question stringlengths 3 301 | answer stringlengths 9 26.1k | context list |
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why do countries have gold reserves? | Imagine for a minute you're a nation. The nation across the ocean wants to buy some cruise missiles from you, and they want to pay you 12 billion Flerbos for the pleasure.
The first question that should come to mind is this: **What the f__k is a Flerbo?** The Flerbo is made up crap, just like every other currency on t... | [
"Although central banks do not generally announce gold purchases in advance, some, such as Russia, have expressed interest in growing their gold reserves again as of late 2005. In early 2006, China, which only holds 1.3% of its reserves in gold, announced that it was looking for ways to improve the returns on its o... |
How much did the Moorish people mix with the Spaniards over the time in which they ruled over them? | This a great question! The answer is a complex one. First during the time you are talking about 711-1492, the category/ethnicity of "Spaniard" had only just begun to crystalize (at the time of the Umayyad invasion it was non-existant). Second, both groups you are talking about the residents of the Iberian Peninsula and... | [
"In the later part of the 1500s, the Spaniards took possession of most of Luzon and the Visayas, converting the lowland population to Christianity from their local indigenous religion. But although Spain eventually established footholds in northern and eastern Mindanao and the Zamboanga Peninsula, its armies failed... |
At what point did History become something that the average person knew about? | Well, there are a lot of aspects to your question that make it complicated to answer at face value. Obviously we need to draw a line between the modern field of history and the nebulous awareness and discussion of past events that has always been a part of the human consciousness. If a group of people have no concept... | [
"Despite the fact that there was no written record about the past up till the end of the 19th century, some elders still remembered a lot of things about themselves and their surroundings as was handed down to them from their ancestors, and have advantage of being able to store those facts in their memories and pas... |
Any literature recommendation on "retro" or "nostalgia" throughout history? | So, as you mentioned, a romanticized view of ancient Greece was an important source of nostalgic longing for an idealized past that you see occurring throughout European history, especially in Italy. When this looking back took on an especially nostalgic tone, it tended to focus on a particular image: shepherds, nymphs... | [
"Most commonly \"retro\" is used to describe objects and attitudes from the recent past that no longer seem modern. It suggests a fundamental shift in the way we relate to the past. Different from more traditional forms of revivalism, \"retro\" suggests a half ironic, half longing consideration of the recent past; ... |
what was ancient civilization's knowledge of volcanoes? | Pliny the Younger wrote two letters about the eruption of Mount Vesuvius, which he witnessed. They're letters 6.16 and 6.20.
Though my Latin ability has faded, to the extent that it ever existed, and I'm therefore unable to tell you the quality of these translations, [here](_URL_0_) are two translations, such as they ... | [
"Many ancient accounts ascribe volcanic eruptions to supernatural causes, such as the actions of gods or demigods. To the ancient Greeks, volcanoes' capricious power could only be explained as acts of the gods, while 16th/17th-century German astronomer Johannes Kepler believed they were ducts for the Earth's tears.... |
why doesn't it matter that an ssd is fragmented? | Fragmentation causes problems with a normal hard drive because the drive has to take time to move a physical head from the location of the first part of the file to the location of the second, wait for the head to settle, and wait for the disk to rotate until the data is under the head. All this extra time makes access... | [
"In distributed computing, a single system image (SSI) cluster is a cluster of machines that appears to be one single system. The concept is often considered synonymous with that of a distributed operating system, but a single image may be presented for more limited purposes, just job scheduling for instance, which... |
moles (not the animal) | A mol represents 6.022 x 10^23 individual atoms or molecules. Each element of the periodic table has a weight in grams next to it. That is the atomic mass unit (amu) and shows how many grams 1 mol of the element will weigh. For example, oxygen has an amu of about 16. This means 6.022 x 10^23 atoms of O will weigh 1... | [
"Moles are small mammals adapted to a subterranean lifestyle (i.e., \"fossorial\"). They have cylindrical bodies; velvety fur; very small, inconspicuous ears and eyes; reduced hindlimbs; and short, powerful forelimbs with large paws adapted for digging.\n",
"While many groups of burrowing animals (pink fairy arma... |
why does moss only grow facing north | It doesn't.
It just doesn't grow well in direct sunlight. So in the northern hemisphere it generally only grows on the North side of things. It will grow on the south side of something as long as it doesn't get too direct sunlight, or it's in the southern hemisphere, and all the other conditions for growth are met. | [
"It is generally believed that in northern latitudes, the north side of trees and rocks will generally have more luxuriant moss growth on average than other sides. This is assumed to be because the sun on the south side creates a dry environment. South of the equator the reverse would be true. However, naturalists ... |
How does the modern Big Bang theory incorporate the Law of Conservation of matter? | First, there is no such thing as a "law of conservation of matter".
Second, you are misinterpreting what the Big Bang *is*. It was not a magical explosion where something was created from nothing. It was an epoch in the early universe where all of space simultaneously underwent rapid expansion. | [
"The Big Bang theory offers a comprehensive explanation for a broad range of observed phenomena, including the abundance of light elements, the CMB, large scale structure, and Hubble's Law. The framework for the Big Bang model relies on Albert Einstein's theory of general relativity and on simplifying assumptions s... |
When we see something positive, why do we clap? | The glib answer is that it is just an arbitrary signal, based on social norms.
However, one might speculate that clapping has some attractive qualities. It's a cheap way of generating an impulse response, which contains a wide range of sound frequencies. As such, it will be audible in a wide range of acoustic environm... | [
"Limb also investigated the relation of emotion to creativity. He asked jazz musicians in the fMRI to improvise music they felt corresponded to the emotions in photos of a sad, neutral, and happy woman. He found that when musicians responded to happy photos, the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex deactivated much more ... |
Psychologically, what is this called? | This could be the result of several different cognitive processes. It depends on his reason for choosing to do that. This could be polarized or "black or white" thinking. That is, the person is inflexible in their view of how the task is completed. "I have to do it this way or it's a failure." Another likely option is... | [
"Social psychology is the scientific study of how people's thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are influenced by the actual, imagined or implied presence of others. In this definition, \"scientific\" refers to the empirical investigation using the scientific method. The terms \"thoughts\", \"feelings\", and \"behavio... |
does my iphone soak up data while apps are open but not in use? | Yes they will use some, for updating info, like facebook gives you notifications. The amounts will be very small and shouldn't make a difference unless you have really, REALLY shitty plan. You should be able to turn off mobile data if you want it to use nothing. | [
"Apple gave an official response on their web site on April 27, 2011, after questions were submitted by users, the Associated Press and others. Apple clarified that the data is a small portion of their crowd-sourced location database cache of Wi-Fi hotspots and cell towers which is downloaded from Apple into the iP... |
what is the difference between being "legally blind" and blind in the colloquial sense? | Legally blind means that even with glasses you can't see enough to function (e.g. you can't read, navigate or drive). But you can still see some shapes, the eyes are still working. Blind blind means everything is gone. | [
"In the United States, the terms \"partially sighted\", \"low vision\", \"legally blind\" and \"totally blind\" are used by schools, colleges, and other educational institutions to describe students with visual impairments. They are defined as follows:\n",
"The word \"blind\" (adjective and verb) is often used to... |
does "beginner's luck" have any truth to it in various games or sports? | Experienced game players go in with prepared strategies. A new player doesn't know the strategies, so the opponents may not know how to best deal with the non-strategies. | [
"Beginner's luck refers to the supposed phenomenon of novices experiencing disproportionate frequency of success or succeeding against an expert in a given activity. One would expect experts to outperform novices - when the opposite happens it is counter-intuitive, hence the need for a term to describe this phenome... |
why doesn't greece just refuse to pay it's debt? | If Greece defaults on its debt:
1) No one will loan any more money to them - which is kinda a big deal since they got into the current dilemma by spending more money than they have. They will have to fire thousands of public works, slash pensions, close schools, etc to make up the difference.
