Split (2)

train · 226k rows

question stringlengths 3 301	answer stringlengths 9 26.1k	context list
From the 70s to the '83 crash, what did the average working American think of video games as a whole?	Finally, a topic I can actually answer! First things first, I'm not quite sure what "an average working American" would think or know, or even who that might refer to. In lieu of responding to that, then, I'll instead briefly summarize some popular press articles on the subject, presuming that those might stand in for ...	[ "The North American video game crash of 1983 was largely caused by excess inventory of low-quality games and systems. Atari so greatly over-produced the game \"E.T.\" that they were unable to sell them and buried them in a landfill.\n", "As the video game market became flooded with poor-quality cartridge games cr...
how do red blood cells know when/where to release its oxygen and how does that oxygen find it's way into a cell rather than staying in the blood stream?	Oxygen combines with the haemoglobin in your red blood cells to make oxyhaemoglobin. It doesn't then "know" when to release, it just isn't very stable and it breaks apart naturally after not very long to make oxygen and haemoglobin again. Side note: this is actually why carbon monoxide is so bad for you - carboxyhaemo...	[ "Oxygen diffuses through membranes and into red blood cells after inhalation into the lungs. They are bound to dioxygen complexes, which are coordination compounds that contain O as a ligand, providing a more efficient oxygen-loading capacity. In blood, the heme group of hemoglobin binds oxygen when it is present, ...
How did the armed forces in anarchist territories such as Revolutionary Catalonia and the Free Territory work?	It really depended on which Trade Union was in charge. In the CNT, for example, the militias democratically elected leaders, but their authority was temporary. It might be best to think of it like a temporary task force commander who can be replaced after the conclusion of an operation, though even this comparison isn'...	[ "At the start of the Civil War, there were two primary anarchist organizations: Confederación Nacional del Trabajo (CNT) and the Federación Anarquista Ibérica (FAI). Representing working-class people, they set out to prevent the Nationalists from seizing control while also serving as reforming influences inside Sp...
Who would be King of Britain if Catholics were allowed?	The likely heir would have been James Francis Edward Stuart. His father was the last Catholic king of the United Kingdom, King James II in England and Ireland and known as James VII in Scotland. He fathered a son, James Francis, who was baptized and raised as a Catholic. This birth sparked fears of the nobles, as Engla...	[ "George III agreed to allow Catholicism within the laws of Great Britain. In this period, British laws included various Test Acts to prevent governmental, judicial, and bureaucratic appointments from going to Roman Catholics. Roman Catholics were believed to be agents of the Jacobite Pretenders to the throne, who n...
Why is fluorine more electronegative than nitrogen? Than bromine? Why is hydrogen so weird?	Electronegativity is how strongly a particular atom attracts electrons. To understand what that means, you need to know what attracts electrons, and what factors can affect that. Electron orbitals have very specific shapes in 3 dimensions, and can be thought of as a waveform. These waveforms are most stable when fil...	[ "Because fluorine is so much more electronegative than hydrogen, in fluoromethane the carbon will direct hybrid orbitals higher in s character towards the three hydrogens than towards the fluorine. In difluoromethane, there are only two hydrogens so less s character in total is directed towards them and more is dir...
During US Segregation, were Whites free to use Black facilities without legal penalty?	In his book The Land Where Blues Began, folklorist Alan Lomax says he was arrested for shaking hands with Robert Johnson's mother in the 1940s. Alan Lomax was white and Robert Johnson (and his mother) were black. There's also an interview of Alan Lomax collected by the Association for Cultural Equity that mentions hi...	[ "Prisoners were compelled to work during the day, and the profit of their labor helped to support the prison. Prisoners were segregated by offense; additionally they were issued clothing that identified their crime. The traditional American prison uniform, consisting of horizontal black and white stripes, originate...
Pre-modern Political Parties	The Greens and Blues weren't really political parties, although they evolved a political dimension. They began as the Byzantine equivalent of English soccer hooligans, but due to the importance of guanxi (there is no better term for it) in the ancient world, every organization had a political and social dimension. Howe...	[ "The first modern political parties were liberals, organized by the middle class in the 19th century to protect them against the aristocracy. They were major political parties in that century, but declined in the twentieth century as first the working class came to support socialist parties and economic and social ...
why must class action lawsuit commercials have to stress "i'm a non-attorney spokes person"	Giving legal advice without a license is a crime, and paying people to speak for you without disclosing it is a violation of legal ethics.	[ "Advertising by lawyers is commercial speech protected by the First Amendment. The First Amendment allows states to ban commercial speech that is false or misleading. If the speech is not false or misleading, then a state may only regulate or ban the speech if it asserts a substantial interest in support of its reg...
What was day to day life like for European sailors en route to America around 1500?	Check out some of my old posts on ships of that exact period: #### Portuguese ships questions * [Crew to a 15th century caravel](_URL_20_) * [How did they steer (cog) ships before the steering wheel?](_URL_16_) * [Traveling to India in early 16th century by Carreira de India](_URL_5_) * [How did convoy of sh...	[ "The Canadian-American Joshua Slocum was one of the first people to carry out a long-distance sailing voyage for pleasure, circumnavigating the world between 1895 and 1898. Despite opinion that such a voyage was impossible, Slocum rebuilt a derelict sloop \"Spray\" and sailed her single-handed around the world. His...
how come radio is free with advertisements, but tv has a paid subscription but still has commercial advertisements?	Television was originally free with advertising, before the predominance of cable. In fact, you could hook up an antenna to your TV right now and still get the network broadcasts and local PBS stations for free. (Probably some Spanish language channels, too)	[ "In the United States, commercial radio stations make most of their revenue by selling airtime to be used for running radio advertisements. These advertisements are the result of a business or a service providing a valuable consideration, usually money, in exchange for the station airing their commercial or mention...
