Split (2)

train · 226k rows

question stringlengths 3 301	answer stringlengths 9 26.1k	context list
why does root beer foam so much when poured onto ice cream?	It's a combination of two major factors: - Ice cream has a lot of surface area, which means more nucleation points. More nucleation points mean more bubbles. - Milk and cream have a higher surface tension than water. This means the bubbles are stronger. ----- The reason why Mentos in soda makes it fizz is because a...	[ "One mechanism of destabilization of a beer foam is due to gravitational drainage. The water or liquid between the bubbles will drain and cause the liquid and gas phases to separate. This allows for the bubbles to become close enough to merge. This can be slowed down by increasing the viscosity of the liquid.\n", ...
how do bullets get loaded in the gun from the magazine?	As the bolt travels forward it catches the top of the back of the bullet, pushes it forward and onto a ramp and into the chamber. _URL_0_	[ "To load the magazine, the shooter moves the cartridge-follower along the slot in the top portion of the magazine-tube and pivots it to the right to open the front-end of the magazine. Then, he loads the 15 cartridges one by one. When full, he pivots the top portion back and release the follower.\n", "The ammunit...
Earth is made up of tectonic plates, will the number of these plates ever change over time?	Neither the number of plates or the geometry (i.e. their sizes/shapes) of plates are fixed. It's first worth noting that even the current number of plates is somewhat contentious and depends on how the criteria / data used to define them (e.g. [this paper](_URL_5_) which both lays out a set of criteria for defining 159...	[ "In the history of Earth many tectonic plates have come into existence and have over the intervening years either accreted onto other plates to form larger plates, rifted into smaller plates, or have been crushed by or subducted under other plates (or have done all three).\n", "Plate tectonics (from the Late Lati...
How does the population of wasps survive year on year if they all seemingly die off in the winter?	In many wasp families such as Polistidae and Vespidae, only a fertilized reproductive female (i.e. gyne) overwinters and subsequently starts a colony in the spring.	[ "'P. japonicus\" lives in temperate regions, so these wasps do not all survive through the winter. This results in smaller colonies because many do not have a long life span as a result of winter. Queen-destined females of \"P. japonicus\" have been found to overwinter in wood or human constructions. They have also...
how do n95 masks reduce lung capacity?	Your lungs have to work harder, to force the air through the filter membrane. Working harder can have side effects, but you can accommodate to it (like living at a higher altitude) over time. It's more of a near term problem that you recover from if you work in a job where you wear a respirator all the time.	[ "Typical oxygen masks allow the person to breathe in room air in addition to their therapeutic oxygen, but because filtered oxygen masks use a closed design that minimizes or eliminates the person's contact with and ability to inhale room air, delivered oxygen concentrations to the person have been found to be high...
the ssl handshake protocol.	There are common secure key exchange protocols. An example is [Diffie-Hellman](_URL_0_). That page has a great ELI5 example that I'll narrate: Suppose 2 friends, Alice & Bob want to paint their awesome super-secret clubhouses the same color, but they don't want anyone else (especially the mean girl Eve) to be able...	[ "Once the client and server have agreed to use TLS, they negotiate a stateful connection by using a handshaking procedure. The protocols use a handshake with an asymmetric cipher to establish not only cipher settings but also a session-specific shared key with which further communication is encrypted using a symmet...
if you are flying in an airplane and it is storming, can you get struck by lightning if you are flying above the clouds?	Lighting hits planes all the time as most of the time it just passes thru the plane but some times it can make the plane explode. [the plane explode ](_URL_0_)	[ "An off-duty Northwest Airlines pilot who observed the crash told newspapers that he believed that the airliner had been struck by lightning. Some local farmers said that the plane seemed to barrel roll, but also observed that while rainfall was significant, winds were relatively light.\n", "Before this flight, t...
Which aspect of religion came first, deities or laws/ethics?	You may be interested to know that the ancient Chinese ethical system, Confucianism, has a lot of rules to follow, but no divine reason for following those rules. The only justification for following the rules of Confucianism is because it makes for better people living in a better society. Also, the Aboriginal Dreamt...	[ "Religion is generally defined as a belief system concerning the supernatural, sacred or divine, and practices, values, institutions and rituals associated with such belief. Some religions also have a moral code. The evolution and the history of the first religions have recently become areas of active scientific in...
Has the gravitational constant ever been measured somewhere apart from the surface of the earth?	We can measure it in space. The expansion of the Universe, for example, depends on the value of the gravitational constant. We can constrain deviations from the terrestrial value by looking at [supernovae](_URL_0_), for instance. The abundances of light elements like helium and deuterium also [depend sensitively](_URL_...	[ "In 1901 the third General Conference on Weights and Measures defined a standard gravitational acceleration for the surface of the Earth: \"g\" = 9.80665 m/s. It was based on measurements done at the Pavillon de Breteuil near Paris in 1888, with a theoretical correction applied in order to convert to a latitude of ...
What happens when a black hole is given charge?	You are correct that there would be multiple boundaries, but the probe wouldn't escape the outer event horizon. There are [two horizons](_URL_0_), meaning there is basically a black hole inside a black hole.	[ "A charged black hole is a black hole that possesses electric charge. Since the electromagnetic repulsion in compressing an electrically charged mass is dramatically greater than the gravitational attraction (by about 40 orders of magnitude), it is not expected that black holes with a significant electric charge wi...
these child internment camps.	Crossing the border illegally is a crime. During processing before deportation, the illegal migrant is held in jail so they don't vanish into the US. We don't send kids to jail with their parents, but we have to put them somewhere. This is not a new policy, it's only being more strictly enforced.	[ "The idea of family internment was a new concept proposed with regards to the detention of German and Japanese aliens in World War II. In the Crystal City internment camp, German and Japanese internees lived separately from one another and were placed in two different sections of the Camp. Crystal City INS official...
how does "duty free" work? why do they have it? who is it helping to have overpriced bulky gifts at the airport?	Well when else would you buy a Toblerone?	[ "Duty Free World (\"DFW\") is a U.S. based duty free and travel retailer headquartered in Miami, Florida, specializing in inflight duty-free sales. The company sells primarily luxury products onboard aircraft. It operates from 12 locations around the world to service traveling passengers who purchase through its ai...
Why did Saudi Arabia refuse to accept Osama bin Laden's offer to use his troops during the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait?	The Saudis rejected bin Laden's offer largely because it was arrogant and incredibly naïve of him to believe that the mujahideen, whose experience in Afghanistan was waging asymmetric warfare in a geographical setting perfectly suited to those tactics, could usefully apply those skills against a large, mechanised Ira...	[ "The Iraqi invasion of Kuwait under Saddam Hussein on August 2, 1990, put the Saudi kingdom and the royal family at risk. With Iraqi forces on the Saudi border, Saddam's appeal to pan-Arabism was potentially inciting internal dissent. Bin Laden met with King Fahd, and Saudi Defense Minister Sultan, telling them not...
