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how do lumens work? how much brighter is one 800 lumen bulb than two 400 lumen bulbs? | Lumens are like watts, but weighted to only include the light we can see; infrared and below is out, as is ultraviolet and above. So a bulb with twice as many lumens is twice as powerful, as far as we can see. The trick is that the human eye has roughly logarithmic sensitivity. If you saw a row of bulbs which were 100,... | [
"The lumen is the photometric unit of light output. Although most consumers still think of light in terms of power consumed by the bulb, in the U.S. it has been a trade requirement for several decades that light bulb packaging give the output in lumens. The package of a 60 watt incandescent bulb indicates that it p... |
"ghost in the machine" | Ill give it a whirl since there are no answers yet. To a 5 year old I'd say the idea is basically like if you were eating alphabet soup. If you had enough "letters" you'd eventually get words then maybe sentences, and so on. Ghost in the machine is the same except deals with lines of code that cause unexpected/random b... | [
"Ghost in the Machine is a children's horror/mystery novel by Patrick Carman, first published in 2009. It is the second book of the \"Skeleton Creek\" series, which is followed by three sequels: \"The Crossbones\" (2010), \"The Raven\" (2011), and \"The Phantom Room\" (2014). Like the other books in the series, it ... |
what happens after decapitation? | The point at which you cease to be "alive" and are "dead" isn't really clear-cut. However, brain function can exist as long as it has blood and oxygen, which it will for at least a few seconds. Even if you aren't dead, you are, at the very least, irreparable.
However, this crazy Russian scientist decapitated dogs an... | [
"Decapitation is the complete separation of the head (caput) from the body. Such an injury is always fatal to humans and animals, since it deprives all other organs of the involuntary functions that are needed for the body to function, while the brain is deprived of oxygenated blood and blood pressure.\n",
"Less ... |
why is icing the injuries a good thing | Because inflammation can hurt. Icing causes blood vessels to restrict, prolonging the inflammation period that comes with an injury. As the area warms, blood will move in and inflammation will occur as normal, so the icing is for temporary pain relief. Obligatory I'm not a doctor, please feel free to correct. | [
"Injury Prevention: Athletic taping is recognized as one of the top preventative measures for reduction of injuries in collision sports. These injuries often occur as a result of extrinsic factors such as collision with other players or equipment. Athletic taping has also been shown to reduce the severity in injuri... |
why do a large number of companies prefer to pay their employees hourly instead of giving a salary? | Other posters have already covered the nefarious reasons for doing this so I'll add a legitimate reason for it.
The short version is "incentive alignment". If I want to convince people to spend more hours working it helps to pay them by the hour.
Some jobs are easily monitored for performance and it's easy to map tha... | [
"The reason that employees are often paid according to hours of work rather than by direct measurement of results is that it is often more efficient to use indirect systems of controlling the quantity and quality of effort, due to a variety of informational and other issues (e.g., turnover costs, which determine th... |
how do large cities not run out of number and letters combinations to put on license plates? what would happen if they did? | Because with a 7 digit license plate, there are over 78 billion unique combinations of letters and numbers. If any licensing agency somehow managed to exhaust that number, they would just add another digit. | [
"There was no standard for the registration numbers at that time. Every city had its own plate format and color, and the background color for the plates could vary from year to year in a single city. The plates were required to contain a numbers-only registration number and optionally the name of the city, the year... |
Why did the Curiosity Rover travel 100 million extra kilometers on its way to Mars? | It has to do with the fact that *Curiosity* didn't travel in a straight line. Mars moved from where it was when *Curiosity* left Earth, and was in a completely different location by the time the Rover got to it. *Curiosity*'s path was a long curve because of this, not a straight line. | [
"The Mars rover \"Curiosity\" is a mobile laboratory that was launched from Cape Canaveral in 2011. The Curiosity landed on Mars surface August 6, 2012. This was the largest rover NASA has put on Mars, being twice as long and five times as heavy as its processors. Despite the extra size the Curiosity took many desi... |
Can anyone tell me more about this birth control political cartoon? | You may want to contact this university. You can see on the left side of the image they have it on display.
_URL_0_ | [
"Commentators point out that political cartoon draws directly upon \"The Problem We All Live With\" by Norman Rockwell, which depicts Ruby Bridges being escorted to school as a child during a time when crowds of white protestors would actively prevent desegregation efforts initiated by the \"Brown v. Board of Educa... |
How is it the French were able to conquer Vietnam and keep it as a colonial holding for so long? | France conquered Vietnam in 1885 mostly by virtue of superior military technology and a fairly ineffective Vietnamese monarchy. The emperor at the time (Tu Duc) did not understand the danger that the French posed, and the Vietnamese military was horribly outmatched. France had steamships, machine guns and modern artill... | [
"Vietnam was a French colony from 1858, until the Japanese \"coup d'état\" in 1945. By 1897, the French had created the Federation of Indochina, with Vietnam divided for convenience into the separately ruled territories of Tonkin, Annam, and Cochin China, plus newly acquired Cambodia and Laos. To justify their impe... |
how did artwork like the mona lisa, the last supper or the statue of david become so much more famous and well known than other lesser known impressive art? | I'm not familiar with the Last Supper and Statue of David's history, but I do know that the Mona Lisa was stolen right out of the Louvre, and later recovered, which contributed significantly to it's presence in the public's eye. | [
"Leonardo da Vinci's \"Mona Lisa\" is one of the most recognizable and famous works of art in the world, and also one of the most replicated and reinterpreted. \"Mona Lisa\" replicas were already being painted during Leonardo's lifetime by his own students and contemporaries. Some are claimed to be the work of Leon... |
why is it so cheap to buy items in america vs other areas of the world | It *totally* depends on where you live in the US.
**Housing Prices**--go to San Francisco or NYC, and you'll see a moderate home costing more than $500,000 USD. Go to Nebraska, you'll see a home for less than $100,000.
Part of it is geography. New York and other metro areas (San Francisco, Boston) are constrained. M... | [
"Inexpensive foods like instant noodles, bologna, pizza, hamburger, mass-market beer, frozen dinners, and canned goods are additional examples of inferior goods. As incomes rise, one tends to purchase more expensive, appealing or nutritious foods. Likewise, goods and services used by poor people for which richer pe... |
why is it bad for the government to have access to internet data? | Government agencies that start out with the best intentions, can be politically co-opted over time to have not-so-good intentions. Furthermore, individuals with access to data can easily use that data for nefarious purposes (how about blackmailing Phil?) And politically speaking it's incredibly hard, once you give ac... | [
"The government controls domestic Internet servers and sporadically monitors Internet usage, but by the end of 2012 it apparently did not have the ability to block access to Web sites. Authorities have developed infrastructure to route all Internet traffic through a single gateway, enabling them to monitor and rest... |
Did Hitler kill Atheists amd Agonstics as well? | Hi there, your question suggests few misconceptions about the reasons behind the persecution of Jewish people by the Nazis. There is always more to be said, but I think you will definitely find [this fantastic answer](_URL_0_) by /u/commiespaceinvader interesting and enlightening. | [
"During his career, and for a variety of reasons, Hitler made various comments against \"atheistic\" movements. He associated atheism with Bolshevism, Communism, and \"Jewish materialism\". Overy writes of Hitler as skeptical of all religious belief, though not a thorough atheist:\n",
"According to Bullock, as an... |
how long does brain matter survive without perfect conditions? | The concentration of ions around a neuron is very important for it's survival. One way the ionic balance is regulated is through blood supply. A scattered brain will likely have inadequate blood supply, leading to neuronal impairment and death. | [
"Some rare organisms, such as tardigrades, usually have short lifespans, but are able to survive for thousands of years — and, perhaps, indefinitely — if they enter into the state of cryptobiosis, whereby their metabolism is reversibly suspended. It is hypothesized by advocates of cryonics that the human central ne... |
hedge funds, venture capitals, and futures trading. | Venture capital is money from small groups of investors or individuals who are willing to invest in private companies.
