question stringlengths 3 301 | answer stringlengths 9 26.1k | context list |
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Why didn't the Algerian Civil War of the 90s lead to the same kind of refugee crisis that we see today in Syria, despite the war's similarly destructive nature and Algeria's close proximity to Europe? | Hi OP, this topic may be very difficult to address in this subreddit, due to this subreddit's [20-year rule against discussing current events](_URL_0_). The Algerian Civil War took place from 1991-2002, whereas our cutoff is 1996, which is the half-way point. Respondents are welcome to discuss the impacts of the war on... | [
"As a result of the Syrian civil war, large numbers of Palestinian refugees fled Syria to Europe as part of the European migrant crisis, and to other Arab countries. In September 2015, a Palestinian official said that only 200,000 Palestinian refugees were left in Syria, with 100,000 Palestinian refugees from Syria... |
why does oil smoke when heated instead of boiling like water does? | Because it's burning. Oil is a complex organic molecule which can't really go into gas phase the way that water can. Instead, it just falls apart when you heat it. | [
"Oil of various kinds could be heated to high temperatures and poured over an enemy, although, since it was extremely expensive, its use was limited, both in frequency and quantity. Moreover, it could be dangerous and volatile. Since the smoke point of oil is lower than its boiling point, the oil was only heated an... |
retirement plans such as 401k | I can't tell you if they even out but you are talking about a traditional IRA versus a Roth IRA. These are not part of a 401k they are completely different parts of the tax code. IRAs are ways for individuals to save for retirement, a 401k is sponsored by your employer and can receive tax deferred money from both the e... | [
"A retirement plan is an arrangement to provide people with an income during retirement when they are no longer earning a steady income from employment. Often retirement plans require both the employer and employee to contribute money to a fund during their employment in order to receive defined benefits upon retir... |
Why are all Muslim historical states called by their ruling dynasties? | The -id (or sometimes a small variation, like -ite) indicates lineage. The Ummayads trace descent from Ummaya, the Abbasids from Abbas, the Hashemites from Hashem and so on.
Not all Muslim historical states were named in this fashion. The Sultanate of Rum, the Mamluks and the Almohads would be counter examples to the ... | [
"Islamic monarchies are a type of Islamic state which are monarchies. Historically known by various names, such as \"Mamlakah\" (\"Kingdom\"), Caliphate, Sultanate, or Emirate, current Islamic monarchies include:\n",
"With weakening of centralized states, the Shads were gaining more sovereignty, and historical ac... |
"only 23 people are required in a room to have two persons same birth-date" please explain this phenomenon in simple logic. | > Here's a key fact that's important for intuitively understanding all of this:
The number of pairs of people in a room is a lot more than just the number of people in a room.
For example, say there are 6 people in a room, call them A, B, C, D, E, and F.
Here are some of the possible pairs of people who may or m... | [
"With days in a year, the average number of people required to find a pair with the same birthday is , somewhat more than 23, the number required for a 50% chance. In the best case, two people will suffice; at worst, the maximum possible number of people is needed; but on average, only 25 people are required\n",
... |
how do ships "suck" water away from coastlines? | The ship displaces a lot of water. It pushes a lot of water higher in front of it. It has a 'hole' in the water behind it. In this case the ship first pushed a lot of extra water into that cove when it approached, then the water rushed in behind the ship to fill the 'hole'.
When the water went to go fill in behind ... | [
"With an almost effortless swinging and lifting motion, the waterproof vessel is used to scoop up and carry water from a body of water (typically, a river or pond) onto land or to another body of water. At the end of each movement, the water is emptied out into runnels that convey the water along irrigation ditches... |
What does it mean when a particle has a statistical significance? | The significance of a particle is just a proxy for the p-value from statistics. A larger significance means a smaller p-value.
What they’re doing is a statistical hypothesis test. They are testing their data against the hypothesis that all they see is background.
If there is a feature in the spectrum that deviates s... | [
"Particle statistics is a particular description of multiple particles in statistical mechanics. A key prerequisite concept is that of a statistical ensemble (an idealization comprising the state space of possible states of a system, each labeled with a probability) that emphasizes properties of a large system as a... |
if it really is so easy to ddos xbl/psn. why aren't more people doing it? | becouse it requeres huge botnet and its criminal activity.
thats like saying if its so easy to shoot a person, why more people arent doing it. | [
"This attack is mainly done by hackers to benefit from the attacked resource or machine. DDoS attacks have been perpetrated for many reasons, including blackmailing website owners and knocking out websites, including high-profile sites such as large bank websites.\n",
"In 2012, hacktivism and vandalism were cited... |
Why do girls reach sexual maturity before their bodies are ready to bear children? | > There are many health risks associated with pregnancy and childbirth, particularly below the age of 15.
There are many health risks (to both mother and baby) also associated with giving birth after the age of 35. Yet many older women do get pregnant and deliver healthy babies.
In terms of biology, there is an "opt... | [
"These young girls, some as young as 12, are being force into sexual relationships which results to them being pregnant and becoming mothers at an early age when they should be looked after by their parents. \n",
"This phenomenon is exasperated by the untimely sexual development of children that has been register... |
who's coming to collect when it comes to the u.s. deficit? how will they do it? | No one has ever had to "demand" payment on US debt. You simply say "here is my matured treasure bond" and you get your money back.
Except for debt payments suspended in times of war, the US has never failed to repay its debts on time. | [
"BULLET::::- The budget deficit section highlights the 53 trillion dollars in unfunded benefits (medicare, medicaid and social security) that will come due and can only be paid by tripling taxes or cutting all government spending except for that to those programs.\n",
"Representative Mo Brooks (R-AL) opposed the ... |
What kind of interactions are present between my cotton shirt and the red wine I spill on it, to make the stain so hard to remove. | Cotton is mainly composed of cellulose, which as you can see from its [chemical structure](_URL_0_) has many hydroxyl groups. Various dyes present in wine, such as tannins also usually have multiple hydoxyl groups, e.g. as with.[this particular tannin](_URL_1_) As a result, strong hydrogen bonds can form between these ... | [
"When Rogers saw the paper by Marino and Benford, his reaction was that they were not scientists, their theory was ridiculous, and that he still had fiber samples he had taken from the Shroud that could disprove their theory. Upon examining the fibers under a microscope, however, he concluded that, as they had hypo... |
what happens to our bodies when someone makes us jump? | Your brain thinks there is an immediate danger and tells your body to suddenly release loads of adrenaline and activate a part of your nervous system called the sympathetic nervous system which deals with the fight or flight response.
