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question stringlengths 3 301	answer stringlengths 9 26.1k	context list
why do carriers care if you tether?	the same reason why Hollywood cared about VCRs or the music industry cared about cassette tapes. with tethering, you'll only need to subscribe to their service once instead of multiple times (ie one subscription per device).	[ "Carrier IQ is the consumer advocate to the mobile operator, explaining what works and what does not work. Three of the main complaints we hear from mobile device users are (1) dropped calls, (2) poor customer service, and (3) having to constantly recharge the device. Our software allows operators to figure out why...
Can someone explain how astronomers know the exact spectral composition of the standard candles identified in the observable universe?	we use color-color diagrams and where they lie on a Hertzsprung-Russel diagram. You measure the stars flux in different wavelengths and it gives you a color. You can also get spectral lines and that is how you get spectral type.	[ "Spectral lines are highly atom-specific, and can be used to identify the chemical composition of any medium capable of letting light pass through it. Several elements were discovered by spectroscopic means, including helium, thallium, and caesium. Spectral lines also depend on the physical conditions of the gas, s...
Police dispatchers in the 1960s	What a great question! And thank you so much for laying out your goal and providing so much detail on what you're looking for. It really helps! For your exact topic, you might try finding a copy of the 1954 book Daily Training Bulletin of the Los Angeles Police Department by W.H. Parker. I only ran across a review i...	[ "Toronto, Hamilton, Berlin (Kitchener), Windsor and other cities modernized and professionalized their public services in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. No service was changed more dramatically than the police. The introduction of emergency telephone call boxes linked to a central dispatcher, plus the use ...
black holes suck in light, so why are they black?	We call them black because we believe that they suck in light and don't let it out. It's outgoing light we can see, you can't see light that's being absorbed only light that is being sent out or reflected.	[ "Black holes are difficult to find because they do not let out any light. They can be found when black holes suck in other stars. When black holes suck in other stars, the black hole lets out X-rays, which can be seen by telescopes.\n", "Black holes are talked about in this chapter. Black holes are stars that hav...
What were the social requirements to becoming a naval officer in 18th century Britain?	Sure could. If a family was wealthy enough they could get their son enlisted as a midshipman. Most midshipmen started when they were just boys and spent many years at sea under the tutelage of their superior officers. Once they had progressed far enough they had to pass competency tests. If they passed they became a j...	[ "Theoretically, the highest commands of the Royal Navy were open to all within its ranks showing talent. In practice, family connections, political or professional patronage were very important for promotion to ranks higher than Commander. British captains were responsible for recruiting their ship's crew from a co...
why is being bare foot seen as taboo? why is it different between being barefoot or in flip flops.	Where i work its an insurance thing, yes we clean our floors but there is no guarantee there is not an odd shard of glass somewhere, if you cut your foot the company could be held liable so we would just rather you wear your fucking shoes please, hippy.	[ "Forcing people to go barefoot has been used as a relatively effortless and more subtle form of humiliation in most past and present civilized cultures, primarily using the visual contrast to the standard form of appearance while also creating some level of physical discomfort. The exposure of bare feet often serve...
Did Tibetan rule practice slavery well into the 20th century and if so, did chinese annexation actually end it?	This question has come up a few times before that has yielded some good answers, and while we are always interested in more answers, I thought you might be interested in the following threads: * [There has been some claim that the Dalai Lama presided over a feudalistic/slave Tibet until Chinese Communism abolished t...	[ "The serfdom in Tibet controversy rests on Chinese claims of moral authority for governing Tibet, portraying Tibet as a \"feudal serfdom\" and a \"hell on earth\" prior to its invasion in 1950. Claims of unfree labour practices have been a recurrent theme, covering periods both before and after the Chinese takeover...
what does this patent troll bill say and do?	Let's say you own the patent on brass plated, triangle shaped bottle openers. Here are some of the basics. Right now you could file a lawsuit on someone making gold plated square shaped bottle openers saying, "Hey, we have a patent for bottle openers!" The people making gold plated square shaped bottle openers don't...	[ "This view was supported in an article in 2014 that suggests that the pejorative term \"patent troll\" works in the benefit of large organisations who infringe patents and resent smaller inventors being represented by someone with the clout to take them on. The argument against the use of the term is that NPEs, in ...
What would happen if the North Star goes Supernova?	Short answer: It would be brighter than a full moon and visible during the day, likely for a few weeks or months. Unfortunately, it's not massive enough to produce a supernova. Longer answer: The concept of a north star is cool. As the earth rotates, it looks like everything in the sky does a lap around the e...	[ "Supernovae can result from the death of an extremely massive star, many times heavier than the Sun. At the end of the life of this massive star, a non-fusible iron core is formed from fusion ashes. This iron core is pushed towards the Chandrasekhar limit till it surpasses it and therefore collapses.\n", "Some me...
how can a microwave heat up food but have no affect on plastic food wrap?	Microwaves are radio waves that are roughly around 2,500 megahertz These radio waves are absorbed by water, fats, and sugars. These waves are also not absorbed by most plastics, ceramics, or glass. If you were to change the frequency then you could design a microwave that only melted plastic but didn't heat up the ...	[ "The use of unmarked plastics for microwave cooking raises the issue of plasticizers leaching into the food, or the plastics chemically reacting to microwave energy, with by-products leaching into the food, suggesting that even plastic containers marked \"microwavable\" may still leach plastic by-products into the ...
nuclear preparedness	Everybody's going to die, slowly. That's arguably an improvement over people inside the loop, who are going to die quickly. The sort of war that would include attacks on major American cities is likely to be the sort of thing that ends humanity as we know it. Perhaps a single nuclear missile attack by crazy North Ko...	[ "\"Nuclear War Survival Skills\" aims to provide a general audience with advice on how to survive conditions likely to be encountered in the event of a nuclear catastrophe, as well as encouraging optimism in the face of such a catastrophe by asserting the survivability of a nuclear war.\n", "Preparedness refers t...
why do people protest the nato summits?	If you use the search bar, you'll find [this was already asked](_URL_0_). Unfortunately there was only one answer so it's not incredibly helpful.	[ "The fear that NATO is evolving into a worldwide coalition of the willing, as such increasing polarisation and militarization in international affairs, sparked protests at NATO's HQ in Brussels two weeks before the summit, and in Bucharest. Protesters targeted the renewed determination of NATO to use nuclear weapon...
why if i approach any wild animal in the countryside on foot it sprints away, but when you're in a car they just sit in the middle of the road until you nearly, or do, run them over.	A survival skill is the ability to recognize and react to movements of animals (such as people) differently than movements of objects (such as trees blowing in the wind) - you run when it's the former but the latter is just background noise to be ignored. But cars are something relatively new, something that looks like...	[ "The recommended reaction to a large animal (such as a moose) is to slow down in lane, if at all possible, and to avoid swerving suddenly, which could cause loss of control. If a collision cannot be avoided, it is best to swerve towards the rear end of the animal, as it is more likely to run forward. Drivers who se...