Hedge funds are investment funds that theoretically invest to do well if the general market does not. In practice, they are investment funds that are able to do exotic or high risk things in exchange... | [
"The hedge fund invests in public equity, fixed income, currency, and commodity markets across the globe, as well as in derivatives including spot currencies, futures contracts, forward contracts, swaps, and options. From its inception in 1993 through May 2009, it had annualized returns of approximately 12%, over t... |
What were the major flaws of the Soviet invasion during the Winter War. | The winter war isn't quite my area of expertise, it's kind of adjacent though, so I'll heavily lean on journal articles and books for this.
> Soviet forces performed dismally in the initial offensive operations during that war. Offensive preparations were poor, coordination of forces weak, and command and control ine... | [
"Operation Winter Storm (\"Unternehmen Wintergewitter\"), undertaken between 12–23 December 1942, was the German Fourth Panzer Army's attempt to relieve encircled Axis forces during the Battle of Stalingrad. In late November, the Red Army completed Operation Uranus, which resulted in the encirclement of Axis person... |
what is big o, big omega, and big theta notation? | When you have two sequences or functions, you are often interested in how fast they grow compared to one another. For example, suppose you have two functions f(n) and g(n) that tell you how many operations two different algorithms use to sort a list with n elements. As n gets bigger, if the number of operations f(n) ... | [
"Omega (capital: Ω, lowercase: ω; Greek ὦ, later ὦ μέγα, Modern Greek ωμέγα) is the 24th and last letter of the Greek alphabet. In the Greek numeric system/Isopsephy (Gematria), it has a value of 800. The word literally means \"great O\" (\"ō mega\", mega meaning \"great\"), as opposed to omicron, which means \"lit... |
How do fish and other forms of aquatic life find their way into man-made bodies of water? | This one is a big FAQ, so I'm going to link you to the best answer we have on this:
_URL_0_ | [
"Fish live in Fresh or Saltwater habitats and some exceptions are capable of coming on land (Mudskippers). Most fish have a line of muscle blocks, called myomeres, along each side of the body. To swim, they alternately contract one side and relax the other side in a progression which goes from the head to the tail.... |
What is the difference between a quark and an antiquark? Do they both collide and destroy each-other like antimatter and matter? | > What is the difference between a quark and an antiquark?
Quarks are a type of particle which comes in 6 flavors, and those 6 flavors each have a corresponding anti-particle making 12 unique types of quarks. The quarks and their anti-quarks have opposite charge and parity.
> Do they both collide and destroy each... | [
"The quarks are bound together by the strong force, which acts in such a way as to cancel the colour charges within the particle. In a meson, this means a quark is partnered with an antiquark with an opposite colour charge – blue and antiblue, for example – while in a baryon, the three quarks have between them all ... |
the first time you smoke weed it has little effects. why? | Ok, I'll go for it: the first time I smoked weed was when I was 17 years old. My buddies and I went to a local park and made a gravity bong (this plastic water bottle device that filtered smoke) very rudimentary. I had to bring a knife from my house to cut the bottle. Anyway, we all do it again and again until we hear... | [
"The cause is unknown, but it is thought to be caused by intracellular edema of the superficial epithelial cells coupled with retention of superficial parakeratin. Although leukoedema is thought to be a developmental condition, it may be more common and more pronounced in smokers, and becomes less noticeable when s... |
Why is it so hard to perceive what the world would look like with additional eyes on the back of our head? | The mental image we 'see' in our minds isn't a direct representation of reality. It is a huge mess of signals arriving from billions of neurons connecting the cells on your retina with your visual cortex. On its own it does not constitute an image. The image we see is solely down to having experienced these signals for... | [
"\"The eyes do not focus on any outward object, and they give the impression that they will remain where they are: they see through the filter of an inner state, rather than receive immediate impressions from the outside world. It is the attitude of being suspended in a state of mind beyond specific thoughtunaware,... |
how is graphene battery better than lithium-ion battery? | Several ways. First off is the material it's made from. Graphene is the name for a particular structure of carbon atoms. Carbon is plentiful here on Earth. In fact, we've got too much of it in the atmosphere. Lithium, on the other hand, is a comparatively rare metal, which must be mined and refined through processes th... | [
"The use of graphite in batteries has increased in the last 30 years. Natural and synthetic graphite are used to construct electrodes in major battery technologies. The lithium-ion battery utilizes roughly twice the amount of graphite as lithium carbonate.\n",
"Graphene could be used to improve the electrical con... |
why is poverty level related to diabetes risk? | Type 2 diabetes has a lifestyle attribute to it. That means that in many cases (not all) a person's lifestyle can have an effect on their chances of developing the disease.
When you consume large amounts of carbohydrates (sugar, starch, breads, stuff like that) it puts pressure on your pancreas to produce insulin. Yo... | [
"The Centers of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released a report in 2015 indicating that more than 100 million Americans have diabetes or pre-diabetes. Diabetes was the seventh leading cause of death in United States in 2015. In developed countries like the United States, the risk for diabetes is seen in peop... |
Is there any functional difference at either the hardware or software level between selecting 'restart' to restart your computer, or pressing shut down, and turning it back on? | At the OS level, no. The operating system will completely shut itself down either way. Likewise, all the hardware in your system *should* have its state cleared during the restart. A reset signal is sent by the motherboard to all of the components in the computer on the restart. However, everything inside the computer ... | [
"BULLET::::- \"Restart Manager\": The \"Restart Manager\" works with Microsoft's update tools and websites to detect processes that have files in use and to gracefully stop and restart services to reduce the number of reboots required after applying updates as far as possible for higher levels of the software stack... |
why was american pharoah slower than the previous triple crown winner? | The consensus seems to be that Secretariat (in the 70s) was a genuine freak of nature. You'll notice that most of this year's horses finished faster than most of that year's horses, so on the whole the entire sport has gotten faster and more competitive. But Secretariat was a statistical anomaly. | [
"American Pharoah won the 2015 race, becoming the 12th horse in history to win the Triple Crown and the first in 37 years. The crowd that year was limited for the first time, to 90,000. His time of 2:26.65 was the sixth-fastest in Belmont Stakes history, and the second-fastest time for a Triple Crown winner. In 201... |
how do bones heal when they break, and what's the difference between being young or old? | Your bones are alive.
