question stringlengths 3 301 | answer stringlengths 9 26.1k | context list |
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What is happening on a microscopic level when I burn my toast? | [The Maillard Reaction](_URL_0_) | [
"The naked eye detects particle sizes greater than 7 µm (micrometres). Visible particles emitted from a fire are referred to as smoke. Invisible particles are generally referred to as gas or fumes. This is best illustrated when toasting bread in a toaster. As the bread heats up, the products of combustion increase ... |
If I weigh X and add Y weight to my body during exercise, do I burn the same calories as a person who weights X+Y? | You will be burning slightly fewer calories. The reason for this is that all body mass needs to burn calories constantly to maintain normal life processes, but if you put on the vest, the vest would not need to burn calories. | [
"A permanent routine of exercise, eating healthily, and, during periods of being overweight, consuming the same number or fewer calories than used will prevent and help fight obesity. A single pound of fat yields approximately 3500 calories of energy (32 000 kJ energy per kilogram of fat), and weight loss is achiev... |
Why is it when I close one eye, the vision in my open one appears to have "Warm" colors, and the other appears to have "Cool" colors? | My photography expertise is usable here!
So see this. When you close an eyelid, the sunlight is filtering trough a blood lined flap of skin. This makes the "warm"(sub 4300kelvin" light look even warmer.
See, our eyes adjust the "white balance" of our surroundings. That's why when you walk into a room lit with compa... | [
"Warm colors (red, orange, and yellow) are signs of warmness and can increase the temperature in a confined area. These colors are associated with danger, threat, warning, and movement and the way they affect the brain they increase metabolism and heat in the body and put it on alert which from Iranian traditional ... |
Would someone please explain the whole "tiny curled up extra dimensions" thing? | Okay. So. Dimensions. What is a "dimension?" If you go by bad science-fiction B-movies, a "dimension" is a sort of parallel plane of existence, one that intersects but is distinct from our own.
This is absolute, unfettered nonsense, so go ahead and put it out of your mind for now.
What a "dimension" *actually* is is ... | [
"The many-angled ones exist in a space with more dimensions than our own; hence, they appear to be \"many angled\". As a result, when they manifest in our universe they appear as disconnected floating body parts of some larger beast that is complete in the higher dimension (similar to how a three dimensional being ... |
What was going on in China that so many of them migrated to work for the railroads in the U.S.? | The Taiping Rebellion started in 1850. It was fairly bloody, even by Chinese standards. The effects of that rebellion also inspired others to rebel and there were associated problems with flooding and famine. _URL_0_ | [
"Starting with the California Gold Rush in the middle 19th century, the United States—particularly the West Coast states— enlisted large numbers of Chinese migrant laborers. Early Chinese immigrant worked as gold miners, and later on subsequent large labor projects, such as the building of the First Transcontinenta... |
what did it cost to go see an actual mozart opera? | I can't seem to find any really solid sources right now, and all my books are still at school (I'm home from college on break right now), but I have studied music history quite a bit, so I can at least give you an answer to your question, even though I can't really give you further places to look currently. I can also ... | [
"Although the opera greatly raised Mozart's standing with the public as a composer, it did not make him rich: he was paid a flat fee of 100 Imperial ducats (about 450 florins) for his work, and made no profits from the many subsequent performances.\n",
"The Imperial Italian opera company paid Mozart 450 florins f... |
why do ladybugs seem to appear inside every time the temperature drops? | These insects, among quite a few others are doing something called over wintering. I'm short, they are looking for shelter. Homes/buildings are about the best fit for that. So as the temp drops they look for these places to survive. You'll actually end up seeing activity change with temp, sometimes with recurrences!