What would a persons diet consist of before the processing of grains.	You might try x-posting this question to /r/AskAnthropology, they would probably better be able to answer your question.	[ "The ancient Israelites depended on bread, wine and oil as the basic dietary staples and this trio is often mentioned in the Bible (for example, and ) and in other texts, such as the Samaria and Arad ostraca. Written and archaeological evidence indicate that the diet also included other products from plants, trees ...
why do we see multi-colored dots in the dark?	I'm in a sensation and perception class right now. Even when your eyes are closed, the inner anatomy of your eye is still picking up what minimal sensations are present. Your neurons are still firing from this input, just not much so your perception will almost never be pitch black.	[ "It is constructed by superimposing white discs on the intersections of orthogonal gray bars on a black background. Dark dots seem to appear and disappear rapidly at random intersections, hence the label \"scintillating\". When a person keeps his or her eyes directly on a single intersection, the dark dot does not ...
How do our brains remember the time of the events that have been fixed in the memory?	nobody really knows for sure, but recent work suggests it likely involves the hippocampus and surrounding cortex. memories involve binding certain aspects of experiences together, which is likely reflected in neuronal firing patterns (either pattern of which neurons fire or firing rate.. or both, nobody knows for sure...	[ "Temporal memory consists of remembering \"when\" a specific memory has occurred. In a study participants were placed in 4 groups; two control groups either given caffeine or a placebo and two groups that were sleep deprived for 36 hours either given caffeine or a placebo. The task used to measure temporal memory c...
Recommendation	Hi, Buddhist historian here. Here is a list to get you started: * [A Concise History of Buddhism](_URL_8_) by Andrew Skilton; Perhaps the simplest introduction to Buddhist history, but what it lacks in completeness, it makes up for in readability. * [The Buddhist Religion: A Historical Introduction](_URL_1_) By Rich...	[ "This type of report examines either a stated need or a selection of choices, or in some cases both. The report is a collection of analysis and evaluation of the situation, and generally will examine the strengths and weaknesses, opportunities and threats in the situation, take them into account, and be combined wi...
why does a website with a recipe often include a long preface before you get to the actual recipe?	Imma answer your question, but first let me tell you about this time I watered the lawn on a warm july afternoon, there were clouds in the sky and childrens laughter.... ok seriously, who knows, maybe they just like to hear themselves type, or create an emotional connection to the recipe, perhaps they are just killing...	[ "Chefs provide the producers with shopping lists for each of the possible secret ingredients. Consequently, they can surmise what the secret ingredient will be just before it is officially revealed, based on which of their items were purchased.\n", "Tea of all shapes can be made by numbered recipe. Not all recipe...
Did the Roman Empire ever contact the ancient Chinese?	/u/Tiako is probably best placed to provide a detailed account of earlier instances of Roman contact with China, but I have written a little bit on what the (Eastern) Romans knew of China in the sixth and seventh centuries [here](_URL_0_). Crucially, after nearly two centuries of zero official contact between Rome and ...	[ "Sino-Roman relations comprised the mostly indirect contact, flow of trade goods, information, and occasional travellers between the Roman Empire and Han Empire of China, as well as between the later Eastern Roman Empire and various Chinese dynasties. These empires inched progressively closer in the course of the R...
Best book to understand Islam	Whether you're looking to understand the theology, politics, or history behind Islam, I would start off by reading the Quran. It provides some much needed background.	[ "Towards Understanding Islam is a book written by Sayyid Abul Ala Maududi which gained its author a reputation as a religious teacher and major thinker. This book has been translated into a number of languages. Jamaat-e-Islami claim that it has been translated into 13 languages. One English translation of this book...
Do satellites rotate with the earth?	Satellites in geostationary orbit maintain the same position above the Earth because it takes them 24 hours to rotate. These are about 30,000 km up. Many satellites are much closer to Earth and orbit in a few hours.	[ "Orbital planes of satellites are perturbed by the non-spherical nature of the Earth's gravity. This causes the orbital plane of the satellite's orbit to slowly rotate around the Earth, depending on the angle the plane makes with the Earth's equator. For planes that are at a critical angle this can mean that the pl...
Is there a limit to the amount of energy that can be in one place at one time?	If you cram too much into one space, you get a black hole.	[ "It is simple to see why we perceive a continuum of energy in this limit. With = 1 rad/s, the difference between each energy level is ≈ 1.05 × 10J, well below what we normally resolve for macroscopic systems. One then describes this system through an emergent classical limit.\n", "The law of conservation of energ...
Are fish in tanks/aquariums aware of the fact that they live in an enclosed space?	Probably depends on the fish. Some groups of fish (e.g. mormyrids, gymnotids, notopterids, gymnachids) have either passive or active electrosensory abilities which allow them to image conductivity of their surroundings in three dimensions; these fishes would be directly aware of how small their habitat actually was.	[ "An aquarium's physical characteristics form another aspect of aquarium design. Size, lighting conditions, density of floating and rooted plants, placement of bog-wood, creation of caves or overhangs, type of substrate, and other factors (including an aquarium's positioning within a room) can all affect the behavio...
What would a typical day be like for an RAF pilot during the battle of Britain?	Pilots were actually required to do very little apart from fight. Pilots on alert (duty) had to wait either in their aircraft or at airbases very near them: literally every second could count in 'getting up' as time = altitude. If not on duty pilots were quite free, but transport could be difficult as it was disrupte...	[ "The List of RAF aircrew in the Battle of Britain is a summary regarding the lists of those who flew during the Battle of Britain, and were awarded the Battle of Britain Clasp to the 1939–45 Star by flying at least one authorised operational sortie with an eligible unit of the Royal Air Force or Fleet Air Arm durin...
what is the connection between greenland and denmark?	Greenland is a country within the Kingdom of Denmark, similar to how Scotland is a country within the UK. Greenland has been aspiring to greater autonomy, and Denmark has completely, putting them on a track to assume increasingly more control of their domestic affair. Despite this, Greenland remains economically depe...	[ "During World War II, when Germany invaded Denmark, Greenlanders became socially and economically less connected to Denmark and more connected to the United States and Canada. After the war, Denmark resumed control of Greenland and in 1953, converted its status from colony to overseas \"amt\" (county). Although Gre...
Are there any political or social trends that tend to repeat themselves over the course of human history?	Robert Michel's concept of "Iron Law of Oligarchy" in his book Political Parties deals with the inevitability of a rule by a small elite within any organization, no matter how egalitarian and democratic it is in its design.	[ "As a graduate student in the late 1970s and early 1980s, Goldstone noted a persistent pattern: in the decades leading up to major historical outbreaks of political instability, such as the string of revolutions in France, the Netherlands and America in the late 18th century or the Taiping Rebellion in China (1850–...