When your bones aren't broken, you normally have cells called Osteoclasts breaking down the parts of your bones that are worn out, and Osteoblasts rebuilding them.
Even an Adult will typically replace 10% of their skeleton every year.
When you break a bone, it breaks blood vessels in and aro... | [
"Bone fracture, which is a complete or partial break in the bone, is a very common condition that has more than three million US cases per year. Human bones have the ability to regenerate themselves by cycle of bone resorption and bone formation. The cell responsible for bone resorption is osteoclast, while the cel... |
Any good biographies on famous ancient Roman Greek hero's/warriors? | **5 Greek Warrior-Generals Whose Biographies Will Make You Feel Like a Massive Underachiever**
We all know the great heroes of Greek epic - the wily Odysseus, the invincible Achilles, the unrivalled Diomedes who cut a swathe through the Trojans and defeated multiple actual gods in single combat. But what about the her... | [
"The Romans did not generally attempt to compete with free-standing Greek works of heroic exploits from history or mythology, but from early on produced historical works in relief, culminating in the great Roman triumphal columns with continuous narrative reliefs winding around them, of which those commemorating Tr... |
What are the most plausible cosmological models which rule out a "beginning point" like the big bang? | It's funny that you mention you're an atheist to convince people it's not Christian skepticism in the Big Bang - the Big Bang model really took off with LeMaitre, a Catholic priest, and was very well supported by Christians, including the Pope. After all, it's evidence that the Universe began in a creation event.
Anyw... | [
"The Big Bang model, or theory, is now the prevailing cosmological theory of the early development of the universe and was first proposed by Belgian priest Georges Lemaître, astronomer and professor of physics at the Catholic University of Leuven, with a PhD from MIT. Lemaître was a pioneer in applying Albert Einst... |
Can insects have heart attacks? | Probably not. The reason that we can get heart attacks is because our hearts don't get nutrients from blood they're actively pumping. Instead, blood in the aorta feeds into the coronary arteries, which supply the muscles of the heart. If something blocks those arteries, we get heart attacks.
Like it's stated on the pa... | [
"In the fruitfly, knock-down of \"nmr\" (neuromancer), \"Drosophila\"'s Tbx20 homolog gene, led to slower heart rate, arrythmias and abnormal myofibrillar architecture. Heterozygous Tbx20 knockout adult mice displayed left ventricle dilation, decreased wall thickness and contractile abnormalities.\n",
"Vasoconstr... |
what is the difference in sound quality between "mastered for itunes" and an audio cd? | Unless the CD was mastered woefully badly, you're always better off getting a CD than any compressed music (such as iTunes, or using Amazon's auto-rip). There's an off-chance that a badly-mastered CD will be worse quality than a properly-mastered AAC file (or whatever compressed audio you get), but it's not very likely... | [
"Mastering, a form of audio post production, is the process of preparing and transferring recorded audio from a source containing the final mix to a data storage device (the master), the source from which all copies will be produced (via methods such as pressing, duplication or replication). In recent years digital... |
how do car keys wirelessly lock/unlock only your car? | They transmit a digital code which only your car responds to.
They're actually rather more clever than that, because you could record this code and play it back to open a car that isn't yours - codegrabbing - so they change the code each time but in a sequence which the keyfob and the car know but which isn't obvious ... | [
"Keychains that currently hold keys are an item that is never long misplaced by the owner. People sometimes attach their keychain to their belt (or belt loop) to avoid loss or to allow quick access to it. Many keychains also offer functions that the owner wants easily accessible as well. These include an army knife... |
how do i practice singing well? | I used to sing in a barbershop chorus, so maybe I can help!
So on a piano, you would practice scales, you do the same but vocally. There are different forms of this, the ones we used for practice improved on scales and our vocal range.
I would search barbershop warm ups, as I can't really explain well in text haha.... | [
"Learning to sing is an activity that benefits from the involvement of an instructor. A singer does not hear the same sounds inside his or her head that others hear outside. Therefore, having a guide who can tell a student what kinds of sounds he or she is producing guides a singer to understand which of the intern... |
How did the accretion disk form the stars and planet differently? | The sun **is** the object with the highest abundance of iron. The sun contains more than 43 x 10^24 kg of iron, which is more than 7 times the total mass of earth.
It simply isn't so obvious, because there is so much more hydrogen and helium in the sun. When the solar system formed, the majority of material fell int... | [
"An accretion disk is a structure (often a circumstellar disk) formed by diffuse material in orbital motion around a massive central body. The central body is typically a star. Friction causes orbiting material in the disk to spiral inward towards the central body. Gravitational and frictional forces compress and r... |
Do peripheral nerves and motor neurons renew or repair? | Schwann cells do have a limited ability to repair. If they're partially damaged, then you of course have a better chance of repairing than if they were completely severed. However, even a complete severance can be repaired. One end releases cytokines to direct the growth of the other end (termed the 'axonal sprout')... | [
"Some studies have revealed that optic nerve fibers can be regenerated in postnatal rats. This regeneration depends upon two conditions: axonal die-back has to be prevented with appropriate neurotrophic factors, and neurite growth inhibitory components have to be inactivated. These studies may lead to further under... |
can someone please explain my credit score li5? | part of your credit score is what's known as Credit Utilization %, the point of it is that someone who is currently having trouble paying off their current credit is probably going to have even more of a problem if they have even more credit available to them.
Now, let's say you have 2 cards with a $5,000 limit, you ... | [
"In the United States, a credit score is a number based on a statistical analysis of a person's credit files, that in theory represents the creditworthiness of that person, which is the likelihood that people will pay their bills. A credit score is primarily based on credit report information, typically from one of... |
How has the office of President of the United States changed over time? | I'm in a hurry so this will be a bit of a hit-and-run, sorry. Will check the thread later for more specific questions.
Scholars of presidential rhetoric and public address have documented a shift in the way the President conducts his office beginning with Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson. Before these presidents,... | [
"In 1946, in response to the rapid growth of the U.S. government's executive branch, the position of Assistant to the President of the United States was established, and charged with the affairs of the White House. Together with the Appointments Secretary the two took responsibility of most of the President's affai... |
If the Higgs Boson is discovered, will this change every day life in the future? | We still have to learn how to utilize the physics from the 1930s for everyday purposes before we consider that of 2012.
Could it be that one day we use it for daily purposes? Surely. Can anybody predict anything about it? Not at all.
| [
"The fact that no decays of the Z boson to the Higgs were observed at LEP immediately implies that the Higgs boson, if it existed, must be heavier than the Z boson (~). Subsequently, with each successive energy upgrade of the LEP, hope re-emerged that discovery of the Higgs was just around the corner. Just prior to... |
how do cryptocurrencies like bitcoin, litecoin, and others work? | The description is long and involved and probably not perfectly ELI5; however, I'll try to do my best.
