ? | Sharp is going up 1 semitone, Flat is going down 1 semitone.
For example C# would be 1 semitone higher in pitch than C and Cb would be 1 semitone lower than C | [
"In intonation, sharp can also mean \"slightly higher in pitch\" (by some unspecified amount). If two simultaneous notes are slightly out-of-tune, the higher-pitched one (assuming the lower one is properly pitched) is \"sharp\" with respect to the other. Furthermore, the verb \"sharpen\" means to raise the pitch of... |
what is an ip camera, how is it different to a web cam and how is it so easy to hijack? | It's just a normal camera that uploads images to the web constantly for remote surveilance.
The reason they're easy to hijack is that they typically come unsecured by default -- and they are really easy to find because they tend to contain a certain word in their title or URL, so you just have to Google for that to fi... | [
"An Internet Protocol camera, or IP camera, is a type of digital video camera that receives control data and sends image data via the Internet. They are commonly used for surveillance. Unlike analog closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras, they require no local recording device, but only a local area network. Most... |
how do criminals use small businesses to launder money!? | The point of laundering money is to make money gained from illegal (or illegitimate) sources _appear_ to come from legal (or legitimate) sources. By doing so, you can declare that money as "legal" income, pay taxes on it, and spend it without worrying about people wondering where it came from (and thus investigating y... | [
"To gain more profits, thief-takers begun to control and direct criminals moves, thus converting into thief-makers. They induced people to commit felonies with the objective of later arrest and prosecute them to obtain the reward. Stephen MacDaniel and John Berry prosecuted even innocents to take possession of the ... |
Can the CBD part of cannabis influence your reaction time? | Here's a study talking about the interaction between THC and CBD when it comes to a task involving reaction time. It looks like CBD may mitigate some of the negative effects, but in this study THC didn't show any effect on reaction time (based on a really quick read), so who knows.
Also, this study was in only six pat... | [
"Via CB receptor activation, THC indirectly increases dopamine release and produces psychotropic effects. Cannabidiol (CBD) also acts as an allosteric modulator of the μ- and δ-opioid receptors. THC also potentiates the effects of the glycine receptors. It is unknown if or how these actions contribute to the effect... |
when i have a common cold, what physiological process makes me feel cold even at room temperature in the summers ? | Your sense of cold doesn't really work the number on a thermometer. It's actually a really complex calculation your body does that looks at a lot of things like hoe quickly heat is leaving your body and what temperature your body wants to be.
Your body has a built in temperature that it wants to be. If you get cold... | [
"The amount of warmness and humidity fluctuate over days and nights, therefore different temperaments form: morning is cold and wet, before noon is warm and wet, afternoon is warm and dry and evening and night are cold and dry. The various \"Mizaj\" of the day and night are the reasons behind mood swings and pain o... |
How accurate is it? | #Part 1
The video isn't that accurate. Let's start with a breakdown.
First, the video is produced by Prager University, a non-profit conservative organization that addresses areas such as economics, history, and...politics. Second, the video is hosted by Steven Crowder, a conservative political speaker who often demo... | [
"These are claimed as the most accurate measurements ever made, with a standard uncertainties cited as low as 78e6/(6674184+150) round 0 ppm. The difference of (484-184)/(78*sqrt(2)) round 1σ between the two results suggests there could be sources of error unaccounted for.\n",
"BULLET::::7. People favour \"plausi... |
How did the Romans get back the eagles (aquila) from the legion XVII, XVIII and XIX? (Varian disaster) | The eagles were captured during the battle, not hidden by the legions. The eagles were captured by certain tribes out of Arminius' confederation, the Bructeri, Marsi and Chauci respectively, and taken with them to their own lands.
* The eagle of the *legio XIX* was captured by the Bructeri, who lived on the upper Em... | [
"The eagle was extremely important to the Roman military, beyond merely being a symbol of a legion. A lost standard was considered an extremely grave occurrence, and the Roman military often went to great lengths to both protect a standard and to recover it if lost; for example, see the aftermath of the Battle of t... |
Holocaust Awareness | Yes.
One general, I'm not sure if it was Patton or Eisenhower, once commented after moving his troops into a concentration camp, "if they don't know why they are fighting, they do now."
Here are a few quotes from a book I have ("The history of the holocaust", Langer):
In response to crystal night: "Humanity stands a... | [
"Education about the Holocaust or Holocaust education refers to efforts, in formal and non-formal settings, to teach about the Holocaust. Teaching and Learning about the Holocaust (TLH) addresses didactics and learning, under the larger umbrella of education about the Holocaust, which also comprises curricula and t... |
How is graphene both a good conductor of electricity and a semiconductor? | Graphene is not really a semiconductor since it has no bandgap, i.e. no energetic spacing between its highest lying filled electron band (the valence band) and the next available energy band (the conduction band). Instead it's sometimes (and perhaps a bit misleadingly) called a "zero bandgap semiconductor," to describe... | [
"Graphene could be used to improve the electrical conductivity of cathode materials. LiCoO, LiMnOand LiFePO are all commonly used cathode materials in lithium-ion batteries. These cathode materials have typically mixed with other carbon-composite materials to improve their rate capability. As graphene has a higher ... |
Why does the "Fertile Crescent" have such a green reputation? Isn't it mostly just sand? | While there is much to discuss here, [this post](_URL_0_) has a lot of good information on environmental change in that region. I particularly enjoyed the post by /u/Prufrock451, but there are many good contributions. | [
"The Fertile Crescent is a crescent-shaped region in the Middle East, spanning modern-day Iraq, Israel, Palestinian Territories, Syria, Lebanon, Egypt, and Jordan as well as the southeastern fringe of Turkey and the western fringes of Iran. Some authors also include Cyprus.\n",
"The term \"Fertile Crescent\" was ... |
how does the magnus effect work? | [Bernoulli's principle](_URL_0_) basically.
Its a basic consequence of fluid dynamics. Like wings on a airplane, a spinning ball exerts a force on the air, which according to Newton, exerts and equal and opposite force back.
| [
"The Magnus effect is an observable phenomenon that is commonly associated with a spinning object moving through the air or a fluid. The path of the spinning object is deflected in a manner that is not present when the object is not spinning. The deflection can be explained by the difference in pressure of the flui... |
Did any nation/culture even begin to approach the level of sword-making of Japan? | It's sort of a myth that Japanese sword making is the best in the world. European and Middle Eastern sword making was just as impressive. Those common long swords in Europe are the product of hundreds of years of development, research, and progress!