This has the effect of increasing your heart rate, making you more alert, making yo... | [
"Authorities recommend that only one person should be allowed to jump at a time to avoid collisions and people being catapulted in an unexpected direction or higher than they expect. One of the most common sources of injury is when multiple users are bouncing on the trampoline at one time. More often than not, this... |
why doesn't the us fed just keep interest rates at a sustainable rate rather than extremely high and extremely low? | When you're driving a car, even on a highway where you don't have to stop, you don't simply press your foot on the accelerator and leave it in one position. You are constantly making small adjustments to add or reduce the power of the engine. This is because the road is not perfectly flat, it has ups and downs which yo... | [
"Lower interest rates stimulate the economy by making borrowing less expensive. The Fed lowered the target for the Federal funds rate from 5.25% to a target range of 0-0.25% since 18 September 2007. Central banks around the world have also lowered interest rates.\n",
"Federal Reserve officials had indicated earli... |
Is communication between Earth and our space vehicles and stations encrypted? And was it always that way? | The norm in the satellite world is that command uplinks are encrypted (but usually weaker forms of encryption are used; 128-bit AES is common for academic satellites), but data downlinks are not. I don't know when this started being the case.
As far as missions to Mars go, only communication that has to be encrypte... | [
"The decoding of silent speech using a computer played an important role in Arthur C. Clarke's story and Stanley Kubrick's associated film \"\". In this, HAL 9000, a computer controlling spaceship Discovery One, bound for Jupiter, discovers a plot to deactivate it by the mission astronauts Dave Bowman and Frank Poo... |
how does a fingernail let go of the skin under your fingernail without hurting? | The part of your finger that the nail attaches to is called the *germinal matrix*. The base of your nail (where the nail starts) is called the *nail bed*.
The germinal matrix is a very unique and delicate structure. It holds your nail down but allows that growth movement you’re talking about. It’s not just “skin”, it’... | [
"Studies in the 1970s showed that children up to the age of 10 or so who lose fingertips in accidents can regrow the tip of the digit within a month provided their wounds are not sealed up with flaps of skin – the de facto treatment in such emergencies. They normally won't have a fingerprint, and if there is any pi... |
why is blackberry so commonly used in workplaces and why businesses would choose the z10 over iphones or android? | Blackberry offered the first all-around corporate communications solution.
If you have a Blackberry, your company can lock it down, erase it, deactivate it, et cetera, all remotely. The BB infrastructure allows for a lot more control over the phones.
Androids and Iphones don't, at least not yet. | [
"While BlackBerry was dominant in the early smartphone market, partially due to a large market share within the enterprise and governmental markets, the company had struggled in recent years due to the worldwide statistical dominance of the plethora of Android smartphones, and Apple Inc. and its iPhone line, the bi... |
Do materials that heat up the fastest also lose heat the fastest (i.e., retain heat the worst)? If not, why not? | Yup. Thermal conductors are generally symmetric with respect to the direction of heat flow, they conduct heat and loose heat easier than thermal insulators,
_URL_0_
This is because the thermal diffusivity in the heat equation is just a constant value. However, because the thermal diffusivity depends on the thermal ... | [
"Heat is the transference of kinetic energy to the leather. When this occurs, the internal molecules of the leather increase in speed and begin colliding with one another at a rate so fast that the bonds of the leather molecules are no longer capable of remaining intact and thus break. The effect of heat is most of... |
Why do abandoned buildings seem to decay so quickly when people live in buildings that are centuries old? | Buildings that are not abandoned are maintained. Wood is protected from rotting, iron and steel is shielded from the environment to slow down rusting, plants are prevented from growing and breaking apart concrete and mortar, etc.
Basically, most man-made structures are not designed to be able to withstand the harsh e... | [
"Ruins () are the remains of human-made architecture: structures that were once intact have fallen, as time went by, into a state of partial or total disrepair, due to lack of maintenance or deliberate acts of destruction. Natural disaster, war and population decline are the most common root causes, with many struc... |
how are big buildings like the hotels in vegas air conditioned/cooled? | Industrial grade AC. The units are not the same small units that we see at home or office. Such big buildings are chilled by cooling water which is then used to cool air which is circulated inside the building. The heat exchange between the water and the air renders the water very hot, which is then cooled in cooli... | [
"When the hotel opened, 48 guest rooms, each with a telephone and each pair sharing a bathroom. With no central heating or ventilation system, the structure was designed to facilitate natural airflow; the Palladian window at the top of the grand stair could be opened to induce a cross-breeze through the lobby, Fren... |
Japan and Korea being of a Chinese descent? | You might want to read on the Japanese Jomon period (14,000 B.C.), and on the Korean Jeulmun period (8,000 B.C.) to know about both regions probable first peoples. | [
"Korea and China have historically maintained strong ties. As Korea was annexed by Imperial Japan in 1910, Korea became under Japanese influence. Chinese believe that some ethnic Koreans were in the Imperial Japanese Army which invaded China during the Second Sino-Japanese War. Additionally, adding to this sentimen... |
why does the exact same post appear as the 4th post on the first page and the 27th post on the second page and the 53 post on the 3rd page? | > there's really no such thing as "pages" on Reddit. Instead, you're saying "give me the links (from my current 50 subreddits at this time) #1 to #[page size] as ranked by voting right now at this exact moment"... When you go to the next page, you're saying "give me links #[page size] to #[page size2] *at this exact ... | [
"BULLET::::2. If the letters appear on the same row of your table, replace them with the letters to their immediate right respectively (wrapping around to the left side of the row if a letter in the original pair was on the right side of the row).\n",
"In the book it is unclear whether the first line begins with ... |
Would a split brain patient be able to do sign language with both hands? | Language isn't purely lateralized in the brain. People with differing levels of lateralization show corresponding resistance to transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS; a big magnet screwing around with specific brain areas). People with less lateralization were less affected when a TMS-induced temporary lesion took out... | [
"In deaf patients who use manual language (such as American Sign Language), damage to the left hemisphere of the brain leads to disruptions in their signing ability. Paraphasic errors similar to spoken language have been observed; whereas in spoken language a phonemic substitution would occur (e.g. \"tagle\" instea... |
If we don't know the exact value for Pi, how can we know the exact area of a circle if that is 2(pi) Rad? | We *do* know the exact value of pi. It's... pi. You are most likely conflating "knowing an exact value" with "having a terminating or repeating decimal representation". A number that lacks the latter is no less exact than any other number. Also, we may compute the decimal representation of pi for an arbitrarily large n... | [
"Base π can be used to more easily show the relationship between the diameter of a circle to its circumference, which corresponds to its perimeter; since circumference = diameter × π, a circle with a diameter 1 will have a circumference of 10, a circle with a diameter 10 will have a circumference of 100, etc. Furth... |
eil5: why do cable and internet companies make their services cheaper if you bundle a land line you don't use with it? | They make more money. Consider Im a store and I normally make $10 per item when you buy 2 of them so I profit $20. But if I can sell you 3 items by offering you a $2 discount on each then I make $24 profit at the end of the transaction. It's logical for year store to try and make $24 instead of $20 especially if you wo... | [
"In plainer English, the purchase of an IRU gives the purchaser the right to use some capacity on a telecommunications cable system, including the right to lease that capacity to someone else. Smaller companies that need a leased line between, say, London and New York do not buy an IRU – they lease capacity from a ... |
What were Roman burial practices for soldiers out on campaign? | It's not easy to give a generalized answer for this, but your question already goes into the right direction. There are not many primary sources that dwell on this, but some things can be gathered from what we have.