The first thing to realize is that Bitcoin, Litecoin, and most others all work in exactly the same way; the only difference is a couple of parameters have been changed. The consequences of those changes are not impo... | [
"Bitcoin, first released as open-source software in 2009, is generally considered the first decentralized cryptocurrency. Since the release of bitcoin, over 4,000 \"altcoins\" (alternative variants of bitcoin, or other cryptocurrencies) have been created.\n",
"The cryptocurrency community refers to pre-mining, hi... |
why do lizards run in front of me as i walk on the sidewalk? | They are just like squirrels that wait until a car rolls by before they dart across the road. They're bored and want to cheat death for fun. | [
"Aside from legless lizards, most lizards are quadrupedal and move using gaits with alternating movement of the right and left limbs with substantial body bending. This body bending prevents significant respiration during movement, limiting their endurance, in a mechanism called Carrier's constraint. Several specie... |
how do terrorist groups like isis convince young girls in western countries that life is better in iraq/syria? | Generally, they have luck with any group because of outsider politics. Plenty of people feel marginalized and useless in Western society. Groups like ISIS preach a very well-defined set of social rules, in which these marginalized people imagine their life can matter.
While objectively, people seem to be giving up a w... | [
"According to figures collected by the Soufan Group in 2016, between 27,000 to 31,000 people including women and children who would not normally engage in conflict had traveled to Syria and Iraq to join the Islamic State and other extremist groups fighting in the region.\n",
"The Syrian women in conflict areas we... |
How do muscles absorb energy? | Your muscles take in the force by resisting the motion, you burn energy (calories) (and create heat inside the cells) to produce the power needed to reduce the speed of the bike.
Basically don't think of it as "stopping the bike" but rather "exerting a force". Its the same process to stop it as to start it, different... | [
"Muscular activity accounts for much of the body's energy consumption. All muscle cells produce adenosine triphosphate (ATP) molecules which are used to power the movement of the myosin heads. Muscles have a short-term store of energy in the form of creatine phosphate which is generated from ATP and can regenerate ... |
why does some antivirus protection software (norton, mcafee, etc.) make your computer run worse than it did before? | Think of it this way.
Let's say that you're a company that receives a lot of postal mail. You could have the mailroom receive that mail, then take it directly to the recipient. That's your computer without antivirus.
Alternatively, your company could have a room directly next to the mail room. The mail room rece... | [
"Real-time protection from malware works identically to real-time antivirus protection: the software scans disk files at download time, and blocks the activity of components known to represent malware. In some cases, it may also intercept attempts to install start-up items or to modify browser settings. Because man... |
What color were Spartan shields? | First thing to note is that *300* did the shields wrong on purpose. Zack Snyder figured that all-metal shields with the double grip across the middle would look cooler than the real thing. I can't really fault him for that, as he was making a movie, not writing history. But don't be distracted by what you see. (I've wr... | [
"The Leukaspides ( \"White Shields\"), may have made up one of the two probable corps of the Antigonid Macedonian phalanx in the Hellenistic period, with the \"Chalkaspides\" (\"Bronze Shields\") forming the other. However, this conclusion is contested, as the Thracians at Pydna also had white shields (as did many ... |
When Sun Tzu released The Art of War, wasn't he worried that enemies would use his own tactics against him? | The short answer to this is that we have no way of knowing for certain why The Art of War was written, how it was initially used, or even if Sun Tzu was actually the author. The traditional version of events, which is generally but not invariably accepted, is that Sun Tzu lived during the Spring and Autumn period of Ch... | [
"The translator Samuel B. Griffith offers a chapter on \"Sun Tzu and Mao Tse-Tung\" where \"The Art of War\" is cited as influencing Mao's \"On Guerrilla Warfare\", \"On the Protracted War\" and \"Strategic Problems of China's Revolutionary War\", and includes Mao's quote: \"We must not belittle the saying in the b... |
In the roman empire, why did the people from the provinces not trust the senate? | Hm. I don't actually know what you are referring to.
Are you talking about any specific incident or event? Any particular time period? Any specific province?
Are you referring to the Roman Empire (I.e. the time after Augustus, when Rome was ruled by an emperor) or do you perhaps mean the time of the Republic? The se... | [
"The Senate was the predominant political institution in the Roman Republic. The Senate's authority derived primarily from custom and tradition. It was also one of the few places in which free political discussion could take place. The Senate's principal role was as an advisory council to the consuls on matters of ... |
Why did Winston Churchill launch the Dardanelles Campaign? | This is slightly modified from an earlier answer of mine, posted [here](_URL_0_)
The Gallipoli Campaign is, all too often, portrayed in popular culture (games like *Battlefield One* or films like *Gallipoli*) as an independent operation carried out to take Istanbul. This removes the campaign from its historical contex... | [
"The Dardanelles Campaign was an attempt by Churchill and those favouring an Eastern strategy to end the stalemate on the Western Front. It envisaged an Anglo-French landing on Turkey's Gallipoli Peninsula and a rapid advance to Constantinople which would see the exit of Turkey from the conflict. The plan was rejec... |
Did most non-Europeans in the British Empire convert to Christianity? | No, definitely not. By far the most populous part of the British Empire was India, where Christianity is a very small minority of only a couple of percent. | [
"In most of Britain, the native Britons were already partly Christianized by the time of the Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain; it is not clear how thorough this process had been. Ireland, and parts of Scotland, had been converted by the Romano-British Christians, led by Saint Patrick. However, ecclesiastics of the... |
Is it possible to freeze water by surrounding it with ice cubes/blocks? | It certainly is possible to freeze a body of water by having a block of ice act as a heat sink. In order to simplify things we can ignore all additional heat sources/sinks and consider just the liquid ice/water system. The factors that will determine whether the ice will eventually cause the water to freeze are: the te... | [
"Cube ice machines are commonly seen as vertical modular devices. The upper part is an evaporator, and the lower part is an ice bin. The refrigerant circulates inside pipes of self-contained evaporator, where it conducts the heat exchange with water, and freezes the water into ice cubes. When the water is thoroughl... |
Why do some areas of Earth have far less lightning storms than other areas? | To have lightning you usually need rapid temperature changes in a region with decent humidity. Those conditions are not present at all locations at all times of the year. A thunderstorm usually occurs with intense heating of the (usually humid) ground which then cause hot moist air to rise into cooler air above. If thi... | [
"This occurs from both the mixture of warmer and colder air masses, as well as differences in moisture concentrations, and it generally happens at the boundaries between them. The flow of warm ocean currents past drier land masses, such as the Gulf Stream, partially explains the elevated frequency of lightning in t... |
how our respiratory system knows, that there is enough oxygen in air to breathe correctly? | It doesn’t know. As long as you aren’t in a vacuum, the suction cause by your diaphragm will fill the lungs with whatever gases are around you. From there your blood chemically reacts with the oxygen to take it through the body.
If you were breathing 100% helium, you wouldn’t feel like you couldn’t breathe. You’d get d... | [
"Breathing (or ventilation) is the process of moving air into and out of the lungs to facilitate gas exchange with the internal environment, mostly by bringing in oxygen and flushing out carbon dioxide.\n",
"The most important function of breathing is the supplying of oxygen to the body and the removal of its was... |
Are the physical remains of the Apollo missions that are still on the moon, are they U.S. government property, or public domain? | Just so you know, this is a question about *space law*, which above all else is a subset of international law. That means that anything discussed about space law has to be viewed in the context of the enforceability and credibility of international law. Also, it's not *really* history question.