Do headphones increase the likelihood of being struck by lightning?	I would say the magnet inside an earbud would have essentially no effect on increasing the likelihood of you being struck by lightning.	[ "Another effect of lightning on bystanders is to their hearing. The resulting shock wave of thunder can damage the ears. Also, electrical interference to telephones or headphones may result in damaging acoustic noise.\n", "Lightning interferes with AM (amplitude modulation) radio signals much more than FM (freque...
why does licking the wrapper of a cinnamon gum and placing it into your skin start to burn your skin?	The cinnamon oil that flavors the gum feels hot in your mouth when you chew it. This is because it's an "irritant", or a molecule that activates pain receptors. The gum wrapper has some of the cinnamon oil on it, and when you moisten it by licking you make it easy to transfer the oil from the wrapper to the skin. In...	[ "Because of the burning sensation caused by capsaicin when it comes in contact with mucous membranes, it is commonly used in food products to provide added spice or \"heat\" (piquancy), usually in the form of spices such as chili powder and paprika. In high concentrations, capsaicin will also cause a burning effect...
If we can build huge reflectors/magnifiers to concentrate light into extremely hot beams, why can't we harness this power for all our energy needs?	You mean [like this Solar Power Tower in Spain?](_URL_1_) edit: [Better link](_URL_0_).	[ "The power reduction is done by such means as absorption, reflection, diffusion, scattering, deflection, diffraction, and dispersion, etc. Optical attenuators usually work by absorbing the light, like sunglasses absorb extra light energy. They typically have a working wavelength range in which they absorb all light...
Does your body still "recharge" at all if you are just lying there, eyes closed, not moving, but not sleeping?	Yes, to a certain extent. The body's systems are not usually just "on" or "off". There are gradients and different levels of activation of each system in the body. Even within the context of sleep, there are different kinds of sleep, with some biological processes occurring at different rates. Several of your body's ...	[ "A phenomenon of REM sleep, muscular paralysis, occurs at an inappropriate time. This loss of tonus is caused by massive inhibition of motor neurons in the spinal cord. When this happens during waking, the victim of a cataplectic attack loses control of his or her muscles. As in REM sleep, the person continues to b...
was scurvy actually particular to sailors? it seems like citrus wouldn't have been available to most of the lower classes	Scurvy is caused by a lack of vitamin C. Vitamin C can be found in peppers, turnip greens, cabbage, broccoli, tomatoes, peas, and other foods. A lot of those would be available to the lower classes at least some of the time.	[ "The medical establishment ashore continued to be wedded to the idea that scurvy was a disease of putrefaction, curable by the administration of elixir of vitriol, infusions of wort and other remedies designed to 'ginger up' the system. It could not account for the benefits of citrus fruits and dismissed the eviden...
why can massive video games like the witcher or elder scrolls come on a single disc, but most tv shows always come on around 5 discs?	Because video isn't generally a small thing to carry, whereas 3D data can be. Video is just being read and played back, all the data you're seeing has to be there on the disk, otherwise, well, there's nothing to play. With something like Elder Scrolls games however what the disk is storing is 3D asset data, which f...	[ "Some GameCube games with large amounts of data span two discs, such as \"Resident Evil 4\" and \"Enter the Matrix\". Multi-platform games that fit on PlayStation 2 and Xbox DVD discs occasionally saw the removal of certain features in order to fit on GameCube Game Discs. Full-motion video scenes and audio are more...
How many solar panels would be needed to power all of the U.S.?	a 100 mile by 100 mile solar thermal plant located in the desert southwest could power the United States. _URL_0_	[ ", there were nearly 5,500 schools in the United States that had solar installations with the total capacity of approximately 910 MW. Top five states were Nevada, California, Hawaii, Arizona, and New Jersey with 23.10%, 14.50%, 14.50%, 14.10% and 13.00% of the schools in the respective states that had installations...
native reserves in the usa and canada.	Basically Native Americans didn't see land ownership in the same way the Europeans did. As the Europeans came to North America they began claiming land that they saw as "unclaimed". This lead to conflicts between the two groups as Natives lost access to land they previously saw as for everyones use. Eventually these...	[ "Canada has numerous Indian reserves for its First Nations people, which were mostly established by the \"Indian Act\" of 1876 and have been variously expanded and reduced by royal commissions since. They are sometimes incorrectly called by the American term \"reservations\".\n", "Indian reserves, established in ...
Does sound have an infinite volume?	Ish. The quietest sound is simply no sound. Any given device is going to have a threshold minimum sound it can sense, but I don't see a reason you can't get as close to zero as you want, at least averaged over a large area. Since particles in a gas never fully stop moving, there is always going to be some local noise t...	[ "The theory of the volume is based on a new interpretation of the term \"Ápeiron\", central in Anaximander's philosophy. Anaximander defines the element from which all things originate with the Greek term \"ápeiron\", commonly held to be formed from \"a\" (alpha privative, \"without\") and \"péras\" (\"determinatio...
What was the role of Capitalism in starting the first world war?	Could you please specify what you mean by "capitalism"? It is a very loaded term; most people actually mean various things they associate with it when they use it.	[ "In the 1930s, in the midst of the Great Depression and with the rise of fascist powers, many western socialist and liberal thinkers believed that capitalism caused war. However, Keynes in his \"General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money\" in 1936, argued that this need not be so, and that the management of c...
is a poisonous reaction just a effective form of allergy?	A poison is something that attacks your system and causes it damage. An allergy is when your body overreacts to a substance and thinks it's under attack. The key point of an allergy is that it's something that is actually benign (or at least not terribly threatening) but your body goes apeshit anyway.	[ "Pyrrolizidine alkaloidosis poisoning in the United States has remained moderately rare among humans. The most common reports are the outcome of the misuse of medicinal home remedies, or the alkaloids are present in food and drink substances such as milk and honey when the animal carriers were exposed to the toxins...
why are "red" cameras so expensive? (upwards of $77,500 per camera)	They're not. They're cheap. Like WAY cheap. "Red" cameras are not consumer products. They are essentially the digital equal/evolution of 35mm film cameras, such as the Panavision Milennium XL, which many Hollywood movies are filmed on. These cost MUCH more (well into 6 figures), plus you gotta buy the film, and th...	[ "Quality cameras often have a high price range (often US$3,000 or more) due to the expense of the larger pixel array (state of the art 1280 x 1024), while less expensive models (with pixel arrays of 40x40 up to 160x120 pixels) are also available. Fewer pixels reduce the image quality making it more difficult to dis...