2) No longer part of ... | [
"Greece could accept additional bailout funds and debt relief (i.e., bondholder haircuts or principal reductions) in exchange for greater austerity. However, austerity has damaged the economy, deflating wages, destroying jobs and reducing tax receipts, thus making it even harder to pay its debts. If further austeri... |
Since the Sun is also spherical like the planets that orbit it, and if Earth has polar orbiting objects, why are none of our solar system planets "polar" orbiting the sun? Are there any? | They're in that plane because it's the same as the plane of the disc of gas and dust which coalesced to form the Sun and planets in the first place, and nothing has perturbed them very much since.
It's entirely possible that a body could orbit in any plane. I think Uranus's moons orbit "vertically" compared to the res... | [
"Most large objects in orbit around the Sun lie near the plane of Earth's orbit, known as the ecliptic. The planets are very close to the ecliptic, whereas comets and Kuiper belt objects are frequently at significantly greater angles to it. All the planets, and most other objects, orbit the Sun in the same directio... |
why do some dishes heat up quicker than the actual food contents? | Today you learned there's a difference between scold and scald. | [
"Because larger objects have a lower surface-area-to-volume ratio, they are more able to retain heat. This heat retention translates to a uniform temperature increase throughout the food as the heat dissipates to cooler areas. Additionally, foods with a higher water content are more subject to carry over cooking as... |
how is reddit free? i can't wrap my head around the business model. | The vast majority of the work is done by volunteers. So they have very few expenses.
The expenses that they do have are covered by ads, reddit gold donations, etc. | [
"RedditGifts is an online user-to-user gift exchange service that connects Reddit users around the world with one another. Free to participate in, RedditGifts was first created by Reddit user \"kickme444\" (the alias of Dan McComas), while working on freelance projects. The service involves signing up, filling out ... |
Can someone explain the evolutionary benefits to having a foreskin? | "What is the evolutionary purpose of...." questions are typically invitations to speculation rather than things that can be answered with scientific rigour. In this case, remember that we evolved without underwear, and speculate for a few minutes about living your life with your unprotected glans swinging around expose... | [
"The foreskin extends out from the base of the glans and covers the glans when the penis is flaccid. Proposed theories for the purpose of the foreskin are that it serves to protect the penis as the fetus develops in the mother's womb, that it helps to preserve moisture in the glans, and that it improves sexual plea... |
How do you clean up a natural body of water? | Biological Engineer here! I specialize in the field of ecological engineering, which is the restoration or creation of ecosystems which benefit human society and the natural environment. Wastewater wetlands are one example of an ecosystem we would create. The concept is to allow natural processes within the water body ... | [
"Clean water is essential for hygiene, for consumption and for feeding programmes (for mixing with powdered therapeutic milk or porridge), as well as for preventing the spread of water-borne disease. As such, MSF water engineers and volunteers must create a source of clean water. This is usually achieved by modifyi... |
why the new trend to shave pubic hair? | The ubiquity of pornography with the rise of the Internet and the desire to mimic the "actors". | [
"The reason for the removal of pubic hair from women in pornography was a matter of \"technical considerations of cinematography\". Hair removal progressed to full removal. Because of the popularity of pornography, pubic hair shaving was mimicked by women.\n",
"Today in much of the world, it is common for women t... |
What was life like for an allied conscientious objector during WWII? | In the US a conscientious objector could become a medic. One such objector, Desmond Doss, was awarded the Medal of Honor for bravery in saving the lives of quite a number of men over a number of days and was himself wounded.
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"During World War I, he served with the Friends' Ambulance Unit (FAU), from 1916–1918. In a 1971 retrospective, he records that he was a C.O. (conscientious objector), to which fact he ascribed a difficulty in finding a job in the post-war years. However, he found part-time work at Sheffield University teaching eco... |
why the more dangerous vehicles (scooters, small cars) are available to teenagers, while the safer ones are not? | Scooters and small cars may be more dangerous to their driver, but they are less dangerous to everyone else. If you hit something with a scooter you might kill yourself, if you hit something with a large sedan you stand a much higher chance of damaging the other thing/people.
| [
"Children present significant challenges in engineering and producing safe vehicles, because most children are significantly smaller and lighter than most adults. Additionally, children far from being just scaled down adults, still have an undeveloped skeletal system. This means that vehicle restraint systems such ... |
Are Aerodynamics and Gravity theories or laws? | The term 'law' is really a sort of historical artifact that we should have gotten rid of a long time ago. It dates back to around Galileo, when people were finally realizing that mathematics could be used to model the world. For whatever reason, mathematical descriptions were called 'laws' - for example, the inverse sq... | [
"Aerodynamics is a significant factor in vehicle design, including automobiles, and in the prediction of forces and moments acting on sailing vessels. It is used in the design of mechanical components such as hard drive heads. Structural engineers resort to aerodynamics, and particularly aeroelasticity, when calcul... |
what is the deal with the unholy trinity of kroger, cvs pharmacy and walgreen's? | Kroger store manager here...
1) Proximity to one another allows stores to potentially steal customers away from eachother based on better service, instocks, cleanliness and speed of checkout.
2) there really arent a ton of high traffic intersections available to retailers, and it gets even lower when you factor in the... | [
"On October 19, 1998, Fred Meyer, parent company of Smith's Food and Drug, announced a strategic merger with Kroger. On May 27, 1999, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) approved the merger of the two companies, named The Kroger Co.\n",
"As of August 2014, Merck's research and development effort has led to the app... |
what is ideal mechanical advantage and how can i calculate it? | Ideal mechanical advantage is the number that your force is multiplied by in the absolute best case scenario when using a simachine (no friction or other ways to lose force applied.) How it's calculated varies depending on the machine you're using but can be generally expressed as: amount of force output divided by, f... | [
"Mechanical advantage that is computed using the assumption that no power is lost through deflection, friction and wear of a machine is the maximum performance that can be achieved. For this reason, it is often called the \"ideal mechanical advantage\" (IMA). In operation, deflection, friction and wear will reduce ... |
can someone please explain for me the nba salary cap and luxury-tax threshold? | The NBA has what is called a soft-cap. This means that there are certain rules that allow a team to go over the salary cap. Contrast this with the NFL, which has a hard-cap: a team cannot, under any circumstances, go over the NFL's cap.