ELI4: "curled up" dimensions?	Imagine that you lived on a cylinder, and you could move up and down along the cylinder, or around it. Then imagine that the radius of the cylinder gets smaller and smaller, until you don't even notice that it's curved anymore, all you notice is the ability to move up and down along the length and it just seems one dim...	[ "In 1926, Oskar Klein gave Kaluza's classical five-dimensional theory a quantum interpretation, to accord with the then-recent discoveries of Heisenberg and Schrödinger. Klein introduced the hypothesis that the fifth dimension was curled up and microscopic, to explain the cylinder condition. Klein suggested that th...
do bald people wash their heads with shampoo or body wash?	I wash my head with a special shampoo to reduce the excess of brightness produced by my sweat. Sounds funny but it's true.	[ "Proponents of \"no poo\" claim that there is no medical reason for humans to wash their hair with synthetic shampoos, and that washing practices are determined by cultural norms and individual preferences, with some people washing daily, some fortnightly, and some not at all. From a clinical point of view, \"the m...
why would anyone get a credit card with an annual fee when so many cards have no annual fee?	it depends if the "value added bonus" you get for the fee is worth the added fee. for example many fee credit cards give free travel insurance, or a concierge service. if you think that that's worth the extra fee, then it's worth it.	[ "Consumers who keep their account in good order by always staying within their credit limit, and always making at least the minimum monthly payment will see interest as the biggest expense from their card provider. Those who are not so careful and regularly surpass their credit limit or are late in making payments ...
how do cold sores go from lying dormant for weeks or months, to breaking out and spreading, seemingly in a matter of seconds?!	Cold Sores are herpes. Two types, HSV-1 and HSV-2. Type 1 does cold sores, Type 2 usualNo fear though, in the United States, 57.7% of the population has it. This causes cold sores. HSV-2 is usually genital ones, 16.2% in the US have this. Type 1 is no big deal, just cold sores. Usually given to children by parent...	[ "A number of long term sequelae can occur after frostbite. These include transient or permanent changes in sensation, paresthesia, increased sweating, cancers, and bone destruction/arthritis in the area affected.\n", "Cold sores are the result of the virus reactivating in the body. Once HSV-1 has entered the body...
how can you hold a sparkler up to your hand and not get burned?	The spark of a sparkler is a very concentrated point of heat, so it dissipates rather more efficiently than larger sources of heat such as a naked flame on a candle (for example). The amount of heat it can put out is relatively smothered by the volume of air around it. Rest assured, if you touch it or get too close to...	[ "The devices burn at a high temperature (as hot as 1000°C to 1600°C, or 1800°F to 3000°F), depending on the fuel and oxidizer used, more than sufficient to cause severe skin burns or ignite clothing. Safety experts recommend that adults ensure children who handle sparklers are properly warned, supervised and wearin...
what's preventing the us from just not paying their debt to china?	Something the rest of the posters haven't explained is that our debt to China is mostly just treasury bonds they have bought, which they can trade in for dollars as a set time in the future. It's the same treasury bonds your grandmother may have bought you when you were little. The government offers them for sale to an...	[ "A significant number of economists and analysts dismiss any and all concerns over foreign holdings of United States government debt denominated in U.S. Dollars, including China's holdings. Critics of the \"excessive\" amount of US debt held by China acknowledge that the \"biggest effect of a broad-scale dump of US...
how los angeles flourished despite being built in a desert	Short answer: [William Mulholland](_URL_2_). Long answer: William Mulholland is to the Los Angeles water system what Robert Moses was to NYC's highway and transportation network. Under Mulholland's reign, just about every single nearby river and stream was dammed and diverted for either flood control, water storage, o...	[ "In the 1870s, Los Angeles was still little more than a village of 5,000. By 1900, there were over 100,000 occupants of the city. Several men actively promoted Los Angeles, working to develop it into a great city and to make themselves rich. Angelenos set out to remake their geography to challenge San Francisco wit...
While the USSR existed, were there any Russian towns that were unaffected by Soviet Russian policies?	There was the story of the [family that didn't know World War II happened](_URL_0_). There are some places in Siberia that are very isolated and populated with indigenous peoples, that probably are aware of who is in power, but just continue some degree of subsistence living.	[ "In the period between World War I and World War II, conditions in Russia worsened, especially following the Revolution and the Great Famine of 1921. Many Volga Germans sought to leave the USSR, but faced opposition from a government that did not wish to see so large a portion of its population leave. The Russian g...
life before clocks/alarm clocks.	The roosters crowed on the farm. The sun rose in the east. Our bodies have a pretty strong natural clock.	[ "The primary purpose of a clock is to \"display\" the time. Clocks may also have the facility to make a loud alert signal at a specified time, typically to waken a sleeper at a preset time; they are referred to as \"alarm clocks\". The alarm may start at a low volume and become louder, or have the facility to be sw...
Since other animals have different nutritional requirements from humans, does meat taste sweet to dogs?	Dogs have the same ability to taste the basic 4 flavor components that we do (salt, sour, sweet, bitter). Their ability to taste might be somewhat diminished in comparison to us because they have only around 2000 taste buds to a human's 9000. Their senses are wired up somewhat analogously to ours so their various taste...	[ "Most dogs prefer a meal that is rich in protein normally from animal sources. However, with vegetarian and vegan diets in the United States, this appealing taste is mimicked using plant-based ingredients.\n", "In his journal, Cook noted, \"For tame Animals they have Hogs, Fowls, and Dogs, the latter of which we ...
why do some sites require you to enter your age to confirm if you're an adult if it's so easily circumventable?	It's a requirement by law that the website must attempt to discourage underage viewers but the site can't be held responsible for a viewer lying to the site about their age.	[ "The most basic form of age verification is to ask users to input their date of birth on a form. However, this depends on an honor system that assumes the validity of the end user (which can be a minor who fraudulently inserts a valid date that meets the age criteria, rather than their own), and has thus been descr...
why do some fruits vary in taste such as watermelon and cantaloupe?	Your Red Delicious apple was selected from thousands of varieties of apples to survive the transportation journey from the orchard to the store yet remain ripe and delicious. Many other of the apple varieties would not do this. Some varieties were grown specially to survive an ocean trip on a sailing ship and be delici...	[ "Pears, apples, guavas, quince, plums, gooseberries, and oranges and other citrus fruits contain large amounts of pectin, while soft fruits, like cherries, grapes, and strawberries, contain small amounts of pectin.\n", "Citrus fruits are notable for their fragrance, partly due to flavonoids and limonoids (which i...
Followup to: What is the distribution of numbers picked at random by people?	There's something in game theory call a beauty contest, where you tell people to pick a number between 1 and 100 and that a prize will be awarded to whomever picks closest to two thirds of the average of all the numbers. If you assume everyone is an idiot and guesses randomly then the average should be about 50 and the...	[ "Tables of random numbers have the desired properties no matter how chosen from the table: by row, column, diagonal or irregularly. The first such table was published by L.H.C. Tippett in 1927, and since then a number of other such tables were developed. The first tables were generated through a variety of ways—one...
what happens to the flooded cars after a major flood?	From what I remember after hurricane Sandy, the cars that were floating around tunnels and underground parking garages are indeed written off by their insurers. However they are also scooped up, cleaned, and somehow find their way to ethically questionable used car lots that attempt to resell them. Usually along with...	[ "After nearly 50,000 cars were flooded and ruined, many people attempted to sell the cars across the country without telling of the car's history. Following the extreme flooding, a mosquito outbreak occurred, though FEMA provided aid to control the problem. Health officials also recommended disinfecting private wel...