packing a cigarette before smoking.	As far as I know it prevents the end of the cigarette from burning weakly or unevenly, and also helps it to 'draw' better.	[ "Smoking is a brand of rolling papers, manufactured by Miquel y Costas in Barcelona, Spain. According to their website, they were one of the earliest factories to produce rolling papers. Smoking offers different color packages to differentiate the weights or materials of the paper inside.\n", "There is also a non...
how did telephones work in the early 1900s?	Do you mean the decade the 1900s or the century the 1900s? If you're talking about the old timey box on the wall with a crank telephones, The crank is a generator that rings a bell for the operator, you tell the operator who you want to talk to, and the operator then plugs your line into either the line you want to c...	[ "The first telephone was installed in 1885 by H.V. Dalling, a homemade telephone whose wires ran between his home and shop. The Bell Telephone Company later opened a small telephone exchange in his store.\n", "Telephone and telegraph wires were run into the valley by private companies in the 1890s; by 1899 it was...
how/why do boogers form and why can't i feel them forming?	Mucus is excreted into the nose by a few types of cells on the inner surface of it. It's purpose is to trap pathogens, dust, or other particles in order to prevent them from entering your respiratory system. You can't feel it form because it happens so slowly and gradually that it never causes any nerve cells to fire, ...	[ "When pus forms, the pressure increases, with increasing pain, until it spontaneously drains and relieves the pain. When pus drains into the mouth, a bad taste and smell are perceived. Usually drainage occurs via the periodontal pocket, or else the infection may spread as a cellulitis or a purulent odontogenic infe...
how do electric fences cause discomfort if the person or animal touching the fence is essentially a load resistor in parallel with a short?	The fence isn't a short. The entire fence is energized to very very high voltage. The fence completes a circuit through you to the ground because you offer less resistance than the air does.	[ "Most modern fences emit pulses of high voltage at a given interval of time, and don't take into account whether there is an animal or person touching the conductive wires, except for the voltage multiplier based electric fence charger that stores high voltage potential and dumps its charges as soon as a conductive...
If I were traveling at near the speed of light (enough to significantly slow time), would I be able to "think" normally? Would I be able to tell that time is slowing down?	As long as you were moving at a constant velocity, then nothing would appear "strange" to you. A key point of [special relativity](_URL_2_) is that the laws of physics work the same in any (i.e. non-accelerating) inertial frame of reference. So yes, if you have a spaceship that is moving relative to a planet, then th...	[ "There's no way you can visualize the speed. There's nothing you can see to see how fast you're going. You have no depth perception. If you're in a car driving down the road and you close your eyes, you have no idea what your speed is. It's the same thing if you're free falling from space. There are no signposts. Y...
Were any of the German soldiers who slept with sexual slaves in government brothels prosecuted after WW2?	These questions are rather difficult to answer altogether since while there is literature on the subject, mostly published since the mid-2000s forward, it still is a fairly under-researched area. Starting with the post-war prosecution, there is to my knowledge no case that deals with the brothels, either them being se...	[ "The women forced into these brothels came mainly from the Ravensbrück concentration camp, except for Auschwitz, which employed its own prisoners. In combination with the German military brothels in World War II, it is estimated that at least 34,140 female inmates were forced into sexual slavery during the Third Re...
why don't some other company produce sodium thiopental if others refuse to provide it for executions?	Why can't they just fire up ol sparky.	[ "A controversy happened in 2011 and 2012 when state officials imported sodium thiopental on two occasions from suppliers based in India and Switzerland. The furnishers said they discovered only after delivering the drugs that these would be used in judicial executions, prompting them to demand the return of the che...
How did the UK go from running a globe-spanning empire controlling 1/4th the world to its current level of power, where fielding a military force to retake the Falkland islands was a major effort?	The reasons for Britain’s decline from the position of pre-eminent global super power are undoubtedly complex and multi-faceted. Here are some of them: Relative decline in Wealth: One of the reasons Britain became the hegemon was that Britain innovated the Industrial Revolution, and that led Britain to become the ri...	[ "In the first half of the 20th century, the Falklands served an important role in Britain's territorial claims to subantarctic islands and a section of Antarctica. The Falklands governed these territories as the Falkland Islands Dependencies starting in 1908, and retained them until their dissolution in 1985. The F...
How do we find out if electrons are not elementary?	There have been experiments looking for electron sub-structure, all of which have come up null. This can be used to further constrain a potential electron radius to smaller and smaller values. [This one](_URL_0_) puts it at below 10^-22 meters. Similar things can be done to look for a possible electric dipole moment of...	[ "An elegant illustration of the uncertainty principle is Heisenberg's thought experiment for locating an electron with an ideal microscope. The position of the electron can be determined to within the resolving power of the microscope, which is given by a formula from classical optics\n", "This principle of uncer...
how do we know we aren't seeding life on mars when sending probes there?	Simple answer, we don't, we actually assume at this point in time that this is exactly what we have done. NASA has already stated numerous times that some of the equipment that was sent was not completely sterile, due to mistakes and errors and that they believe that they could have contaminated the soil. They belie...	[ "Since it is currently unknown whether life forms exist on Mars, the mission could potentially transfer viable organisms resulting in back contamination—the introduction of extraterrestrial organisms into Earth's biosphere. The scientific consensus is that the potential for large-scale effects, either through patho...
When European missionaries , such as the Portuguese, first landed in Eastern lands, such as Japan, how did they initially communicate and eventually learn the vernacular language to preach there?	/u/TheLegendofNick In the specific case of Francis Xavier, the first Christian (Catholic) missionary to Japan, language was a significant barrier. Through is travels in South Asia, Southeast Asia, and East Asia, Francis Xavier knew that language was important, so he sought to learn local languages to varying degrees o...	[ "The Portuguese were the first Europeans to reach Japan and the first to establish direct trade between Japan and Europe, in 1543. During the 16th and 17th century, Portuguese Jesuits had undertaken a great work of Catechism, that ended only with religious persecution in the early Edo period (Tokugawa Shogunate). T...
why is it when we get angry or upset about something we can "sleep it off" and feel much better about the situation later?	Emotional responses are "faster" and "stronger" than logical responses. Going to sleep, or any delaying action such as deep breaths, counting to ten etc. is kinda like the tortoise (logic) and the hare(emotion)	[ "Sleep plays a role in emotion regulation, although stress and worry can also interfere with sleep. Studies have shown that sleep, specifically REM sleep, down-regulates reactivity of the amygdala, a brain structure known to be involved in the processing of emotions, in response to previous emotional experiences. O...