Any Roman would expect a proper burial after his death, piety required this - and this was a matter tak... | [
"Cremation was the predominant means of disposing of remains in the Roman Republic. Ashes contained in cinerary urns and other monumental vessels were placed in tombs. From the 2nd century AD onward, inhumation became more common, and after the Roman Empire came under Christian rule, was standard practice. The Sarc... |
Countable vs uncountable infinity: 0 to 1? | Many variations of this question have been asked on this sub and you can find them by a simple search (e.g., "different infinities"). We should probably add something about cardinality to the FAQ. But anyway, quick rehash won't do any harm...
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> Specifically between 0 and 1, I could use a system that went:
> 0,... | [
"Although 0 is divisible by 2 more times than any other number, it is not straightforward to quantify exactly how many times that is. For any nonzero integer \"n\", one may define the 2-adic order of \"n\" to be the number of times \"n\" is divisible by 2. This description does not work for 0; no matter how many ti... |
What is the acceleration due to gravity of a black hole? | There's nothing gravitationally special about a black hole. For example, if the sun were replaced by a black hole of equivalent mass, none of the orbits of any of the planets and other objects in the solar system would change.
In short, the acceleration due to gravity of a black hole is proportional to its mass and y... | [
"An unexpected result can occur with binary black holes that merge, in that the gravitational waves carry momentum and the merging black-hole pair accelerates seemingly violating Newton's third law. The center of gravity can add over 1000 km/s of kick velocity. The greatest kick velocities (approaching 5000 km/s) o... |
coding: what exactly is it? and how important is it to the creation of a video game? | R/learnprogramming.
Tl;Dr all games have rules and instructions that a) tell the computer how everything works, like the graphics and the controls and such and b) control the logic of the game. Coding is the practice of speaking to the computer in a way it can understand. It's easy to get started doing, and how chall... | [
"Creative coding is a type of computer programming in which the goal is to create something expressive instead of something functional. It is used to create live visuals and for VJing, as well as creating visual art and design, entertainment, art installations, projections and projection mapping, sound art, adverti... |
what is the difference between assault, aggravated assault and battery? | Threats alone don't amount to assault. Assault is actually defined as intentionally placing someone in apprehension of an unwanted physical contact. Aggravated assault is assault taken up a notch- attempting to cause serious physical harm. Battery is occurs when someone actually makes unwanted or nonconsensual physical... | [
"Assault and battery is the combination of two violent crimes: assault (the threat of violence) and battery (crime) (physical violence). This legal distinction exists only in jurisdictions that distinguish assault as \"threatened\" violence rather than \"actual\" violence.\n",
"The term 'assault', when used in le... |
with no atmosphere to propagate a shock wave, are explosives in space actually even lethal? | The gas from the explosive itself will propogate a pressure wave a short distance, but range will be severely limited by the extremely low ambient pressure.
At a moderate distance shrapnel would be the greater concern because it won't slow down or stop in space. The shockwave would still cause damage at short range.
... | [
"BULLET::::- Radioactivity Is Not The Bomb's Greatest Threat: In most atom raids, blast and heat are by far the greatest dangers that people must face. Radioactivity alone would account for only a small percentage of all human deaths and injuries, except in underground or underwater explosions.\n",
"As data from ... |
What dictated a killed/wounded ratio in a battle? | One of the things is access to prompt medical aid. Along the Kokoda Track during WW2 there were times when decent medical aid (for the Australians and talking hospital/surgery) was over a week away. Pretty much any wound to the abdomen would be fatal.
Killed:wounded was about 600:1000.
Sources:
* Those Ragged Bloo... | [
"The exact casualties during the battle are unknown. At least 130 civilians were killed, mostly due to allied and German artillery fire. The total number of deaths was probably between 1000-1100, with the number of wounded significantly higher.\n",
"Total casualties in the battle were 24,645: 12,906 on the Union ... |
if my urine is completely clear, is it still urine or just excess water being dumped? | It comes from your bladder so it is urine, even if the urea content is very low. Urine usually is mostly water, otherwise you would pee paste. | [
"Urine is typically present, although some is lost via leaching and evaporation. Urine can contain up to 90 percent of the residual nitrogen, up to 50 percent of the phosphorus, and up to 70 percent of the potassium.\n",
"A urine sample is urine that has come from the bladder and can be provided or taken post-mor... |
why is there a sudden rise in nationalism in english speaking countries? | It seems very sudden, but it has not been.
Nationalism kind of waits for an opportunity to present as a solution rather than as a problem. The recession and the fallout, the lost wages, the lost professions, have been very hard for many groups in Europe, the UK, and the US. Nationalism presents a simple answer: "If on... | [
"The English nationalist movement has its roots in a perception amongst many people in England that they are primarily or exclusively English rather than British, which mirrors the view in the other constituent countries. The perceived rise in English identity in recent years, as evidenced by the increased display ... |
What do nebulae and other stellar phenomenon actually look like? | This might not fully answer your question, but it would probably be worth your time to check out [this thread](_URL_0_) from a few days ago in r/astronomy. Read both dVnt's post (which is what the link is to) and doctorBenton's response. | [
"Once formed, the stars within the nebula emit a stream of charged particles known as a stellar wind. Massive stars and young stars have much stronger stellar winds than the Sun. The wind forms shock waves or hydrodynamical instabilities when it encounters the gas in the nebula, which then shapes the gas clouds. Th... |
how does the nuclear fusion produce cheap, reliable energy and eli5 how the new data produced in livermore, ca help us? | _URL_0_
Original story in which I am inquiring.. | [
"In the early 1990s, it was decided to add such a diverter design to JET, which occurred between 1991 and 1993. Performance was significantly improved, allowing JET to set many records in terms of confinement time, temperature and fusion triple product. It set the record for the closest approach to breakeven, reach... |
Why the hype about the gut microbiome? | It has important implications for treatment. We were generally aware that the microbe population can change, but once we have a better understanding of those changes, we can start developing therapeutic recommendations to improve the microbiome. Stool transplants are one example of a therapy being developed as a result... | [
"Despite the many benefits of microbial colonization in \"D. melanogaster\", its gut microbiome requires replenishment from the environment, as the microbiome is lost over time in sterile conditions. Thus, \"D. melanogaster\" acquires its gut microbes from its food, a form of facultative symbiosis. However a recent... |
what exactly is happening to your legs in restless leg syndrome? | Okay, so everything that you do is controlled by one part of your body: your brain. Imagine that your brain is a city called Brain City. Brain City is divided into different sections based on the body activity that they control: the Cognition District, the Motor Quarter, the Reflex Precinct, etc.