how did it happen that the population of oman upwards of age 25 contains a lot more men than women?	Lots of migrant workers. Oman is a rich country thanks to oil. Lots of people from other countries come to work there and send money back home. It is usually men that do this. Over 40% of the population are migrants, mostly from India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. Other gulf countries have a male skewed population for si...	[ "In 2003, after recovering from a financial meltdown, the unemployment rate for women were 12% in the 15-29 age group. In 2006, women in the age group of 20-29 constituted 40% of the total unemployed population, the figure being roughly around 340,000. The high levels of unemployment for women has attributed to the...
why does an extremely bright source of light cause the surrounding area to appear dark?	Yes, this is exactly it. Your pupils expand and contract according to the amount of light you receive. When you see something very bright your pupils contract, making everything darker.	[ "A dark area has limited light sources, making things hard to see. Exposure to alternating light and darkness (night and day) has caused several evolutionary adaptations to darkness. When a vertebrate, like a human, enters a dark area, its pupils dilate, allowing more light to enter the eye and improving night visi...
how is it possible that the little birds are not all frozen solid right now?	Birds can store a lot of air in their feathers, which insulates them from the cold air.	[ "Despite their ungainly appearance and habit of freezing motionless, they are sure-footed, fast and agile on the ground, and although they seldom fly during daylight hours, they are far from clumsy in the air; flight is rapid and direct on long, broad wings.\n", "All have, as their name implies, long, stiff tail ...
why when i'm nervous do i have more bowl movements than normal?	Voiding the bowels when under stress or danger is part of our evolutionary heritage, although the exact reason is unknown. One theory is that it "lightens the load," allowing you to run or fight more effectively. This is unlikely however as the weight difference before and after is negligible.	[ "Ambivalent attitudes that demonstrate weakness are accessed slower than strong attitudes. This leads to a conflict called response competition; the process of slowing down responses because of the difficulty to choose between positive and negative beliefs and feelings. Bottom-up processing shows how greater cognit...
Why do hard-boiled eggs explode loudly when microwaved?	As others have mentioned, boiling the water in the egg forms steam, which builds to high pressure and explodes the egg. But that raises the question (posed by /u/pavel_lishin ), why doesn't this happen when cooking eggs on the stovetop? It's not about even vs uneven heating, it's about boiling point. The water ins...	[ "Closed containers, such as eggs, can explode when heated in a microwave oven due to the increased pressure from steam. Intact fresh egg yolks outside the shell will also explode, as a result of superheating. Insulating plastic foams of all types generally contain closed air pockets, and are generally not recommend...
what is a hacker and what differentiates a good hacker from a great one?	It all depends on what you mean by "hacker." Traditionally a hacker was a person that like to take things apart to figure out how they worked. Now, when people say hacker, they are usually talking about a cracker. These are the people that test and try to bypass security checkpoints. They are usually divided into...	[ "A security hacker is someone who explores methods for breaching defenses and exploiting weaknesses in a computer system or network. Hackers may be motivated by a multitude of reasons, such as profit, protest, information gathering, challenge, recreation, or to evaluate system weaknesses to assist in formulating de...
When do you cauterize a wound vs applying a tourniquet? Assuming the wound is on a limb where either could be applied.	A tourniquet is more often used as a temporary way of stopping a wound bleeding until the damaged vessels can be repaired. Cauterizing is generally used as a permanent way of sealing off a vessel, for example if something has been amputated.	[ "Urgent interventions, including therapeutic irrigation and wound debridement, are often necessary to clean the area of injury and minimize the risk of infection. Other risks of delayed intervention include long-term complications, such as deep infection, vascular compromise and complete limb loss. After wound irri...
how much does a cloud weigh and how does it defy gravity for so long?	A cloud is made of many tiny, individual water drops. its total weight is huge, but since each drop is separate, they can all remain floating together, just like dust in a room.	[ "The cloud's mass is about twice that of the Sun, and it measures about half a light-year across. Barnard 68's well-defined edges and other features show that it is on the verge of gravitational collapse followed by becoming a star within the next 200,000 years or so.\n", "The liquid water density within a cumulu...
eli: why do dogs eat grass when they're about to throw up?	Dogs cannot digest grass so it irritates the stomach, working as an emetic, and causes them to vomit. It is similar to humans using activated charcoal.	[ "While it is true that cats and dogs eat grass, it has nothing to do with the weather and is because cats and dogs are not exclusively carnivorous. Some researchers believe that dogs eat grass as an emetic when feeling ill.\n", "\"As a dog returns to his vomit, so a fool repeats his folly\" is an aphorism which a...
To create artificial gravity in space, why cant the spaceship be rotated at high speeds generating centripetal forces that 'pull' the occupants to the edges?	> why isn't this ever talked of as a possibility? It is! It's a really common sci-fi trope, for a start. Recently, there was a proposal put to NASA in 2011 for a spacecraft called [Nautilus-X](_URL_0_), which had with a big spinning wheel. I'm sure it's just one design of many over the decades. Unfortunately, the ot...	[ "In science fiction, artificial gravity (or cancellation of gravity) or \"paragravity\" is sometimes present in spacecraft that are neither rotating nor accelerating. At present, there is no confirmed technique that can simulate gravity other than actual mass or acceleration. There have been many claims over the ye...
Have historians figured out how they will process and interpret teets and internet posts?	I don't think any historian today knows, and I don't think the historical community of today will even make the decision. In my view, the decision will be made by archivists who have surprisingly little interest in anticipating the needs and future research interests of historians. As of roughly the WW2 era, entities ...	[ "Projects like Zotero provide tools for historians to research and analyze the past. But will digital media change the nature of scholarly argument, communication, and publication? In order to encourage experimentation in this arena, American Quarterly in collaboration with the American Studies Crossroads Project a...
how my dash cam knows there are red light cameras ahead.	All red light cameras must be of public knowledge. So if your dash cam is connected to gps, it has them marked on the “internal map.” My radar detector does the same.	[ "A red light camera (short for red light running camera) is a type of traffic enforcement camera that captures image of vehicle that has entered an intersection in spite of the traffic signal indicating red (during the red phase). By automatically photographing vehicles that run red lights, the photo is evidence th...
We've advanced a lot in the last 500 years. What were the major changes and improvements in the 500 years before that?	This is actually a quite tricky question. Of course you must specify which culture and types of innovations you are referring to. For western and European culture there is of course the fact that much of the technology and knowledge of the Romans was practically lost after their decline: cement, elevators, road build...	[ "Technological innovations of the final third of the 20th century were significant, but were not as powerful as those of the first two-thirds of the century. Manufacturing productivity growth continued at a somewhat slower rate than in earlier decades, but overall productivity was dragged down by the relative incre...
What is the earliest usage or mention of "shock troops"?	The general idea of shock troops has been around pretty much forever. When you have a defending force that's dug in and an attacking force, just throwing your standard line infantry against the defenses is rarely effective. So, you need heavier, better trained soldiers that can crack the defensive lines before sending ...	[ "Although the term \"shock troop\" became popular in the 20th century, the concept is not a new one, such as the utilization by Western European armies of the forlorn hope. Presently, the term is rarely used, as the strategic concepts behind it have become standard contemporary military thinking.\n", "A special s...