The 1967 Outer space T... | [
"The Apollo 11 plaque display given to Sweden by President Nixon in 1970 was reported missing by the Swedish Museum of Natural History in Stockholm on September 7, 2002. The museum had exhibited them in a stainless steel cylinder with a glass plate over the top. Museum employees found the viewing glass plate broken... |
how does salt water conduct electricity and normal water does not? | So salt is composed of two elements, Sodium, a metal and Chlorine, a non-metal which makes NaCl. Metals like sodium form what are called positive ions and non metals like chlorine form negative ions. These two ions are attracted together and form a bond. However when put into water the bonds break up and the water is f... | [
"Because water is such a good solvent, it almost always has some solute dissolved in it, often a salt. If water has even a tiny amount of such an impurity, then the ions can carry charges back and forth, allowing the water to conduct electricity far more readily.\n",
"Salts are characteristically insulators. Molt... |
hiv came from siv, which affected primates...but where did siv come from? how did siv become what it was/is? ultimately, what created hiv? do we know? | The SIV that affects chimps (edit: I should clarify that one of the two HIV strains likely evolved from this, the other being from mangabeys) appears to be a combination of SIVs that infect mangabeys and spot-nosed monkeys, which chimps hunt. We have found evidence in lemurs (non-simian ancestors) that this whole "fam... | [
"The majority of HIV researchers agree that HIV evolved at some point from the closely related simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV), and that SIV or HIV (post mutation) was transferred from non-human primates to humans in the recent past (as a type of zoonosis). Research in this area is conducted using molecular phy... |
how do sea animals avoid getting swept into the sky during hurricanes like cows do in tornadoes? | Some do, more with water spouts than hurricanes, but it’s still possible. That’s why there’s reports of animals raining from the sky dating way back through history.
It’s rare, but it does happen. | [
"When tropical cyclones move over land, they often produce the wind shear and atmospheric instability required for the development of weak, embedded supercell thunderstorms, which can produce tornadoes. These tornadoes are usually weak and short-lived, but still capable of producing significant damage. While center... |
[META] This is one of the few subreddits that has maintained a high level of quality and professionalism over time, thank you. | This thread has been removed due to bootlicking. | [
"Post 20th century, as a result to much debate of ethical guidelines, many organizations such as ABET offer ethical accreditation to University or College applications such as \"Applied and Natural Science, Computing, Engineering and Engineering Technology at the associate, bachelor, and master levels\" to try and ... |
Can somebody help identify a battleship for me? | The ship is an American pre-dreadnought battleship of the *Connecticut* class, though I don't know enough about said class to determine which ship within the class it is. The cage masts are obvious signs that this is an American ship, as no other major navy used them. The first way we can identify the class is to look... | [
"The Battleship New Jersey Museum and Memorial is located at 62 Battleship Place, Camden, New Jersey, United States. This museum ship preserves and displays , the most decorated battleship to have served in the U.S. Navy and one of the largest ever built.\n",
"While the battleships were under construction, discus... |
In Westerns, it's common to see wanted posters with a reward offered in lieu of an organized, coordinated effort by law enforcement to track criminals down; was this an accurate reflection of how the system worked, or a fictional convention? Who would usually be offering these bounties? | While you're waiting for someone to answer your question in particular, you might be interested in perusing [the section of the FAQ on the historical accuracy of "Wild West" tropes.](_URL_0_) | [
"Wanted posters for particularly notorious fugitives frequently offer a bounty for the capture of the person, or for a person who can provide information leading to such capture. Bounties provided an incentive for citizens to aid law enforcement, either by providing information, or by catching the criminal themselv... |
How do we know light speed is the universal speed limit? For example, if light moves differently in a gravitational field, we'd never be able to gather any data to the contrary on Earth. | We only "know" in the sense that it hasn't been proven false yet.
The idea of *c* being constant in all reference frames is a direct result of special relativity, and being constant in all frames implies an absolute speed limit in the universe. Thus far, no experiment has been performed that suggests special relativi... | [
"The paradoxical aspect of each of the described thought experiments arises from Einstein’s theory of special relativity, which proclaims the speed of light (approx. 300,000 km/s) is the upper limit of speed in our universe. The uniformity of the speed of light is so absolute that regardless of the speed of the obs... |
why do computer manufacturers still include usb 2.0 ports alongside 3.0 ports? | There are a few reasons you still see USB 2.0 alongside USB 3.0.
1) The Input/output chip found on Intel computers (Which is most computers you buy) only provides 6 USB 3.0 ports on desktops and 2 on mobile. This is a big limiter.
2) It increases design complexity, there are 9 wires in 3.0 vs 4 in 2.0. Multiply tha... | [
"If faster connections to storage devices are the reason to consider USB 3.0, an alternative is to use eSATAp, possibly by adding an inexpensive expansion slot bracket that provides an eSATAp port; some external hard disk drives provide both USB (2.0 or 3.0) and eSATAp interfaces. To ensure compatibility between mo... |
How were black ambassadors treated by America during the Civil Rights Era | Copying a post I made on this a few months ago:
> Segregation was a major headache for the State Department from post-WW2 until the passage of the Civil Rights Act. They spent a lot of time soothing ruffled feathers of African diplomats - it was quite common for them to be harassed when travelling between Washington... | [
"On July 26, 1963, Allen spoke before the U.S. Congress and the nation in support of what became the Civil Rights Act of 1964. He was the only prominent white southern elected official to do so. As a result, there were death threats made towards the Allen family, and many white friends and constituents never spoke ... |
What gives old-time radio its distinctive sound? Would it have sounded similar to contemporary listeners? | It's kind of an "all of the above" situation. Poor frequency response and distortion specifications on recording gear, the fact that recording compensation wasn't well understood at the time resulting in difficulty accurately capturing sound to a record, limitations of playback technology (poor frequency response of th... | [
"Sounds of the Seventies is a BBC radio programme broadcast on weekdays, initially 18:00–19:00, subsequently 22:00–00:00, on Radio One during the early 1970s. Among the DJs were Mike Harding, Alan Black, Pete Drummond, Annie Nightingale, John Peel (who alone had two shows per week), and Bob Harris. For contractual ... |
how has the fcc gone from battling verizon in court to preserve net neutrality to now trying to destroy it, in 3 months? | I would not say the FCC is trying to destroy Net Neutrality.
They lost the court case, and in losing the case they lost the ability to enforce regulations on Internet Service Providers (ISPs). Now they can get that ability back but it would take an act of congress to do so. This leaves the FCC in the position of eith... | [
"On January 14, 2014, the DC Circuit Court of Appeals struck down the FCC's net neutrality rules after Verizon filed suit against them in January 2010. In June 2016, in a 184-page ruling, the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit upheld, by a 2–1 vote, the FCC's net neutrality rules an... |
What did Ethiopians themselves call their country during the 12th century? | Well, most probably "Ethiopia" or at least the local Geʽez and Amharic language version: "ʾĪtyōṗṗyā." The name was already being used internally. Also possibly something along the lines of "Habeshat."