No doubt, Japanese swordsmithing is incredibly impressive, most of a... | [
"Japan was famous for the swords it forged in the early 13th century for the class of warrior-nobility known as the Samurai. The types of swords used by the Samurai included the ōdachi (extra long field sword), tachi (long cavalry sword), katana (long sword), and wakizashi (shorter companion sword for katana). Japa... |
after several trips to the bathroom with diarrhea and eventual chafing of the wiped area as evidenced by specks of blood on toilet paper, how do these wounds generally not lead to illness by infection? | Fecal bacteria is generally very good for us, but they can cause an infection if it they grow in the wrong part of our body.
We’ve lived in harmony with certain bacteria so long that we have a hard-coded system in place to recognize when they get into the wrong place. There are molecules on the surface of those bacter... | [
"The typhoid outbreak may have encouraged replacement of traditional laundered roller towels in public toilets, which allowed bacterial cross-infection from person to person, by disposable paper towels and warm air hand driers.\n",
"Routine cleaning of (hand, food, drinking water) sites and surfaces (such as toil... |
When a woman dies giving birth, what exactly happens? | The most common is hemorrhaging. There are fairly big blood vessels connecting the placenta to the uterus. During birth the placenta detaches from the uterus, so if anything goes wrong there, she can lose a lot of blood quickly.
Also possible are heart attacks or strokes induced by the exertion of childbirth. | [
"A \"maternal death\" is defined by WHO as \"the death of a woman while pregnant or within 42 days of termination of pregnancy, irrespective of the duration and site of the pregnancy, from any cause related to or aggravated by the pregnancy or its management but not from accidental or incidental causes\".\n",
"Ma... |
what's the benefit of https on regular websites? | The encryption within HTTPS is intended to provide benefits like confidentiality, integrity and identity. Your information remains confidential from prying eyes because only your browser and the server can decrypt the traffic. Integrity protects the data from being modified without your knowledge. We'll address identit... | [
"Historically, HTTPS connections were primarily used for payment transactions on the World Wide Web, e-mail and for sensitive transactions in corporate information systems. , HTTPS is used more often by web users than the original non-secure HTTP, primarily to protect page authenticity on all types of websites; sec... |
Ireland and Scotland had strong clan systems from the Dark Ages until the Modern Age. Was this common in other European countries from 500 - 1746? | This is a pretty broad question, and I certainly can't answer all of it, but I'll try to give some impressionistic answers for some parts of Europe in some periods.
Firstly, I think your statement about the Gaelic clan system is very sweeping, and couldn't really be described as accurate. Kinship and kinship ties have... | [
"Scottish society in the Middle Ages is the social organisation of what is now Scotland between the departure of the Romans from Britain in the fifth century and the establishment of the Renaissance in the early sixteenth century. Social structure is obscure in the early part of the period, for which there are few ... |
Did ancient civilians get PTSD? What do we know of the psychological effects of war on noncombatants, and how they dealt with them? | *Content warning: mention of sexual violence, suicide, casual misogyny*
& nbsp;
PTSD is a label we use to describe a group of symptoms connected to trauma and moral injury. The label was created in the 1970s to get Vietnam veterans in the US the support and mental health treatment they needed. As such, it was origin... | [
"PTSD became first evident due to those individuals who suffered extremely horrible experiences from war. Society noticed that those who took part in war, or had family members who took part in war, became distant from themselves and suffered terribly and found it very difficult to cope with the tragedies. Research... |
What are some fields in history that have stagnated? | I think 'stagnated' would be going a bit too far, but 'local historiography', ie. the history of villages, cities, local regions etc. is very slow moving compared to 'big historiography' that looks at larger developments. So, for example, in larger-scale early modern social historiography, literature older than two or ... | [
"Diamond's next book, \"\", published in 2005, examines a range of past societies in an attempt to identify why they either collapsed or continued to thrive and considers what contemporary societies can learn from these historical examples. As in \"Guns, Germs, and Steel\", he argues against explanations for the fa... |
How were people not constantly dehydrated before modern plumbing? | > Before the days of sanitation, I know that many people drank beer, even children, which probably only made dehydration worse.
This is actually a myth -- please see the ["Drinking Water" section of our FAQ](_URL_0_), and below it, "Beer." | [
"People wealthy enough to enjoy 19th century flush toilets often had the political power to allow them to drain into public sewers; and the practice became the norm as indoor plumbing became more common, based on large-scale supply networks such as the Croton Aqueduct in New York.\n",
"In the elderly, blunted res... |
what exactly is happening during a cold when your sinuses become extremely painful for a moment? | I recently battled a cold and I think I know what you mean. All of a sudden, the inside of your nostrils will hurt for a good 30 seconds. I believe it is because they are dry. Maybe someone with more knowledge in the medical field can help us out? | [
"The most common, everyday cause is temporary restriction of nerve impulses to an area of nerves, commonly caused by leaning or resting on parts of the body such as the legs (often followed by a pins and needles tingling sensation). Other causes include conditions such as hyperventilation syndrome and panic attacks... |
Did Ethiopians know much about the state of Christendom outside East Africa before regular contact with Portugal was established? | This is a difficult question to answer directly: we have basically no surviving manuscripts from the early/high medieval period in Ethiopia. This will change in a big way in the 13th-14th century, in conjunction with the flourishing of the Ethiopian state and a renaissance in its Church.
The Ethiopic Church is of cour... | [
"The Portuguese voyages of discovery at the end of the fifteenth century opened the way for direct contacts between the Catholic Church and the Ethiopian Orthodox Church. Due largely to the behaviour of the Portuguese Afonso Mendes whom Pope Urban VIII appointed as Patriarch of Ethiopia in 1622 and who was expelled... |
Were snare traps ever used by the Vietcong during the Vietnam war? | In general, the traps used by VC insurgents were not as "primitive" as they are usually depicted in the popular culture of the war. They were encountered, sometimes as stand-alone traps, sometimes as something the VC would lure into during a firefight - but not in a widespread sense nor something an ordinary soldier wo... | [
"The psy-war tactics that were most usefully used by the Vietcong were the use of Booby Traps. They came in all shapes and sizes and in varying degrees of sophistication, but they had a huge impact on the morale of American troops. These traps were not meant to kill, but instead maim and injure because it instilled... |
who makes malware, viruses, and trojans? | Pretty much anyone with a knowledge of computer programming and code. As to why they make viruses/malware/trojans and their motivations really varies from person to person and could be for a multitude of reasons (everything from politics to "lulz"). | [
"Trojans are generally spread by some form of social engineering, for example where a user is duped into executing an e-mail attachment disguised to appear not suspicious, (e.g., a routine form to be filled in), or by clicking on some fake advertisement on social media or anywhere else. Although their payload can b... |
How far does sunlight go through space? E.g. does Pluto still have the same bright daytime, or does only part of their sky get lit up? | \- how far does sunlight go through space?