How similar were ancient libraries to modern public or academic libraries?	The first thing that comes to mind when you're talking about ancient libraries, is the Library of Alexandria in Egypt ~3rd Century BC, when Callimachus created the first bibliography of it, it was 120 volumes of a 200,000 + volume collection, compare Oxford’s Bodleian library in 1602 had only 2500. Books were kept as s...	[ "Private or personal libraries made up of non-fiction and fiction books, (as opposed to the state or institutional records kept in archives) first appeared in classical Greece. In the ancient world, the maintaining of a library was usually (but not exclusively) the privilege of a wealthy individual. These libraries...
why are the demonyms for countries like america, canada, and china (american, canadian, and chinese) different even though they all end with a?	Why isn't a Canadian from Canadia?	[ "English commonly uses national demonyms such as \"Ethiopian\" or \"Guatemalan\", while the usage of local demonyms such as \"Chicagoan\", \"Okie\", or \"Parisian\", is rare. Many local demonyms are rarely used and many places, especially smaller towns and cities, lack a commonly used and accepted demonym altogethe...
if blood is a biohazard, why are feminine hygiene products not thrown away in a more careful way?	In a hospital setting it's treated as a biohazard because there is a much higher change that the owner of the blood is infected in some way (otherwise they wouldn't be in a hospital). Also, the blood isn't treated as a biohazard for the protection of the patients, it's more for the nurses and employees. They have to c...	[ "Due to poverty, some cannot afford commercial feminine hygiene products. Instead, they use materials found in the environment or other improvised materials. Absorption materials that may be used by women who cannot afford anything else include: sand, ash, small hole in earth, cloth, whole leaf, leaf fiber (such as...
Why did Germany not finish Britain off during WW2?	I think this thread got pretty comprehensive replies: _URL_0_	[ "Meanwhile, by the spring of 1940, the Allied cause had taken a decided turn for the worse, as Norway fell after a disastrous British-Norwegian defense, and France and the Low Countries crumbled under the German \"blitzkrieg\". In addition, German submarines—preying upon the convoys in the Atlantic which served as ...
how do scene and torrent groups remove tv show drm??	That kind of flag just send a signal to a device not to allow copying, and relies on circumventing it being illegal under the DMCA. It is kind of like the lock on most homes...pretty easy to overcome, so the deterrent is more about having to commit a serious crime. Technically, DRM on video is a difficult problem. U...	[ "In the aftermath of the takedown of TVTorrents and btefnet, the BitTorrent community felt a need for a site that moderated its content. The two groups were known to never provide any fake links, a problem that used to be quite prevalent on public bittorrent sites prior to improvements in community-powered filterin...
why do airlines force people to keep their seat belts on for so long when people in private planes can lay down, sleep, party, etc.?	Seatbelts aren’t just for collisions or sudden stops while taxiing. They are primarily there to keep you in your seat in the event of bad turbulence. Turbulence can happen suddenly and without warning. If you’re not secured you can easily fly up and hit the ceiling. On your way back down, you can land on another passen...	[ "In aviation, safety measures require all passengers and crew to be seated during take-off and landing, so airlines do not allow passengers to travel without a seat. However, in 2010, Ryanair, a low-cost airline proposed a \"vertical seat\" design for use by standing passengers on its aircraft.\n", "Extremely unr...
Before machinery, how would people make straight edges and find right angles?	For making an edge straight, you can stretch a thread with a bow- like the bow of a bow and arrow. If you put ink on it and snap it against a piece of wood, it will mark a straight line ( and carpenters' chalk lines still work on this principle). Saw or cut to that line, and you have a straight edge. ( If you want a ...	[ "The pointing machine is used for making one-to-one copies of existing sculptures and to reproduce models made of plaster, modeling clay or modeling wax in materials like stone or wood. It is not possible to use a pointing machine to produce enlarged or reduced copies; the traditional instruments for this are a set...
My History teacher once told me that the Soviets (during world war two) had so many men but so few guns that many had to run into battle unarmed and pick up dead men's weapons, how true is this?	This question come up all the time. u/Searocksandtrees gave a good summary of some of the responses in [this post](_URL_0_). It's definitely not "pretty spot on".	[ "The three Soviet fronts had altogether 2.5 million men (including 78,556 soldiers of the 1st Polish Army), 6,250 tanks, 7,500 aircraft, 41,600 artillery pieces and mortars, 3,255 truck-mounted Katyusha rocket launchers (nicknamed 'Stalin's Pipe Organs'), and 95,383 motor vehicles, many manufactured in the US.\n", ...
does eating spicy food destroy beneficial bacteria in your colon?	I am not an expert by any means, but [this article](_URL_0_) suggests that capsaicin, the active ingredient in spicy food, actually has a beneficial effect on your gut flora. Giving mice capsaicin increased the number of good gut bacteria and reduced the number of bad gut bacteria.	[ "The manipulation of the gut microbiota is complex and may cause bacteria-host interactions. Although probiotics are considered safe, when they are used by oral administration there is a risk of passage of viable bacteria from the gastrointestinal tract to the internal organs (bacterial translocation) and subsequen...
I just found out wild hamsters are rare. What's the story on how we tamed them?	The link describes but I'll summarize _URL_0_ Specifically, it's _Syrian_ hamsters that are rare in the wild, there are other species. But Syrian hamsters are the most commonly kept as pets. So in 1930, a scientist went to catch some Syrian hamsters in order to study them. After a lot of effort (including digging ...	[ "Hamsters first gained popularity as pets in the 1930s, with virtually all modern Syrian hamsters (the most common pet species) tracing their lineage back to a single litter of hamsters taken to Palestine for scientific research in 1930. Shortly thereafter, in 1938, hamsters were introduced to the United States. Dw...
why was america online (aol) unable to become a popular internet service provider after the dial-up days ended?	What replaced dial-up was faster connections directly to your home. Companies that already owned the connection to your home - the phone company and the cable company - were the only ones in a position to exploit those and offer broadband. That's why most people only have a choice of at most two broadband providers, an...	[ "In 1994, the \"Washington Times\" reported that America Online (AOL) was selling detailed personal information about its subscribers to direct marketers, without notifying or asking its subscribers; this article led to the revision of AOL's terms of service three years later.\n", "AOL was one of the early pionee...
why do some gasses have an odour while others are odourless?	Nature has sculpted all living things through evolution for billions of years. Species tend to evolve ways to avoid deadly gasses. Sulfur for instance is highly toxic. We would want to be instinctually repulsed by that odor, otherwise our natural curiosity may end up killing us. I imagine the reason there are noxious g...	[ "Odours occur as well in chemical processing of coal or crude oil into precursor chemicals (feedstocks) for downstream industrial uses (e.g. plastics or pharmaceutical production) and the ubiquitous needs of petroleum distillation for gasolines, diesel, and other grades of fuel oils production.\n", "These gases h...