Can you improve your vision?	What you are referring to is called "The Bates Method" and has no scientific evidence to support the claims made. The American Academy of Ophthalmology did a study in 2004 on how effective The Bates Method is and while some people reported that their vision had improved, when tested the patient's vision had not changed...	[ "The fact that optical powers are approximately additive enables an eye care professional to prescribe corrective lenses as a simple correction to the eye's optical power, rather than doing a detailed analysis of the entire optical system (the eye and the lens). Optical power can also be used to adjust a basic pres...
what caused the consistent physical attributes amongst different races?	What if I told you there was only one race? Every difference mentioned is environmental adaptation, Genetic mutation, and survival of the fittest. Being a redheaded Caucasian with fair skin I can tell you I uptake vitamin D much more redily than other skin types. This is due to the fact that my ancestry is northe...	[ "The existence of races is a token of change in the human species, and suggests there is some significance in geographical separation. Lawrence noted that racial characteristics were inherited, not caused by the direct effect of, for instance, climate. As an example, he considered the way skin colour was inherited ...
how can the recent droughts and floods in texas both be caused by climate change?	The key word is change. Not necessarily "drier" or "Wetter." The actual impact to a particular region's climate varies on a lot of factors, and climate change is becoming one of the players there, but it isn't the sole factor. As such, you can see differences in how climate change impacts a region. For instance, glob...	[ "Droughts are becoming more frequent and intense in arid and semiarid western North America as temperatures have been rising, advancing the timing and magnitude of spring snow melt ﬂoods and reducing river flow volume in summer. Direct effects of climate change include increased heat and water stress, altered crop ...
Where to find reliable sources of Ancient Roman History, mainly about welfare? (Primary or secondary sources)	Hi, our [homework policy](_URL_0_) requires some effort on your part: > If you do some research, come here and be honest about what your assignment is and give us a run down of what your research is showing you so far, you'll find users here being quite amenable to lending a hand and pointing you in the right direc...	[ "The single most important source on early Roman history is the Roman historian Titus Livius (59 BC – 17 AD), usually called Livy in English literature, who wrote a history known as \"Ab Urbe Condita\" (\"From the Foundation of the City\") covering the entirety of Rome's history from her mythical origins up to his ...
why women feel embarrassed if seen in their bra and under wear but completely content with a smaller bikini?	This is my opinion of it: Underwear is usually only seen in intimate settings, with very few people around (so there's more focus on the individual). Bikinis are public clothes, something worn with the intention of being seen, and usually worn where everyone else is also scantily-clad. The intimacy of underwear is wh...	[ "One feminist viewpoint sees the bikini uniform as objectification of women athletes. US beach volleyball player Gabrielle Reece described the bikini bottoms as uncomfortable with constant \"yanking and fiddling.\" Many female beach volleyball players have suffered injuries by over-straining the abdominal muscles w...
why do certain trials, like james holmes, take years when they are essentially 100% guilty?	Getting ready for trial takes time. There are numerous activities that need to be performed before either side is ready to argue their case (depositions, evidence gathering, pretrial motions, jury selection, etc.). Each one of these events involves coordination and preparation and it is rare that the prosecutors or d...	[ "The report discussed the long process of criminal trials, concluding that it was due to the large number of cases and slow processes in every part of the criminal courts. A Home Office Research Unit attached to the Committee showed that 5,000 criminal cases a year (almost a quarter of the total number) had to wait...
Eating Horse meat was made taboo by the Roman Catholic church in the 8th century CE, while this taboo was successfully implemented in almost all of Christian Europe it wasn't in Italy where horse meat is still eaten in great amounts today, why ?	Taken from an earlier answer I had on Horses in Germanic cultures, if you have any follow up questions, please let me know. ___ During the conversion process to Christianity, among the practices that were outlawed or at least very harshly condemned, was the practice of horse consumption. Robin Fleming's Britain After...	[ "In 732 AD, Pope Gregory III began a concerted effort to stop the ritual consumption of horse meat in pagan practice. In some countries, the effects of this prohibition by the Roman Catholic Church have lingered, and horse meat prejudices have progressed from taboos to avoidance to abhorrence. In a study conducted ...
why is it that if i walking through a neighborhood that the smaller dogs are more likely to chase me than the bigger ones?	Maybe they're just compensating for their small size.	[ "Dogs who locate themselves in high traffic areas realize that, in such places, they often won't need to make any effort to procure food, as pedestrians will simply toss it as they pass by. Malnourished-looking dogs are uncommon. Food is often easy to come by, allowing dogs the luxury of being selective.\n", "\"I...
why is it harder to cup water with your non-dominant hand?	Everything is more difficult in your non-dominant hand, you don't have the same level of fine motor control, dexterity and eye-hand coordination.	[ "Splashing others with water has likely been around since humans first discovered that a cupped-hand can be used to cradle water within. As mankind learned to use various natural objects, then tools, the ability to carry and pour/dispense water upon others became more possible. One still used ploy is to simply fill...
If you were to keep a bunch of cell phones within close proximity and call one of them, why does only that cell phone ring?	That's actually a two-part question. First is the matter of how all these cell phones manage to communicate _at all_ with the base station, without interfering with each other, the second one is how the cell phone identifies itself to the network, so that calls get routed to it correctly. The first part is the hard pa...	[ "The reason that several cell phones can be used at the same time in the same location is due to the use of frequency hopping. When the user wishes to place a call, the cell phone uses a negotiation process to find unused frequencies among the many that are available within its operational area. This allows users t...
what is a covered bond? and how do they work?	Covered bonds are bonds that are secured by an underlying pool of assets, known as the cover pool. Investors buy covered bonds and so they have claim on the underlying pool. The underlying pool (typically mortgages or loans, but can also be ships, aircrafts, etc) generate cash flow, and that cash flow is passed on to t...	[ "Covered bonds are debt securities issued by a bank or mortgage institution and collateralised against a pool of assets that, in case of failure of the issuer, can cover claims at any point of time. They are subject to specific legislation to protect bond holders. Unlike asset-backed securities created in securitiz...