This doesn't really differ from light on earth, it will go in a straight line until it hits something. So unless it hits one of the other objects (planets, moons, asteroids, dust, ...) in our solar system first it will reach Pluto. Just like on earth, only there are a lot mor... | [
"From Pluto, the Sun is point-like to human eyes, but still very bright, giving roughly 150 to 450 times the light of the full Moon from Earth (the variability being due to the fact that Pluto's orbit is highly elliptical, stretching from just 4.4 billion km to over 7.3 billion km from the Sun). Nonetheless, human ... |
how does esp and crystal ball psychic readings work? | Psychics use a technique known as cold reading. They watch to see how the mark reacts as they make vague pronouncements, then they get more specific as they discover what the mark wants to hear. The mark wants to be fooled which makes the process easier. | [
"A psychic reading is a specific attempt to discern information through the use of heightened perceptive abilities; or natural extensions of the basic human senses of sight, sound, touch, taste and instinct. These natural extensions are claimed to be clairvoyance (vision), clairsentience (feeling), claircognisance ... |
the phrase 'uncle' meaning 'i give up' | It's not really known. But, the romans said a similar phrase, also of an origin that is not known. The best theory i've seen as that you're just calling out - in weakness - for an adult. | [
"In the United States and Canada, the idiomatic expression \"\"Say 'uncle'!\"\" may be used as an imperative command to demand submission of one's opponent, such as during an informal wrestling match. Similarly, the exclamation \"\"Uncle!\"\" is an indication of submission – analogous to \"\"I give up\"\" – or it m... |
why is it whenever someone is watching me do something, or if i'm doing something with someone, i suddenly get worse at that thing? | Even if the person watching us is totally cool, a part of us still worries that we'll be judged for the little mistakes we might make. That anxiety in turn causes us to lose some focus and make mistakes that we wouldn't otherwise make. | [
"He also proposes a natural 'motor' response to seeing the actions of others: If we see a knife hacking off a person's leg we wince away, if we see someone dance we move in the same ways, we feel the injuries of others as if we had them ourselves.\n",
"BULLET::::- Eyes up - Different people look up for different ... |
What was life like for a Babylonian under Nebuchadnezzar II? | If you don't mind my hopping on this to ask;
Was Nebuchadnezzar a popular name at the time? or was the 1st one so fucking awesome that he became many people's namesakes? | [
"Under Nebuchadnezzar II, Failaka was under Babylonian control. Cuneiform documents found in Failaka indicate the presence of Babylonians in the island's population. Babylonian Kings were present in Failaka during the Neo-Babylonian Empire period, Nabonidus had a governor in Failaka and Nebuchadnezzar II had a pala... |
Were there any large IRA raids/attacks against British forces in Northern Ireland during World war two? | No. The IRA did not have the resources for anything that big. They had run a bombing campaign in England in 1939 before the war but were in pretty bad shape afterwards. Both Éire and Northern Ireland used emergency laws to suppress them and Nazi Germany never provided the help the IRA wanted.
There was a campaign in... | [
"In 1971, during The Troubles, after two years engaged in violence based on a defensive strategy in Irish communal districts of Northern Ireland, the Provisional IRA launched an offensive against the United Kingdom. At a meeting of the IRA Army Council in June 1972 the organization's Chief of Staff, Seán Mac Stíofá... |
Does your body's production of Vitamin D change depending on your dietary intake of Vitamin D? | That particular question either has not been addressed, or it is not documented in this summary.
_URL_1_
Here:
_URL_0_
"The evidence indicates that the synthesis of vitamin D from sun exposure works in a feedback loop that prevents toxicity."
This would seem to indicate that your body will stop producing to avoid ... | [
"Vitamin D metabolism is complex because the provitamin can be formed in the skin by ultraviolet irradiation or obtained from the diet. Once hydroxylated, the vitamin has a half-life of about 2 months.\n",
"The blood plasma concentration of vitamin C or ascorbic acid as a function of dose attains a plateau with a... |
where do fake twitter accounts come from, and why do they keep following then unfollowing me? | They want you to refollow them. Once followed, they hope that you are more likely to click on their malicious links. Alternatively, if they gain enough followers they can sell the account to some dodgy PR company.
As for why they find you. Could be keywords in your tweets, or maybe at some point you followed one and y... | [
"A Twitterbot is a computer program that automatically posts on Twitter, they are programmed to tweet, retweet, and follow other accounts. According to a recent report, there were 20 million, fewer than 5%, of accounts on Twitter that were fraudulent in 2013. These fake accounts are often used to build large follow... |
If I pour boiling water into my metal water bottle, will it kill off most/all of the bacteria inside? | High Temperature Short Time Pasteurization (i.e. Milk Pasteurization) is only 72C for 15 seconds. Sanitization is 80 C for more than 30 seconds. The water bottle should be cleaned with hot soapy water, but between times this should work fine. Look up control of pyrogenic bacteria (i.e fever producing bacteria) or sanit... | [
"Potassium metabisulfite is sometimes used in the brewing industry to inhibit the growth of wild bacteria and fungi. This is called 'stabilizing'. It is also used to neutralize chloramine that has been added to tap water at the source as a disinfectant. It is used both by homebrewers and commercial brewers alike. I... |
the exsecant and excosecant in trigonometry. | If you're trying to use exsecant to simplify the explanation of tangent, I think you'd be better off with secant instead. Exsecant is just (secant - 1), so it takes one more step to explain. It's also barely ever used.