AMA - Byzantine Empire	How did educated Byzantines view earlier Greek states, such as Athens, Macedonia, or the Seleucid Empire? I know that they valued the cultural legacy of Greece, but their political identity always seems more connected to Rome. Did they share any of the modern sense that the Greco-Persian Wars somehow safeguarded the de...	[ "The Byzantine Empire was ruled by the Palaiologos dynasty in the period between 1261 and 1453, from the restoration of Byzantine rule to Constantinople by the usurper Michael VIII Palaiologos following its recapture from the Latin Empire, founded after the Fourth Crusade (1204), up to the Fall of Constantinople to...
when i am really angry, why does throwing something make me feel better?	I would say that it's the release of energy that eases you. I actually do a set or two of push ups when I'm mad. I put that energy towards something productive instead.	[ "Frustration can be considered a problem–response behavior and can have a number of effects, depending on the mental health of the individual. In positive cases, this frustration will build until a level that is too great for the individual to contain or allow to continue, and thus produce action directed at solvin...
It's WWII in Germany and i live in Munich. I'm not a member of the Nazi party, I'm not Jewish. I'm a normal german citizen working for a family business. How is my life different than before the war?	Are we talking 1940 or 1944? The answers are going to be completely different depending on whether Germany was winning or losing at the time.	[ "In 1939, the municipal government was taken over by the German Nazi Party (NSDAP) following the city's surrender during the German invasion of Poland. It quickly began to engage in anti-Semitic violence and state-sponsored discrimination. Many Jews were fired from their positions and fled Danzig.\n", "After Hitl...
how does the rest of the world find out so much about north korea when they're so isolated.	There's a few ways actually: * Official NK news sources. Many of these such as Rodun Simuun (sp?) and the like can be accessed from outside the DPRK. Whilst /r/Pyongyang has become something of a Reddit joke, if you look in the sidebar then you'll find there a fairly long list detailing various DPRK media. * Radio....	[ "North Korea Uncovered is a comprehensive set of mappings of North Korea. It includes in-depth coverage of thousands of buildings, monuments, missile-storage facilities, mass graves, secret labor camps, palaces, restaurants, tourist sites, and main roads of the country, and even includes the entrance to the country...
How honest were WW2 tank crews with the number of Kill rings on the barrel?	I wouldn't call it so much dishonest as I would ill-informed. Modern combat the likes of which we saw in WW2 was often hectic enough that it was difficult to confirm kills - if 4 Shermans shot at a Panzer IV and then the crew was seen to bail out or the vehicle to "brew up," it was likely that each crew would assume th...	[ "The United States military used a short-barreled version known variously as the \"trench\" or \"riot\" shotgun. The Winchester Model 1897 was the major production, but Remington made 3500 of the Model 10-A version for issue to U.S. troops during World War I. The Model 10 was modified by reducing barrel length to 2...
How does my brain know where my hands are in 3D space?	Humans have more than the 5 "classic" senses. One sense we have that people seem to overlook is [proprioception](_URL_0_). There are specialized stretch receptors in muscles and ligaments that allow your brain to figure out the positions of joints and the force being applied by muscles. An interesting quote from the...	[ "Usually, the system provides the user a 3D cursor represented as a human hand whose movements correspond to the motion of the hand tracker. This virtual hand technique is rather intuitive because simulates a real-world interaction with objects but with the limit of objects that we can reach inside a reach-area.\n"...
why do you get that awful feeling in your stomach when you hear bad news or feel betrayed or jealous?	"Butterflies in the stomach" is caused by the fight or flight response, adrenaline draining blood from the stomach to other areas. I would guess it is a similar biological response, if not the same one. Jealousy particularly is more defined by your reaction to the feeling (sadness, anger, etc).	[ "Gastritis or stomach upset is a common irritating disorder affecting millions of people. Gastritis is basically inflammation of the stomach wall lining and has many causes. Smoking, excess alcohol consumption and the use of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), such as ibuprofen, account for the majority...
tpp, ttip, and tisa and what they're (doing) trying to do.	All three are trade agreements between the U.S., Asian countries and the E.U. They are all designed to reduce trade barriers that exist between countries. Beyond that, things get very political, very fast.	[ "The contents of the TPP go far beyond the standards drafted by the World Trade Organization. The TPP includes a negative-list of all sectors covered for the liberalizing trade, except for those clearly stated. The TPP includes new regulation for online commerce, treatment of foreign investors, far more comprehensi...
what happens to a deceased person's phone number, bank account, etc?	Usually they close the bank account and give the remaining balance to the beneficiary labeled on the account. A phone number is taken out of circulation for a certain period and then given back to the system as a new.number.	[ "BULLET::::- The Phone Goes Dead – A teenage boy discovers that his mobile phone can receive calls from the dead, after its last owner died while using it. He repeatedly receives messages telling him to tell people about how to deal with their death, but he never tells anybody. His parents later receive a phone cal...
If traveling close enough to the speed of light, would a human live to make it to the edge of the observable universe?	If you can achieve speeds relative to Earth arbitrarily close to the speed of light, then you can travel an arbitrarily large distance (as measured on Earth) in an arbitrarily small amount of time (as measured by you). For example, if you could travel at 0.9999999999999999999999999999999999997 c you could reach a po...	[ "Since one can not travel faster than light, one might conclude that a human can never travel farther from Earth than 40 light years if the traveler is active between the ages of 20 and 60. One would easily think that a traveler would never be able to reach more than the very few solar systems which exist within th...
what is reddit built on and how does each of the technologies used work together?	[Python is a programming language](_URL_1_). [Pylons is a web framework for Python](_URL_0_). Basically, it's a toolkit that gives you some of the generic pieces of a web application, allowing you to focus on the bits that make your site unique. [Cassandra is a database originally written by Facebook](_URL_4_) that...	[ "The Ourboox platform enables users to add text in any language that is compatible with html5, to add artwork in jpeg, png, or gif formats, and to embed various media content from other websites, e.g. YouTube, Vimeo, SoundCloud and others.\n", "Techmeme works by scraping news websites and blogs, and then compiles...