Could a person live normally only by sleeping small periods of time like 15 minutes if done correctly?	I don't know about 15 minute increments specifically, but NASA has done some research into polyphasic sleep that might be interesting to you. The most interesting part is that taking occasional naps can increase working memory. _URL_0_	[ "Randy Gardner holds the scientifically documented record for the longest period of time a human being has intentionally gone without sleep not using stimulants of any kind. Gardner stayed awake for 264 hours (11 days), breaking the previous record of 260 hours held by Tom Rounds of Honolulu. LCDR John J. Ross of t...
would i lose more weight on 1500 calories of healthy food or 1000 calories of junk food?	1000 on junk food is faster however such a deficiency in calories would be a serious health risk. > Others say 100 calories of burgers and fries is VERY different from 100 calories of fruits and veggies This is true, but not in terms of weight loss. They differ in how healthy you'd be.	[ "A commonly asserted \"rule\" for weight gain or loss is based on the assumption that one pound of human fat tissue contains about 3,500 kilocalories (often simply called \"calories\" in the field of nutrition). Thus, eating 500 fewer calories than one needs per day should result in a loss of about a pound per week...
I'm searching for a book by one of the founding fathers.	It sounds like you are talking about what is now commonly known as "the Jefferson Bible." Jefferson called it The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth. However, it isn't a book he wrote, in the sense of composing it. Rather, it is an edition of material from the canonical Christian gospels from which Jefferson remove...	[ "His father worked for Eastman Kodak in Rochester and was a lieutenant in the Army Air Corps during World War II. He has written books that deal either with the nation's founding, or the principles of America's founders, including \"What Would the Founders Do?\", a book describing how the founding fathers would app...
is a strong us dollar good or bad for the economy?	Good for imports bad for exports. The US is a net importer, so overall it's probably a net positive for the economy, but don't try telling that to export-oriented industries.	[ "Policies that affect the value of the U.S. dollar relative to other currencies also affect employment levels. Economist Christina Romer wrote in May 2011: \"A weaker dollar means that our goods are cheaper relative to foreign goods. That stimulates our exports and reduces our imports. Higher net exports raise dome...
how come 500 million animals died in the australian fires?	They took the density of all animals over certain areas (an estimate) (not including bugs/insects) x area affected by the fires then they got to that number. The actual number might be much higher or much lower. Here's a summary of how they got the density in the first place: [_URL_0_](_URL_0_) They took samples in ...	[ "The RSPCA estimated that over a million animals perished in the bushfires. Additionally, many of the surviving wildlife suffered from severe burns. For example, large numbers of kangaroos were afflicted with burned feet due to territorial instincts that drew them back to their recently burned and smouldering home ...
Are there any special meanings behind Royal Crown designs?	I'd like to ask a specific question in relation to this, the Hungarian crown with its "tilded" cross, did that actually exist, and did it have any meaning?	[ "While various crown symbols had been used for this purpose for many years previously, the specific Tudor Crown design was standardised at the request of Edward VII. It was never intended to represent any actual physical crown, although in shape it bears a close resemblance to the small diamond crown of Queen Victo...
how is an internal 3d representation of the video game world translated to what we see on screen?	None of these comments are ELI5. The principle behind all current real-time rendering is rasterization. All things within games are made of triangles and these triangles are "projected" onto your screen depending on your view. Think of it like holding a flashlight towards an object and drawing the shadow. Once you hav...	[ "The two-and-a-half-dimensional (2.5D, alternatively three-quarter and pseudo-3D) perspective is either 2D graphical projections and similar techniques used to cause images or scenes to simulate the appearance of being three-dimensional (3D) when in fact they are not, or gameplay in an otherwise three-dimensional v...
How did Beach Landings occur in Medieval Times?	I've been doing some research on naval logistics, so I think I can probably give you a good enough answer. The ships with ramps were almost exclusively to be found in the Mediterranean. They seem to have had a Byzantine origin, either in 960 AD or just before. Their first recorded usage was during Nicephorus Phocas' i...	[ "Rather than the beach assault of modern amphibious operations, seaborne assaults of the classical and medieval age more often took the form of raiders sailing up river and landing well inland of the coast. Prior to the invention of naval artillery that could sink hostile ships, the most that coastal defence could ...
Is it more fuel efficient for a car to accelerate more before going up a hill or maintain a constant speed before and during the climb?	I have hauled logs off highway for many winters where my average gross weight per load was around 78,000 kgs (170,000lbs). Since fuel was my biggest expense I have spent many hours comparing my fuel consumption to varying driving habits. Over the years I have noticed that by following the following rules I can save u...	[ "Generally, fuel efficiency is maximized when acceleration and braking are minimized. So a fuel-efficient strategy is to anticipate what is happening ahead, and drive in such a way so as to minimize acceleration and braking, and maximize coasting time.\n", "Fuel efficiency varies with the vehicle. Fuel efficiency...
Can two sound waves constructively interfere at an angle?	Yes. Such situations are common in first‐year physics problems.	[ "The two separate waves will arrive at a point with the same phase, and hence undergo constructive interference, if and only if this path difference is equal to any integer value of the wavelength, i.e.\n", "Interference is the addition of two or more waves that results in a new wave pattern. Interference of soun...
'Africans did not sell their own people into slavery' - how much of it is true?	Thats not a very academic source. The author doesnt cite any evidence of their claims, makes some very broad claims (an example being that non-african wars always resulted in a genocide of the conquered, whereas african wars did not), and beyond that is a facebook article. Good rule of thumb is to not trust facebook, m...	[ "Some historians assert that as many as 17 million people were sold into slavery on the coast of the Indian Ocean, the Middle East, and North Africa, and approximately 5 million African slaves were bought by Muslim slave traders and taken from Africa across the Red Sea, Indian Ocean, and Sahara desert between 1500 ...
how common were young people who behaved in a stereotypically hippie like way (I.E travling, free love, drug taking) in 1970 America?	History isn't always great at telling you "how common" something was across a whole country. There were some hippies, and there were some squares as well. However, the [General Social Survey](_URL_0_) started in 1972. I'm not going to go through the whole question list now (there are thousands questions, but it's se...	[ "The generation of people in the United States who grew up in the 90s, Millennials, are seen as having this same sort of detachment from serious or awkward situations in life, as well. Hipsters are thought to use irony as a shield against those same serious or genuine confrontations.\n", "Ken Kesey and the Merry ...
why do laptops run demanding programs smoother on ac as opposed to battery power.	The people who design computers make them do lots of clever things to save power when they're running on battery power instead of AC. One of the things they do is run the processor more slowly, so that it uses less power. Just like driving your car at 130 miles per hour on the freeway will use more fuel than driving at...	[ "A power supply unit (PSU) converts alternating current (AC) electric power to low-voltage DC power for the internal components of the computer. Laptops are capable of running from a built-in battery, normally for a period of hours.\n", "Another advantage of the desktop is that (apart from environmental concerns)...