In order to execute ... | [
"Restless leg syndrome is a disorder in which patients feel uncomfortable or unpleasant sensations in the legs. These sensations usually occur in the evening, while the patient is sitting or lying down and relaxing. Patients feel like they have to move their legs to relieve the sensations, and walking generally mak... |
Why wasn't Russia broken up similarly to the Balkan states? | If you're referring to what we'd call modern Russia, [this](_URL_0_) is why. The redder those provinces are, the greater the percentage of ethnic Russians. The paler those provinces are, the fewer ethnic Russians. You can see pale [Tuva](_URL_2_) in the south-central area of Siberia -- despite looking like it has no Ru... | [
"The Second Balkan war was a catastrophic blow to Russian policies in the Balkans, which for centuries had focused on access to the \"warm seas\". First, it marked the end of the Balkan League, a vital arm of the Russian system of defense against Austria-Hungary. Second, the clearly pro-Serbian position Russia had ... |
what happens if neither presidential candidate can continue to run? | The parties would probably each hold another convention. In fact, that's probably what would happen if only one of the two nominees could no longer run, provided there was sufficient time.
Political parties are private entities, so there isn't a specific clause in the Constitution or anything to tell us exactly what t... | [
"If the winner of an election were not running in the first place, then obviously someone else would have won instead. Similarly, if a candidate gets \"added\" to an election, it becomes possible for the new candidate to win. If these are the only cases in which a change in the candidate set leads to a different el... |
what exactly is being a stock broker and if they make so much money, why doesn't everybody become one? | They are salespeople. They earn a commission on what they sell. What they happen to sell are millions and millions of dollars of financial products, so their commissions are enormous.
Very hard job to get (well, its easy to get a job as a broker, it's just hard to get a job as a broker with clients who actually gene... | [
"In general, market makers such as dealers and securities exchanges are willing to pay a broker for the right to transact with that broker's clients because they believe those clients will be uninformed traders—retail or other investors who are trading because of emotion or the need to raise cash and not because th... |
Do aromatic molecules have a defined smell, or do different animals smell things differently? | Smell cannot be objective. It is a sense that only has a definition with regards to human beings. An object does not inherently have a smell (or color for that matter), it releases molecules (or certain wavelengths of light in case of color) which are characteristic of the object. How those molecules (photons) induce a... | [
"The earliest use of the term “aromatic” was in an article by August Wilhelm Hofmann in 1855.[1] Hofmann used the term for a class of benzene compounds, many of which do have odors (aromas), unlike pure saturated hydrocarbons. Today, there is no general relationship between aromaticity as a chemical property and th... |
the superposition of atoms | Atoms do not have (a noticeable) superpositon, it's the things that make up the atom that do, one type of these strange thingys are called electrons.
Lets step back a little. How do we know where anything is? Well by looking at it of course. But what if whatever we're looking at doesn't have very good "edges". Take ... | [
"The idea of a primeval “super-atom” lived on and was developed forward by Maurice Goldhaber in 1956. In his proposal there would have been a point, which had been called a Universon, that would have collapsed into a Cosmon and an Anticosmon pair. Goldhaber was wondering about why is there any matter if equal amoun... |
What is the probable condition of man made objects left on the moon? | There are several factors in the environment affecting this.
Cosmic rays are charged particles with very high kinetic energy. When they reach electronics [they can flip bits or burn transistors](_URL_0_) - the latter is a permanent damage. Over the course of all these decades, most likely all the electronics have beco... | [
"This is a partial list of man-made materials left on the Moon. The table below does not separately list lesser man-made objects such as retroreflectors, Apollo Lunar Surface Experiment Packages, tools such as a hammer, or the commemorative, artistic, and personal objects left there by Apollo astronauts, such as th... |
why do cats not bleed when they are given sub cutaneous fluids. it's still a needle in their skin? | 1, Needles in *skin* rarely bleed, try it on yourself. Its needles in veins that bleed, and needles in arteries that bleed more.
2, as humans, our skin is fairly well attached to the muscle and bone and whatever beneath. Dogs, cats, bears, rodents... not so much. Theres a lot of free space in there that is mainly jus... | [
"Even aspirin, which is sometimes used to treat arthritis in cats, can be toxic and must be administered cautiously. Similarly, application of minoxidil (Rogaine) to the skin of cats, either accidentally or by well-meaning owners attempting to counter loss of fur, has sometimes proved fatal.\n",
"Cats possess rat... |
why are fungi considered neither plant nor animal? | Like plants, they have a cell wall, which is a durable framework that supports the cell, which animal cells do not have. Unlike plants, this cell wall is made of chitin rather than cellulose. Animals though use chitin to make hard shells, which is what insect exoskeletons are made of. Fungi reproduce similar to how sim... | [
"Before the introduction of molecular methods for phylogenetic analysis, taxonomists considered fungi to be members of the plant kingdom because of similarities in lifestyle: both fungi and plants are mainly immobile, and have similarities in general morphology and growth habitat. Like plants, fungi often grow in s... |
How do chemists know the taste and odor of highly toxic substances? | Chemists frequently used to taste the chemicals they made in the lab. Sometimes it just happens by accident. If the chemist who invented saccharine had washed his hands properly before eating dinner, we would not be using it as a sweetener today. | [
"Analytical methods routinely used can detect and measure all the natural elements and their inorganic compounds and a very wide range of organic chemical species using methods such as gas chromatography and mass spectrometry. In water treatment plants producing drinking water and in some industrial processes using... |
how long would power grids stay up in an area who's power comes from hydrostatic electricity if a "last man on earth" situation arose? | If you suddenly find yourself as the last man on earth, power wouldn't really be that much of a problem. As you don't need the power from the hover dam to power what you need.
Just find yourself a generator and a gas station and you will have power for a long time. | [
"BULLET::::- A geomagnetic storm causes the collapse of the Hydro-Québec power grid. 6,000,000 people are left without power for nine hours. Some areas in the northeastern U.S. and in Sweden also lose power, and aurorae are seen as far as Texas.\n",
"The transformers and switching equipment were removed from the ... |
What is a "permanent" orbit, exactly? | The Moon is gradually moving away from the Earth, but is not escaping. It will be in orbit as long as the Earth survives. | [
"In celestial mechanics, the term stationary orbit refers to an orbit around a planet or moon where the orbiting satellite or spacecraft remains orbiting over the same spot on the surface. From the ground, the satellite would appear to be standing still, hovering above the surface in the same spot, day after day.\n... |
what exactly do economists do to "seasonally adjust" unemployment figures | It's pretty chill, iirc.
Step 1: Data
You want the average unemployment each year for 10 years or so, and the average unemployment during the test season for each of those.
Step 2: Ratios
In each year, figure out how much bigger or smaller it is than usual during the season. Like, if it's 1.1-1.3 times the unemploy... | [
"Seasonal adjustment is a statistical method for removing the seasonal component of a time series that exhibits a seasonal pattern. It is usually done when wanting to analyse the trend, and cyclical deviations from trend, of a time series independently of the seasonal components. It is normal to report seasonally a... |
why do soldiers wear watches with dial underside of wrist instead of over wrist? | Worn on the inside of the wrist, it's less likely that the glass face would reflect light and potentially give away a soldier's position.