A *tangent line* to a circle is a line that touches it at just one point (*tangent* means "touchin... | [
"The exsecant (exsec, exs) and excosecant (excosec, excsc, exc) are trigonometric functions defined in terms of the secant and cosecant functions. They used to be important in fields such as surveying, railway engineering, civil engineering, astronomy, and spherical trigonometry and could help improve accuracy, but... |
How did a nation as politically unstable as the Roman Empire last as long as it did? | From my understanding its because even though Rome had many usurpers to the throne, they wanted to be emporer and not destroy the empire itself. I'm going to assume by politically unstable your referring to the 3rd century crisis were there were at least 60 emporers or userpers. The enemies Rome faced during the 3rd ce... | [
"From Gaius Marius and Sulla onwards, control of the army began to be tied into the political ambitions of individuals, leading to the political triumvirate of the late 1st century BC and its resolution in a civil war that led to the Republic's collapse. The Empire was increasingly plagued by usurpations led or sup... |
how do previously prescription-only medications become over-the-counter medications? | After they've been on the market for many years, and proven to be effective and not having any major serious side effects, the drug maker can apply to the FDA to sell the product over the counter. If and when the FDA approves their application, that's all there is to it. | [
"Over the counter medications are those medications that do not require a prescription to purchase in the US. Medications that require a prescription to purchase in the US may be available in other countries without a prescription. The following guidelines are recommended:\n",
"Prescriptions are also used for thi... |
why is it some people can naturally throw a ball (like a tennis ball or a baseball) whilst others seemingly can't? | Form most likely. As in most things, proper form outpaces brute force.
Some people either don't know there is a technique to throwing a ball, or do it badly. I used to basically just go with 'fling my arm as fast as possible and the ball will go farther', and could never understand why other people could manage the s... | [
"In still another variation, a volleyball or similar ball may be used and there will be no pitcher. The \"up\" player sets the ball in motion by holding it in his or her non-dominant hand, and sets it in motion by a hefty strike from the other hand. This often occurs in crowded play areas, such as schoolyards, wher... |
how does the boston bomber face the death penalty if the death penalty itself was abolished in massachusetts | Although the Boston Bomber committed the crime in a state which does not allow the death penalty, he also committed a federal crime (terrorism), which means he can now be charged by the federal government as opposed to the state government. | [
"In 2013, Schumer said the death penalty would be “appropriate” in the case of the Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the perpetrator of the Boston Marathon bombing. “The federal law allows the death penalty,” “I wrote the law in 1994 when I was head of the crime subcommittee in the House. This is just the kind of case that it sho... |
After America tested its first nuclear weapons (before being dropped on Japan), how did they keep the weapons program a secret after the first test? | So it was definitely intended to be secret — the reason is because they wanted to surprise Japan with the weapon. This presented obvious problems with keeping it secret when they were exploding a massive bomb.
Their main way to keep it secret was to do the test in relative isolation. The Trinity Site was in an area o... | [
"The test surprised the Western powers. American intelligence had estimated that the Soviets would not produce an atomic weapon until 1953, while the British did not expect it until 1954. When the nuclear fission products from the test were detected by the U.S. Air Force, the United States began to follow the trail... |
Is there a correlation between introversion and intelligence? | Hi everyone. Professor of Neuroscience here. First of, intelligence is a scientific measure and can be traced biologically. I think what one of the posters was confusing is that there are two components of intelligence.
A) Fluid: also known as G factor. Is determined mostly by genetics. Think of this as the raw horsep... | [
"The difference between extraversion and introversion comes from the source of the decisive factor in forming motivation and developing ideas, whether it is objective (i.e. the external environment) or subjective (the collective unconscious, or \"processes inherent in the psyche\"). When discussing function types, ... |
why do onions make me cry? | Your eyes produce tears to wash away any irritants, such as smoke. Onions absorb chemicals from the ground when they grow, which are released as gas when you cut the onion open. This gas, like smoke, irritates your eyes, leading to the production of tears.
Edit: I do not know what I am talking about! | [
"Freshly cut onions often cause a stinging sensation in the eyes of people nearby, and often uncontrollable tears. This is caused by the release of a volatile liquid, \"syn\"-propanethial-S-oxide and its aerosol, which stimulates nerves in the eye. This gas is produced by a chain of reactions which serve as a defen... |
why is the sea clearer on beaches in spain and italy for example rather than england | Because England can't have any nice things as punishment for trying to conquer the world. That's why we have cold and cloudy seas, and cold and cloudy weather, and when things get really bad, someone makes you cold and cloudy tea...
Source: Am English. | [
"Due in part to the relatively mild winter and spring climate, the south of Spain is attractive to overseas visitors–especially tourists from Northern Europe. While inland areas such as Jaén, Córdoba and the hill villages and towns remain relatively untouched by tourism, the coastal areas of Andalusia have heavy vi... |
politicians forced to resign instead of getting fired? | It's extending a kindness to allow them to resign with dignity. The implication exists that if they don't, then they'll be fired. In those cases, if someone refuses, it's to take a stance and attempt to become a martyr. | [
"From May 13 to 15, several senators and congressional representatives called for Acting Commissioner of the IRS, Steven T. Miller, to resign or be fired. The Speaker of the House of Representatives, John Boehner, said, \"My question isn't about who's going to resign, my question is who's going to jail over this sc... |
What is the actual benefit a sauna has on your health/body, if any? | Well, there are several elements that go into sauna'ing, as it were.
A simple review on the subject matter: _URL_5_
Study: phys of saunas
_URL_0_
This article's stated "health risks" have not been found by other studies, but their physiological data is good.
1) Improved mood
One of the only benefits that seems to b... | [
"The sauna-based part of the program is based on Hubbard's belief that the body's fatty tissue accumulate drugs and other toxins over time. This is said to contribute to cravings, which make it harder to overcome addiction. The use of vitamins, minerals and oils is supposed to dislodge toxins stored in body fat, wh... |
What did the vikings (8th century) call England? | This is actually a pretty hard question to answer with the specific qualifier of the 8th century, as the name "England" didn't become commonplace until the 10th century or so, as we can see from the [England runestones](_URL_1_). In that later period it would be *Ængland* in modern East Norse orthography, and spelt in ... | [
"The long-term linguistic effect of the Viking settlements in England was threefold: over a thousand Old Norse words eventually became part of Standard English; numerous places in the East and North-east of England have Danish names, and many English personal names are of Scandinavian origin. Scandinavian words tha... |
what determines when water is too deep to drive through? | Physics issue, vehicle becomes buoyant and drag from the water exceeds friction from the tires, usually when the water gets several inches above the floorboards. | [
"In shallow water, the group velocity is equal to the shallow-water phase velocity. This is because shallow water waves are not dispersive. In deep water, the group velocity is equal to half the phase velocity: \"c = ½ c\".\n",
"Channel related drifts form when deepwater bottom-currents are confined to a smaller ... |
why is the ocean sometimes really dark, like in the north atlantic yet in some places a turquoise colour like in the caribbean or south pacific? | It’s because dead animals and plants sink in water. That might seem obvious, but it means that any nutrients in sea water are rapidly used up by animals and plants and when those organisms die they sink to the bottom taking the nutrients with them. The only way those lost nutrients can be replaced is if water from the ... | [
"The sea waters have blue to green-blue color and a transparency of about . They are rich in dissolved oxygen, especially in the western and northern parts, which are colder and have more phytoplankton than the eastern and southern areas. The oxygen concentration is 95% of the saturation point near the surface, it ... |
how can a corporation know how much will it gain by naming a stadium in sports? | Tons and tons of market research, such as comparison of how much sales figures of other companies have risen when they have named a sports arena after their company/a product. | [
"While the highest prices have traditionally been paid for stadium rights, many companies and individuals have found that selling their naming rights can be an important consideration in funding their business. In the last few years many new categories have opened up, such as the selling of the rights to name a new... |
"I am Arthur, King of the Britons!" "Who're the Britons?!" To what extent did medieval peasants have a sense of nation and state? Did they know of, or care about, their kings and lords? | *None...they lived in a dictatorship! A self-perpetuating autocracy!* Just kidding :). If I recall, this question has been asked before to some degree, so I'll include parts of my last answer, while trying to taylor my response more to your question in particular.