T... | [
"A newly hatched ladybug is bullied by group of flies and attempts to fly away, but the flies chase after it. The ladybug crashs and breaks off a wing. Unable to locate its family, the ladybug shelters in a tin for the night. The tin is full of sugar cubes, part of an abandoned picnic. In the morning, various bugs ... |
why are pretzels shaped like... well, pretzels? where did that shape originate from? | Can't remember specifics but something about nuns creating a shape that looked like children folding arms. | [
"A pretzel () () () is a type of baked bread product made from dough most commonly shaped into a twisted knot. The traditional pretzel shape is a distinctive symmetrical form, with the ends of a long strip of dough intertwined and then twisted back into itself in a certain way (a pretzel loop). In modern times, pre... |
why does software randomly not work or crash at times but is fine after a restart? | Computer programs ALWAYS have bugs, it's the nature of programming as software is usually so complicated with thousands upon thousands of lines of code, some situations weren't thought about or someone just made a mistake when making it. Little bugs often exist that cause programs to become unstable over time, and the... | [
"Crash-only software also has benefits for end-users. All too often, applications do not save their data and settings while running, only at the end of their use. For example, word processors usually save settings when they are closed. A crash-only application is designed to save all changed user settings soon afte... |
how is it possible for light to not have reached us from parts of the universe yet? | The limit of Speed of Light only applies to particles moving through spacetime, it does not apply to spacetime itself. Two points in spacetime can be pushed apart by the expansion of the universe faster than the speed of light. The further any two points in spacetime are from each other, the faster they move apart base... | [
"Some parts of the universe are too far away for the light emitted since the Big Bang to have had enough time to reach Earth or its scientific space-based instruments, and so lie outside the observable universe. In the future, light from distant galaxies will have had more time to travel, so additional regions will... |
How do athletes seemingly tear their ACLs so easily during non-contact portions of their respective sports? | The others posting here have done a really good job of explaining so far, but I'll fill in with a little more information.
The ACL is most commonly torn when the knee bends backwards too far, or moves too far to the side. This is easily something you can do yourself, simply by turning sharply, stopping, any number of... | [
"One sports injury that is becoming prevalent in contact sports, particularly in the sport of American football, is called a \"stinger.\" An athlete can incur this injury in a collision that can cause cervical axial compression, flexion, or extension of nerve roots or terminal branches of the brachial plexus. In a ... |
Why did Mormonism succeed? | Yay, a question where I actually have some level of cursory expertise!
TL;DR at the end. Sorry for typos, didn't proof before submitting.
To begin understanding how Mormonism was allowed to flourish requires a brief understanding of the Protestant melting pot that was 19th-century America. Joseph Smith (founder of Mo... | [
"Partly to counter this, Mormons put an even greater emphasis on family life, religious education, and missionary work, becoming more conservative in the process. As a result, Mormons today are probably less integrated with mainstream society than they were in the early 1960s.\n",
"Mormonism arose in the 1820s du... |
How do we know how many people died under Stalin and Mao? | We honestly don't know accurately, it's mostly educated guesses and deduction, some will be higher than reality and some will be lower than the true number. It's just like with most things in history, I will give an example, with The Battle of the Nile, we know how many British were involved, how many died and how many... | [
"The number of people killed under Mao's rule in the People's Republic of China has been estimated at 19.5 million by Wang Weizhi, 27 million by John Heidenrich, between 38 and 67 million by Kurt Glaser and Stephan Possony, between 32 and 59 million by Robert L. Walker, 50+ million by Steven Rosefielde, 65 million ... |
how to become a programmer when /r/learnprogramming goes over my head? [serious] | Just how far over your head are we talking? Do you have any sort of math background? Do you know what a computer is?
You might try to start with some sort of interactive tutorial like [Code Academy](_URL_0_) or a book that's meant to teach everything from the ground up. | [
"A programmer who needs to implement a specific algorithm, especially an unfamiliar one, will often start with a pseudocode description, and then \"translate\" that description into the target programming language and modify it to interact correctly with the rest of the program. Programmers may also start a project... |
How did Native Americans in Canada survive the massive snow dumps and -20/-30 degree weather? | 1. Could you please specify what era you're interested in? In 2006, 50.3% of people living in the Northwest Territories identified themselves as Aboriginal Canadians (First Nations, Metis, Inuit, or multiple/other Aboriginal identities), along with 20% of people in Yukon and 85% of people in Nunavut. Their methods of d... | [
"Winters at the Hill 57 camp were incredibly harsh. While many Native American families survived during the summer by picking food, clothing, and firewood out of the town garbage dump, snow and ice precluded such scavenging during the winter. Many families turned to the county government during the winter, and rece... |
how do professional boxers have (decently) long careers if they're getting concussed everytime they fight? | _URL_0_
It is a problem in boxing, although today's boxers and trainers know more about it and boxers have adopted a much more defensive style (lots of clinching, few face-to-face brawls) that prevents them getting punched in the head as much. See any recent Klitschko fight or the Mayweather - Pacquiao fight to see t... | [
"Aspiring boxers undergo years of apprenticeship, toughening their fists against stone and other hard surfaces, until they are able to break coconuts and rocks with their bare hands. Any part of the body may be targeted, except the groin, but the prime targets are the head and chest. Techniques incorporate punches,... |
If the US government printed $15 trillion to pay off the debt, what would the rate of inflation become? | Looking around, there are various estimates online of the total circulating US money supply, [this](_URL_0_) source estimates about $3.5 trillion in bills and coins, which would indicate the inflation caused by adding $15 trillion to the money supply should be around 500%. That's definitely just an order-of-magnitude ... | [
"In April 1979, however, the United States may have technically defaulted on $122 million in Treasury bills, which was less than 1% of U.S. debt. The Treasury Department characterized it as a delay rather than as a default, but it did have consequences for short-term interest rates, which jumped 0.6%. Others view i... |
How much ocean water is moved worldwide each tidal cycle? | I doubt anyone can answer that for the case of the Earth as it is far too complicated. Tides on the Earth are subject to the topography of the ocean bed and so vary throughout the oceans.