The luxury tax threshold is a level that is higher than the salary cap. When a tea... | [
"In addition to the soft cap, the NBA utilizes a luxury tax system that is applied if the team payroll exceeds a separate threshold higher than the salary cap. These teams pay a penalty for each dollar their team salary exceeds the tax level. From 2002 to 2013, if a team exceeded the luxury tax threshold, they must... |
Why was the Holocaust in Lithuania so complete and utter? What is the reason for the staggering scale of collaboration by Lithuanians? | **Part 1/2**
So to start off I want to point to recent research concerning the Soviet deportations you mentioned: Atina Grossmann in a lot of her recent work points to the fact that the majority of Eastern European Jews who survived the Second World War did so because of Soviet deportations and evacuations into the ce... | [
"An important component to the Holocaust in Lithuania was that the occupying Nazi German administration fanned antisemitism by blaming the Soviet regime's recent annexation of Lithuania, a year earlier, on the Jewish community. Another significant factor was the large extent to which the Nazis' design drew upon the... |
in difderent languages, what influences the way every number is called or pronounced as ? | French is the absolute WORST about this. They don't have a word for a lot of numbers. Example: 80 is said as two forties. 70 is seven tens. 90 is the worst, it's four twenty ten. It got so confusing that Switzerland (IIRC) invented their own version of the French number system. | [
"In many languages, such as English, number is obligatorily expressed in every grammatical context. Some limit number expression to certain classes of nouns, such as animates or referentially prominent nouns (as with proximate forms in most Algonquian languages, opposed to referentially less prominent obviative for... |
why do i tense my body and brace myself when i know a loud noise is imminent? does it help at all? | You are preparing for "fight or flight". Even if you know there is no real danger, your instincts cut in just as they would if the loud noise was a nearby lion getting ready to roar.
Your conscious brain notices that the noise is imminent, and your subconscious blindly says: "loud noise: could be danger - better prepa... | [
"A startle reflex can occur in the body through a combination of actions. A reflex from hearing a sudden loud noise will happen in the primary acoustic startle reflex pathway consisting of three main central synapses, or signals that travel through the brain.\n",
"Contracting muscles produce vibration and sound. ... |
Does the body really treat cooked food as a toxin? | Just a [brief] review on the history of cooked food:
**History of cooked food**
First we can do a comparative analysis and look at what living chimps and bonobos eat since they are our closest relatives. We find modern day chimps hunt for raw meat and it makes up a small part of their diet. The rest is raw fruit and... | [
"BULLET::::- Toxins. Many virulence factors are proteins made by bacteria that poison host cells and cause tissue damage. For example, there are many food poisoning toxins produced by bacteria that can contaminate human foods. Some of these can remain in \"spoiled\" food even after cooking and cause illness when th... |
What was the cause of Æthelwold's Revolt? | Æthelwold was the son of Æthelred I, the older brother of Ælfred, better known as Alfred the Great. *Cerdicing* succession rules were somewhat pragmatic, and allowed for succession to pass to brothers in the event that passing the crown to a son would result in a minority. When Æthelred I was killed in 871, Æthelwold w... | [
"Æthelwold's Revolt was an attempt by Æthelwold ætheling to seize the Anglo-Saxon throne from Edward the Elder after the death of Alfred the Great in 899. It ended when Æthelwold was killed in battle in 902 while fighting alongside his Danish allies.\n",
"In early 1068, a series of uprisings in England, along wit... |
Were any Jewish athletes who participated in the 1936 Berlin Olympics killed during the Holocaust? | Yes, there were many Jewish athletes from countries in Europe, America, and North Africa who competed. For example, Bronislaw Czech, from Poland, was a downhill skier who competed in the '28, '32, and '36 olympics. During the holocaust he was sent to Auschwitz, and died there after refusing to train German skiers.
So... | [
"On 25 June 1941 Nazi forces arrived in Kaunas, where they witnessed local Lithuanians drag about 50 male Jews into the center of the city while one Lithuanian man beat them to death with a crowbar (cheered on by spectators) in a public display of brutality that shocked many Germans. Once the Jews were all dead, th... |
how is the correction for astigmatism different to the correction of nearsightedness? | So nearsightedness is when there's an aberration in the lens (technically in the length of the eye itself), that prevents the incoming light from focusing to a point on the retina. The light still *would* focus onto a single point, though, when properly corrected.
When considering astigmatism, the lens isn't able to f... | [
"Astigmatism causes difficulties in seeing fine detail. Astigmatism can be often corrected by glasses with a lens that has different radii of curvature in different planes (a \"cylindrical\" lens), contact lenses, or refractive surgery.\n",
"Astigmatism may be corrected with eyeglasses, contact lenses, or refract... |
the final fantasy universe. are each series separate stories or part of a bigger storyline? | They're separate stories and in many cases, they take place in completely different fictional worlds. Some are very loosely linked, but all of them are self-contained stories. If you were to play Final Fantasy VII, then Final Fantasy XII, and then Final Fantasy IV, the order you chose to play the games in wouldn't ha... | [
"Each game in the main series takes place in a different fictional universe, although beginning with \"Final Fantasy X-2\", additional video games set in the main series games' worlds have been released. \"Compilation of Final Fantasy VII\" and \"Fabula Nova Crystallis Final Fantasy\" are cross-platform multimedia ... |
What was the process of Taiwan's removal from the UN's permanent Security Council like? | Taiwan wasn't a member in the sense that the UN decided to give one little island a permanent seat. They were recognized as the true government of *all* of China, and had a strong presence there until they were eventually forced to flee the mainland to Taiwan in 1949. By 1971 the People's Republic (communist China) was... | [
"In addition to losing its seat in the UN, the UN Secretary-General concluded from the resolution that the General Assembly considered Taiwan to be a province of China. Consequently, the Secretary-General decided that it was not permitted for the ROC to become a party to treaties deposited with it.\n",
"Many atte... |
What were the reasons for the resurgent of extreme Islam in the Muslim world? | What is extremism? Is violence? Is it extreme neo-Orthodox religious practice? Is it anti-Westernism? Is it a social vision where Islam is combined with the modern state?