Even as a peasant, you would likely know your king b... | [
"The title King of the Britons (Latin \"Rex Britannorum\") was used (often retrospectively) to refer to the most powerful ruler among the Celtic Britons, both before and after the period of Roman Britain up until the Norman conquest of England. The Britons were the Brittonic-speaking peoples of what is now England,... |
Were the Parthians/Sassanids extreme in their way of humiliating rivals compared to the Romans or other ancient empires? | The Romans were great fans of crucifixion, which is truly a horrible, agonising way to die. Allegedly the Crassus who got gold down the throat put up 6,000 crosses along the Appian Way after Spartacus' revolt (Appian. 13.120) to punish the rebellious slaves he captured in the third servile war. Not to mention beast hun... | [
"Until the Sassanids came to power, the Romans were mostly the aggressors. However, the Sassanids, being Persians, were determined to reconquer lands that the Achaemenid dynasty had once held and now lost. Their nationalistic zeal made them much more aggressive foes of the Romans than the Parthians ever were. For m... |
Why is it that our fingers can support our body weight, but people struggle lifting themselves with their entire arms? | Skeletal system vs muscular system.
| [
"Grip strength is a general term also used to refer to the physical strength of an animal and, for athletes, to the muscular power and force that can be generated with the hands. In athletics, grip strength is critical for rock climbers and in competitions such as the World's Strongest Man. Grip strength training i... |
antibiotic resistance? does dosage time matter? | Pharmacy student graduating in August. An hour late won't make much of a difference with most antibiotics. The thing you have to know is that antibiotics kill in a few different ways.
One of the methods is time dependent. This usually means time above a certain concentration required to kill the bug. An example of... | [
"Oral antibiotics are recommended for no longer than three months as antibiotic courses exceeding this duration are associated with the development of antibiotic resistance and show no clear benefit over shorter courses. Furthermore, if long-term oral antibiotics beyond three months are thought to be necessary, it ... |
from a tap, why is a low-pressure stream clear, and a high-pressure stream white? | There is an aerator on the end of the tap that only works when there is good enough water pressure. It looks like a little mesh screen and the water will just flow around it and become a constant stream again at lower water pressures | [
"Low-pressure discharges are discharges made under gas pressures from a few millitorr to a little less than atmospheric. They have the benefit of less power requirement of sustenance of the discharge as volume-recombination rates are lower.\n",
"On the characteristic curve at the flow rates below ṁS provides lowe... |
Where did the idea of the U.S. in WW2 having immensely inferior technology and skill come from and why is it so prevalent today? | I've literally never heard that view expressed. Can you give us an example of that view being supported? | [
"Americans, by and large, are often fascinated by new technology and new gadgets. There are many within the United States that share the attitude that through technology, many of the evils in the society can be solved. Many of the new technological innovations in the modern world were either first invented in the U... |
questions about dinosaur size. | > because an animal any larger than an elephant would collapse under it's own weight.
This is incorrect. Check your source, or stop reading that source if this is what it is saying.
Part 2: A couple of theories are out there. The levels of CO2 (carbon dioxide, the gas plants breathe) was a lot higher, and it was w... | [
"In a 1997 \"Science News\" interview, Coria estimated \"Giganotosaurus\" to have been 13.7 (45 ft) to 14.3 (47 ft) m long and weighing based on new material, larger than \"Carcharodontosaurus\". Sereno countered that it would be difficult to determine a size range for a species based on few, incomplete specimens, ... |
How did Large Armenian Communities End up in the Levant and Balkans during the Middle Ages? What Roles did they Play in Society? | Armenian dispersal throughout the Middle East and Europe is largely attributed to the Byzantine Empire and their policies towards the many ethnic groups of the empire. The Byzantine Empire, while by virtue being Greek, it was never an empire of Greeks (except maybe for the last years of its existence). This isn't neces... | [
"During the Middle Ages, Armenians established a new kingdom in Cilicia, which despite its strong European influence, not unlike Cyprus, was often considered as being part of the Levant, thus in the Middle East. There were Armenian communities (in the form of well-established quarters in major cities) in the Edessa... |
will we gradually max-out the internet speed? | What you think of as "internet speed" is really more about "how much data can you get per unit time?" It's not like a car where you can look at it and say "it's going 60mph." In that sense, we can't really do all that much to make the internet go faster except lay more point-to-point fiber connections to physically s... | [
"The National Info-communication Strategy that sets goals for the 2014-2020 period states that by 2018 every household should have internet access of at least 30 Mbit/s and at least half of them of 100 Mbit/s or faster. Another goal to reach is to enable citizens and enterprises to manage the full range of their pu... |
When is a person at their physical peak? | Female or male (to your edit)? Females, in their teens. Males I believe in their mid to late twenties. I wish I had a source, but I read something about humans reaching their peak running shape at 27, and interestingly, it takes them until 62 to hit the point they were at 19. | [
"BULLET::::1. Awareness – maintaining constant enjoyment and awe of life. These individuals often experienced a \"peak experience\". He defined a peak experience as an \"intensification of any experience to the degree there is a loss or transcendence of self\". A peak experience is one in which an individual percei... |
As sound has a greater velocity when passing through a denser material, would it be possible for sound to travel at the speed of light if the material were dense enough?? .... and if so what could happen if the material were even desnser? | Sound speed actually goes *down* with density. The only reason why materials like steel or water have a higher sound speed than air is that sound speed increases in materials that are *less compressible.* Because fluids and solids are usually *much* less compressible than gases, this offsets the increased density and c... | [
"For instance, sound will travel 1.59 times faster in nickel than in bronze, due to the greater stiffness of nickel at about the same density. Similarly, sound travels about 1.41 times faster in light hydrogen (protium) gas than in heavy hydrogen (deuterium) gas, since deuterium has similar properties but twice the... |
how was the united states able to win the 1991 gulf war so quickly? | > was highly entrenched in Kuwait, and was essentially ready to fight hard against the US.was highly entrenched in Kuwait, and was essentially ready to fight hard against the US.