I think even for a homogeneous fluid body this might not be a straightforward question either. You can evaluate the tidal force thr... | [
"Long-Period tides are gravitational tides, typically with amplitudes of a few centimeters or less and periods longer than one day, generated by changes in the Earth's orientation relative to the Sun, Moon, and Jupiter. The distance between a reference point on the surface of the Earth relative to these objects can... |
what are the 165,000 new jobs the us economy says has been added in july and how are they created so quickly? | They are private-sector jobs.
However, some of them may have been spurred by the federal government's discretionary investments in the economy.
For example, let's say the Department of Transportation gave a hypothetical $1 million grant to build a bridge. The engineering plans for the bridge had already been approved... | [
"BULLET::::- January 4 – Government data reveals that the U.S. economy added 312,000 jobs in December, far ahead of predictions of 177,000, and that manufacturing ended 2018 with the most jobs added in one year since 1997.\n",
"BULLET::::- October 3 – The United States Department of Labor reports that in Septembe... |
How exactly did the Japanese worship their Emperor in the early 20th century/ww2? | To my knowledge the Emperor wasn't praised as a god via rituals as that would go against their religion to their many gods, it would have been seen as an insult.
In the early 20th century/WW2 era the Emporer was often thought to be a Demi-god or higher being, someone who has unquestionable reign over the entire nation... | [
"Like the rest of the country, the Japanese monarchy was changing too - but not in a way that made it resemble Western royalty. In the 1920s the Japanese were being taught that their emperor, living in a park in central Tokyo, was more than just a mere human being - he was called a living god. Children were educate... |
what do we measure in mhz when we are talking about cpus, does it have any moving parts like a hard-disk does? | A CPU is essentially made from switches. Tiny areas on a piece of silicon - a microchip - can be created such that they allow electricity to pass from one place to another when there is electricity supplied at a third point and not otherwise; or the inverse, they prevent electricity from passing through when there is e... | [
"66 (more specifically 66.667) megahertz (MHz) is a common divisor for the front side bus (FSB) speed, overall central processing unit (CPU) speed, and base bus speed. On a Core 2 CPU, and a Core 2 motherboard, the FSB is 1066 MHz (~16 × 66 MHz), the memory speed is usually 666.67 MHz (~10 × 66 MHz), and the proces... |
How did Nazi Germany a regime born out of the ruins of World War 1 have so much access to a diverse pool of top notch academics by world war 2? ( Rocket scientists, Gunsmiths, Cytologists/ciphers, Tank and aircraft engineers) | It seems to me that you assume that if there is hunger and some political chaos that all the institutions stop functioning? Germany before WWI was one of the most advanced countries on the planet, they won the most Nobel prices in the sciences up to that point. WWI was 4 years and after it was over the scientists or in... | [
"Politicization of the German academia under the National Socialist regime had driven many physicists, engineers, and mathematicians out of Germany as early as 1933. Those of Jewish heritage who did not leave were quickly purged from German institutions, further thinning the ranks of academia. The politicization of... |
you know that feeling when you're drinking something, and there's like a pause almost i'm not sure how to put it, a throat-cramp of sorts when it's going down your throat? sorry if nobody knows what i'm talking about | Yes. It hurts. I think it's an air bubble so there's not room for the liquid and the bubble so it feels like a trying to swallow big lump. | [
"Presents as a sensation of food getting stuck (dysphagia) in the mid- or lower esophagus, atypical chest pain, or cough. People often state they must drink liquids to swallow solid food. This motility problem results from atrophy of the gastrointestinal tract wall smooth muscle. This change may occur with or witho... |
Why are bronze and brass not as common metals to make things as they used to be in antiquity? | we have harder metals to work that produce a better product in the end.