Napoleonic Sailors Could Not Swim(?)	A combination of practical and cultural factors were at work here, which have been addressed in some earlier responses: [Is it true that a lot of old-timey sailors couldn't swim?](_URL_0_) [Sailors ability to swim in the 15th century](_URL_1_) You are correct that there is no obvious reason why soldiers should be ab...	[ "The Revolutionary French Navy made an opposite mistake in promoting seamen without sufficient experience or training, which worked well in the army, but not at sea. The Royal Navy by contrast was well served by many distinguished commanders of middle-class origin, such as Horatio Nelson (son of a parson), Jervis (...
why do degrees break down into minutes and seconds?	I know about the words, but not about the number 60. Minutes and seconds are both abbreviations. Minute used to be Prima Minute "The first small part", second was Seconda Minute "the second small part". (Spellings probably wrong). Hours and degrees both needed subdividing, and then subdividing again, so the existing...	[ "By spreading 58 seconds over the 360 degrees (rather than the usual 60 seconds), the second hand comes to a complete stop at the 12 numeral for two seconds, giving the illusion that time has stopped. Then, the minute hand advances one step and the second hand starts a new cycle. However, the company stopped making...
What was medical treatment like for slaves that got sick or injured in North America?	I'll answer based on why I know of U.S. slavery. I'm also going to assume you're speaking more about diseases and conventional medical questions, rather than the injuries that owners actually inflicted on their slaves. African-American female slaves were often respected healers on plantations. Their approach to heali...	[ "Medical care was usually provided by fellow slaves or by slaveholders and their families, and only rarely by physicians. Care for sick household members was mostly provided by women. Some slaves possessed medical skills, such as knowledge of herbal remedies and midwifery and often treated both slaves and non-slave...
When one donates blood, does he/she also pass on the hormones (female to male and vice-versa) to the receiver? What about immunity to diseases? What other things are transferred besides RBC?	When one donates blood, the blood is processed from its raw form to filter out all the parts they need into separate containers. This way, blood transfusions are only RBCs. Platelets transfusions are just platelets. And a number of other useful chemicals and substances can be extracted from the rest.	[ "Universal donor blood, which is both type O and Rh negative, can be given if the recipient's blood group is not known, as may happen in an emergency. Some institutions will only release O+ for male and O- blood for female patients. This serves two purposes. First, it preserves the lower stock of O- blood and secon...
the political situation in wisconsin	This is a hard one to explain to a five year old and I'm not good at coming up with analogies, but I kept it as simple as possible. Essentially, Scott Walker's "budget repair bill" does the following: 1. Eliminate collective bargaining rights for most public workers. So while unions still could represent those worker...	[ "Wisconsin's political history encompasses, on the one hand, \"Fighting Bob\" La Follette and the Progressive movement; and on the other, the Republican and anti-Communist Joe McCarthy. From the early 20th century, the Socialist Party of America had a base in Milwaukee. The phenomenon was referred to as \"sewer soc...
at what point does counterfeit money legally fit the definition of being counterfeit?	America has regulations for this: _URL_0_ > * Illustration must be less that .75 or more than 1.5, in linear dimension, of the currency > * Illustration must be one-sided. > * Destroy or erase anything used in the making of the illustration that contains an image or part of the illustration.	[ "Similarly, in America, Colonial paper currency printed by Benjamin Franklin and others often bore the phrase \"to counterfeit is death\". The theory behind such harsh punishments was that one who had the skills to counterfeit currency was considered a threat to the safety of the State, and had to be eliminated. An...
why does the us government keep publicly stating that they will be air-striking is? doesn't this give is a heads up and chance for counter plans?	There's not much a group like ISIS can do about air strikes. Their knowledge of them doesn't harm US forces. If it forces them to stay in hiding more, that's a plus.	[ "In June 2019, following President Trump's decision to halt an air strike on Iran planned as a response to an American surveillance drone being downed by Iran, Collins stated that the US could not \"allow Iran to continue to launch this kind of attack\" but warned miscalculations by either side \"could lead to a wa...
what is aging?	Aging is thought to happen when the ends of DNA (telomeres) become damaged enough to let the important generic information get messed up. These telomeres act like a shield made of garbage, they help protect the more important parts of the strand of DNA by taking the brunt of the damage during cell division. Once the te...	[ "Ageing or aging (see spelling differences) is the process of becoming older. The term refers especially to human beings, many animals, and fungi, whereas for example bacteria, perennial plants and some simple animals are potentially biologically immortal. In the broader sense, ageing can refer to single cells with...
Looking for book recommendations: England 800-1100	A few books that you might like include Nicolas Higham's The Anglo-Saxon World ~ A good introduction to the Anglo-Saxons. Robin Fleming's Britain After Rome ~ Provides a authoritative account of how Britain transformed after 410 AD David Hogwarth's 1066: The Year of the Conquest ~ Places the Battle of Hastin...	[ "The Time Traveller's Guide to Medieval England: A Handbook for Visitors is a handbook about Late Medieval England by British historian Ian Mortimer. It was first published on 2 October 2008 by The Bodley Head, and a later edition with more pages was released on 29 of February 2012. The volume debunks and explains ...
If a single transistor on a modern cpu stopped working, would we notice?	Yes, that circuit would be inoperable. To answer the inevitable follow-on question: how in the world do chipmakers get away with having to have a perfect record for chip production? The answer: they don't. When they create, say, a 6-core CPU, they test every chip extensively. If they find a fault, they shut down that...	[ "Other problems associated with the circuit are the low input dynamic range imposed by the small-signal limit; there is high distortion if this limit is exceeded and the transistor ceases to behave like its small-signal model.\n", "Digital machines first became useful when the MTBF for a switch got above a few hu...
Where does 'political correctness' originate from?	It's hard to place down the exact lineage of the term in the modern sense down, but most sources on the topic seem to agree that it originates from a Communist leader, though there is disagreement on which specific one - generally, it seems accepted that the phrase first filters into the Western consciousness from the ...	[ "The term political correctness (adjectivally: politically correct; commonly abbreviated PC) is used to describe language, policies, or measures that are intended to avoid offense or disadvantage to members of particular groups in society. Since the late 1980s, the term has come to refer to a preference for inclusi...
why do we sometimes experience tremendous mood shifts based upon music?	It's based on you experiences you have had with these genres. For example, I used to listen to the most annoying alarm clock every morning because it was the only thing loud enough to wake me. One day I was walking through a store and heard a sound with the same frequency going over the PA and immediately felt angry ab...	[ "Listening to music in a mood-congruent state with those who are experiencing negative mood states such as dysphoria, or sadness, can allow for those individuals to be more likely to identify with the music that shares their current mood. This mood-congruency effect can allow for individuals engaging in the listeni...