While you've followed the typical scholarly use of Axum, there's a little more to it than that. Axum was never the nam... | [
"It was preceded by a number of regions which were in Jewish rule in the north-west part of Ethiopia. The Jewish-Ethiopian tradition dates the establishment of the Kingdom of Semien to the fourth century, right after the kingdom of Axum turned to Christianity during the reign of Ezana of Axum.\n",
"In Greek histo... |
Are there any "dead" sports? Sports that were huge at one time but then stopped being played? | Chariot racing used to be very, very popular in the Roman and Byzantine empires. Here's a couple anecdotes:
* The highest-paid athlete in all of history was likely the charioteer [Gaius Appuleius Diocles](_URL_1_) (2nd century AD). He earned enough in his lifetime (about 15 billion in today's dollars) that he could ... | [
"Sudden death has a controversial history in association football. Important matches were traditionally resolved by replaying the entire match, however in the era of television and tight travel schedules this is often impracticable. Replays are still used in some major competitions (like the FA Cup).\n",
"The app... |
how does boltbus stay in business charging $1 fares? | The $1 tickets can be difficult to get sometimes, especially for high demand routes. If I want DC to NYC, I have to get that ticket around a month early. I think BoltBus strives on customers buying tickets within a closer window and paying full price. | [
"The MBTA gives a discount for CharlieCard users that began with the fare increase that took effect on January 1, 2007, and continuing with later increases. For example, a subway or trolley ride costs $2.10 with a CharlieCard but $2.65 with a CharlieTicket or cash. Local bus riders get a $0.50 discount with a Charl... |
Why do hot things burn us? | Hot things burn us because when we touch them or get near them they transfer some of their energy to us. That extra energy causes chemical reactions and damage to our skin.
Yes, some materials are better conductors or heat than others. Water will burn you faster than air. While porus rocks will burn you slowly, this i... | [
"Solid objects that are hot can also cause contact burns, especially by children who intentionally touch things that they are unaware are too hot to touch. Such burns imprinted on the skin usually form a pattern that resembles the object. Sources of burns from solid objects include ashes and coal, irons, soldering ... |
Rules Roundtable VII: No Personal Anecdotes | This reminds me of the time when ... Oh. That's right. Never mind.
But seriously, it is terribly frustrating for me. I have been an observer of a great deal of history, and I have been a historian for so long, that my observations are not without context and self-reflection from previous decades. People ask about the ... | [
"The story displays Wodehouse's excellent use of language and humor. It begins with the Oldest Member discussing people who lack the proper golfing spirit (\"I have known Bream to concede a hole for the almost frivolous reason that he had sliced his ball into a hornet's nest and was unwilling to play it from where ... |
What would a siege in pre-Columbian Mesoamerica have looked like? | You may be interested in this old comment of mine regarding siege warfare in the Late Post classic (i.e., Ye Older Azztek Times): _URL_0_ | [
"The Siege of Puebla occurred between 16 March and 17 May 1863 during the Second French intervention in Mexico, between forces of the Second French Empire and forces of the Second Federal Republic of Mexico. The French were advancing toward Mexico City, and were blocked by Mexican troops at Puebla.\n",
"The Siege... |
why isn't anything being done about the ddos attacks on psn and xbl? | You can't DDOS proof a server, thats why DDOSing is so effective, I bet microsoft and sony are doing their best to track down the attackers, after that they might deal with the hackers themselves (make them disappear) or alert the authorities which would result in prison time and really high fines. Hacker groups are re... | [
"The goal of DoS L2 (possibly DDoS) attack is to cause a launching of a defense mechanism which blocks the network segment from which the attack originated. In case of distributed attack or IP header modification (that depends on the kind of security behavior) it will fully block the attacked network from the Inter... |
how does computer virtualization work hardware and software levels. | A physical PC is composed of various hardware bits presented to the OS by the BIOS. A hypervisor is a small piece of software that sits between the physical hardware and the virtual machines that *slices* up the physical hardware and presents smaller chunks of emulated hardware to these virtual machines. (i used the te... | [
"Computer virtualization refers to the abstraction of computer resources, such as the process of running two or more logical computer systems on one set of physical hardware. The concept originated with the IBM mainframe operating systems of the 1960s, but was commercialized for x86-compatible computers only in the... |
Was the Reichstag fire perpetrated by the NSDAP? | The general consensus among historians today is that the NSDAP was not responsible for the fire, but that they were preparing for some type of pretext to expand the emergency powers they already possessed. Several legal measures that greatly expanded the central government's power had already been instituted before the... | [
"The Reichstag fire (, ) was an arson attack on the Reichstag building, home of the German parliament in Berlin, on Monday 27 February 1933, precisely four weeks after Adolf Hitler was sworn in as Chancellor of Germany. Hitler's government stated that Marinus van der Lubbe, a Dutch council communist, was found near... |
what exactly is it that makes the noise of waves on the shore? | It's sound of millions of drops, bubbles and splashes of water hitting rocks, plus sound of billions rocks and sand particles colliding with each other as water moves them. Sound of waves hitting smooth concrete walls is noticeable quieter. And if water is still and just barely moves sand, you can hear faint noise of t... | [
"A sound wave propagating underwater consists of alternating compressions and rarefactions of the water. These compressions and rarefactions are detected by a receiver, such as the human ear or a hydrophone, as changes in pressure. These waves may be man-made or naturally generated.\n",
"When surf on the lake is ... |
Why does applying heat to aching muscles help them, and the same question to applying cold to swollen areas? | I am not sure why heat helps aching muscles, however the cold helps deal with the problems of the inflammatory response. One of the conditions of the inflammatory response is vasodilation. Vasodilation means increased blood flow to the area, which causes the increase of heat, redness, et cetera.