Was Mao genuinely interested in hearing criticism during the Hundred Flowers Movement?	I want to start by saying that this is a complex topic, and I am by no means an expert on the matter. Feel free to disagree; we can examine the matter further together. It's conventional wisdom that the Hundred Flowers Campaign (百花齊放、百家爭鳴) of 1956 was in fact a scheme devised by Mao Zedong to draw out the enemies of t...	[ "The beginning of the Hundred Flowers Movement was marked by a speech titled \"On the Correct Handling of the Contradictions Among the People\", in which Mao displayed open support for the campaign, saying \"Our society cannot back down, it could only progress... criticism of the bureaucracy is pushing the governme...
if a one time infection by certain viruses (e.g. chicken pox) usually leads to immunity, why can other viruses recur in the same person countless times?	They can't, but what happens is that what we call the common cold for example isn't one virus. It's dozens and dozens of different strains of roughly the same virus. When you get sick and then heal from the cold, you have immunity against that particular strain. Not against the hundreds of others one that are still out...	[ "Infection with one genotype does not confer immunity against others, and concurrent infection with two strains is possible. In most of these cases, one of the strains removes the other from the host in a short time. This finding opens the door to replacing strains non-responsive to medication with others easier to...
What steps are taken after a period of hyperinflation to ensure that that no one who kept all of their physical money will suddenly be able more wealthy than they were before?	The old currency would be declared invalid and exchanged for a new one at some fixed rate. So people weren't walking around Germany with trillion banknotes that could actually be used for anything :) You can read about the German situation here: _URL_0_ As you see the old mark was exchanged for the new mark at a rat...	[ "During a period of hyperinflation, bank runs, loans for 24-hour periods, switching to alternate currencies, the return to use of gold or silver or even barter become common. Many of the people who hoard gold today expect hyperinflation, and are hedging against it by holding specie. There may also be extensive capi...
why are home games so important in sports, and why do analysts make a big deal when a team loses at home?	There are a number of real home field advantages, one of the biggest being in every sport, having the crowd at your back. A stadium that is silent when you score is a lot less mentally exhilarating than a stadium that roars when you score. It also means you didn't have to travel to play the game. Travel takes a toll ...	[ "Teams that have had the scheduling disadvantage of giving up a home game to participate in the series, resulting in seven home games, eight away games and one neutral site game, have seen a significant disparity in their success relative to the designated visitors, who end up with eight home games, seven away game...
If every light in America turned off at once, would we immediately see the milky way or would it take time for the light pollution to wear off?	It would take a few minutes for our eyes to adjust to the darkness before we would really see the Milky Way.	[ "In areas where power remained off after nightfall, the Milky Way and orbiting artificial satellites became visible to the naked eye in metropolitan areas where they cannot ordinarily be seen due to the effects of particulate air and light pollution.\n", "Light pollution is an ever-increasing source of sky bright...
how come there are still old us bills that look crisp, clean, and almost unused?	Issued doesn't mean it goes around alot. You can take a freshly printed bill and withdraw it from the bank and just never spend it. Some people keep an emergency stash of money in their home. They don't touch it for years until they need it for an emergency.	[ "The new $5 bills remain the same size and use the same—but enhanced—portraits and historical images. The most noticeable difference is the light-purple coloring of the center of the bill, which blends into gray near the edges.\n", "The Treasury had made no plans to redesign the $5 bill using colors, but recently...
the latest wikileaks email dump	Long story short some key people in the Democratic party had their emails published publicly and what it showed was that the many in the media and the DNC have been in the tank for Hillary's campaign from the start. It shows what goes on behind the scenes in establishment politics and how the system is rigged for the ...	[ "In 2016, WikiLeaks released nearly 300,000 emails it described as coming from Turkey's ruling Justice and Development Party, later found to be taken from public mailing archives, and over 50,000 emails from the Turkish minister of energy. In 2017, WikiLeaks published internal CIA documents describing tools used by...
How do scientists go about directly measuring entropy?	I wrote [a brief PDF collecting ways to relate entropy and entropy changes to other, more easily measurable, thermodynamic quantities](_URL_0_).	[ "BULLET::::- The entropy or the amount of information revealed by evaluating (that is, evaluating and simultaneously) is equal to the information revealed by conducting two consecutive experiments: first evaluating the value of , then revealing the value of given that you know the value of . This may be written as\...
how some gifted humans are able to perform extremely difficult calculations in their head?	Overly simple answer: A lot of math can be boiled down to simple procedures that the brain can more easily process. You already know a few of these tricks. One of the most basic is that when you multiply any whole number by 10 you just tack another 0 on the end. Most mathematical functions can be broken down like th...	[ "He was not a very careful person as a mathematician. He made a lot of mistakes. But he made mistakes in a good direction. I tried to imitate him. But I've realized that it's very difficult to make good mistakes.\n", "Giftedness is frequently not evenly distributed throughout all intellectual spheres. One gifted ...
how does high productivity mean lower unit costs?	Pretend you need to earn $100 per day to live your life. If you made 1 item a day, you'd have to sell that 1 item for perhaps $150, $50 for the materials, facilities, and other expenses, $100 for your labor. If you were more productive, and made 2 items a day, you could perhaps sell them for $80 each, with a daily r...	[ "Marginal cost is not the cost of producing the \"next\" or \"last\" unit. The cost of the last unit is the same as the cost of the first unit and every other unit. In the short run, increasing production requires using more of the variable input — conventionally assumed to be labor. Adding more labor to a fixed ca...
why is it so easy to fall asleep watching the tv but radio or simply waiting to fall asleep don't have the same effect?	This has to do with the way the brain tries to shut down. Our consciousness watching TV is in a very relaxed state because of the ease of watching and, because of the uninhibited comfort it can be very easy to slip into sleep. When trying to sleep, certain distractions such as words or loud music over the radio can mak...	[ "A 2010 review concluded that \"the use of electronic media by children and adolescents does have a negative impact on their sleep, although the precise effects and mechanisms remain unclear\", with the most consistent results associating excessive media use with shorter sleep duration and delayed bed times. A 2016...
how does getting rid of net neutrality improve competition in a way that benefits the consumer?	Getting rid of Net Neutrality does NOT benefit the consumer. CGP Grey have made a 3½ minute video about it, that is vary easy to understand. _URL_0_	[ "Opponents of net neutrality enforcement claim regulation is unnecessary, because broadband service providers have no plans to block content or degrade network performance. Opponents of net neutrality regulation also argue that the best solution to discrimination by broadband providers is to encourage greater compe...
What were some of the mathematical methods used before the discovery of calculus?	> Surely they had to approximate derivatives and integrals for engineering applications before calculus was discovered and/or widely understood. Nope. Engineering as a mathematics-based profession post-dates calculus. Math beyond arithmetic practically speaking wasn't used in "engineering" (which was then much diff...	[ "In the late 17th century, calculus was developed independently and almost simultaneously by Isaac Newton (1642–1727) and Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (1646–1716). This was the beginning of a new field of mathematics now called analysis. Though not itself a branch of geometry, it is applicable to geometry, and it solv...
what is the sequester and why is an issue right now? also, how can the us senate not have a budget 4 years in a row?	The sequester is an agreement made a while back when Congress couldn't agree on how to deal with America's large deficit. The idea was that if they passed a rule that if they didn't come up with a decent plan then measures would automatically occur that would be so terrible that it would force them to compromise. It wa...	[ "The Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2016 (, ), also known as the 2016 omnibus spending bill, is the United States appropriations legislation passed during the 114th Congress which provides spending permission to a number of federal agencies for the fiscal year of 2016. The bill authorizes $1.1 trillion in spend...