You might be interested in two older answers of mine:
* [What is the history of (modern) Islamic extremism? When did this all start and why? (x-po... | [
"The revival has also seen a proliferation of Islamic extremist groups in the Middle East and elsewhere in the Muslim World, who have voiced their anger at perceived exploitation as well as materialism, Westernization, democracy and modernity, which are most commonly associated with accepting Western secular belief... |
how are people with insomnia able to be simultaneously exhausted and yet unable to sleep? | Being exhausted and being able to sleep are two separate states. For most people being exhausted makes it easy to sleep, but for someone with insomnia those mechanisms are disrupted in some manner and they cannot sleep. This means they cannot rest and thus they cannot get out of exhaustion. | [
"BULLET::::- Insomnia cannot be blamed for all the deficits the patient is experiencing in his daytime life (not all problems will go away once the patient is able to sleep), this is important to know, because it takes some of the unrealistic expectations off sleep.\n",
"Some cases of insomnia are not really inso... |
alcohol percentage? | If the amount in both glasses were the same, then the amount of alcohol in both would also be the same. It is a percentage, so the small bottle would have less total alcohol then the large one because it is a lower volume. But having the same percentage per volume means the same about of alcohol if the volume is the sa... | [
"The definition of a unit of alcohol ranges between 8 to 14 grams of pure alcohol/ethanol depending on the country. There is no agreement on definitions of a low, moderate or high dose of alcohol either. The U.S. National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism defines a moderate dose as alcohol intake up to two ... |
how and why do our brains make up the color magenta? | It's a mixture of colors and can't be defined by one wavelength. So is any kind of brown. No big deal. | [
"In humans, melanin is the primary determinant of skin color. It is also found in hair, the pigmented tissue underlying the iris of the eye, and the stria vascularis of the inner ear. In the brain, tissues with melanin include the medulla and pigment-bearing neurons within areas of the brainstem, such as the locus ... |
who exactly are the syrian rebels? | Right let's get a proper answer with some sources.
[
This article](_URL_0_) from the Telegraph has some actual numbers rather than the one's /u/spiderhuman has pulled out of thin air.
First the rebels are not some monolithic organisation, they are comprised of numerous different groups who are loosely aligned in dif... | [
"Rebels from the group reportedly kidnapped and threatened to kill more than 100 Alawite civilians in August 2011. They also shot and killed a 15-year-old child of an alleged spy for the Syrian government in September 2011.\n",
"Between 26 April and 1 May 2017, more than 95 rebels were killed during clashes betwe... |
why did adultery become decriminalised in many western countries? | In a secular society, a marriage is just a contract. There are no criminal penalties for violating other types of contracts (aside from things like fraud,) and no harm to society from violating a marriage contract. So it makes no sense to criminalize a matter that's ultimately between two people, when there's already c... | [
"Adultery is no longer a crime in any European country. Adultery was decriminalised in England and Wales in 1857. The change also applied in some British territories of the British Empire and was adopted in others. Among the last Western European countries to decriminalised adultery were Italy (1969), Malta (1973),... |
What was the impact of the Holocaust, if any, on Rabbinical Judaism? | First of all, a bit of terminology. "Rabbinism" isn't really a thing. "Rabbinic Judaism" is, but from roughly 1000 years ago until present the overwhelming majority of Judaism has been Rabbinic (Karaites have existed and still do, but after 1000CE they were only a significant minority of Jews in a few regions). So, ... | [
"In 1839, in the eastern Persian city of Meshed, a mob burst into the Jewish Quarter, burned the synagogue, and destroyed the Torah scrolls. The Jews themselves were violently forced to convert, narrowly avoiding complete massacre. There was another massacre in Barfurush in 1867. In 1839, the Allahdad incident, the... |
What was the British response to the sinking of the HMS Hood? | The response to the loss of the *Hood* was generally, and initially, one of shock, tinged with sadness. The *Hood* had been thought of as a 'mighty' ship, the pride of the fleet, and capable of beating any ship afloat. To lose her in such an immediate manner was a real surprise. Many, especially in the Royal Navy, had ... | [
"The Raid on Scarborough, Hartlepool and Whitby on 16 December 1914, was an attack by the Imperial German Navy on the British ports of Scarborough, Hartlepool, West Hartlepool and Whitby. The attack resulted in 592 casualties, many of them civilians, of whom 137 died. The attack caused public outrage towards the Ge... |
Just watched Dunkirk and was wondering ... | Hi there -- when the movie came out we had quite a few questions about it, so we collected them into a big [Dunkirk Megathread](_URL_0_) that may be of some interest to you. Feel free to post follow-up questions here, though. | [
"\"Dunkirk\" used archive film footage, eyewitness accounts and original dramatised sequences to describe the events of the 1940 Dunkirk evacuation. The BBC also included an interactive 'red button' facility allowing television viewers to reach further information. The documentary has been described as helping the ... |
why do forearms and calves stay relatively skinny on fat obese people? | Because there is limited value in moving fat to the extremities. All of the organs that need protection and warmth are in the chest & abdominal cavities. | [
"There is also fat \"accumulation\" in various body parts. Patients often present with \"buffalo hump\"-like fat deposits in their upper backs. Breast size of patients (both male and female) tends to increase. In addition, patients develop abdominal obesity.\n",
"The android, or male pattern, fat distribution has... |
what happens to your stuff when you die if you don't have a will? | > If you have a spouse? If you have no spouse? (What is the order? If your parents are alive, do they trump your siblings? What if you only have one distant cousin, etc. is an effort made to find them? By whom?)
It depends on jurisdiction. Since 16 states have adopted the Uniform Probate Code, let's look at that.
U... | [
"If a deceased person did not make a Will, then the family members need to apply for Letter of Administration. The person who will a apply is commonly but not always the surviving spouse or eldest child of the deceased. In this case, the assest are distributed according to the Intestate Succession Act.\n",
"The u... |
what is so special about baking soda? why does it have such amazing properties for everything? | Baking soda (sodium bicarbonate) (IUPAC name: sodium hydrogen carbonate, *if you're a pedant*😉) has several chemical properties which are generally useful, and relatively few disadvantages.
* Shortest Answer: It's cheap to produce and very chemically reactive, but won't melt your skin off or poison you.
* The obvious... | [
"In cooking, baking soda is primarily used in baking as a leavening agent. When it reacts with acid, carbon dioxide is released, which causes expansion of the batter and forms the characteristic texture and grain in pancakes, cakes, quick breads, soda bread, and other baked and fried foods. Acidic compounds that in... |
why do people shit themselves after they die maybe nsfw | The intestines are loaded with bacteria, which start to eat you once you're dead. They produce gaseous waste, and eventually the gas can build up enough pressure to push poo out. The anal sphincter is also no longer active, so there's nothing really to hold the poo back. This is also why things that have been dead for ... | [
"They can apparently cause major problems for people undergoing medical operations, as \"pain, an anaesthetic or a serious accident cause him to change to the other area with a shocking impact on the other body. The other body quite commonly dies or is deranged by the sudden impact\". This gives the patient a repre... |
In what way is spin related to the standard model? | The Standard Model is a quantum field theory that describes a particular set of fields, and their interactions. Excitations of each of those fields can carry intrinsic angular momentum, called "spin". Excitations of the electron field carry spin 1/2 (in units of ~~h~~), excitations of the photon field carry spin 1, exc... | [
"A spin model is a mathematical model used in physics primarily to explain magnetism. Spin models may either be classical or quantum mechanical in nature. Spin models have been studied in quantum field theory as examples of integrable models. Spin models are also used in quantum information theory and computability... |
why are overtones produced? | From what I understand, a plucked string will play one note (like C for example) but different parts of the string are moving differently relative to one another. The part you pluck, where you start the vibration, has a larger degree of movement than the same string further down it: this causes different "frequencies" ... | [
"In music, the undertone series or subharmonic series is a sequence of notes that results from inverting the intervals of the overtone series. While overtones naturally occur with the physical production of music on instruments, undertones must be produced in unusual ways. While the overtone series is based upon ar... |
why do graphics cards, ram and hard drives have such different prices per gb? | Read / Write speeds (usually) is what makes a difference in prices. The Rule of thumb here is Faster access speed - > Expensive parts. I will explain why difference memories need to have difference speeds.