We knew this, and decided to say "well fuck all that" and fought on our own terms, very, **very** well.
How?
Maneuver warfare and combine... | [
"The 1991 Gulf War never fully ended because no armistice formally ended it. As a result, relations between the United States, the United Nations, and Iraq remained strained, although Saddam Hussein issued formal statements renouncing his invasion of Kuwait and made reparations payments for Kuwait. The U.S. and the... |
how come my wireless mouse works with one battery? | Because the device has a low enough voltage requirement that the batteries are wired in parallel rather than in series. This gives a longer run time, and since people are used to putting two batteries in mic, and there's room enough, they just continued doing that rather than using only one cell but getting half of the... | [
"Many models of wireless computer mouse use nano receivers. A nano receiver is an extremely small wireless receiver that connects a mouse to a computer. This range of mice is meant mainly for laptops and netbooks, since it takes less space and reduces the risk of damage that could be caused by accidental shocks.\n"... |
What explains the denigration in Scots/Anglo relations from having Scottish James VI becoming King of England in 1603 to the Battle of Culloden in 1745? | Essentially the answer is that thinking of both of these events simply in terms of 'England' and 'Scotland' is not the full picture. This answer might get slightly long-winded (what can I say, I'm quarantined!), but hopefully I can help.
Firstly, to simplify things somewhat, James I was crowned king of England primari... | [
"The Scottish crown in the minority of James III of Scotland had taken the Lancastrian side in the Wars of the Roses by welcoming the fugitive Henry VI of England. Edward IV was forming new alliances with disaffected English and Scottish nobles to reduce the threat posed by the exiled former king, now in the hands ... |
what is docker and docker-compose | Imagine you throw a party. To party like ELI5 you need soft drinks, popcorn and music.
You could buy *Magical Party Maker 2000* (MPM2k) which does all this stuff and more. Or you could buy soda machine, popcorn popper and bluetooth speaker.
Problem with MPM2k is that
* It's kinda complicated and it does some unneces... | [
"BULLET::::- Docker Compose is a tool for defining and running multi-container Docker applications. It uses YAML files to configure the application's services and performs the creation and start-up process of all the containers with a single command. The codice_3 CLI utility allows users to run commands on multiple... |
why can someone's teeth feel fine yet they can go to the dentist and have multiple cavities? | Only the very inside of teeth have nerves in them, the rest is just specialized bones. You can't feel if the hard calcium parts have holes in them, you only feel when the nerves start being damaged. | [
"This disease apparently did not often occur in individuals with good gingival health, and usually targeted the mandible first. It was associated with localized or generalized deep ache or pain, often of multiple jawbone sites. The teeth often appeared sound and suppuration was not present. Even so, the dentist oft... |
While cleaning out my grandmother's closet, we came across a Nazi armband. Can any WWII/Nazi historians weigh in on the authenticity of this piece? [PICS LINKED] | Based on the tag it is real.
Did your grandmother have a husband, brother, or father who fought in WW2? Nazi paraphernalia often shows up in estate sales because it was often brought home as trophies from the war. Common items include the SS daggers, armbands, flags, lapel pins, and other small items that could be e... | [
"The Nazi Party armbands were intended for immediate implementation upon the outbreak of World War II in 1939, although it was not until 1943 that the system was in total effect. Even then, photographic evidence reveals it was not uncommon for some political leaders to simply wear the pre-1939 bare swastika armband... |
In actual medieval warfare, how likely was it for a sword to get stuck in a body that it was striking? As often as seen in movies? | Very uncommon for the simple fact that the force needed to swing a sword so deep into a man that the blade sticks and is clenched by the flesh is ridiculous. you would more likely see weapons like Axes or Spears be stuck in bodies, though an axe wouldn't be incredibly hard to withdraw. | [
"An innovative feature of the game is that anything dropped by a dead opponent (body parts included) can be picked up and used. Limbs can be swung as clubs, and heads can be carried and used as weapons. Enemies whose sword arms have been chopped off will run away from battle.\n",
"BULLET::::- Spadonari di Venaus:... |
Why were the Sudeten Germans so unsatisfied with being part of Czechoslovakia? | > Were they discriminated against, or was the reason just nationalism (stemming from historical anomosity)? Given that such a vast majority of the Sudeten Germans supported the Nazi party (over 90% if I remember correctly from school), there must surely have been discrimination that turned even the less nationalist-mi... | [
"The Republic of Czechoslovakia was home to a substantial minority of Germans, who lived mostly in the Sudetenland. Under pressure from separatist groups within the Sudeten German Party, the Czechoslovak government offered economic concessions to the region. Hitler decided not just to incorporate the Sudentland int... |
Does how much a person dream effect how rested they will be after waking up? | I'll do this one mostly from memory, I hope others can back me up or correct me if needed.
For sleep, the REM phase is often considered one of the most important parts of good quality sleep. There have been experiments where they continuously woke somebody up when they were entering REM sleep, they didn't do too well.... | [
"REM sleep is the less restful stage in which you dream and experience muscle movements or twitches. Also during this stage in sleep, a person's heart rate and breathing are typically irregular. Non-REM sleep, also sometimes referred to as slow-wave sleep, is associated with deep sleep. The body's blood pressure, h... |
When and how did 750 mL become the standard size for wine and liquor bottles? | I can only speak for the French standardization, but here’s how it happened.
It dates back to the 19th Century.