When did the idea of the future become that of Sci-fi?	About 1827. Jane Loudon's The Mummy! A Tale of the 22nd Century is the earliest speculative fiction I can find that pictures a future of changed and advanced technology and society. Others like Shelley's The Last Man picture a future where everything of technology and even costume is unchanged, with some political ...	[ "Future Life, known as \"Future\" in its first year, was a science and science fiction magazine published from 1978 to 1981 by O'Quinn Studios. Contributors included Harlan Ellison, Ed Naha, Boris Vallejo, and many more. It covered futuristic topics - largely space travel - as well current scientific events of the ...
why do schools in the us invest so much money in sports when education appears to be falling behind?	College sports are billion dollar industries because the nation as a whole is invested in alma maters, student athletes, sports in its "purest form," and the idea that "I followed this player before he made it big." That's why people like Coach K have multimillion dollar salaries. It's economics, supply-and-demand.	[ "A second factor concerns the transformation of education system. Nowadays, schools do not solely rely on governments funding; instead, students’ fees are thought of as major income. Universities are more competitive because students as customers choose prestigious schools which are highly evaluated on the aspect o...
how do silly bands (the weirdly shaped plastic bands from a decade ago) retain their shape even after stretching them for long periods of time?	Plastics are made of extremely long, skinny molecules, and a good analogy for what that's like is a big bowl of spaghetti. Weaker plastics are held together by weak attraction between the molecules, as well as the molecules being tangled up. Some plastics, like rubber, have additional strength and the ability to spri...	[ "Rubber bands are made by extruding the rubber into a long tube to provide its general shape, putting the tubes on mandrels, curing the rubber with heat, and then slicing it across the width of the tube into little bands. This causes the tube to split into multiple sections, creating a rubber band. Which is then sh...
why do little kids like sweet flavors so much more than adults do?	There's a few factors. Firstly, children don't have an upper limit on how sweet a food they'll eat. Finding sweet food sickly isn't something developed until adulthood. Apparently this has something to do with bone growth. Secondly, children have a lot more taste buds than adults. We lose taste buds as we age. Third...	[ "The process of acquiring a taste can involve developmental maturation, genetics (of both taste sensitivity and personality), family example, and biochemical reward properties of foods. Infants are born preferring sweet foods and rejecting sour and bitter tastes, and they develop a preference for salt at approximat...
why we get lot of sticky spit in our mouth when we are crying and lot of snot in nose?	There is actually a duct running from your eyes into your nasal cavity (nasolacrimal duct), and liquid can run down the back of your nasal cavity into your throat. Apparently, this means medicine applied into your eyes (like eye drops) can end up running into your mouth. Also, excess mucus can run up these ducts out ...	[ "This is the reason the nose starts to run when a person is crying or has watery eyes from an allergy, and why one can sometimes taste eye drops. For the same reason when applying some eye drops it is often advised to close the nasolacrimal duct by pressing it with a finger to prevent the medicine from escaping the...
can a human fetus grow inside an animal?	Almost certainly not. Doing so would be like doing an organ transplant on steroids. Not only would the doctors/scientists have to find a way for the carrier not to reject the fetus, the larger underlying problem is how to nourish the fetus inside the animal. You’d have to find an animal that has super similar pregna...	[ "A fetus is a stage in the prenatal development of viviparous organisms. This stage lies between embryogenesis and birth . Many vertebrates have fetal stages, ranging from most mammals to many fish. In addition, some invertebrates bear live young, including some species of onychophora and many arthropods. The preva...
How small would an asteroid or other object have to be for you to be able to reach escape velocity simply by jumping off of it?	It's the amount of mass, not necessarily the size that matters here. Escape velocity v can be defined as: v^2 = 2GM/r and the average human jump speed is about 2.5m/s so we have M/r = 3.125/G = 4.683 x 10^10 kg s^2 m^-3 Now, M/r by itself is not useful but if we assume the body has the same density as the Earth, w...	[ "For larger asteroids ( 100m to 1 km across), prediction is based on cataloging the asteroid, years to centuries before it could impact. This technique is possible as they can be seen from a long distance due to their large size. Their orbits therefore can be measured and any future impacts predicted long before th...
Can car engines be given an efficiency rating based upon horsepower ratings?	You are a little confused with your units and physical quantities. You can't convert hp to joules. Joules measure energy (or work). Horsepower and watt measure power, ie energy (or work) over time. There are several definition of HP, depending on where you live (like gallons) but it's usually about 700-750 watts. ...	[ "Reciprocating engines can be characterized by their specific power, which is typically given in kilowatts per litre of engine displacement (in the U.S. also horsepower per cubic inch). The result offers an approximation of the peak power output of an engine. This is not to be confused with fuel efficiency, since h...
if japanese is read top to bottom how do their text boxes work?	It can also be read and written left to right the same way as English and other such languages. So it works no differently.	[ "Traditionally, Japanese is written in a format called , which is inspired by the traditional Chinese system. In this format, the characters are written in columns going from top to bottom, with columns ordered from right to left. After reaching the bottom of each column, the reader continues at the top of the colu...
Was there an official line of communication betwen the Nazi and Allied leaderships during WWII? If so, what was discussed?	This is a question I've wondered about. It turns out the answer is the system of "protecting powers" _URL_0_, in which the interests of one state are protected in a second state by the diplomats of a third state, when state 1 and state 2 don't have diplomatic relations. In WWII, this meant that most communication went ...	[ "During World War II, radio was used to propagandize Germany; German POWs would be brought on to speak and assure their relatives they were alive, with propaganda being inserted between the announcement that a soldier would speak and when he actually did, in the time allowed for his family to gather.\n", "BULLET:...
Why do bullets spin?	Learnt this in Physics. It's to do with he Magnus effect. 'The Magnus effect is the phenomenon whereby a spinning object flying in a fluid creates a whirlpool of fluid around itself, and experiences a force perpendicular to the line of motion. The overall behaviour is similar to that around an airfoil (see lift force)...	[ "Top spin is imparted to a ball by hitting it above the midpoint of its vertical plane as it faces the shooter. Top spin is spin in the direction a ball naturally \"wants\" to take in reaction to friction from contact with the pool cloth. Because of this, a ball sliding on the cloth will rapidly pick up follow. Lik...
What was the romantic relationship process like for humans in ancient times before the modern form of "dating" was invented?	Can you define "ancient times"?	[ "Generally, during much of recorded history of humans in civilization, and into the Middle Ages in Europe, weddings were seen as business arrangements between families, while romance was something that happened outside of marriage discreetly, such as covert meetings. The 12th-century book \"The Art of Courtly Love\...
how do particle accelerators work? how do they achieve the accuracy to collide one atom or subatomic particle with another, especially considering that we can't create true vacuum?	I guess the most important thing to remember is that atoms are mostly empty space. Even when there's a stack of them, they don't tend to talk to each other much, because they're so small and don't influence things unless they're really, really close together. As for how big those numbers appear to be, don't let them f...	[ "The output of a particle accelerator can generally be directed towards multiple lines of experiments, one at a given time, by means of a deviating electromagnet. This makes it possible to operate multiple experiments without needing to move things around or shutting down the entire accelerator beam. Except for syn...
[NSFW] How did large Roman armies handle sewage?	Excellent question! And there are a few different answers, really. The first, easiest one would be applicable to an army on the march. When an army was traipsing around the countryside for whatever reason, their camps would be temporary structures, created and destroyed daily. In this case, a cesspit would be dug and w...	[ "Sanitation in ancient Rome was quite extensive. These systems consisted of stone and wooden drains to collect and remove wastewater from populated areas—see for instance the Cloaca Maxima into the River Tiber in Rome. It is estimated that the first sewers of ancient Rome were built between 800 and 735 BCE. Neverth...