RAM and hard-drives work "almost" the same way, you store information there that you are going to use later. The... | [
"The Prices of different pieces of graphics hardware vary due to the power and speed of the piece. Most high end gaming pieces of hardware are dedicated graphics cards, and cost over $200, and can go as high as the price of a new computer, depending on the quality desired. In the graphics cards department, using in... |
America seems to be fixated on the advances of a rising China. Did the British Empire feel the same imperial angst towards the United States at the turn of the Century? | Yes, they were uneasy to some degree. [The Washington Naval Treaty](_URL_1_) 1922, [The London Naval Treaty](_URL_3_) 1930, and [The Second London Naval Treaty](_URL_0_) 1936, were all attempts to control warship building and reduce tensions between the major naval powers of the day which included Britain, the United S... | [
"The U.S. became a major military and industrial power during this time, gaining a colonial empire from Spain and surpassing Britain and Germany to become the world's major industrial power by 1900. Despite this, most Americans were reluctant to get involved in world affairs, and American presidents generally tried... |
When did Italians start identifying as Italian instead of Latin or Roman? When did they begin to see themselves as fundamentally different from the Romans in Constantinople? | That's a million euro question. The issue of Italian identity has been controversial and debated for a very long time. Italians themselves seem to be unsure: there are examples of Independence and Unification champions travelling to other regions and describing them as "different as Japan" and that was the Age of Natio... | [
"The emergence of identifiable Italian dialects from Vulgar Latin, and as such the possibility of a specifically \"Italian\" ethnic identity, has no clear-cut date, but takes place from roughly 12th century. Modern standard Italian derives from the written vernacular of Tuscan writers of the 12th century.\n",
"Is... |
How can matter remain stable when photons travel at light speed? | Why would atoms be torn apart? Atoms are made of protons (not photons), neutrons, and electrons, all of which travel much more slowly than the speed of light (and can be seen as being at rest).
Photons have finite energy. It's not related to their speed, of course, but rather to their *frequency* - higher frequency ph... | [
"In quantum field theory the Heisenberg uncertainty relations indicate that photons can travel at any speed for short periods. In the Feynman diagram interpretation of the theory, these are known as \"virtual photons\", and are distinguished by propagating off the mass shell. These photons may have any velocity, in... |
why is the sahara a desert when other places at the same latitude are tropical rainforests? | Look across the United States, if you draw a band across the US centered around San Francisco, CA. Coastal community, fairly foggy and cool year round. Nothing like the climate in Salt Lake City, Denver, and so on.
Latitude, geography, wind patterns, proximity to the ocean plus others are all factors in the weather p... | [
"For several hundred thousand years the Sahara has alternated between desert and savanna grassland in a 41,000 year cycle caused by changes (\"precession\") in the Earth's axis as it rotates around the sun which change the location of the North African Monsoon. When the North African monsoon is at its strongest ann... |
What do multiple antiviruses do when both are installed that is so bad? | Antiviruses hook system calls to add their verification routines. System calls addresses are stored in the system service dispatch table (SSDT).
Simply put, when a program wants to open a file, it tells Windows "Open file.txt please", and Windows looks at the SSDT where is the function to open a file, and calls it. An... | [
"Another approach is to trick users into uninstalling legitimate antivirus software, such as Microsoft Security Essentials, or disabling their firewall. Since antivirus programs typically include protection against being tampered with or disabled by other software, scareware may use social engineering to convince t... |
can internet porn really result in erectile dysfunction and lower libido? | EDIT: Thanks to those who replied regarding the error in my interpretation of OP's question. I have replied to the intended question in [a different post](_URL_0_). | [
"There are many concerns that mainstream, male oriented pornography causes rape and sexual aggression in males, calling for more porn created by women for women. A study by Berl Kutchinsky showed that rape crimes did not increase with increased access to pornography, despite popular misconceptions. It is important ... |
what happens if an incumbent president running for reelection loses the election to a challenger but the challenger and running mate are assassinated before being sworn in? | I think it would go to the current speaker of the house. I'm sorry, i couldn't think of a way to make it ELI5 | [
"An incumbent president seeking re-election usually faces no opposition during their respective party's primaries, especially if they are still popular. For presidents Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama, for example, their respective paths to nomination became uneventful and the races beco... |
why do they bother to try and "hide" cell phone towers? | Because it simply looks more aesthetically pleasing. Cell phone towers are an eyesore | [
"Many people view bare cellphone towers as ugly and an intrusion into their neighbourhoods. Even though people increasingly depend upon cellular communications, they are opposed to the bare towers spoiling otherwise scenic views. Many companies offer to 'hide' cellphone towers in, or as, trees, church towers, flag ... |
can photons/light form stable bonds with other atoms? | Photons are massless, electrically neutral 'packets' of energy, so they can't form bonds. The bonds we talk about between atoms come as a result of an equilibrium of the forces of electrostatic attraction/repulsion, and the Pauli exclusion principle, neither of which apply to photons. | [
"For example, a photon is a single quantum of light (or of any other form of electromagnetic radiation). Similarly, the energy of an electron bound within an atom is quantized and can exist only in certain discrete values. (Indeed, atoms and matter in general are stable because electrons can exist only at discrete ... |
why did it hurt so badly when the anaesthetic was injected into my iv? | I'm assuming you had propofol given to you for your anesthetic. A milky white fluid? The pain/burning is not unusual when administered in a smaller vein (relatively speaking). Different people have different sensations to it... from nothing, to slight tingling, to a burning, to outright pain... though most sensations a... | [
"Intramuscular progesterone often causes pain when injected. It irritates tissues and is associated with injection site reactions such as changes in skin color, pain, redness, transient indurations (due to inflammation), ecchymosis (bruising/discoloration), and others. Rarely, sterile abscesses can occur.\n",
"Th... |
How can string theorists assume there are... strings? | no there's no evidence for them, not yet. And most of the experts in the field, so long as they're behaving properly, understand that they just have an interesting idea, not science yet. But the idea stems from an older one in a way. We found that gravity could be explained by a curving of spacetime. Well then we devel... | [
"String theory is a theoretical framework that attempts to reconcile gravity and quantum mechanics. In string theory, the point-like particles of particle physics are replaced by one-dimensional objects called strings. String theory describes how strings propagate through space and interact with each other. In a gi... |
If you had a neutron star and kept adding mass to it, would you eventually see its escape velocity exceed the speed of light? | If you did this it would collapse into a black hole and then its escape velocity would be light speed. Neutron stars accreting mass is one of the ways that black holes can form. | [
"Some neutron stars are inferred to be traveling with similar speeds. This could be related to HVSs and the HVS ejection mechanism. Neutron stars are the remnants of supernova explosions, and their extreme speeds are very likely the result of an asymmetric supernova explosion or the loss of their near partner durin... |
what were the manson family's motives? | I don't blame you for not being able to wrap your head around it. It's very confusing.