It started in Bordeaux, where their main foreign clients were the English. But French & English never had the same measure system, so it was hard to find an agreement. The Imperial Gallon was up to 4,54609... | [
"Historically, a common bottle size for liquor in the US was the \"fifth\", i.e. one-fifth of a US gallon (or one-sixth of an imperial gallon). While spirit sales in the US were switched to metric measures in 1976, a 750 mL bottle is still sometimes known as a \"fifth\".\n",
"* For many years, the US standard (no... |
why is the last minute on a washing machine always like 2.5 minutes? | I don't know about yours, but my front loader has an automatic balancing mechanism which sometimes takes several tries to get up to high speed without wobbling. They don't factor this time into the estimate. (But it's a lot better than our top-loader, which would sound a loud buzzer to tell us we had to rebalance the... | [
"During the wash cycle, the chamber is filled approximately one-third full of solvent and begins to rotate, agitating the clothing. The solvent temperature is maintained at 30 degrees Celsius (86 degrees Fahrenheit), as a higher temperature may damage it. During the wash cycle, the solvent in the chamber (commonly ... |
continuously variable transmissions | I'll give it a go. There are a few different ways of making a CVT, so I'll just stick to the basic principles for now--the idea behind the CVT.
Because this ended up being pretty long, I'm breaking it up into sections, commenting on my own comment, and linking to them to let you more easily skip over the parts you alr... | [
"The continuously variable transmission (CVT) is a transmission in which the ratio of the rotational speeds of two shafts, as the input shaft and output shaft of a vehicle or other machine, can be varied continuously within a given range, providing an infinite number of possible ratios. The CVT allows the driver or... |
How does an airplane's tailwind effect it's lift and thrust? | All that matters is your relative speed towards the air surrounding you. That's what your airspeed indicator shows. So, in level, stable flight, a constant tailwind doesn't matter at all. However, when conditions change, it becomes relevant. For example, you want to take off into the wind. Assume a constant 10kt tailwi... | [
"Induced drag is caused by the generation of lift by the wing. Lift generated by a wing is perpendicular to the relative wind, but since wings typically fly at some small angle of attack, this means that a component of the force is directed to the rear. The rearward component of this force (parallel with the relati... |
Why did soldiers of the Napoleonic era march in neat lines into gunfire without breaking into a run/ ducking? | I would recommend you look at this [previous answer I gave](_URL_0_). If you have any other questions, I would willingly answer them. | [
"In the 19th century, a new tactic was devised by the French during the French Revolutionary Wars. This was the colonne d'attaque, or attack column, consisting of one regiment up to two brigades of infantry. Instead of advancing slowly all across the battlefield in line formations, the French infantry were brought ... |
hi reddit. what is privatization and why is it bad for a country? | As it stands the Mexican government maintains all the pipes and electric wires / power stations etc.... using money from tax and bills.
It costs so much to run the system (buy in fuel, build new power stations etc...) and then any profit that is made is either invested back into the system or put back into the governm... | [
"Privatization is mostly complete, except for some of the large state-owned utilities. Export growth contributed to the economic recovery, however, the bulk of the country's economic activity is in the services sector.\n",
"Privatization works when the person who owns the property (or rights of access to that pro... |
How disastrous were the Napoleonic Wars to Spain's economy and empire? | There are some very interesting answers in this thread particularly regarding the loss of Spain's empire during this period:
_URL_0_?
But basically, Spain's economy had been on a downward slop for a long time prior to the Napoleonic wars, and the French coup and invasion severed administrative ties to the Empire, alm... | [
"The Napoleonic wars had severe negative effects on Spain's economic development. The Peninsular war ravaged towns and countryside alike. There was a sharp decline in population in many areas, caused by casualties, outmigration, and disruption of family life. The demographic impact was the worst of any Spanish war.... |
How Did The Depiction Of Frankenstein's Monster Become What It Is Today? | There's really not a lot of mystery here. The popular depiction is based on the 1931 Universal Pictures film *Frankenstein* starring Boris Karloff.
Earlier film depictions of the monster are much different. The earliest surviving *Frankenstein* film comes from 1910 and was produced by Edison Pictures. There, [the mons... | [
"The Evil of Frankenstein is a 1964 film directed by Freddie Francis. It stars Peter Cushing and New Zealand wrestler Kiwi Kingston. The film's version of the Monster is noted for resembling the one in Universal Pictures' original \"Frankenstein\" series of the 1930s and 1940s, including the distinctive laboratory ... |
how do we see the full moon? | It explains that in the same article:
> Lunar eclipses do not occur every month because the Moon usually passes above or below Earth's shadow, which is mostly restricted to the ecliptic plane. | [
"A full moon is often thought of as an event of a full night's duration. This is somewhat misleading because its phase seen from Earth continuously waxes or wanes (though much too slowly to notice in real time with the naked eye). By definition, its maximum illumination occurs at the moment waxing stops. For any gi... |
why are astronaut's movements in space seemingly slow motion when there's no air/water resistance to slow them down? | There are a few reasons. Their suits are pressurized. The joints of these suits want to fully extend due to this pressure. This makes it difficult to move and do things, and reduces precision substantially. Not only this, but the suits are quite heavy, and have inertia to slow movements. Lastly, the astronauts do not h... | [
"In EVA, most work is done slowly, carefully and methodically not because of the neutral buoyancy training but because that is how a task must be performed by a pressurized astronaut in weightlessness. It takes more force to accelerate a mass to a higher velocity, and then to slow the mass back down, than to move i... |
why is it not possible that dinosaurs had beaks that didn’t fossilize? | Many dinos did have beaks, and those beaks fossilized with them. That said, even if no part of the beak remained, it would still be obvious that the had a beak, as we'd be able to see it in the skull structure, the same way we find feather and muscle attachment points on the other bones in the body. | [
"Fossilised remains of beaks are known from a number of cephalopod groups, both extant and extinct, including squids, octopuses, belemnites, and vampyromorphs. Aptychi – paired plate-like structures found in ammonites – may also have been jaw elements.\n",
"\"Aralosaurus\" was about the size of an elephant. Altho... |
how does gps work by just asking a satellite what its time is? | Yes - all the satellites have the same time, as they each have an atomic clock on board.
Now, the signal takes an amount of time to travel from the satellite to the GPS receiver.