If planes flying in a V formation, like geese, save fuel, would this also be true for cars ?	No. The reason a V formation lowers drag for aircraft is [vortex shedding](_URL_0_) off the wings. Basically, it's a result of flow going around the wingtips resulting in a swirling air current. If another plane, bird, etc, hits the upward part of the swirl, it gets free lift. (Not really free, but it was waste energy...	[ "Flying cars would be used for shorter distances, at higher frequency, and at lower speeds and lower altitudes than conventional passenger aircraft. However optimal fuel efficiency for airplanes is obtained at high altitudes and high subsonic speeds, so a flying car's energy efficiency would be low compared to a co...
What would a laser "gun" sound like? What about other "future" weapons like plasma guns, photon cannons, energy blasts etc.?	Laser guns would likely not make a sound. Maybe a electrical hum of sorts depending on how the device was powered. Photon cannons are just science fiction. As for plasma.... I'm not quite sure.	[ "In weapons firing supersonic ammunition, the bullet itself produces a loud and very sharp sound as it leaves the muzzle in excess of the speed of sound and gradually reducing speed as it travels downrange. This is a small sonic boom, and is referred to in the firearm field as \"ballistic crack\" or \"sonic signatu...
Do the Maori people have oral histories describing their arrival in New Zealand?	I really would like you to ask again in the Mega-Thread, because then we can build up a wee empire of knowledge (heh, a taonga) of our own about New Zealand. But I can answer here as well! The answer is totally yes. The Maori have some really amazing Oral History narratives about their arrival in New Zealand. The ...	[ "The Māori people of New Zealand trace their ancestry to groups of people who reportedly travelled from Hawaiki in about 40 named canoes (\"waka\") (compare the discredited Great Fleet theory of the Polynesian settlement of New Zealand).\n", "The Māori are the indigenous inhabitants of New Zealand. They originate...
how come we can capture video in slow motion, but not sound?	We don't capture video in slow motion. We capture video in real life speed. However the video camera has such a high frame per second recording that if we slow down the footage your eyes still can't see the individual frames and it looks like a (slowmotion) video. With sound we can do the same. We can capture it with...	[ "Typically this style is achieved when each film frame is captured at a rate much faster than it will be played back. When replayed at normal speed, time appears to be moving more slowly. A term for creating slow motion film is overcranking which refers to hand cranking an early camera at a faster rate than normal ...
[Med] Is there a functional difference between "fresh" blood and "Stored" blood?	1. Stored blood has things added to it so it stays fresh and lasts longer, don't know the exact time frame but it does store for a while 2. Having someone wait around at the hospital all day hoping for someone to need them to give blood is EXTREMELY unrealistic, since the most you could draw from them in the entire da...	[ "Routine blood storage is 42 days or 6 weeks for stored packed \"red blood cells\" (also called \"StRBC\" or \"pRBC\"), by far the most commonly transfused blood product, and involves refrigeration but usually not freezing. There has been increasing controversy about whether a given product unit's age is a factor i...
What sort of sports did people in the era you study play?	Ullamaliztli was one of the most popular games played by Aztec peoples. It involved a hard rubber ball. It was one of the first things set up in a new settlement and so it is surmised that the game was very important, and likely of religious importance. It was popular amongst many peoples of mesoamerica and is thought...	[ "In the post-war period, sports other than the main ones of rugby, hockey, cricket, athletics, swimming and shooting began to be introduced including tennis, basketball, badminton, fencing, squash, sailing, soccer and golf.\n", "The history of sports in the United States shows that most sports evolved out of Euro...
If you were floating out in deep space, would you get hotter or colder?	You would get colder. There are three types of heat transfer, conduction, convection and radiation (_URL_0_). You are correct that in space there is nothing to transfer the energy to, so the first two mechanisms contribute nothing. However you can still radiate infrared light that will take away heat from your body. Th...	[ "In a vacuum or in outer space, there is no convective heat transfer, thus in these environments, radiation is the only factor governing heat flow between the heat sink and the environment. For a satellite in space, a 100 °C (373 Kelvin) surface facing the Sun will absorb a lot of radiant heat, because the Sun's su...
How did someone's social class and wealth in Britain affect their experience of rationing during and after World War Two?	During the Second World War, working-class Britons ate better than they had in a long time. Rationing was a really good thing for them, because it provided a baseline of foods and nutrients that the market generally did not provide in the 1930s. This included things like orange juice, milk, and cheese, nutrient-dense f...	[ "On 8 May 1945, the Second World War ended in Europe, but rationing continued. Some aspects of rationing became stricter for some years after the war. At the time this was presented as needed to feed people in European areas under British control, whose economies had been devastated by the fighting. This was partly...
How fast would a fully-fueled Saturn V rocket be able to propel itself without any Apollo spacecraft payload?	Well the S-IVB has a dry mass of about 10 tons, and fuelled mass of 119.9 tons. The CM/SM had a total mass of 30 tons and the LM had a mass of 14.5 tons for a total of about 45.5 tons of Apollo spacecraft payload. The specific impulse of the S-IVB was 421 seconds. Delta V = Isp * g0 * ln(m0/m1) So... Delta V = 421 s...	[ "An average mission used the rocket for a total of just 20 minutes. Although Apollo 6 experienced three engine failures, and Apollo 13 one engine shutdown, the onboard computers were able to compensate by burning the remaining engines longer to achieve parking orbit. None of the Saturn V launches resulted in a payl...
If we breathe in O2 and exhale CO2, then do we lose mass just by breathing?	Yup! You get the mass back by eating.	[ "However, no CO is removed during apnea. The partial pressure of CO in the airspace of the lungs will quickly equilibrate with that of the blood. As the blood is loaded with CO from the metabolism, more and more CO will accumulate and eventually displace oxygen and other gases from the airspace. CO will also accumu...
human skin only varies from a light cream to a dark brown. is there a particular reason that there are no other variations of skin colour? i.e blue, red, green, etc.	Other colors ARE possible, through genetic mutations. Look up the Kentucky Blue People. Basically, remember that for something to change biologically requires 2 things: a mutation, and then for that mutation to be advantageous enough for the individual to propagate themselves. A tribe of people in a jungle environmen...	[ "The actual skin color of different humans is affected by many substances, although the single most important substance is the pigment melanin. Melanin is produced within the skin in cells called melanocytes and it is the main determinant of the skin color of darker-skinned humans. The skin color of people with lig...