Is there something wrong with Bell's inequality?	> Is there something wrong with Bell's inequality? Not really, no. > Can't disagree with the math, but it felt like the premise was wrong for same axis, opposite directions. Can you clarify what you mean by this? I can’t understand your diagrams at all. > (if it's supposed to be up in vertical, then it would hav...	[ "Some people continue to believe that agreement with Bell's inequalities might yet be saved. They argue that in the future much more precise experiments could reveal that one of the known loopholes, for example the so-called \"fair sampling loophole\", had been biasing the interpretations. Most mainstream physicist...
what causes sad (seasonal affective disorder) and what helps?	Though not definite, some think SAD is a caused by a lack of sunlight during the winter months. People have come to this conclusion since countries that are further North are more likely to report higher rates of depression during the darker months. Melatonin is a hormone that our bodies produce. It is important in ou...	[ "Seasonal affective disorder is hypothesized to be caused by the diminishing of the exposure to environmental light which can lead to changes in levels of the neurotransmitter chemical serotonin. Diminishing active serotonin levels increases depressive symptoms. There are currently a few treatment therapies in orde...
How did HIV cure cancer in the 7-year old girl?	They used a disabled form of HIV (one that cannot give you the AIDS, I'm assuming they removed the viral genes), and modified it by adding a specific gene that produces the "chimeric antigen receptor". This receptor gets expressed in the cells infected with the modified HIV, and is displayed on the surface of those T c...	[ "BULLET::::- 3 March – American scientists report that they have cured HIV in an infant by giving the child a course of antiretroviral drugs very early in its life. The previously HIV-positive child has reportedly exhibited no HIV symptoms since its treatment, despite having no further medication for a year.\n", ...
how can people in tough financial situations can be living in hotels?	It could be that their finances are in bad shape because they make poor decisions like that.	[ "The main purpose of this agreement is that the investors of some hotels lack the skill and knowledge of operating them. They are mere businessman with good financial status. They lack experience or expertise in such field. Therefore, they need the assistance of such management companies who can get the output of t...
I've seen world WW2 posters with the message "loose lips sink ships" implying that there were axis spies in the US spying on american citizens for intel. Were there actually these spies and did these spies cause harm to the allies?	German spies landed in the United States in a (failed) attempt to cause harm to our economy. Operation Pastorius was a plan to land teams of German spies (all of whom had lived in the United States) by submarine off the east coast of the United States in June 1942. The spies were equipped with false birth certificat...	[ "However, propaganda experts at the time and historians since have argued the main goal of these and similar posters was to actually frighten people into not spreading rumors – or truths – containing bad news that might hurt morale or create tension between groups of Americans, since the FBI (in charge of dealing w...
why do computer programs sometimes slow down when they're open for long periods of time?	Usually this is because of a memory leak, but there could be other factors. A memory leak is when the programmer allocates memory to use some sort of data, i.e. they open a file, load an "[object](_URL_0_)", or do anything else where the request memory from the machine. However it doesn't become a leak unless the pr...	[ "A computer may seem to hang when in fact it is simply processing very slowly. This can be caused by too many programs running at once, not enough memory (RAM), or memory fragmentation, slow hardware access (especially to remote devices), slow system APIs, etc. It can also be caused by hidden programs which were in...
To what extent was North Korea a Soviet satellite state during the Cold War?	A follow up question: can we think of South Korea and Taiwan as American satellite states when they were ruled by military junta?	[ "The opposing regimes aligned themselves with opposing sides in the Cold War. Both sides received recognition as the legitimate government of Korea from the opposing blocs. South Korea became a strongly anti-Communist military dictatorship. North Korea presented itself as a champion of orthodox Communism, distinct ...
Why only one origin of life?	Because of the massive degree of similarity between every living organism we have found so far, there is virtually no chance that the life we see today originated from multiple ancestors. "A universal common ancestor is at least 10^2860 times more probable than having multiple ancestors…" "A model with a single common...	[ "The origin of life on Earth is not well understood, but it is known to have occurred at least 3.5 billion years ago, during the hadean or archean eons on a primordial Earth that had a substantially different environment than is found at present. These life forms possessed the basic traits of self-replication and i...
Does separating compost slow down the decomposition of landfill trash?	Garbage doesn't decompose in a landfill as they are compacted nd sealed off from oxygen. It wil be there for thousands of years to come. It will be where future archeologists will be digging to learn about us. In fact we are already king that to learn about past decades.	[ "Composting is a process for converting decomposable organic materials into useful stable products. Therefore, valuable landfill space can be used for other wastes by composting these materials rather than dumping them on landfills. It may however be difficult to control inert and plastics contamination from munici...
Do insects see other dead insects as warning signs of danger?	I was able to find [this](_URL_0_) and [this](_URL_1_), which say that crushed insects release chemical signals that attract others of their nest. Big caveat: neither of those sites are sourced, and the PETA one clearly has an ulterior motive for saying this. So I'd wait til someone with some expertise in the field w...	[ "Ordinary (non-phobic) fear of bees in adults is generally associated with lack of knowledge. The general public is not aware that bees attack in defense of their hive, or when accidentally squashed, and an occasional bee in a field presents no danger. Moreover, the majority of insect stings in the United States ar...
why do people say 'film' instead of 'movie'?	Why do some people (I do this) refer to 'taping' something when it would be more accurate to say 'recording' these days? Old habits die hard, especially when they've been embedded in our daily vocabularies. The word 'film' has now been around for longer than anyone has been alive, so it's not likely to just disappear....	[ "The name \"film\" originates from the fact that photographic film (also called film stock) has historically been the medium for recording and displaying motion pictures. Many other terms exist for an individual motion-picture, including \"picture\", \"picture show\", \"moving picture\", \"photoplay\", and \"flick\...
how do democrats and republicans rationalize billions of dollars in tax breaks every year to oil companies?	Without commenting on the merits of the argument or where I personally stand on this, the argument goes roughly like this: - Cheap energy is the cornerstone of a healthy economy. - Provide access to national lands and/or tax reduction for exploration and drilling in the US. - The more oil we get domestically, the less...	[ "BULLET::::- Congress also felt the industry was not paying its fair share of federal taxes. The oil industry's low effective income tax rates were due to the availability of two oil industry tax deductions: the percentage depletion allowance, and the provision which permits companies to expense (deduct fully in th...
If vellum was so expensive in the Middle Ages, why do medieval books have such large blank margins?	While there are sporadic examples of wide manuscript margins dating back late antiquity, their consistent appearance in manuscript production, and explanation for them, show up in the 11th century. The answer suggests itself when we look at manuscripts like [this one](_URL_0_) - this is a [compendium of theology by Pe...	[ "Before the invention and adoption of the printing press, almost all books were copied by hand, which made books expensive and comparatively rare. Smaller monasteries usually had only a few dozen books, medium-sized perhaps a few hundred. By the 9th century, larger collections held around 500 volumes and even at th...
Is it true that in colonial American rum and beer were considered more healthful than water?	well, both were distilled which is what killed the germs that were often found in water. however, knowledge of said germs was not the reason why. so the author, when I read the piece, is inserting modern knowledge to colonial thought (red flag). he also goes over several decades with some sweeping observations. after...	[ "Alcoholic beverages played an important role in the Thirteen Colonies from their early days. For example, the \"Mayflower\" shipped more beer than water when it departed for the New World in 1620. While this may seem strange viewed from the modern context, note that drinking wine and beer at that time was safer th...