When you look at the times you're receiving from all of the satellites, due to the fact that it takes a certain amount of time to get to yo... | [
"Each GPS satellite continuously transmits a radio signal containing the current time and data about its position. Since the speed of radio waves is constant and independent of the satellite speed, the time delay between when the satellite transmits a signal and the receiver receives it is proportional to the dista... |
How were Confederate veterans treated in the decades after the American Civil War? | More of course can be said, but this previous answer of mine on [commemoration I suspect will be of interest for you.](_URL_0_) | [
"During the postwar years, the Freedmen's Bureau opened a school, led by W. H. Gibson, and a bank in the city to serve the now free and growing African American population. Confederate women organized in associations to ensure the dead were buried in cemeteries, to identify missing men, and to build memorials to th... |
how come so many electronic devices can run the old doom so easily, and can other games like mega man or mario be played on the same devices | Doom was originally programmed for multiple platforms (e.g. PC, Mac...) and pretty much had multi-platform support from the get-go. Nowadays Doom's source code is open, which makes it even easier to make it run on different platforms.
Other games from the same era might not run on other platforms as easily. For instan... | [
"\"Doom II\" was not dramatically different from its predecessor. There were no major technological developments, graphical improvements, or substantial gameplay changes. Instead, the development team took advantage of advances in computer hardware since the release of the original game that allowed them to do more... |
If you were to defend Louis 16 against his charge of treason, what would you say to defend him? | I think that it would have been impossible to defend Louis whilst keeping your own head.
France was scared at this time and lashing out at anyone that was even tagently connected to royalists, so defending Louis would be impossible since the prosecution wanted him dead.
It must be noted that Louis wasn't a terrible k... | [
"His stance during the trial of the deposed king Louis XVI was unique. He declared it unfair to accuse Louis of anything before his acceptance of the French Constitution of 1791, and although implacably, he said, believing that the monarch's death would be good for the people, defended Guillaume-Chrétien de Lamoign... |
Does it (technically) take an infinite amount of time for an event to occur? | No, it would take 10 seconds. | [
"BULLET::::- For any finite point in time \"t\", there can be only finitely many events in the flow that occur at time \"t\" or earlier. This implies that in which flow, one can always point to the point in time at which the flow originated. The flow itself can be infinite; in such case, at any point in time, event... |
why is there so much innovation & improvement with cellular technologies & speed(3g, 4g, 4g lte, 5g), but not with wired speeds? | > What are some of the reasons why cellular internet makes such huge strides while wired internet speeds have hardly budged in most regions?
Because with cellular internet, you have to wire a few cell towers with high-speed wired Internet, and then the rest is wireless.
For wired to-the-home Internet, you have to ru... | [
"By 2009, it had become clear that, at some point, 3G networks would be overwhelmed by the growth of bandwidth-intensive applications like streaming media. Consequently, the industry began looking to data-optimized 4th-generation technologies, with the promise of speed improvements up to 10-fold over existing 3G te... |
how can certain camouflaging octopi and squid emulate their surroundings as close as they do? | This is what I want to know. How does a flounder, which doesn’t even have any freakin eyes on one side, know what the surface under its blind side looks like to match it? Does it feel differences in color as heat or wavelengths or something? | [
"Spirochaetes are distinguished from other bacterial phyla by the location of their flagella, sometimes called axial filaments, which run lengthwise between the bacterial inner membrane and outer membrane in periplasmic space. These cause a twisting motion which allows the spirochaete to move about. When reproducin... |
What do you think of the accuracy of the book Lies My Teacher Told me by James w. Lowen ? | This question has come up a few times before. You may want to check out [this thread](_URL_1_), or [this one](_URL_0_) for answers about the general accuracy of the book. Are there any other particular things mentioned in _Lies_ which you were wondering about? | [
"(2) However, he knows, having learned from experience, that, despite his best efforts, there are very likely undetected errors in his book. So he also has good reason to believe that there is at least one assertion in his book that is not true.\n",
"I May Be Wrong but I Doubt It is a memoir by former American pr... |
-why do we get darker in the sun but if we leave something outside it gets bleached white? | We get darker in the sun because our body is reacting to the sun damage, making us darker to try to protect us.
Random objects don't have any such defenses, so the colors are bleached out. | [
"Sunlight acts as a bleach through a process leading to similar results: high energy photons of light, often in the violet or ultraviolet range, can disrupt the bonds in the chromophore, rendering the resulting substance colorless. Extended exposure often leads to massive discoloration usually reducing the colors t... |
What is holding us back in making more efficient batteries, to store e.g. solar generated electricity? | We are using batteries to store excess renewable energy. Just not the kind of battery you're familiar with. There's something called a flow battery, explicitly designed for grid-scale energy storage. Many companies are racing to commercialize their products to handle the burgeoning demand for renewable storage, us... | [
"in a household equipped with photovoltaics, energy storage is needed. Multiple manufacturers produce rechargeable battery systems for storing energy, generally to hold surplus energy from home solar/wind generation. Today, for home energy storage, Li-ion batteries are preferable to lead-acid ones given their simil... |
why when i kick a basketball hard enough it creates a lump? | Basketballs are made of a rubberised (elastic) material. Every elastic material stretches and returns to its original length unless you stretch it past what is called 'the permanent stretching point' then the structure of the material is altered too much to go back to its original form.
Basically, kicking a basketball... | [
"BULLET::::- In basketball, the act of trying to box out an airborne opponent (while shooting or rebounding, for example), getting under the opponents legs, and causing them to become unbalanced & topple to the ground.\n",
"BULLET::::- Breakaway rim – hoop that can bend slightly when a player dunks a basketball, ... |
what are yield curves in finance | A yield curve is a graphical representation of a bunch of different bonds with the same credit quality, but different maturity dates. It helps you visualize how overall yield (money you will earn) changes as the length of the bond goes up or down.
Normally, as time increases, so does yield. This makes sense, as if y... | [
"In finance, the yield curve is a curve showing several yields or interest rates across different contract lengths (2 month, 2 year, 20 year, etc. ...) for a similar debt contract. The curve shows the relation between the (level of the) interest rate (or cost of borrowing) and the time to maturity, known as the \"t... |
From the Siege of Yorktown in 1781, to the signing of the Treaty of Paris in 1783, what was the American Revolution like? Was there any fighting or major events? | The Battle of Yorktown was the end of major engagements between the Continentals and British. Henry Clinton was replaced, North and his government were replaced, and the British and Americans for the most part wanted to see how things went in Paris.
That did not stop militia on the frontier from raiding into the Ohio... | [
"The climatic battle of the Revolutionary War was the Battle of Yorktown which led to the Treaty of Paris (1783) recognizing U.S. independence by Great Britain. Washington was assisted by French troops under General Rochambeau, guns and a French naval victory under Admiral DeGrasse.\n",
"The Siege of Yorktown was... |
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