Basically, Manson believed that an all out race war was coming between whites and blacks, and that the blacks would eventually win. However, Manson believed that blacks weren't smart enough to govern themselves. So, Manson was goin... | [
"After Manson was released from prison for petty crimes in 1967, the Family moved to San Francisco and later to a deserted ranch in the San Fernando Valley. Manson's followers also included a small, devoted unit of mostly impressionable young women and girls. According to group member Susan Atkins, the Family belie... |
in light of the us open women's final, why was 'coaching' considered a violation and what constitutes a sign of coaching? | A tennis match is considered to be a contest between two (or four, for doubles) athletes, without any outside help. That's a little different than, say, football, soccer, or baseball, where the coach is considered an integral part of the team and is responsible for strategic plays. In tennis, since it's not a league ... | [
"BULLET::::- Illegal coaching – coaching from the bench during play or after an official has said 'Quiet please' with intentions of continuing or starting play. From 2006, rules allowed coaching from the bench during an 'official time-out'.\n",
"In February 2008 Saint Mary's Academy, a school in Kansas affiliated... |
Is there something tangible in the brains of serial killers and the like that separate them from people that can comfortably function within the confines of societal rules? | > Doesn't the "triad of sociopathy" (bedwetting, pyromania, cruelty to animals) point to a problem that could maybe be recognized on a cat scan?
Well, psychopathy couldn't really be seen on a CT scan as that type of neuroimaging has relatively poor ability to visualize the structures of the brain.
However, there i... | [
"Theories for why certain people commit serial murder have been advanced. Some theorists believe the reasons are biological, suggesting serial killers are born, not made, and that their violent behavior is a result of abnormal brain activity. Holmes and Holmes believe that \"until a reliable sample can be obtained ... |
Regarding the History Channel's Viking show: Was wife sharing as much a part of everyday Viking life as the show makes it out to be? | I haven't watched the show, so could you elaborate on what you mean by 'wife sharing?' Infidelity was not generally approved of in early medieval Scandinavia, and it was in fact one of the reasons why people could file for divorce according to Grágás, a 13th century Icelandic law code. | [
"Premiering in 2013, Hirst created \"Vikings\", the History Channel's first foray into serialised drama. It stars Gabriel Byrne, Travis Fimmel, Clive Standen, Katheryn Winnick, Jessalyn Gilsig and Gustaf Skarsgård.\n",
"The show is often famed as having been the place that record producer Simon Cowell made his te... |
How ethnically diverse were Army regiments in the Soviet Union? | Hey! I'm going to focus in on the 1930s and 40s to answer your question.
The Red Army from the Revolution until 1941 was largely a Russian, Ukrainian, and Belorussian institution. The proportion of those ethnicities - especially Russians - in the army never fell below 75%, and was usually much higher. This was an inst... | [
"The 14th Guards Army () was a field army of the Red Army, the Soviet Ground Forces, and the Russian Ground Forces, active from 1956 to 1995. According to sources within the 14th Army, the majority of its troops came from the Pridnestrovian Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic, with 51% of officers and 79% of drafte... |
A hot day feels hotter to humans when humidity is high, as their sweat cannot evaporate as well. Are animals who do not sweat at higher risk of overheating during humid days? | I can think of one example in which the answer is yes. Kangaroos do not sweat (like humans do), and when temperatures are high they have to lick their forearms and dig themselves into the dirt to maintain their body temperatures. This was shown on BBC's the Life of Mammals with David Attenborough, but I haven't been ... | [
"In equatorial climates and during temperate summers, overheating (hyperthermia) is as great a threat as cold. In hot conditions, many warm-blooded animals increase heat loss by panting, which cools the animal by increasing water evaporation in the breath, and/or flushing, increasing the blood flow to the skin so t... |
the difference between weight and resistance training. | Weight training is a sub category of resistance training. Weight training involves the use of weights to build strength. Resistance training uses cables, machines, bodyweight, or weights to build strength. | [
"The basic principles of weight training are essentially identical to those of strength training, and involve a manipulation of the number of repetitions (reps), sets, tempo, exercise types, and weight moved to cause desired increases in strength, endurance, and size. The specific combinations of reps, sets, exerci... |
recorded sound quality | So your three questions are:
1. What the values mean?
2. how significant is the difference in quality?
3. can you hear the difference?
1. The values are whats know as bit rate. The easiest way to describe them is ; audio is a [sine wave](_URL_2_) and they way this audio is captured is every second a number of snapshot... | [
"Sound quality is typically an assessment of the accuracy, fidelity, or intelligibility of audio output from an electronic device. Quality can be measured objectively, such as when tools are used to gauge the accuracy with which the device reproduces an original sound; or it can be measured subjectively, such as wh... |
how does the british parliament function, and how is it different from the us government? | So basic overview:
American: Three Branches; Legislative, executive, and judicial. The Legislative and head of the Executive (e.i President and Congressmen) are elected separate from one another. Legislative is bicameral, meaning two parts called houses. Each house has power of lawmaking.
British: Executive derives fr... | [
"The UK has a parliamentary government based on the Westminster system that has been emulated around the world: a legacy of the British Empire. The parliament of the United Kingdom meets in the Palace of Westminster and has two houses: an elected House of Commons and an appointed House of Lords. All bills passed ar... |
How did the Mars Curiosity Rover take this picture of itself with no visible arm? | The "selfies" taken by Curiosity are actually composite images stitched together from multiple shots. The photos are taken by the "MAHLI" camera that is attached to a flexible robotic arm. In the stitching process, the part of the arm that is in the shot is edited out, because each shot would contain the arm in a diffe... | [
"Their panoramic photograph of Steve Squyres, the principal investigator on the Mars Exploration Rover team, taken in his office at Cornell University, is in the National Portrait Gallery, Washington, DC; it was exhibited in \"Americans Now\" at the Gallery in 2010/11.\n",
"Curiosity, which landed on Mars in 2012... |
Is it true that having sex/masturbating before exercise/weight-lifting has a negative effect on performance? | I haven't seen any evidence that having sex decreases performance, but refraining from having sex when you are used to it will increase testosterone levels. This will in turn make you more aggressive and potentially have a positive impact on athletic performance. Note that the testosterone boost gained from not having ... | [
"BULLET::::- There is no physiological basis for the belief that having sex in the days leading up to a sporting event or contest is detrimental to performance. In fact it has been suggested that sex prior to sports activity can elevate male testosterone level, which could potentially enhance performance.\n",
"So... |
do objects still emit infared radiation at absolute zero (-273°c)? | We don't know, such a temperature has never been achieved and is theoretically impossible to obtain. So there really isn't a definite answer to that question. | [
"All objects with a temperature above absolute zero emit heat energy in the form of radiation. Usually this radiation isn't visible to the human eye because it radiates at infrared wavelengths, but it can be detected by electronic devices designed for such a purpose.\n",
"Any material, that is not at absolute zer... |
why is there such border dispute/flexibility/movement in the middle east when the rest of the world has permanent borders? | The rest of the world *doesn't* have permanent borders. Off the top of my head...