How does E=MC^2 give us time dilation?	Time dilation doesn't fall out of the mass-energy equivalence equation, it's a separate concept within relativity though they share common roots. So you're at least right in noticing that they are mostly unrelated even if it was based on the wrong premise.	[ "BULLET::::- Time dilation: Suppose there is a clock at rest in . If a time interval is measured at the same point in that frame, so that , then the transformations give this interval in by . Conversely, suppose there is a clock at rest in . If an interval is measured at the same point in that frame, so that , then...
how is energy carried by electric currents?	An incandescent light bulb is pretty similar to a resistor, one gives off the energy from the battery as visible light and heat while the other only gives it off as heat. The question you asked boils down to, "if I keep all of the factors that affect energy consumption the same, will I consume the same amount of energ...	[ "The movement of electric charge is known as an electric current, the intensity of which is usually measured in amperes. Current can consist of any moving charged particles; most commonly these are electrons, but any charge in motion constitutes a current. Electric current can flow through some things, electrical c...
What are some informative books, articles, or other resources one could look into regarding 20th Century French Colonialism in North Africa?	I'm currently reading A Savage War of Peace: Algeria 1954-1962 by Alistair Horne, and it's just phenomenal. The author has spent decades interviewing people on all sides of the conflict and gives a very detailed look into not only the war, but also the underlying social problems brought about by French Imperialism in...	[ "BULLET::::- Ernest Mercier, Histoire de l'Afrique septentrionale (Berbérie) depuis les temps les plus reculés jusqu'à la conquête française (1830s) (History of North Africa (Barbary Coast) from Earliest Times to the French Conquest (1830s)), vol. 3, Ernest Leroux, Paris, 1891\n", "Jules Brévié, governor of Frenc...
why does surface tension cast a shadow?	It’s not the surface tension itself, more that the water bulges due to surface tension in such a way that it refracts the light round the centre of the bulge. Do you see how there are bright fringes around said ‘shadows’?	[ "There is also a problem with the shadow where the faces along the silhouette edge are relatively shallow. In this case, the shadow an object casts on itself will be sharp, revealing its polygonal facets, whereas the usual lighting model will have a gradual change in the lighting along the facet. This leaves a roug...
When were first lock systems built for water transport?	Look to the early flash locks of [ancient China]( _URL_0_). (Just happened to run across that the other day while looking into the Ohio canal system that opened up exploration to the west.)	[ "The first modern lock was completed in May 1855 by Erastus Corning's St. Mary's Falls Ship Canal Company, and was known as the \"American Lock\". Today, there are four parallel locks on the American side of the river, although only two are in regular use. The Soo Locks were made a part of the Great Lakes Waterway ...
Why does it seem as though it's more common to get sick when the seasons or weather change?	Many reasons... An important one is that when the weather/temp/humidity changes it can dry out the mucus membranes of your nose and eyes as well as the rest of your skin. Dry skin equals micro-cracks in those tisues which can allow microbial invasion.	[ "A long-standing puzzle has been why outbreaks of the flu occur seasonally rather than uniformly throughout the year. One possible explanation is that, because people are indoors more often during the winter, they are in close contact more often, and this promotes transmission from person to person. Increased trave...
Why was the War of the Roses not called the First English Civil War?	It was known as The Cousins War. While the English Civil was a war between English institutions; the Crown and Parliament, the War of the Roses was a war between an extended family. More than anything, it's the contrast in scales and impacts of the conflicts. In proportion to the population, as many people died in t...	[ "\"The Wars of the Roses\" is a phrase used to describe the civil wars in England between the Lancastrian and Yorkist dynasties. Some of the events of these wars were dramatised by Shakespeare in the history plays \"Richard II\", \"Henry IV, Part 1\", \"Henry IV, Part 2\", \"Henry V\", \"Henry VI, Part 1\", \"Henry...
what is the proposed euro-zone banking union about and how will it work?	_URL_0_ It sounds like it's to give banks more power to lobby the government for bail-outs. So it's a bad thing that a few very rich people are trying to get away with so that they can go on staying rich and powerful by continuing to sell toxic investments back to the public through retirement savings plans. That's al...	[ "At this time, however, an alternative option became available. In April 1978, the European Council meeting in Copenhagen decided to create a \"zone of monetary stability\" in Europe, and European Economic Community institutions were invited to consider how to create such a zone. At the following Council meeting in...
how do computers/computer systems deal with daylight savings time?	Most computer systems don't work with timezones at all and prefer to store data in UTC only. Later they just convert time locally using current system settings for display purposes. When user needs to enter date (like schedule an appointment) computer converts it to UTC and stores in the database (or other storage). ...	[ "Many computer operating systems include the necessary support for working with all (or almost all) possible local times based on the various time zones. Internally, operating systems typically use UTC as their basic time-keeping standard, while providing services for converting local times to and from UTC, and als...
the madonna-whore complex	The fundamental is the view that women are either virginal and pure, or unendingly slutty. The concept goes back a long time. It can easily be traced in modern times to the thought that a woman must be a virgin until marriage, any woman who had sex outside of marriage was obviously for rent. Beyond that it can be trac...	[ "According to psychoanalytic literature, the \"Madonna–whore complex\" is said to occur when a male desires sexual encounters only with women whom he sees as degraded (\"whores\") while he cannot desire sexually a respectable woman (\"the Madonna\"). This was first described by Sigmund Freud.\n", "Another theory ...
why hasn't the ukrainian military fought back against the russian invasion of crimea?	An excellent analogy posted by /u/CallMeMrKnowItAll in a similar thread: > If I'm out skinny dipping in a pond in the woods and a Grizzly Bear wanders up and sits its butt down on my boots, I think maybe I'll just walk home barefoot. > > I'm Ukraine. Russia is the bear. Crimea is the boots. _URL_0_	[ "In 2014, Russia made several military incursions into Ukrainian territory. After the Euromaidan protests and the fall of Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych, Russian soldiers without insignias took control of strategic positions and infrastructure within the Ukrainian territory of Crimea. Russia then annexed Cri...
legality of war	So, the first notion to dissuade yourself from is that there is international law on when a war is "legal" - there is not. Every country decides for itself whether a war is legal or not and imposes penalties if they feel it is "illegal." And there has not been a single case in the modern international system where su...	[ "The law of war refers to the component of international law that regulates the conditions for war (\"jus ad bellum\") and the conduct of warring parties (\"jus in bello\"). Laws of war define sovereignty and nationhood, states and territories, occupation, and other critical terms of international law.\n", "The l...