I wear my watch this way as I find it easy to look at my watch with something in my hand, in particular, a drink. | [
"Military wristwatches are believed to have received their name from a German military request for a soldier in a watch house, otherwise known as a guard tower. One story tells that the military wristwatches came into use when a German naval officer needed to know the time but could not pull out a pocket watch sinc... |
why do pawns in chess that cross the board get to choose something other than the queen? why would you choose something inferior that has less moves? | Underpromotions are rare, underpromotions to anything but a knight are rarer still.
The main reason to underpromote to a rook or bishop is when promoting to a queen would result the other side having no legal moves, which is a draw. A rook or bishop does not create the stalemate, allowing the game to go on.
Also, so... | [
"In the endgame, it is usually better for the player with more pawns to avoid many pawn exchanges, because winning chances usually decrease as the number of pawns decreases. Also, endings with pawns on both sides of the board are much easier to win. A king and pawn endgame with an outside passed pawn should be a fa... |
Did the 1989 abolishment of the Fairness Doctrine achieve the goals of the D.C. Court of Appeals in Syracuse Peace Council v. FCC? | It depends who you ask. The Fairness Doctrine is so tied into modern political discussion that it's extraordinarily difficult to gain an outside perspective. We're looking at the box from inside the box, so to speak.
[The 1987 FCC vote](_URL_5_) and subsequent legal arguments might be 30 years distant now, but the eff... | [
"By 1985, the FCC was concerned that the fairness doctrine might actually have a chilling effect, which was the very opposite of the policy's original intent of encouraging fair and balanced coverage: \"In order to avoid the requirement to go out and find contrasting viewpoints on every issue raised in a story, som... |
If the world's most powerful telescope was pointed towards the moon how closely could we examine the moon's surface? | It would be on the order of 10's of meters. If you're asking if you could see the American flag planted by the apollo astronauts, then no, there is no telescope capable of doing that. (For reference, it would take a reflecting telescope 1/4 mile wide to resolve the flag on the moon to a few pixels on a monitor where th... | [
"To some it may be more desirable to utilize a telescope in which case far more options for observing the Moon exist. Even a small, well-made telescope will show the observer much greater detail than is visible with the naked eye or small binoculars. As the aperture of the telescope mirror (in the case of a reflect... |
How are lab-created gemstones different from naturally formed ones? | *Not responding as my tag - but because I am a gemstone collector*
It depends on the gemstone. Diamonds, topaz, sapphire, etc - can be grown in the lab and create flawless gems.
However... there is a big difference between lab grown and natural - which boils down to the impurities (rutilation, inclusions, etc).
Na... | [
"Whether a gemstone is a natural stone or lab-created (synthetic), the physical characteristics are the same. Lab-created stones tend to have a more vivid color to them, as impurities are not present in a lab and do not modify the clarity or color of the stone, unless added intentionally for a specific purpose.\n",... |
Why does paper 'remember' when it's been rolled up? | The outside of the roll is under tensile stress. Therefore, the interface in between the paper fibres and the matrix is deformed more than the inside. When you let go of the roll, the paper recovers the elastic portion of the deformation, but not the plastic portion. | [
"'Memory, not the notebook, holds the key. I try to keep a notebook when I'm on the move (largely because writing it makes one feel that one's at work, despite all appearances to the contrary) but hardly ever find anything in the notebook that's worth using later...Memory, though, is always telling stories to itsel... |
Why do historians sometimes reference a secondary source when a primary source is readily available? | For newer sources: Academic discussions build upon each other. While the point might have been made in 1968 it was probably expanded in 1997 and quoting the 1968 one would exclude the 1997 authors reflections which might have influenced the writer. It also invites more recent discussion and excludes the skipping over o... | [
"In many fields and contexts, such as historical writing, it is almost always advisable to use primary sources if possible, and \"if none are available, it is only with great caution that [the author] may proceed to make use of secondary sources.\" In addition, primary sources avoid the problem inherent in secondar... |
sqrt(2) squared creates an rational number from an irrational number; can something similar be done for pi? Are there any exponents of pi that are rational? | No non-zero rational exponent will do this, because pi is transcendental.
sqrt(2) is irrational but algebraic - that means there is a polynomial with rational coefficients to which sqrt(2) is the solution. Of course, the polynomial is x^2 - 2 = 0.
But pi is transcendental, which means it's not algebraic. So there i... | [
"The proof above for the square root of two can be generalized using the fundamental theorem of arithmetic. This asserts that every integer has a unique factorization into primes. Using it we can show that if a rational number is not an integer then no integral power of it can be an integer, as in lowest terms ther... |
how do smartphones maintain their touchscreen capabilities with a glass/plastic screen protector? | Most modern smartphones have a capacitive touchscreen. Very simply put, this means that there is a very minute electrical charge on the touchscreen. As the human body is conductive, this will cause electricity to leak away. The location of the touch is then determined by comparing the voltage change in each corner of ... | [
"Some capacitive display manufacturers continue to develop thinner and more accurate touchscreens. Those for mobile devices are now being produced with 'in-cell' technology, such as in Samsung's Super AMOLED screens, that eliminates a layer by building the capacitors inside the display itself. This type of touchscr... |
Why can i see the outline of the whole moon right now, even though only a sliver is lit up? | Reflected Earthlight: In the same way the dark surface of the Earth is lit by moonlight, the dark surface of the moon in turn is lit by the light reflected from the Earth. | [
"Located southwest of Orion in the southern-hemisphere constellation Fornax, the rectangular image is 2.4 arcminutes to an edge, or 3.4 arcminutes diagonally. This is approximately one tenth of the angular diameter of a full moon viewed from Earth (which is less than 34 arcminutes), smaller than 1 sq. mm piece of p... |
When space expands, do objects get bigger? | No. The expansion of space is only a "global" phenomenon - it's something which makes sense to talk about on the largest scales, but it's not present when you're talking about atoms and the solar system and the galaxy and such.
By the way, you'll often read that this is because gravity "overcomes" the expansion or som... | [
"Based on a huge amount of experimental observation and theoretical work, it is now believed that the reason for the observation is that \"space itself is expanding\", and that it expanded very rapidly within the first fraction of a second after the Big Bang. This kind of expansion is known as a \"\"metric\"\" expa... |
What is the minimum sized moon (or asteroid) that I could reasonably stand on and not reach escape velocity by simply pushing off? | [This sums it up pretty well](_URL_0_)
Deimos is at about the limit of what's necessary to keep you grounded. | [
"The asteroid has an Earth minimum orbit intersection distance (MOID) of . In combination with its size, this makes it a potentially hazardous asteroid, which require an intersection distance with Earth of less than 0.05 AU, which is about 19.5 times the distance to the moon, and a diameter of at least 150 meters. ... |
Why does overclocking a CPU make it unstable? | Instability is not caused by heat; that answer is simply incorrect. Higher temperature can lower stability slightly but the factor is very small compared to higher clock itself.