(Computing) Is there a reason many places have a limit on how long you can make a password?	In most cases the limit is arbitrary. The password should be hashed before being stored in a database and all of these hashes will be the same length anyway (if the hash length were dependent on the password length then it would leak information about the password). If the length limit is low then it may imply that so...	[ "Many policies require a minimum password length. Eight characters is typical but may not be appropriate. Longer passwords are generally more secure, but some systems impose a maximum length for compatibility with legacy systems.\n", "possible combinations. Taking a single machine that could attempt 500 passwords...
why is it that an image appears large to the naked eye but once i take my phone out to take a picture it's not at the same scale?	The lens on your phone's camera is equivalent to a 30-35mm lens on a 35mm format camera. That gives the ability to have a fairly wide angle field of view. The focal length which best mimics the perspective of the human eye is closer to 50mm.	[ "Pictures taken in this fashion take on the appearance of a miniature model, taken from a short distance, and those not familiar with such pictures often cannot be convinced that it is the real object. This is because we cannot see depth when looking at such scenes in real life and our brains aren't equipped to dea...
What is known about the fate of Hitler's corpse?	Hitler had set orders that his body be cremated upon his suicide, his body was burnt in the Reich Chancellery outside the bunker. Soviet records show the remains of Hitler and his wife Eva were buried in unmarked graves outside of Berlin In 1970 the remains were interred and burnt again afterwards scattering the ashes...	[ "In 1970, the Soviet autopsy on Hitler's remains was released. This document, which was allegedly compiled shortly after the conclusion of World War II on the basis of the examination of the remains claimed to be those of the Führer, stated he was monorchid. It stated:\n", "In the following days, a lot of specula...
r/askscience, is there anywhere in the world where I could look through a telescope to physically see the artifacts left by astronauts on the moon?	What if the Hubble Space Telescope were aimed at Earth; how detailed would the images be? [Relevant XKCD Comic](_URL_0_)	[ "This wafer was supposedly covertly attached to a leg of the Lunar Module \"Intrepid\", and subsequently left on the Moon during Apollo 12. \"Moon Museum\" is considered the first Space Art object. While it is impossible to tell if \"Moon Museum\" is actually on the Moon without sending another mission to look, tec...
Why do we get high/loopy when we become tired?	Per _URL_0_ it would appear that the brain switches into a different form of functionality when sleep deprived. Certain parts of the brain stop reacting normally(as compared to being wide awake), and other parts start over-reacting. The prefrontal cortex tends to become over-active and that could explain why our be...	[ "Fatigue can be a symptom of a medical problem, but more commonly it is a normal physiological reaction to exertion, lack of sleep, boredom, changes to sleep-wake schedules (including jet lag), or stress.\n", "Fatigue is a subjective feeling of tiredness that has a gradual onset. Unlike weakness, fatigue can be a...
Is time actually linear?	You can't really have a stationary point in 3D space, any point in space is either a point in space and time or it's a line in spacetime. I recommend reading [this superb post by RobotRollCall](_URL_0_), it will show that a beam of light is not travelling through time at all. I don't have the technical knowledge to ex...	[ "If a time-invariant system is also linear, it is the subject of linear time-invariant theory (linear time-invariant) with direct applications in NMR spectroscopy, seismology, circuits, signal processing, control theory, and other technical areas. Nonlinear time-invariant systems lack a comprehensive, governing the...
What was a typical day in the life of an ordinary sailor like during the Golden Age of Exploration?	First of all, a disclaimer, most of what I know deals with the Golden Age of Piracy (roughly 1650-1730) rather than the Golden Age of Exploration (1490-1600s sometime). Also, both of those terms are terribly Eurocentric, but what can you do.. Anyway, in the Age of Sail, a typical sailor's day would have consisted esse...	[ "Such voyages helped to improve his health, and possibly to prolong his life. He also took a great deal of pleasures from his experiences aboard ship, particularly when he had the honour of spending a month in the company of George Bernard Shaw; he later described how he spent \"many hours every day talking – the g...
How could men serve in WW2, Korea, and Vietnam?	So people often trot out 20 years as a full military career, and in many cases it is what the goal is and has been for decades. But often especially senior officers in command billets will serve significantly longer periods of time. 20 is often talked about because for decades it has been the time required for receivin...	[ "Korean soldiers that volunteered for service in Vietnam were given bonuses: they would \"receive credit for three years of military duty for each year served in Vietnam as well as additional monetary entitlements; further, combat duty would enhance their future Army careers.\"\n", "From 1944 to 1946, he served i...
why do diamonds sparkle but other carbon-based materials do not?	Maybe off-topic but here's why diamonds are transparent: A diamond consists of a 3 dimensional array of carbon atoms bound together. A chemical bond is just electrons moving around two atoms binding them together by electrostatic forces. Electrons can absorb light, which raises their energy level, and they loose the en...	[ "Diamonds have been adapted for many uses because of the material's exceptional physical characteristics. Most notable are its extreme hardness and thermal conductivity (900–), as well as wide bandgap and high optical dispersion. Diamond's ignition point is 720– in oxygen and 850– in air.\n", "Diamond is a solid ...
why cant humans have a food that brushes their teeth?	Um. Any crunchy fruit (apples, pears) or vegetables (carrots, celery) all help to keep our teeth clean?	[ "However oral hygiene is effective at preventing gum disease (gingivitis / periodontal disease). Food is forced inside pits and fissures under chewing pressure, leading to carbohydrate-fuelled acid demineralisation where the brush, fluoride toothpaste, and saliva have no access to remove trapped food, neutralise ac...
US and EU increased sanctions on Russia recently. What specifically do they mean by 'sanctions' and what are typical sanctions a country might impose?	Usually, banking sanctions have to do with a bank's ability to get financing (capital) in multiple forms (short, medium, and long term) from another financial institution. In this case, the US has banned its banks (and the EU has recently done so too) from providing medium and long term financing for Russian state-ow...	[ "The US and European Union vowed early May 2014 that they would impose further sanctions against Russia (sanctions have been in place against Russia since the 2014 Crimean crisis) if it disrupted the election. However, unlike previous sanctions which were limited to individuals and companies, the third stage is set...
During the Weimar Republic there were a lot of different parties in the parliament, many with a low amount of representatives. What role did this play in its downfall?	The Wiemar Republic is generally said to end when the Enabling act is passed in 1933, and this is true. But Hitler didn't get that act passed because of a large amount of minor parties, but rather because he managed to destroy the major parties that actually opposed him using violence and intimidation. Around the ti...	[ "In the thirteen years the Weimar Republic was in existence, some forty parties were represented in the Reichstag. This fragmentation of political power was in part due to the peculiar parliamentary system of the Weimar Republic, and in part due to the many challenges facing German democracy in this period.\n", "...
Were there political parties in colonial America?	Yes, there were political parties in Colonial America. My expertise is in New York history, so I will confine my answer to that, so maybe someone else can fill you in on the rest. As you may know, New York was originally a Dutch colony that was taken over by the English in 1664. But the takeover wasn't altogether peac...	[ "None of the colonies had stable political parties of the sort that formed in the 1790s, but each had shifting factions that vied for power, especially in the perennial battles between the appointed governor and the elected assembly. There were often \"country\" and \"court\" factions, representing those opposed to...