Could King Henry VII of England speak Welsh?	As you mention, Henry VII was born in Wales, and in fact he lived in Pembroke Castle until he was 14 years old. He has regularly been claimed as 'Welsh' by the Welsh themselves, not least because, as Thomas points out, they considered themselves an oppressed people who were in need of an identifiable and credible savio...	[ "In 1485, Henry Tudor, who was of Welsh descent, gained the English throne as King Henry VII, thanks largely to the support of the Welsh who hoped he was the Mab Darogan who would restore Britain to the Brythons. However, this led to the cementing of Wales into the English administrative and legal system under his ...
Can the human body have too much blood?	In addition to polycythaemia, which is mentioned above, you can also be given too much blood! If you give too much blood [product] via transfusion to someone they can get Transfusion Associated Circulatory Overload (TACO).	[ "Adult humans have roughly 20–30 trillion red blood cells at any given time, constituting approximately 70% of all cells by number. Women have about 4–5 million red blood cells per microliter (cubic millimeter) of blood and men about 5–6 million; people living at high altitudes with low oxygen tension will have mor...
When freezing saltwater how do you calculate how much salt can be added to a given amount of water for every degree below 0°C?	You have to use what is known as a [phase diagram](_URL_0_) which uses empirical data however this... > I'm guessing that using saltwater instead of fresh water would keep the freezer's contents frozen longer. ...I can't see what you think the mechanism behind it is.	[ "In the technical terms of physical chemistry, the minimum freezing point of a water-salt mixture is for 23.31 wt% of salt. Freezing near this concentration is however so slow that the eutectic point of can be reached with about 25 wt% of salt.\n", "However, there is a limit to how much salt can be dissolved in a...
looking for an in depth explanation of stocks and their market starting from the basics all the way to the complex.	Sorry, didn't realise the sub. My link to [investopia](_URL_0_) was removed. A "stock" or a "share" (they're the same thing) is owning a slice of a company. Big companies are spilt into many millions of separate shares, but it varies company to company. Say your friend wants to set up a lemonade stand. They n...	[ "The efficient market hypothesis posits that stock prices are a function of information and rational expectations, and that newly revealed information about a company's prospects is almost immediately reflected in the current stock price. This would imply that all publicly known information about a company, which o...
Does anything happen when a super-sonic thing drops below the speed of sound?	> When something goes from sub-sonic to super-sonic, a sonic boom occurs. That is when it begins, but a sonic boom is a continuing phenomenon. It is always present when the object is traveling faster than the speed of sound. Not just when the object breaks the sound barrier. When it stops traveling faster than the ...	[ "A common analogy is the sonic boom of a supersonic aircraft. The sound waves generated by the supersonic body propagate at the speed of sound itself; as such, the waves travel slower than the speeding object and cannot propagate forward from the body, instead forming a shock front. In a similar way, a charged part...
Do deafblind people still perceive their consciousness as residing in their heads?	It must be noted that some of the past cultures (e.g. some ancient Greeks, most notably Aristotle) used to believe that the seat of intelligence was in the heart. So it is less than clear that there is an actual perception of location of consciousness as residing in the head, in the sighted hearing individuals, to st...	[ "The condition does not seem to be directly related to sensory loss but is thought to be caused by damage to higher level neurocognitive processes that are involved in integrating sensory information with processes that support spatial or bodily representations (including the somatosensory system). Anosognosia is t...
Most countries in Europe have a history of long lineages of nobility. How did these noble families originate?	There's no clear-cut answer. Marxists will tell you that in early agricultural societies, the strongest who were tasked with defending the settlement in exchange for food were the first to obtain status and wealth off the fruits of other's labor. Proto-capitalist-aristocracy, if you will. More recent discussions poin...	[ "In addition to the families mentioned above, a number of noble families originated from outside Belgium, but have since obtained Belgian nationality after residing (sometimes for many generations) in Belgium. Most of these families have come from neighbouring European monarchies (France, the Netherlands, Germany) ...
does waking up during the night but going back to sleep pretty immediately affect the benefit of sleep for that night?	[](/adsleep)Few and short breaks in sleep, as long as they don't interrupt the deep sleep cycles, won't affect you. In fact, is normal to wake up by yourself, and stay awake a little while at the end of a cycle, it's not mandatory to go back to sleep immediatly, as long as the sleep cycles are respected. If yo...	[ "Among lifestyle practices, going to sleep and waking up at the same time each day can create a steady pattern which may help to prevent insomnia. Avoidance of vigorous exercise and caffeinated drinks a few hours before going to sleep is recommended, while exercise earlier in the day may be beneficial. Other practi...
why are djs like calvin harris and david guetta getting billing over the singers in their songs?	Besides producing the music, they usually also write/co-write the songs (though the singer may co-write also); so it usually is their song, they just asked a famous singer to sing it. Since these DJ's are popular, they negotiate it. It's a simple business move.	[ "In the mid 00s Hook was regularly performing as a DJ, however he was discovered to be playing pre-mixed CD's and only miming the actions of a DJ. He admitted he was only pretending to be a DJ on his Myspace blog, but then removed it due to public backlash.\n", "After blowing up at the rest of the DJs at RFR, Lil...
Did the ancients have their own archaeologists/antiquities? What would, say, the Romans have known about the people's who inhabited their empire before them?	It is difficult to say how they would have interpreted their finds, but there were definitely some ancient "antiquarians": According to various sources, [the Neo-Babylonian king Nabonidus](_URL_3_) (ca. 6th c. BCE) was an avid collector of antiquities. His daughter, Ennigaldi-Nanna, curated the collection of historica...	[ "The culture and monuments of ancient Egypt have left a lasting legacy on the world. The cult of the goddess Isis, for example, became popular in the Roman Empire, as obelisks and other relics were transported back to Rome. The Romans also imported building materials from Egypt to erect Egyptian-style structures. E...
Would the Battle of Gettysburg have turned out differently if Pickett's Charge had not happened?	We'll never know! But you're free to ask the folks over at /r/HistoricalWhatIf about your question.	[ "Devereux and the 19th Massachusetts played a significant role in the Battle of Gettysburg on July 3, 1863. Confederate forces attempted a massive frontal assault on the Union position known as Pickett's Charge. The attack only managed to breach Union lines in one small place along Cemetery Ridge. The spot is now r...
Is there a reason why bigger animals tend to have bigger eyes. What advantage is it having eyes in proportion to body size?	Bigger eyes generally mean better visual resolution and better light-gathering abilities. It's basically the same reason that big telescopes are better than small ones. For example, on the reef at dawn and dusk big predators come out to hunt. They have the advantage over small reef fish because their larger eyes all...	[ "The animal's small size is reflected in its food choices. Due to its smaller mouth, body anatomy, and masseter muscle, it tends to concentrate on food items up to 3 cm in diameter, while larger species eat items up to 6 cm in diameter.\n", "Bird eye size is broadly related to body mass. A study of five orders (p...

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