Each clock cycle consists of a set of instructions being run by the cpu. When you raise the clock the amount of time available for each cycle... | [
"Some BIOS implementations allow overclocking, an action in which the CPU is adjusted to a higher clock rate than its manufacturer rating for guaranteed capability. Overclocking may, however, seriously compromise system reliability in insufficiently cooled computers and generally shorten component lifespan. Overclo... |
Why does ethanol provide calories? How is it metabolized? | During the first two steps of alcohol metabolism, it is oxidized into acetate with concomitant creation of 2NADH. Each NADH is good for creating 2.5 ATP molecules (these are energy equivalents). After creation of acetate, this can proceed into the TCA cycle as acetyl-CoA or into fat generation.Either provides considera... | [
"Ethanol fermentation, also called alcoholic fermentation, is a biological process which converts sugars such as glucose, fructose, and sucrose into cellular energy, producing ethanol and carbon dioxide as by-products. Because yeasts perform this conversion in the absence of oxygen, alcoholic fermentation is consid... |
How difficult was it to design Chess? Was there multiple, evolving versions of it? How did it spread across the globe like it has? | Chess was most likely created in modern-day India roughly 1500 years ago, where it was called "four members" (chaturanga), referring to the 4 parts of an army: cavalry, elephants, chariots, and infantry. The earliest rule sets are lost to time, but it looked similar to modern chess. It was played on an 8 by 8 board wit... | [
"The earliest precursor of modern chess is a game called chaturanga, which flourished in India by the 6th century, and is the earliest known game to have two essential features found in all later chess variations—different pieces having different powers (which was not the case with checkers and Go), and victory dep... |
In 1604 there was a supernova that caused a star to be bright enough to be seen during day time. How was this interpreted at the time? Did any figures or groups try to capitalise on it for political or spiritual influence? | Hopefully more people will be along to provide other perspectives!
Apparently, physican Baldassare Capra used the nova as an excuse to attack Galileo and make himself look better. Given the number of you who have heard of Galileo versus the number familiar with Capra, I think we can guess how *that* turned out.
There... | [
"In 1987, a star in the Large Magellanic Cloud exploded as a supernova. Designated SN 1987A, this event was of enormous importance to astronomy, as it was the closest known supernova to Earth, and the first visible to the naked eye, since Kepler's star in 1604 – before the invention of the telescope. The opportunit... |
what's the structural difference between regular glass, pyrex and corning gorilla glass, etc? | Pyrex, used in high temp laboratory glass and high temp cooking, is borosilcate; it has a percentage of boron blended into the batch. | [
"Gorilla Glass is a brand of chemically strengthened glass developed and manufactured by Corning, now in its sixth generation, designed to be thin, light and damage-resistant. Gorilla Glass is unique to Corning, but close equivalents exist, including AGC Inc. Dragontrail and Schott AG Xensation.\n",
"Gorilla Glas... |
; why does lying down make you less nauseous? | In nature, nausea is almost always caused by food poisoning. Motion sickness is very hard to get by chance without a mount or a vehicle.
Nausea makes you want to stop doing what you are doing, throw up, and lay down. Throwing up is good for treating food poisoning. Laying down just general makes you safer becau... | [
"Pseudoclaudication, now generally referred to as neurogenic claudication, typically worsens with standing or walking, and improves with sitting, and is often related to posture and lumbar extension. Lying on the side is often more comfortable than lying flat, since it permits greater lumbar flexion. Vascular claud... |
Books on French colonial wars | You should have gone to 'Middle East and North Africa' - > Modern History to find a suggestion on the Algerian War on my behalf. Anyhow, here are my suggestions!
*A Savage War of Peace: Algeria 1954-1962* by Alistair Horne - A classic in the literature of modern warfare, this outdated classic still works today as a p... | [
"France and England in North America () is a multi-volume history of the European colonization of North America written by Francis Parkman between 1865 and 1892, which highlights the military struggles between France and Great Britain. It was well regarded at the time of publication, and continues to enjoy a reputa... |
why is it illegal to deface united states currency yet those penny smashing machines are at every zoo and museum? | The laws for defacing coins and paper money are different, as coins and paper money come from different backgrounds. A long time ago when the legal framework for this was being set up a coin was owned by the person who holds it. They are free to use it to do whatever they want; it's just struck in an easily recogniza... | [
"The approximate cost to the U.S. from counterfeit sales was estimated to be as high $600 billion as of 2016. A 2017 report by the Commission on the Theft of American Intellectual Property, stated that China and Hong Kong accounted for 87 percent of counterfeit goods seized entering the United States, and claimed t... |
Why is Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) considered only effective with antidepressant-resistant patients? | TMS isn't as well studied as traditional drug-based treatments. It's considered riskier because of that vague uncertainty. Its effectiveness may not compensate for risk factors we simply haven't yet observed because of the treatment's novelty. | [
"Transcranial magnetic stimulation is also an alternative treatment for a major depressive episode. It is a noninvasive treatment that is easily tolerated and shows an antidepressant effect, especially in more typical depression and younger adults.\n",
"Electroconvulsive therapy is effectively used in major depre... |
with airspace so vast, why are there so many mid-air collisions and near-collisions? | I am not sure what you mean by "so many" as such things are rare. But almost all such collisions take place near airports, where the airspace is much more crowded. | [
"The potential for a mid-air collision is increased by miscommunication, mistrust, error in navigation, deviations from flight plans, lack of situational awareness and the lack of collision-avoidance systems. Although a rare occurrence in general due to the vastness of open space available, collisions often happen ... |
Has any President-elect ever done as poorly in their home state as Donald Trump? | I took a glance at all the presidential election data and found a few presidents-elect who lost their home state, depending on you define it. There was Trump, as you mentioned, but also the arguable cases of George H.W. Bush, Richard Nixon, Woodrow Wilson, and James K. Polk.
In the 1988 election, Bush lost Massachuse... | [
"Democratic incumbent President Bill Clinton won re-election, defeating Republican former Senator Bob Dole of Kansas. Billionaire and 1992 Independent Presidential candidate Ross Perot of Texas, the nominee of the newly founded Reform Party, though performing strongly for a third party candidate and receiving 8.4% ... |
how does the removal of amygdala affect someone? | Well the amygdala does a lot. Broadly, it is involved in emotions, but this covers a staggering array of things, from regulation to social behavior to perceiving other people's emotions to memory.