Best book for Central American wars during the 20th century?	I'm currently working on an undergraduate research project on the Guatemalan Civil War from 1960 to 1976 or so. One particularly useful primer has been Timothy P. Wickham-Crowley's Guerillas and Revolution in Latin America. He notes marked similarities and differences between the revolutionary movements throughout La...	[ "Power, Faith, and Fantasy: America in the Middle East: 1776 to the Present, a history of American involvement in the Middle East by Michael Oren, was published by W.W. Norton & Co. in 2007 and quickly became a New York Times bestseller.\n", "Carrió's \"guide\" is a most interesting source of geographical, social...
What is the oldest historical artefact still in use today?	What precisely do you mean by "artefact" and "in use"?	[ "Its most notable historical artefact is a 17th-century pre-Reformation silver chalice decorated with raised angelic figures. The chalice may have been used at a wedding as the letters \"S.C. M.P.\", thought to be the initials of the couple, are inscribed on the base.\n", "The museum’s first-ever artefact was acq...
How strong is an electromagnet when it's not on?	It really depends on the magnet. From the sounds of it, you have a magnetic core wrapped in wire? In that case the iron core still has a magnetic field. Is it an MRI magnet? Is that case it should probably never be turned off	[ "Stronger magnetic effects are typically only observed when d or f electrons are involved. Particularly the latter are usually strongly localized. Moreover, the size of the magnetic moment on a lanthanide atom can be quite large as it can carry up to 7 unpaired electrons in the case of gadolinium(III) (hence its us...
my company's 401k, specifically the part where i become "fully vested" after a few years.	Generally a company will match part of what you contribute to your 401k. For example, for every $1 you put in they will put in 50 cents, up to some percentage of your normal salary. However, in order to discourage people from leaving for other jobs the money that your employer puts in during the first few years of your...	[ "In a 401(k) plan, the contributions are funded by the employee and are often matched by contributions from the employer. The contributions to an employee's 401(k) plan are made from the employee's salary before taxes. These funds grow tax-free until they are withdrawn; at that point the contributions can be conver...
how does youtube's algorithm work?	YouTube uses machine learning to determine the best videos to recommend to you, based on several parameters, such as what you liked and disliked, view time, and probably other factors as well. Try watching a channel you're not subscribed to for a some time and you'll see those videos on your recommended. As far as I kn...	[ "The YouTube Application Programming Interface, or the YouTube API, allows developers to access video statistics and YouTube channels' data via two types of calls, REST and XML-RPC. Google describe the YouTube API Resources as \"APIs and Tools that let you bring the YouTube experience to your webpage, application o...
why does my body "get used to" cold water, but not cold air?	It is to do with heat transfer and thermodynamics: when you get cold it is your body losing heat. Your body has a variety of mechanisms that work to change the body so that if it is losing heat it will gain more heat and try to stop losing any additional heat. Heat is first detected by heat receptors all over your skin...	[ "Cold water dousing is used to \"shock\" the body into a kind of fever. The body's reaction is similar to the mammalian diving reflex or possibly temperature biofeedback. Several meditative and awareness techniques seem to share similar effects with elevated temperature, such as Tummo. Compare cold water dousing wi...
what happened to all the giant land animals?	Elephants are pretty big.	[ "Elephants are mentioned twice in a single verse in the Book of Ether. Mastodons and mammoths lived in the New World during the Pleistocene; however, as with the prehistoric horse, the fossil record indicates that they became extinct along with most of the megafauna towards the end of the last ice age. The source o...
How long have people been saying "good morning" throughout history?	Old English for good morning is goodne morgen, so people have been saying it in English for well over 1000 years.	[ "\"Good Morning Good Morning\" is a song by the English rock band the Beatles from their 1967 album \"Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band\". It was written by John Lennon and credited to Lennon–McCartney. Inspiration for the song came to Lennon from a television commercial for Kellogg's Corn Flakes. Another refer...
Does a video of an empty, stationary room have a smaller file size than a video of things moving?	Think of a video file as a series of still images. Each image is composed of rows and columns, each with pixels in it. In theory, each frame would have the data required to tell the display software how to draw it. This many pixels wide, this many pixels tall, this color for pixel 1, then this color for pixel 2, etc....	[ "BULLET::::1. A customized \".sparseimage\" image file can be assigned a larger total capacity than the physical volume (or HD partition) on which it originally resides. While the virtual volume will seem to make that capacity available, attempting to exceed the physical capacity of the underlying volume will resul...
During the 1960 U-2 incident, what kind of interrogation techniques did the Soviets use on Francis Gary Powers, the captured pilot?	I'm no expert, but a basic response to your questions can be had. [Accounts](_URL_3_) agree that there was no physical torture; but interrogations were long and harsh(11+ hrs/day for 61 days leading up to his show trial) and included death threats. He was in solitary confinement in the Lubyanka and the Soviets control...	[ "U-2 pilots were told if captured, Knutson later said, \"to tell them everything that they knew\", because they were told little about their missions other than targets on maps. Otherwise, Powers had little instruction on what to do during an interrogation. Although he had been told that he could reveal everything ...
raster over vector based graphics?	Getting your display to show something involves a number of layers, each of them doing their own thing. The display itself is rasters because that's the physical construction - you have LCD laid out in a rectangular grid. It directly renders those rasters from a highly parallel stream of data. That highly parallel s...	[ "Vector graphics formats are complementary to raster graphics. Raster graphics is the representation of images as an array of pixels and is typically used for the representation of photographic images. Vector graphics consists in encoding information about shapes and colors that comprise the image, which can allow ...
the market scene in "trading places"	This is one of my favorite movies, so I can take a swing: Eddie Murphy and Dan Aykroyd work for Duke & Duke. Duke & Duke makes money by buying and selling commodities, such as pork bellies, gold, and frozen concentrated orange juice. For example, if they believe that pork belly prices will rise, they will buy t...	[ "Trading Places is a 1983 American comedy film directed by John Landis and starring Dan Aykroyd and Eddie Murphy. It tells the story of an upper-class commodities broker and a homeless street hustler whose lives cross paths when they are unknowingly made part of an elaborate bet. Ralph Bellamy, Don Ameche, Denholm ...
Euler's identity: Huge coincidence or deep connection?	À more insightful derivation of the full identity, (e^ix = cos(x) + isin(x) ) I'm on a train so I can't do the full thing comfortably but I will give the highlights and add derails later. Basically e is not important because it relates to compound interest, it is important because it describes rates of change th...	[ "Euler's identity is named after the Swiss mathematician Leonhard Euler. It is considered to be an exemplar of mathematical beauty as it shows a profound connection between the most fundamental numbers in mathematics.\n", "It has been claimed that Euler's identity appears in his monumental work of mathematical an...

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