Swollen areas are just... | [
"Heat (thermotherapy) is usually applied at least 48–72 hours after the initial injury. It is used to improve blood flow and subsequently healing, and to increase extensibility of tissues. Improved blood flow can also encourage fluid reabsorption, which reduces swelling, and encourages phagocytic cells to enter the... |
how does free trade agreements protect local market? | Free trade agreements are the opposite of "protecting" local markets. A free trade agreement allows goods to cross borders untaxed, so that foreign goods and domestic goods can compete on a (somewhat) even field. If the domestic market can't compete, because it cannot produce as cheaply, then the domestic products will... | [
"The US - Middle East Free Trade Area (USMFTA) is expected to bring about new market access for U.S. consumer and industrial products; opportunities for farmers and ranchers; banks, insurance, securities; telecommunications; and e-commerce. The agreement also includes assurances for U.S. businesses in regards to co... |
Why aren't more things nuclear powered? | Economic issues are largely what prevent the use of nuclear propulsion aboard civilian ships, but there is also military motivation to avoid doing so as well. In the case of nuclear powered transport vehicles, naval reactors and related technology are highly classified. Even if intended for civilian uses, mini-reactors... | [
"Nuclear power is a more exclusive form of energy storage, currently limited to large ships and submarines, mostly military. Nuclear energy can be released by a nuclear reactor, nuclear battery, or repeatedly detonating nuclear bombs. There have been two experiments with nuclear-powered aircraft, the Tupolev Tu-119... |
why is florida the site of most, if not all shuttle launches in the u.s? why not something with more consistent weather like arizona? | The higher rotation speed thing people are mentioning is true, but minor. Big reason is safety--we don't want launches to occur over land. Since all launches from Florida go east, they head over the Atlantic if anything goes wrong. The reason we have a launch facility at Vandenberg (CA) is because sun-synch launches... | [
"The National Aeronautics and Space Administration was forced to cut an environmental mission short in order to avoid the projected path of the hurricane, with the agency determining that the storm posed enough of a threat to their Extreme Environment Mission Operations near Key Largo, Florida. While Rina was weake... |
Everyone knows about Roman slavery, and the Transanlantic Slave Trade. But how about slavery in Medieval times? | Many enslaved women in the late medieval Mediterranean were forced into work as wet nurses. This is an excerpt from a longer article I wrote on wet nursing in Latin Europe:
For enslaved women forced to serve as wet nurses, the situation was even more demeaning than that of the municipal nurses. Since 1179, canon law h... | [
"Roman slavery was not based on ideas of race. Slaves were drawn from all over Europe and the Mediterranean, including Gaul, Hispania, North Africa, Syria, Germany, Britannia, the Balkans, Greece, etc. Those from outside of Europe were predominantly of Greek descent, while the Jewish ones never fully assimilated in... |
how does the us government spending increase year after year when income and corporate tax rates have been dropping (based on charts found on google)? | The U.S. government has a budget deficit; it spends more than it takes in. It can continue to do so as long as people are willing to cheaply lend money to it by buying bonds, and U.S. bonds remain the standard safe investment on which the global financial system is based.
To more directly address your question, though... | [
"Many studies argue that tax changes of S corporations confound the statistics prior to 1990. However, even after these changes inflation-adjusted average after-tax income grew by 25% between 1996 and 2006 (the last year for which individual income tax data is publicly available). This average increase, however, ob... |
why do nfl teams claim they cannot survive without a brand new state of the art stadium? | New stadiums are good for business, so the owners want them. They try to convince taxpayers to fund the stadiums, because obviously that's better than paying for the stadiums themselves. So they try to convince taxpayers that existing stadiums are not usable. | [
"In the following years the stadium still wasn't considered as up-to-date as other NFL stadiums. Several reasons existed, including a lack of surround sound, smaller video boards compared to the rest of the league and poor cellular reception, among others. During the 2013 offseason, the Panthers renovated the home ... |
the friendship paradox. how can the average person's friends have more friends then them? | Imagine you have six people: Alice, Bob, Charlie, Dave, Eric, and Zorp. A-E are all friends with Zorp but not with each other. Zorp has 5 friends, all the others have 1. On average, each person's friend has more friends than them, because 5 have only one friend who has 5 friends. Only one person has friends with fewer ... | [
"BULLET::::- The friendship paradox is the phenomenon first observed by the sociologist Scott L. Feld in 1991 that most people have fewer friends than their friends have, on average. It can be explained as a form of sampling bias in which people with greater numbers of friends have an increased likelihood of being ... |
why won't the vacuum cleaner noise make me go deaf but listening to high volume music (which i can't hear over the vacuum cleaner noise) through earphones will? | If the vacuum cleaner noise is that loud it does have the chance to damage you hearing such that you go deaf. So I am not sure what you are basing you assumption on. | [
"Manufacturers of sound-masking devices recommend that the volume of white noise machines be initially set at a comfortable level, even if it does not provide the desired level of privacy. As the ear becomes accustomed to the new sound and learns to tune it out, the volume can be gradually increased to increase pri... |
Are there any conditions under which men can produce breast milk? | It is called Couvade Syndrome when a man experiences the same hormonal effects during pregnancy as women.
Actual lactation is also possible;
_URL_1_
Plus, a newborn's body is jam packed with their mother's hormones so some males are born with engorged breasts and lactating nipples known as "Witch's Milk" occur
_URL... | [
"In breastfeeding women, low milk supply, also known as lactation insufficiency, insufficient milk syndrome, agalactia, agalactorrhea, hypogalactia or hypogalactorrhea, is the production of breast milk in daily volumes that do not fully meet the nutritional needs of her infant.\n",
"Low milk supply can be either ... |
how do those free movie streaming sites get all of those movies? | It's basically a big international "collective" of pirates who upload the content individually to multiple sites at the same time. | [
"Movies Anywhere is a United States-exclusive cloud-based digital locker and over-the-top streaming platform operated by The Walt Disney Company. The service allows users to stream and download purchased films, including digital copies redeemed from codes found in home video releases as well as digital purchases fr... |
Is it possible to reverse climate change quickly? | **Short version:** Just realised this has turned into an essay. The short version is that geoengineering would allow us to counteract some of the dangerous effects of climate change and in theory could act as an "emergency brake", but they have a huge number of serious side-effects so we should avoid being put into a s... | [
"Whether the initial forcing mechanism is internal or external, the response of the climate system might be fast (e.g., a sudden cooling due to airborne volcanic ash reflecting sunlight), slow (e.g. thermal expansion of warming ocean water), or a combination (e.g., sudden loss of albedo in the Arctic Ocean as sea i... |
At what point did 'chroniclers' become 'historians' and what is the difference? | A Chronicler and Historian are two very different job descriptions and we still have both working today, though in different forms from the past.
A chronicler primarily compiled current information into a written timeline. This information was often of local import and didn't contain analysis or research. Think of it... | [
"Chronicles are the predecessors of modern \"time lines\" rather than analytical histories. They represent accounts, in prose or verse, of local or distant events over a considerable period of time, both the lifetime of the individual chronicler and often those of several subsequent continuators. If the chronicles ... |
why is a pin number considered safe with 4 numbers while a password needs 8 chars with numbers and capitals? | Because anyone on the internet can have a go and guessing my username and password, often an unrestricted number of times. Only people with access to my PC or my credit card can guess my PIN, and usually only 3 to 5 times. | [
"BULLET::::3. A 14-character password is broken into 7+7 characters and the hash is calculated for the two halves separately. This way of calculating the hash makes it exponentially easier to crack, as the attacker needs to brute force 7 characters twice instead of 14 characters. This makes the effective strength o... |
WW2 Tactics and Doctrine Innovations of the Allies | Goodness me, this is quite the topic to tackle, and I'm afraid rather beyond my abilities to cast my net both widely and deeply. I can however, offer some information regarding my own research niches, namely British armoured doctrine, and also the North African Campaign, and perhaps some of the other historians on here... | [
"Breakthrough tactics were later to play a large role in the early German blitzkrieg offensives of World War II and the later attacks by the Soviet Union and the Western Allies to defeat Germany, and evolved into modern armoured warfare.\n",
"World War I strategy was dominated by the \"Spirit of the Offensive\", ... |
Why didn't the Confederate Army just attack Washington D.C. in 1863, and tried to end the war right then and there by forcing Lincoln to surrender? | In short, because there was an opposing army trying to prevent them from doing so. In 1862 Lee had moved into MAryland in the hope of isolating Washington, cutting it off from the rest of the Union even if not taking the city itself, so as to apply presure for a negotiated end to the conflict, but failed after being be... | [
"In April 1861, shortly after the Civil War began with the bombardment of Fort Sumter by rebel forces, Walker predicted that Washington, D.C. and Boston would fall to the Confederacy before May 1 of that year. However, this never happened, and the last time that General Robert E. Lee's army ever invaded the North w... |
Do the mantle, inner, or outer cores experience tidal effects? If not, why not? And, if so, why don't we constant volcanic eruptions? | Yes the entire Earth experiences tidal effects in one form or another. Since we are on a telluric planet the effects are not the same everywhere.