Firstly, the amygdala plays a major roll in fear perception. If you put a monkey in a cage, and put a peanut outside the c... | [
"Anatomically, the amygdala refers to the bundle of nerve cells in the brain that control emotional associations of many kinds. Aaron Helzinger's amygdala cluster was removed in an attempt to cure him of his homicidal rage. This procedure resulted in Amygdala becoming exceedingly angry and was the opposite of what ... |
What's happening when we go to sleep hungry, but awake without the urge to eat? Are we eating ourselves in our sleep? | Yes, when you're fasting, your body will get most of its energy from stored fat, unless you're below about 4% body fat, then most will come from muscle tissue. | [
"Sleep eating involves consuming food while asleep. These sleep eating disorders are more often than not induced for stress related reasons. Another major cause of this sleep eating subtype of sleepwalking is sleep medication, such as Ambien for example (Mayo Clinic). There are a few others, but Ambien is a more wi... |
How can an electron be "spherical"? | Very good explanation:
_URL_0_ | [
"Spherical harmonics are functions of the polar and azimuthal angles, \"ϕ\" and \"θ\" respectively, which can be conveniently collected into a unit vector n(\"θ\", \"ϕ\") pointing in the direction of those angles, in the Cartesian basis it is:\n",
"The spherical model in statistical mechanics is a model of ferrom... |
Can Alpha Decay excite the inner electrons of the atom? | It’s possible for the alpha particle to excite the atom and/or simply knock out electrons as it leaves the atom. | [
"Alpha decay is characterized by the emission of an alpha particle, a He nucleus. The mode of this decay causes the parent nucleus to decrease by two protons and two neutrons. This type of decay follows the relation:\n",
"Alpha decay or α-decay is a type of radioactive decay in which an atomic nucleus emits an al... |
what is the rohingya genocide, and why is it happening right now? | Myanmar (formerly Burma) is a largely Buddhist and Burmese country. There is a small minority of Muslims, centered in one particular region, called the Rohingya. The story the Buddhists tell is that the Rohingya are recent immigrants from Bangladesh and don't belong in Myanmar. However, the historical record shows t... | [
"The 2017–present Rohingya genocide began on 25 August 2017 when the Myanmar military forces and local Buddhist extremists started attacking the Rohingya people and committing atrocities against them in the country's north-west Rakhine state. The atrocities included attacks on Rohingya people and locations, looting... |
When was the first porn website created for the internet/arpanet? | \[NSFW\]
Well, it has a pretty long history. It is one of the few things that pushed the growth of World Wide Web. World Wide Web was founded at CERN (Switzerland, European Atomic Research Centre) but had almost no role in porn's rising popularity.
But before I delve into that part of history, let me remind you that... | [
"Though not the most popular pornographic website, Pornhub holds the honour of being the single largest such website on the internet, hosting more videos than any similar site. The site was launched in Montreal, providing professional and amateur pornography since 2007. Pornhub also has offices and servers in San F... |
gnu general public license (gpl), | Have you tried reading the preamble? its quite well written in non legalese | [
"The GNU General Public License (GNU GPL or GPL) is a widely-used free software license, which guarantees end users the freedom to run, study, share and modify the software. The license was originally written by Richard Stallman of the Free Software Foundation (FSF) for the GNU Project, and grants the recipients of... |
why can blockbuster movie sequels be so much more profitable than the original? | If the first movie is really good, it creates much more anticipation for the following films. | [
"The blockbuster was born in 1975. While \"The Exorcist\" was among the top five grossing films of the 1970s, the first film given the blockbuster distinction was 1975's \"Jaws\". Released on June 20, the film about a series of horrific deaths related to a massive great white shark was director Steven Spielberg's f... |
why do we see super tiny rainbow dots zipping around in our view when looking at a neutral scene? | They shouldn't be a rainbow, they should be basically white -- but if it looks like a bunch of little insects zipping around sort of in circles around the center of vision, what you're really seeing are your own white blood cells moving through the capillaries in your eyes.
I don't know about the rainbow thing, though... | [
"Absolute rainbow dots are used to detect errors caused by scratches, and whether any fading has occurred. Absolute rainbow dots are predefined dots carrying a unique value. These dots can be inserted in the rainbow picture in pre-specified areas. If fading occurs these dot values will change accordingly, and at th... |
why is it impossible for large crowds to keep a consistent rhythm without a clear leading percussion? | I am going to piggy-back on this question and ask if it has anything to do with the amount of time it takes for sound to travel...If I am on one side of the stadium, i will see the clapping take place, but I don't hear it at the same instant...but if the tomahawk chop is playing, then everyone is on beat. | [
"Because of the diversity of percussive instruments, it is not uncommon to find large musical ensembles composed entirely of percussion. Rhythm, melody, and harmony are all represented in these ensembles.\n",
"In rock, drum solos are unique in that traditionally they are minimally or never accompanied, whereas ot... |
Why did France and England develop different forms of monarchies? | Could you be more specific about what you want to know? No two monarchies were exactly alike, just like no two countries today have exactly the same laws. Do you mean why did France become an absolute monarchy while England became a constitutional monarchy? | [
"Partly out of fear of a continental intervention, an Act of Union was passed in 1707 creating the Kingdom of Great Britain, and formally merging the kingdoms of Scotland and England (the latter kingdom included Wales). While the new Britain grew increasingly parliamentarian, France continued its system of absolute... |
why don't officers aim for an extremity when dealing with a possible threat instead of aiming to kill? | Dead man can't sue.
tbh... i never understood that either. Perhaps its harder to hit an arm and if you only got 1-2 shots to fire, you want to make sure you stop the perp. | [
"May be used to control a dangerous or violent subject when deadly physical force does not appear to be justified and/or necessary; or attempts to subdue the subject by other conventional tactics have been, or likely will be, ineffective in the situation at hand; or there is reasonable expectation that it will be u... |
Was there a "style" difference between the different decades in the Soviet Union? | Soviet Fashion was definitely a thing. I would argue that it more closely mirrored Western Europe than America, but there was some American influence as well.
Djurdja Bartlett's book on the topic is quite good, if you are interested in finding out more. It's called *FashionEast.* The book is organized by era/decade.... | [
"In the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s, the Brezhnev era, a distinctive period of Soviet culture developed characterised by conformist public life and intense focus on personal life. In the late Soviet Union, Soviet popular culture was characterised by fascination with American popular culture as exemplified by the blue j... |
how does one person compose for an orchestra? | Playing the instrument really isn't all that relevant, because the parts are generally written in the same format regardless of what instrument they're for. In theory the composer really only needs to know what the instrument sounds like, as opposed to actually knowing how to play it. | [
"An orchestrator is a trained musical professional who assigns instruments from an orchestra or other musical ensemble to a piece of music written by a composer, or who adapts music composed for another medium for an orchestra. Orchestrators may work for musical theatre productions, film production companies or rec... |
xbox download speeds | You are not only limited by the speed of your internet connection, but also the speed at which the remote server is willing or able to send you the data.
The smart money is that Microsoft has capped their connection speed from their servers to the consoles at about 150. | [
"The Xbox One is powered by an AMD \"Jaguar\" Accelerated Processing Unit (APU) with two quad-core modules totaling eight x86-64 cores clocked at 1.75 GHz, and 8 GB of DDR3 RAM with a memory bandwidth of 68.3 GB/s. The memory subsystem also features an additional 32 MB of \"embedded static\" RAM, or ESRAM, with a m... |
when a door leading outside on the main floor of my house is opened my bedroom door on a different floor moves a little bit. how/why does this happen? | Slight changes in pressure and drafts are created when you open the door.