* Ukraine is being torn asunder by Russia.
* Scotland just decided not to leave the UK
* Folks in and around Barcelona want to leave Spain.
* South Sudan broke off from Sudan a few years ago.
* Taiwan and PRofChina are still disagree... | [
"The most complicated border negotiations in the Central Asia region involve the Fergana Valley where multiple enclaves struggle to exist. Three countries share in the tangled border region; Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan all have historic and economic claims to the region's transport routes and natural reso... |
Are there examples of active participation in resisting colonial/imperial powers by their own people in pre-modern to early modern times? | I'm not sure what you mean by "direct" effort. But if activism counts, I'm sure there will be plenty of examples. In the Indian context, [Annie Besant](_URL_0_) comes to my mind, even though I'm not certain she'd be the foremost of such activists. | [
"Other example of successful armed resistance is the Portuguese Colonial War (1961–1974), which led to the independence of Angola, Guinea-Bissau and Mozambique. The Rhodesian Bush War (1966–1979) was not against a colonial metropole, but the minority white government of Ian Smith.\n",
"The historical record shows... |
If F=MA gets to be law, what is it that keeps E=MC^2 from being a law? | It's been asked many times about similar stuff if you search for it. The short answer is that the distinction you're making between "law" and "theory" doesn't really exist. Things got called "laws" prior to the 20th century, but it was just a convention without any rigorous definition.
The laws of thermodynamics are ... | [
"The quantity \"m\"v is called the (canonical) momentum. The net force on a particle is thus equal to the rate of change of the momentum of the particle with time. Since the definition of acceleration is , the second law can be written in the simplified and more familiar form:\n",
"The above statements hint that ... |
Why do USA state's and county's borders get "lazier" as you move to the west coast? | 1) Squares are not formless
2) The original states were often formed by colonial communities from common parts of Europe. There were a number of geographical features AND practical community issues to consider. That is: They were colonized BEFORE the borders were defined.
3) The western states were colonized AFTER ha... | [
"The South Coast region, which extends from Reedsport to the California border, is distinct from the North and Central Coast regions because of its mountainous nature, due to tectonic uplift and terrane accretion in ancient times. Much of the coastline in this region is made up of sea cliffs and miles of beaches. A... |
how can bing rewards be doing any good for microsoft? | The points you get per search are pennies compared to the drive to the website you're creating.
When they try to get advertisers to advertise on Bing, those click counts mean they can charge more money for the same ads.
They make the money back tenfold, probably, especially since you're limited on the number of searc... | [
"Bing Rewards provided credits to users through regular Bing searches and special promotions. These credits were then redeemed for various products including electronics, gift cards, sweepstakes, and charitable donations. Initially, participants were required to download and use the Bing Bar for Internet Explorer i... |
how is it people can jab themselves in the thigh without finding a vein? wouldn't there just be muscle and nothing to inject to? | Some medications, vaccines, etc are meant to be injected intramuscularly. Your muscles have tons of blood vessels that can get the medication into your blood stream.
_URL_0_ | [
"Access to the patient's femoral arteries can be with surgical incisions or percutaneously in the groin on both sides. Vascular sheaths are introduced into the patient's femoral arteries, through which guidewires, catheters and the endograft are passed.\n",
"All techniques involve an approximate 10-cm incision in... |
'bulking' and 'cutting' | Technically yes, in reality most people go *way* too far when they "bulk".
While it is true that you do need a calorie surplus to build larger muscles, the speed that you can build muscles is generally limited more by genetic factors than by how much you are eating. As such when you move into the "bulk" phase of your ... | [
"\"Cutting\" is a collection of processes wherein material is brought to a specified geometry by removing excess material using various kinds of tooling to leave a finished part that meets specifications. The net result of cutting is two products, the waste or excess material, and the finished part. In woodworking,... |
Is it possible to join two pieces of material by having an atomically smooth surface? | I know this happens with metals - _URL_0_ - essentially what's happening with cold welding is that metals have a repeating molecular structure, and in a vacuum, where there are no "junk atoms" to bond to the edges of the metal, just smushing two pieces together is enough to weld them. I anticipate that this can happen ... | [
"When discussing adhesion, this theory needs to be converted into terms relating to surfaces. If there is a net attractive energy of cohesion in a bulk of similar molecules, then cleaving this bulk to produce two surfaces will yield surfaces with a dispersive surface energy, since the form of the energy remain the ... |
How not to get burnt out on history? | > simultaneously want to know everything there is to know about Romans, but also want something else to learn in college.
If you keep this mindset, you'll get burnt out. Knowing things is great; it is also inherently unsustainable and bounded. Coming from another archaeology and Classics major, the real excitement i... | [
"This was, however, a false comparison, as the \"book burnings\" at those historic events were not acts of censorship, nor destructive of other people's property, but purely symbolic protests, destroying only one individual document of each title, for a grand total of 12 individual documents, without any attempt to... |
Is there a significant difference between smoking one time a day and five times every fifth day? | The currently accepted method to quantify tobacco exposure in clinical practice is by using [pack years](_URL_3_). Using this imperfect calculation, both of your smoking scenarios would result in the same amount of pack years smoked. The idea behind pack year calculations is that much research has shown a dose-dependen... | [
"Similarly, smoking has been shown to follow distinct circadian patterns during the waking day—with the high point usually occurring shortly after waking in the morning, and shortly before going to sleep at night.\n",
"Overall, the average smoker consumes 12.4 cigarettes per day, with this figure rising slightly ... |
why does stale bread get softer when you warm it up? shouldn't the heat evaporate whatever water is left and make it harder? | Bread doesn't go stale because it dries out, it goes stale because the starches crystallize. If you weighed fresh vs. stale bread, you'd find the stale bread retains most of it's original weight, meaning it retains most of it's water. Weighing fresh or stale vs. dry would show a significant difference in weight, but dr... | [
"With the passage of time, breads harden and become stale. This is not primarily due to moisture being lost from the baked products, but more a reorganization of the way in which the water and starch are associated over time. This process is similar to recrystallization and is promoted by storage at cool temperatur... |
if our body replaces cells that are damaged/old regularly, then why do donated organs still require the use of anti-rejection medicine years after the surgery? | Cells regenerate with the more of the same cells, basically. As cells replicate, the goal is to copy the previous cell as perfectly as possible. So, a successfully donated organ will always be the same organ essentially, even though it's been completely replaced, many times over, with entirely new cells. | [
"After the procedure, a lifelong regimen of immunosuppressive drugs is necessary to suppress the patient's own immune systems and prevent rejection. Long-term immunosuppression increases the risk of developing life-threatening infections, kidney damage, and cancer. The surgery may result in complications such as in... |
How does water purification tablets work? Also does it matter how dirty the water is or if it is sea water? | There are different types, some work only to disinfect in which case the large particulate should be filtered out first.