Is there any truth to the notion that North Americans Natives tribes's war were not "deadly" before European contact ?	Sounds like an exaggeration of the Great Plains tradition of "Counting Coup". Key to a man's success in Plains combat was demonstrating his own courage by proving superiority over his opponent and, in a competitive sense, over his own comrades. Killing was part of war, but showing courage in the process was more import...	[ "Because a large part of the conflict between the native tribes took place far beyond the frontier and in locations that had yet to have European contact, the full extent and impact of the war is unknown. Most knowledge of the western parts of the conflict comes through accounts of French explorers and the tribes t...
Was Joseph McCarthy as 'crazy' as he is made out to be?	This has been asked a few times, but there's never been, as far as I can tell, a comprehensive and well-sourced answer. So, I encourage people to provide one. That said, there have been _good_ answers. Here's [one](_URL_0_) with some good debate about what McCarthy got right or wrong, and [another](_URL_1_) that disc...	[ "McCarthy went straight to the police. At first they did not believe him. They accused him of having had too much to drink and he was told to go home and sleep it off. They even said that he was crazy. He went back again the next day and tried to explain what had happened, but they still didn't believe him. This pe...
why do our eyes start to get watery after staring at something for awhile?	Your eyes get dry when you "stare" at something (without blinking), so a gland near your eye produces a small bit of tears to keep things moist	[ "There may also be a stringy discharge from the eyes. Although it may seem strange, dry eye can cause the eyes to water. This can happen because the eyes are irritated. One may experience excessive tearing in the same way as one would if something got into the eye. These reflex tears will not necessarily make the e...
why is it that a car journey feels less bumpy if you are the driver?	For the same reason that you cannot tickle yourself: anticipation of effect dampens perception of effect. When you are driving a car you control the speed, direction, and changes in velocity while also viewing road conditions that generate bumps. Using all of this information, you can usually correctly anticipate mov...	[ "High levels of comfort are difficult to reconcile with a low center of gravity, body roll resistance, low angular inertia, support for the driver, steering feel and other characteristics that make a car handle well.\n", "Good ride quality provides comfort for the people inside the car, minimises damage to cargo ...
The Godfather and popular depictions of Sicily in early 1900s: corruption, mafia, backwardness. How true is this depiction and how did Sicily end up that way?	The mafia in Siciliy appears to have its origins in the 19th Century brotherhoods that formed in Palermo and other Sicilian cities. The Sicilian economy was largely dependent on Sulphur mining and Lemon orchards which were prone to corrupt management. The brotherhoods effectively formed as crude workers unions to prote...	[ "Sicily suffered a ferocious outbreak of the Black Death in 1656, followed by a damaging earthquake in the east of the island in 1693. Sicily was frequently attacked by Barbary pirates from North Africa. The subsequent rebuilding created the distinctive architectural style known as Sicilian Baroque. Periods of rule...
[Question about the Black Death] Did Cats or Dogs that hunted the infected rats get affected by the plague?	I'm not too familiar with medical history but I've done some reading and took a class on the Black Death. I'm sure there are others that would be more qualified on this topic. Your second assumption is correct, the predator animals and the rats became infected with plague and died, so having a cat or dog would be use...	[ "Wild rodents, including rats, can carry many different zoonotic pathogens, such as \"Leptospira\", \"Toxoplasma gondii\", and \"Campylobacter\". The Black Death is traditionally believed to have been caused by the microorganism \"Yersinia pestis\", carried by the tropical rat flea (\"Xenopsylla cheopis\"), which p...
What do we know about the judicial system of ancient Egypt?	Most of the time people use Ancient Egypt that way :D However, Egypt did indeed keep a lot of its' institutions very similar throughout much of its' native dynasties. But, for clarity's sake, let's stick with the New Kingdom period. Save for perhaps the Ptolemaic period, this is arguably the time that most people thi...	[ "The head of the legal system was officially the pharaoh, who was responsible for enacting laws, delivering justice, and maintaining law and order, a concept the ancient Egyptians referred to as Ma'at. Although no legal codes from ancient Egypt survive, court documents show that Egyptian law was based on a common-s...
What language was spoken by common Romans?	It depended where they lived. If they lived in Rome, they spoke Latin. Elsewhere they spoke their native language - Greek in Greece, Aramaic in Judea, the various Celtic dialects in north western Europe, and so on.	[ "The native language of the Romans was Latin, an Italic language in the Indo-European family. Several forms of Latin existed, and the language evolved considerably over time, eventually becoming the Romance languages spoken today.\n", "The native language of the Romans was Latin, an Italic language the grammar of...
Blues music originated from slaves in the US and has influenced and permeated almost all Western music for the last century. Is there any evidence of music playing slave owners adopting "black styles" of music? If so, how was this perceived by other whites?	You know how 'blackface' - the practice of white singers and actors darkening their faces to act black - is now so taboo as to be a career-ending move? Well, there's a very good historical reason for that taboo: a genre of music called minstrelsy. Put it this way: you know how the post-Reconstruction racial segregati...	[ "While the findings of Kubik and others clearly attest to the essential Africanness of many essential aspects of blues expression, studies by Willie Ruff and others have situated the origin of \"black\" spiritual music inside enslaved peoples' exposure to their masters' Hebridean-originated gospels. African-America...
To what extent was Spain colonized by Carthage?	You may find something like [this map](_URL_0_) to be a better representation of the complexities of Carthaginian Spain. Carthage did have true colonies in Spain. But they were limited to the SE coast between Gadir and New Carthage. They also had a band of conquered territory. This was populated by native Spanish peo...	[ "Carthage was founded in 814 BC by Phoenician colonists from Tyre, and by the 6th century BC the sailors and merchants of Carthage were known throughout the western Mediterranean. In the 4th century BC, following a series of military conquests, Carthage controlled many territories west of the gulf of Sirte in prese...
What is the difference between a proton and a positron?	A proton is about 1800 times as massive, for one.	[ "Protons are spin-½ fermions and are composed of three valence quarks, making them baryons (a sub-type of hadrons). The two up quarks and one down quark of a proton are held together by the strong force, mediated by gluons. A modern perspective has a proton composed of the valence quarks (up, up, down), the gluons,...
how does apple cider vinegar help relieve heartburn?	Not a Dr but this what mine told me. Also it works for me. There is some reason why you stomach is making more acid than it needs, by taking an antacid you are neutralizing acid and therefore your stomach makes even more to compensate. By adding acid in your stomach is all like "Hey we are good to go on acid so stop ma...	[ "Apple cider vinegar, or cider vinegar, is a vinegar made from fermented apple juice, and used in salad dressings, marinades, vinaigrettes, food preservatives, and chutneys. It is made by crushing apples, then squeezing out the juice. Bacteria and yeast are added to the liquid to start the alcoholic fermentation pr...