& nbsp;
The mantle is convective but on a timescale much longer than the orbital period of the Moon. This means the response to the tidal potential is an elastic one. This... | [
"Mantle convection causes tectonic plates to move around the Earth's surface. It seems to have been much more active during the Hadean period, resulting in gravitational sorting of heavier molten iron, nickel, and sulphides to the core and lighter silicate minerals to the mantle.\n",
"Reconstructions of seismic w... |
- with both options made available through evolution, how does the human body prefer/naturally choose how we breathe - through the nose or mouth? | The nose tends to prevent bacteria and other stuff from getting into your [body](_URL_0_). Seems like a solid choice. | [
"Human infants are sometimes considered obligate nasal breathers, but generally speaking healthy humans may breathe through their nose, their mouth, or both. During rest, breathing through the nose is common for most individuals. Breathing through both nose and mouth during exercise is also normal, a behavioral ada... |
Can Alzheimer's patients form new memories that they recall better than old memories? | You are correct, Alzheimer's is characterized by a primary anterograde memory impairment, while retrograde memory remains more stable until the latter stages of the disease. | [
"Amnesiacs with poor ability to form permanent long-term memories do not show a primacy effect, but do show a recency effect if recall comes immediately after study. People with Alzheimer's disease exhibit a reduced primacy effect but do not produce a recency effect in recall.\n",
"Memory distortion in Alzheimer'... |
why wasn't there a nuclear war between the soviet union and the u.s? | Because they BOTH knew to start a nuclear war would be DUMB.
Problem is some idiot will start one some day. | [
"In August 1949 the Soviets tested their first nuclear weapon, thereby escalating the risk of warfare. The threat of mutually assured destruction however, prevented both powers from nuclear war, and resulted in proxy wars, especially in Korea and Vietnam, in which the two sides did not directly confront each other.... |
How quickly does boiling water sterilize a surface? | Disclaimer: Don't take any medical advice from reddit, and yes this kind of counts because you made it relevant to yourself. However I'll explain because it's telling you not to.
A common sterilisation technique used in science is autoclaving which involves steam at around 120C for around 20 minutes to sterilise glass... | [
"Heating an article is one of the earliest forms of sterilization practiced. Moist heat sterilization processes sterilize using hot air that is heavily laden with water vapor, which plays the most important role in the sterilization. Boiling a sample for 30 minutes or more will kill virtually all vegetative cells p... |
how is money released into the economy. | Contrary to popular belief, the government actually *printing* money doesn't really impact the economy much at all. Nor does the government simply give money away. Money is primarily created through banks lending it to other people.
When you get paid by your job, do they pay you in cash? Of course not. They give y... | [
"The circulation of money is first initiated by the transformation of a commodity into money. The commodity is taken from its natural state and transformed into its monetary state. When this happens, the commodity \"falls out of circulation into consumption\". The previous commodity now in its monetary form replace... |
I read that there is a class of stars called brown dwarfs. They have very low temperature and not enough mass to undergo hydrogen fusion. Why are they considered stars and not gas planets? | The distinction isn't a sharp one, but generally they're considered brown dwarves if they're hot enough to fuse deuterium but not hot enough to fuse hydrogen.
To quote my friend Dr. Wikipedia:
> Currently there is some debate concerning what criterion to use for defining the separation between a brown dwarf and a gi... | [
"Protostars with masses less than roughly never reach temperatures high enough for nuclear fusion of hydrogen to begin. These are known as brown dwarfs. The International Astronomical Union defines brown dwarfs as stars massive enough to fuse deuterium at some point in their lives (13 Jupiter masses (), 2.5 × 10 kg... |
Based on the latest XKCD strip 'The Pace of Modern Life': did other civilisations and societies also have the notion that their current life was too fast paced? | Roman poets for example liked to praise the calm, tranquil pace and simple pleasures of rural life. Think the Eclogas of Ovidius (Ovid in English) and similar bucolic works. _URL_0_ So for them, city life was too fast paced, chaotic, materialist etc.
Now, the point is, we live in an age of urbanization, people flock ... | [
"A montage follows, showing decades of technological progress, beginning with Cabal explaining plans for global consolidation by Wings Over the World. By 2036, mankind lives in modern underground cities, including the new Everytown. Civilisation is at last devoted to peace and scientific progress.\n",
"In conside... |
what does a computer do when starting up and how can this process be slowed down? | Your operating system is just a large program. Have you noticed that when you open a bunch of programs at once, it slows down a little? When your computer starts up, it needs to open a bunch of little programs at once. There are 2 categories: windows programs and your programs. Windows programs are things like; your di... | [
"A user can terminate a program by invoking the key combination or . Pressing or any printing character on the keyboard suspends the console output. Output may be resumed by pressing the key (to delete all of the input) or by pressing (which will cause the input to be processed as a command as soon as the current c... |
Do our lungs, being a warm, moist spongy material in a dark cavity, have to constantly fight off mold, mildew, and other similar growths? | Most tissues in our bodies would facilitate growth of microorganisms were it not for our immune system. We spend a tremendous amount of energy making sure our cells have enough glucose/fats/proteins, a nice and pH-neutral environment in addition to a host of other accomodating factors. Many other microorganisms also th... | [
"Mold exposure has a variety of health effects, and sensitivity to mold varies. Exposure to mold may cause throat irritation, nasal stuffiness, eye irritation, cough and wheezing and skin irritation in some cases. Exposure to mold may heighten sensitivity, depending on the time and nature of exposure. People with c... |
what exactly is happening when an isp sends a refresh signal to your modem? why does it sometimes improve the connection speed? | Over time, the modems at both your end and the ISP end react to noise on the line by slowing down to maintain a stable connection. Resetting the calibration settings on a noisy line can temporarily make the speed faster when it goes back to the default starting speed, but the speed will just decrease again if the under... | [
"However, the telephone system introduces a small delay known as \"latency\" that interferes with this process. Even if the receiver sends the ACK immediately, the delay in the phone lines means there will always be some time before the sender receives it and sends the next packet. As modem speeds increase, this de... |
Do humans permanently retain some portion of the water they consume or is all of the consumed water eventually lost/replaced? | The other thing to consider is that water molecules are constantly being created and destroyed by chemistry. Proteins and other large molecules are hydrolysed (cut by water) where the H2O becomes an OH that leaves on one molecule and the H leaves on another. Similarly, building up new versions of proteins, etc creates ... | [
"A human being can survive an average of three to five days without the intake of water. The issues presented by the need for water dictate that unnecessary water loss by perspiration be avoided in survival situations. The need for water increases with exercise.Since the human body is composed of up to 78% water, i... |
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