Others with by coagulating sound dirt particles to make them heavy enough to sink, effectively separating the water from everything else.
I believe you would be interested in this video: _URL_0_ | [
"Iodine used for water purification is commonly added to water as a solution, in crystallized form, or in tablets containing tetraglycine hydroperiodide that release 8 mg of iodine per tablet adaptation to chronic tetraglycine hydroperiodide. The iodine kills many, but not all, of the most common pathogens present ... |
Will a candle actually help warm up a really cold room? | Yeah, a little, if you light it. According to wikipedia, a candle puts out about 80 Watts of heat energy, which is about the same as what a human puts out. An 800 W heater can heat up a small room, so you should expect that filling a small room with 10 people or 10 candles will warm it up noticeably. | [
"The advantages of using a candle warmer include the absence of open flame and the soot that often results from burning wax. The main disadvantage of a plate candle warmer is candle life. While the candle can still be burned (provided the wick is still exposed), the wax no longer contains any fragrances. Many warme... |
why do i hate foods that i enjoyed when i was younger, and now love foods that i hated as a child? | Our tongues aren't finished developing until [age 16](_URL_0_). | [
"There are multiple parts of an elderly person's life that can affect their preferences in foods. Aspects like the environment, mental & physical health, and lifestyle choices are all contributing to the way a person decides on what foods they happen to like or dislike.\n",
"On young girls not being encouraged to... |
what physical (or non physical) thing determines a unit of memory? | A sperm cell contains 23 chromosomes of DNA. DNA is written in (G, A, T, C) so it's essentially just text written with 4 letters. Bits are written in (0, 1). So for each DNA basepair you need two bits. Fx
> G = 00
> A = 01
> T = 10
> C = 11
Now you have a way to store the human genome as bits on a computer... | [
"Object memory involves processing features of an object or material such as texture, color, size, and orientation. It is processed mainly in the ventral regions of the brain. A few studies have shown that on average most people can recall up to four items each with a set of four different visual qualities. It is a... |
What determines the direction and strength of wind? | Wind is caused by differences in pressure from one region to another, naturally the air tries to expand from high pressure regions to lower pressure regions.
Now your situation being near to an ocean means that air currents are probably well established as the sun heats the planet in the same way year after year. | [
"Wind direction is the opposite of the direction in which the windsock is pointing (note that wind directions are conventionally specified as being the compass point from which the wind originates; so a windsock pointing due north indicates a southerly wind). Wind speed is indicated by the windsock's angle relative... |
why is congress allowed to take so many breaks, many of which last weeks at a time? | Two separate points.
First is all the breaks. The breaks are not time off from the job. That is merely when congress is not in session. The congressmen still have responsibilities within their state, and their time is split between those functions. So even though congress is not in session, that does not mean they are... | [
"Government shutdowns in the United States have occurred periodically since 1980, and are the result of failure to pass appropriations bills before the previous ones expire. Shutdowns of the type experienced by the United States are nearly impossible in other forms of government. The most current shutdown has happe... |
Can a person have diabetes if they are not overweight? | It's definitely possible. Most people who develop [Type I diabetes](_URL_0_) are otherwise healthy. Even Type II diabetes isn't universally caused by obesity. | [
"According to the Dasman Center for Research and Treatment of Diabetes, 15% of the adult population has diabetes, with 50% of adults over 45 living with the disease. 22 of every 100 children have developed diabetes as a result of an unhealthy weight.\n",
"According to the Dasman Center for Research and Treatment ... |
I sometimes hear that the new deal didn't really get us out of the great depression and in fact may have delayed it's end. Is there any truth to this? | This is an excellent question that you unfortunately will probably not have properly answered in your lifetime. There are two reasons for this:
1. It is still intensely relevant to our current politics. How someone is inclined to interpret the New Deal is almost directly correlated to their contemporary political b... | [
"Followers of the real business-cycle theory believe that the New Deal caused the depression to persist longer than it would otherwise have. Harold L. Cole and Lee E. Ohanian say Roosevelt's policies prolonged the depression by seven years. According to their study, the \"New Deal labor and industrial policies did ... |
during famines, children get huge stomachs while the rest of their body is nothing but skin and bone. why is this? | It's called kwashiorkor. It's caused by a deficiency in dietary protein. Basically they can no longer properly retain their fluids and it builds up in the abdomen. Normally proteins in our blood stream help to maintain the right amount of dissolved "stuff" to keep our fluids properly balanced due to osmosis. When there... | [
"Childhood malnutrition is generally thought of as being limited to developing countries, but although most malnutrition occurs there, it is also an ongoing presence in developed nations. For example, in the United States of America, one out of every six children is at risk of hunger. A study, based on 2005–2007 da... |
What is the heaviest metal found that functions in a living organism? | > ~~Iodine is an essential trace element for life, the heaviest element commonly needed by living organisms, and the second-heaviest known to be used by any form of life (only tungsten, a component of a few bacterial enzymes, has a higher atomic number and atomic weight).~~
~~_URL_2_
~~EDIT: Correction, as Iodine i... | [
"Almost all living organisms, from bacteria to humans, store iron as microscopic crystals (3 to 8 nm in diameter) of iron(III) oxide hydroxide, inside a shell of the protein ferritin, from which it can be recovered as needed. \n",
"All known forms of life require iron. Many proteins in living beings contain bound... |
Discipline of Soldiers now and in the Medieval Age? | Frankly, there's no (useful) way to compare the two. Medieval armies did not have the kind of centralization and structural cohesiveness that would allow us to establish a baseline for comparison. While most combatants on the typical medieval battlefield would have trained for war to greater or lesser degree, there wer... | [
"In contrast to the belief of the caste and clan based warrior who saw war as a place to attain valor and glory, warfare was a practical matter that could change the course of history. History always showed that men of lower orders who, provided that they were practically organized and equipped, almost always outfo... |
Theoretically, is it possible for an intelligent being living in the second dimension to 'discover' the third dimension? | Dimensions aren't places, even though the term is often used that way in science fiction. Rather, dimensions are properties of spaces.
Specifically, when we talk about a space having "n dimensions", what we mean is that it takes n numbers to uniquely specify a point in that space. For example, if you want to specify a... | [
"The understanding of three-dimensional space in humans is thought to be learned during infancy using unconscious inference, and is closely related to hand-eye coordination. The visual ability to perceive the world in three dimensions is called depth perception.\n",
"The book describes two \"spaces\" that exist s... |
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