Would English archers receive any melee weaponry or training? In close quarters, would they fare any better than a civilian?	If we're talking about English longbowmen in the high Middle Ages, then yes, they would have had some sort of melee weapon for backup use if they were surprised at close ranges. Jean Warrin, writing about Agincourt, described the actions of the English longbowmen as they ran out of arrows and charged the French flanks:...	[ "Archers are shown preparing to fight French forces whom have double the number of soldiers as the British on the battlefield. The longbow allows the British to become victorious due to the ranged advantage and the high rate of fire.\n", "BULLET::::- Archery: The most valuable archers were the crossbowmen. Their ...
why do car companies name their cars a year in advance?	The 2015 cars are just 2015 models that are released early. The are normally released in the last few months before the year ends. This stops the lull in sales that occurs when people decide that they want to wait to buy a car until next years model comes out, because it already has.	[ "As well as yielding many more available numbers, it was a handy way for vehicle buyers to know the age of the vehicle immediately. However, the year letter changing on 1 January each year meant that car retailers soon started to notice that buyers would tend to wait until the New Year for the new letter to be issu...
Where was the Judicial Review principle of the United States based from? how did it came to existence?	See the case of [Marbury v. Madison](_URL_0_). In that case, the Supreme Court under John Marshall found the long-existing concept of judicial review to be implicit in the constitution.	[ "Although it is a potent check on the other branches of the U.S. government, the power of judicial review was rarely exercised in early American history. After deciding \"Marbury\" in 1803, the Supreme Court did not strike down another federal law until 1857, when the Court struck down the Missouri Compromise in th...
how do they make 3d sound work?	They do it the same way they create the 3D illusion for your eyes -- by controlling how long it takes the information to get to your brain. In the case of 3D vision, the image going to your left eye comes from a slightly different place than your right eye, and your brain fills in the blanks to create 3D. For audio, i...	[ "3D Audio displays are devices that present information (in this case sound) through the human auditory system, its objective is to generate and display a spatialized 3D sound so the user can use its psychoacoustic skills and be able to determine the location and direction of the sound. There are different localiza...
How valid is Lucid Dreaming? Can you really condition yourself to Dream what you want?	The first evidence for lucid dreaming was produced in the late 1970s by British parapsychologist Keith Hearne. A volunteer named Alan Worsley used eye movement to signal the onset of lucidity, which were recorded by a polysomnograph machine. The first peer-reviewed article was published some years later by Stephen La...	[ "Though lucid dreaming can be beneficial to a number of aspects of life, some risks have been suggested. People who have never had the experience of lucid dreaming may not understand what is happening when they first experience a lucid dream. The person who lucid dreams could begin to feel isolated from others due ...
How likely is it for meiosis to dish out extra and lacking chromosomes which happen to result in the correct total for a 'normal' human?	What you are describing is actually a reasonably well studied phenomenon known as [uniparental disomy](_URL_0_). For hard numbers, it is difficult to tell how often this occurs, because if it causes no ill effects or phenotypic expression in the offspring, it will go undetected for their whole life. There are definit...	[ "As it has been already mentioned, the Y chromosome is unable to recombine during meiosis like the other human chromosomes; however, in 2003, researchers from MIT discovered a process which may slow down the process of degradation.\n", "Without proper homologous recombination, chromosomes often incorrectly align ...
How can a black hole's singularity be a "point", wouldn't that violate the pauli exclusion principle?	/u/rantonels has covered the problem with the singularity part of the question but there are other problems too: 1) Any calculations in GR are purely classical so any (anti) commutation relations between fields aren't taken into account and therefore no PEP 2) The Pauli exclusion principle is about states not positio...	[ "The Schwarzschild solution, taken to be valid for all , is called a Schwarzschild black hole. It is a perfectly valid solution of the Einstein field equations, although it has some rather bizarre properties. For the Schwarzschild radial coordinate becomes timelike and the time coordinate becomes spacelike. A curve...
How does the human digestive system separate solids from liquids?	They all mix together into a liquid solution. This is broken up in the stomach and nutrients are absorbed through the small intestine (enzymes in the stomach and small intestine help with this). In the large intestine components that cannot be absorbed (e.g. cellulose) remain and the water is re-absorbed, leaving solid...	[ "Water and saliva enter through the rumen to form a liquid pool. Liquid will ultimately escape from the reticulorumen from absorption through the wall, or through passing through the reticulo-omosal orifice, as digesta does. However, since liquid cannot be trapped in the mat as digesta can, liquid passes through th...
In the Napoleonic Wars, what was the difference between a soldier in an elite unit and a regular unit?	The Imperial Guard was the special unit of the French Army. While it started as the Consular Guard which in itself was a combination of the Garde du Directoire exécutif and the Grenadiers près de la Représentation nationale, they formally became the Imperial Guard when Napoleon ordered the creation of the Empire. A...	[ "France's Imperial Guard (\"Garde Impériale\") was the elite military force of its time and grew out of the \"Garde du Directoire\" and \"Garde Consulaire\". It was, quite literally, a \"Corps d'Armée\" itself with infantry, cavalry and artillery. Napoleon wanted it also to be an example for the entire army to foll...
what happens when astronauts clog the toilet in space?	There's not really anything to get clogged because space toilets don't have plumbing like Earth ones do. For solid waste, the astronaut "sits" over the opening which has a plastic bag underneath. There's gentle suction so the waste collects at the bottom of the bag. When he or she is finished, they push the bag through...	[ "When humans travel into space, weightlessness causes fluids to distribute uniformly around their bodies. Their kidneys detect the fluid movement and a physiological reaction causes the humans to need to relieve themselves within two hours of departure from Earth. As a result, the space toilet has been the first de...
why is it when you experience anxiety or fear your body starts getting hotter?	Because stress increase blood pressure. Heart begins to pump aggressively, blood is going through the body faster and more regularly, like when you’re working out. So the body becomes incredibly overheated from the body flipping out.	[ "Feelings of anxiety start with a catalyst – an environmental stimulus that provokes stress. This can include various smells, sights, and internal feelings that result in anxiety. The amygdala reacts to this stimuli by preparing to either stand and fight or to turn and run. This response is triggered by the release...
how does increasing government spending affect aggregate demand in the economy?	The general idea is that aggregate demand is comprised of _all_ of the entities buying goods. That includes individual consumers, businesses, foreign firms and governments. If any of those groups starts buying more, then aggregate (i.e. total) demand goes up, so increasing in spending from any of them can increase ag...	[ "Military expenditure can impact the economy of a country and its growth through the demand effect. An increase of military spending, will increase the prosperity of the country and its employment rate, thanks to a rise of demand. It is link to the Keynesian multiplier effect, introduced by Richard Kahn in the 1930...
the lack of goal line replay technology in american football as compared to other sports	In Football a lot of it is that the ball moves and stuff after the play anyway, and often it's not a matter of 'did it go this far' its' 'did it go this far before his knee touched here and did he have control and was it grounded etc... In Tennis the location is like 99% of the call. In Football, its not very comm...	[ "Throughout the 2000s various incidents incited discussion as to the potential for goal-line technology in the game. The lack of use of technology in association football was contrasted with other sports, which had incorporated video replays and other systems into their rules.\n", "Compared to similar technology ...