On a side note, a house that does not have a constant flow of people coming and going is more likely to have mold growths. Foreclosed houses that sit for long periods have been found to have extensive mold growth because they don't get this cha... | [
"To the left of the front door is a served space occupied by the foyer and dining room on the ground floor and the bedroom on the upper floor. Like the living room, the bedroom runs the full width of the house from front to rear.\n",
"Internally, the residence has a large living area facing the southeast and nort... |
in movies when people point guns at each other is there actually a chance that if you shoot first the other person will shoot as he/she dies? | guns are only instantly lethal if they hit very specific parts of the body. Sure you'd have a very hard time shooting someone after being shot just about anywhere, but it's possible. | [
"In 2001, he answered the question of a girl in a Seattle school by saying that it is permissible to shoot someone with a gun in self-defense if that person was \"trying to kill you,\" and he emphasized that the shot should not be fatal.\n",
"If a single bullet is used, the probabilities of hitting the target are... |
Are there any widely accepted studies or evidence to support the blood type diet? (Biology) | There have never been any clinic trials showing that it does anything, and goes against our general understanding of biology in several regards. More than likely it's no different than any of the other psuedo-science scams that people sell on infomercials and books to get rich. | [
"As of 2017 there is no scientific evidence to support the blood type diet hypothesis and no clinical evidence that it improves health. Peter J. D'Adamo, a naturopath, is the most prominent proponent of blood type diets.\n",
"That hypothesis is, in turn, based on an assumption that each blood type represents a di... |
How much energy does a tree consume in a day? | The *net* amount of energy absorption that goes towards growth would in fact be the same as the caloric energy it contains.
I couldn't find much on the caloric intake, and I've completely struck out for the intake of a 22,000 pound tree that is 80 feet tall and two feet wide. Here's a [newsletter article](_URL_1_) tha... | [
"The latest solar tree constructed by the Solar Tree Foundation was erected for North Hillsborough Elementary School in Hillsborough California. At peak efficiency, the 10,000 lb Solar Tree is claimed to produce 20,000 watts of energy per day.\n",
"BULLET::::- Energy use: According to a study conducted by the Law... |
why does gum liquefy after eating chocolate while chewing? | Wait, it does what? Brb op, trying this out! | [
"Chewing gum is used as a novel approach for the treatment of gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD). One hypothesis is that chewing gum stimulates the production of more bicarbonate-containing saliva and increases the rate of swallowing. After the saliva is swallowed, it neutralizes acid in the esophagus. In effec... |
How did Nazi death camp survivors recover from malnutrition and starvation? | Often very poorly.
Refeeding syndrome is a real issue when you go from eating almost nothing to eating a whole lot at once. If you're ever in for major surgery, it's the reason they slowly work you up to solid foods over time, rather than just letting you eat normally.
While I can't speak for every camp, I know Berge... | [
"The prisoners in the worst critical condition were taken to the 51st Field Hospital. Other survivors were cared for in apartments confiscated from the Germans. Despite these efforts, at least 59 former prisoners died of starvation and exhaustion. By 14:30 on 13 April, all survivors had been removed from the camp. ... |
what causes some people to be "toe walkers"? | When I was growing up, I got into the habit of trying to move around as quietly as possible and just naturally got into the habit of toe-walking, although I didn't realize until this thread that it was a thing. | [
"Toe walking refers to a condition where a person walks on their toes without putting much weight on the heel or any other part of the foot. Toe walking in toddlers is common. These children usually adopt a normal walking pattern as they grow older. If a child continues to walk on their toes past the age of three, ... |
why don’t cars use one large cylinder versus a v6/v8/v12 for additional horse power? | There is an optimal size for a cylinder at a specific RPM, you'll notice most cars don't have cylinders much over 0.6L, and most are around 0.5L.
A huge cylinder would have a lot of issue. It would have very low RPMs so it would be very rough. It would have a huge volume and likely not completely combust the fuel in... | [
"These engines deliver power pulses more often than engines with six or eight cylinders, and the power pulses have triple overlap (at any time three cylinders are on different stages of the same power stroke) which eliminates gaps between power pulses and allows for greater refinement and smoothness in a luxury car... |
why are things shiny (or shinier) when wet? | When you look at something - anything - what you're really seeing is light bouncing off of that object and then traveling to your eyes. When light strikes a surface, it will reflect at the same angle that it struck the surface at, 100% of the time, according to what is known in optics as "the law of reflection".
Now,... | [
"A surface can therefore appear very shiny if it has a well-defined specular reflectance at the specular angle. The perception of an image reflected in the surface can be degraded by appearing unsharp, or by appearing to be of low contrast. The former is characterised by the measurement of the distinctness-of-image... |
How do storms form in the middle of a large landmass like a continent? Don't they need enormous bodies of water like oceans to form? | 1) Even inland areas can provide a great deal of water. Lakes, ponds, soil, forests, all contain a ton of H2O constantly evaporating into the sky.
2) Water-laden air can still move great distances from oceans. It's generally only where there are steep temperature or altitude gradients that moist air can fail to pass... | [
"If storms coincide with unusually high tides, or with a freak wave event such as a tidal surge or tsunami which causes significant coastal flooding, substantial quantities of material may be eroded from the coastal plain or dunes behind the berm by receding water. This flow may alter the shape of the coastline, en... |
During what decade did we rule out the idea of intelligent alien life on Mars? | William Wallace Campbell put forth an extensive, decades-spanning effort to prove against the weight of accepted turn-of-the-20th-century science to demonstrate that the Martian atmosphere had negligible water and oxygen. His 1894 and 1910 demonstrations still didn't quell public certainty, of course. In 1925, Charles ... | [
"Although the original movie narration had explicitly stated that the aliens were Martians (even featuring artwork indicating an alien city on the planet Mars), since 1953 the concept of vastly intelligent life on Mars had lost plausibility. In the series, the aliens are revealed to actually be from Mor-Tax—a garde... |
Do radioactive materials really glow in the dark? | Yes, when immersed in water. Blue. Due to [Cherenkov radiation](_URL_0_).
[They can also glow by simple heat](_URL_1_) in which case it's usually red-orange. | [
"The relatively high specific activity and moderate half-life of 1,600 years of Ra-226, the main radioisotope of radium found in uranium ore, made for a material which when mixed with a phosphor allowed for a glow-in-the-dark substance.\n",
"The beta particles emitted by the radioactive decay of small amounts of ... |
How did parents view morbid nursery rhymes children sang about current events of the time, and were they written by children or parents? | Very likely it did not bother them to have their children singing them. Nursery rhymes would be sung at the same time Broadside Ballads would be sold in the local market and bought for singing in taverns and homes: these were composed about recent murders and other tragic events, and children would be hearing their own... | [
"The term \"nursery rhyme\" is used for \"traditional\" songs for young children in Britain and many English speaking countries; but this usage dates only from the nineteenth century, and in North America the older \"Mother Goose rhyme\" is still often used. The oldest children's songs of which we have records are ... |
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