Are quarks and electrons really indivisible?	> It's hard for me to understand how something can exist without being made of anything else, it just exists. Do you imagine that the sub-particles of electrons and quarks would also have sub-particles etc.? I find the idea of there being an infinite regression of sub-particles much harder to swallow.	[ "Quarks are the fundamental constituents of hadrons and interact via the strong interaction. Quarks are the only known carriers of fractional charge, but because they combine in groups of three (baryons) or in pairs of one quark and one antiquark (mesons), only integer charge is observed in nature. Their respective...
how do we not run out of stuff? like metals, helium, plastic, salt, anything?	Metals are recycled and mined. There's actually a shitload of metal on earth, for example the earth is about 8% aluminum. It will be hard to run out of aluminum. Helium, we are running out of. It's the smallest molecule, and the second lightest, so it tends to escape any container it is put in and float away into spac...	[ "Another potential source of raw materials, at least in the short term, is recycled orbiting satellites and other man-made objects in space. Some consideration was given to the use of the Space Shuttle external fuel tanks for this purpose, but NASA determined that the potential benefits were outweighed by the incre...
Which is more energy efficient, internal combustion driven generator to power an electric motor, or direct drive?	This would only be true in a more complicated system like in some hybrid cars, where the internal combustion engine first charges a battery. This has the advantage of regulating the output of the engine, so that it can operate at maximum fuel efficiency, instead of changing in response to the required torque while dri...	[ "EV 'tank-to-wheels' efficiency is about a factor of 3 higher than internal combustion engine vehicles. Energy is not consumed while the vehicle is stationary, unlike internal combustion engines which consume fuel while idling. However, looking at the well-to-wheel efficiency of EVs, their total emissions, while st...
realistically speaking, are there any benefits to continuing an embargo on cuba?	America has a lot of Cuban refugees and immigrants who were trying to escape Cuba. Many of them were political prisoners. Others just wanted a better life. They held such a gross animosity towards Castro. So they all live in Florida. And, roughly 1/3 of all elections are decided by the Florida swing state. And, a...	[ "Cuba does not have an advanced industrial base and manufactures little of value that could be traded with the United States if the embargo was lifted. U.S. needs of products that Cuba does export are usually easily covered by domestic production or trade relations with more economically reliable and friendlier nat...
if dogs can just eat dog food and be healthy, why can't humans eat "human food" equivalent and be healthy?	Mainly that the dog doesn't mind the monotony. Would you be hopping up and down excited to eat the same thing every day? There are thing like [Soylent](_URL_0_ (which is also DIYable for cheap) and [Nutraloaf](_URL_1_) if you're really interested.	[ "Feeding table scraps to a dog is generally not recommended, at least in excess. Just as in humans, a dog's diet must consist of the appropriate mix of nutrients, carbohydrates, and proteins in order to give them the minerals and vitamins that they need. Dogs get ample correct nutrition from their natural, normal d...
the cliven bundy cattle grazing situation (not the racist remarks)	A rancher, Bundy, paid the government money to use their land to let his cattle graze (pretty common practice). He quit paying the bill so the government told him to stop using their land. He still used the land for his cattle so the government confiscated some of the cows. A bunch of gun nuts went down and stood ar...	[ "The Australian Broadcasting Corporation reported on 19 May 2016 that RSPCA Australia was investigating alleged cruelty to sheep after a video was posted on Facebook showing members of the school's teams tackling older rams around a paddock. The principal of the school likened it to \"shearing\".\n", "It is belie...
what does the type of tv "producer" mean to the actual end result?	Most writing teams on dramas have about 6-12 depending on number of episode and budget. "The Showrunner" managed the entire creative process, usually a writer, and does the most writing and creating. Depending on what his agent negotiates he's probably an Executive Producer or Co-executive producer. If a Co-executi...	[ "A television producer is a person who oversees all aspects of video production on a television program. Some producers take more of an executive role, in that they conceive new programs and pitch them to the television networks, but upon acceptance they focus on business matters, such as budgets and contracts. Oth...
Neutrino speed	Basically, the experiments we have to measure neutrino speed are only so precise (they're pretty difficult experiments to set up because neutrinos are so ephemeral and the sun spews so many of them at us), and the difference between the actual neutrino speed and light speed is smaller than the precision at which we're ...	[ "Since the protons are transferred in bunches of one nanosecond duration at an interval of 18.73 ns, the speed of muons and neutrinos could be determined. A speed difference would lead to an elongation of the neutrino bunches and to a displacement of the whole neutrino time spectrum. At first, the speeds of muons a...
Is the Roman Catholoic tradition of canonizing saints connected to the Roman (pagan?) tradition of deifying state heroes?	Before Christianity was ever centered in Rome, it spread throughout the Middle East, made its way across the former Persian empire to India and traveled south, deep into Africa. Although Rome was the center of the Roman empire, Roman culture was not shared by large swathes of the ancient Christian world. However, the C...	[ "Historian Peter Brown, in his \"The Cult of the Saints: Its Rise and Function in Latin Christianity\", argued that one cannot equate the ancient cults of pagan gods with the later cults of the saints. However, Caesarius of Arles and other churchmen deplored certain customs that from time to time seem to develop ar...
if light moves so fast, then why to we see light blur from cars and light sabers?	That effect is created by the fact that when the human eye sees an image it will be perceived by the brain for about one tenth of a second. Nothing to do with the speed of light	[ "Some witnesses describe the light as appearing to approach them several times before retreating. Others report that the lights were able to keep pace with them when they were in a moving motor vehicle.\n", "In some instances the stoplight traffic detector will not change the light for small vehicles such as moto...
Is there an infinitesimal equivalent to the Dirac delta function?	Standard disclaimer: delta is not a function. It can be thought of as a [measure](_URL_1_) or a [distribution](_URL_3_) or perhaps as some other kind of thing, but it is not a function. I bring this up because here, too, what we are looking for can not be a function. If we were to try to simply assign it a value at eac...	[ "with formula_15 the Dirac delta function, considered as a distribution, or generalized function, in two variables. Then by convolution, \"T\" induces a linear operator acting on a Banach space \"V\" of functions formula_16, which we also call \"T\", so that\n", "In mathematics, the Dirac delta function ( functio...
Why hasn't 'ugly' been bred out?	Genetics is complicated. The shape of your face (for instance) is determined by a rather complicated interplay between a lot of different genes, so the effect a particular gene has depends on all the other genes in your genome. Perhaps the same gene which gives your father a perfectly-shaped nose will, when combined ...	[ "When an Ugly turns 16 they undergo a massive Operation that makes them perfect in beauty and health. The Operation completely overhauls a person's body structure and also includes lesions upon the brain, which makes them compliant and less likely to cause conflict. The lesions also tend to \"dumb them up.\" They b...

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