The main issue with bronze is that its a rather soft metal and doesn't keep its edge well. While early iron suffered similar issues (with less reparability) the moment you start getting cast and later wrought iron plus steel you have a might sharp... | [
"In the 3rd millennium BCE ancient foundry workers discovered by trial and error that bronze had distinct advantages over pure copper for making artistic statuary. Bronze stays liquid longer when filling a mold due to its lower melting point. Bronze is a superior metal than copper for sculpture casting because of i... |
How do snipers/spotters calculate where to shoot? | From my Army experience, not as a sniper, but with basic rifle marksmanship training, I can tell you what I have learned. First, you learn to his a target at 300 meters. At this distance, you can learn to adjust the sights so when you shoot at the center of the target, you will hit the center of the target. There are a... | [
"Artillery spotters typically use their calibrated binoculars to walk fire onto a target. Here they know the approximate range to the target and so can read off the angle (+ quick calculation) to give the left/right corrections in meters.\n",
"When the trajectory of the bullet can be sensed, backtracking can be d... |
What's the correct response to this objection to special relativity? | Whoever wrote this is trying to discredit SR because they still hold onto the assumption of absolute time and don't understand that that assumption has to be abandoned. Let's take a look at this statement they make while talking about two clocks traveling at different speeds, they *completely* miss the point of SR.
>... | [
"Some criticized Special Relativity for various reasons, such as lack of empirical evidence, internal inconsistencies, rejection of mathematical physics \"per se\", or philosophical reasons. Although there still are critics of relativity outside the scientific mainstream, the overwhelming majority of scientists agr... |
how can energy companies guarantee a customer getting '100% green energy', when they also produce energy from fossil fuels? | Electricity isn't a physical object that's being piped around, so the idea of there being specific energy being produced in one place and then shipped around doesn't really work.
What the energy company is guaranteeing is that they'll supply, either by producing it themselves or buying it from another producer, enough... | [
"The Greens support the mass-rollout of renewable energy, with an aim of 100% renewable energy production by 2030, and phasing out the use of coal-fired power, as a means of driving investment and creating jobs. In 2019, the Greens pledged to create 180,000 new jobs in the renewable energy sector, including a renew... |
Do so-called "brain training" games really work? | I'm sure you'll get a lot of empirical articles here, and I encourage people to read them. However, here is the basic summation of what we know so far:
**"Brain training" activities improve performance on the specific activity you're training with. Most of those improvements, however, don't translate to improvements... | [
"Cognitive skills can be enhanced through repetition of puzzles, memory games, spatial abilities and attention control. Most video games present opportunities to use these skills with the ability to try multiple times even after failure. Many of these skills can be translated to reality and problem solving. This al... |
How is laze formed by lava mixing with sea water? | The high-temperature steam produced by the lava entering the ocean hydrolizes the various salts present in seawater, primarily chloride salts. This results in hydrogen from the steam combining with chloride ions, producing significant quantities of hydrogen chloride. As the steam recondenses it picks up this HCl to f... | [
"Pumice is created when super-heated, highly pressurized rock is violently ejected from a volcano. The unusual foamy configuration of pumice happens because of simultaneous rapid cooling and rapid depressurization. The depressurization creates bubbles by lowering the solubility of gases (including water and CO) tha... |
from where did country music emerge? | Hank Williams Sr. | [
"Country music is a genre of American popular music that originated in Southern United States, in Atlanta, Georgia in the 1920s, and It takes its roots from the southeastern genre of American folk music and Western music. The origins of country music are the folk music of mostly white, working-class Americans, who ... |
Why does the Dutch government reside in The Hague if the capital is Amsterdam ? | In 1248 William II, count of Holland and King of Germany started building a hall that's today known as the Ridderzaal. His son Count Floris V finished the construction in 1280. This is where the history of the Hague begins.
In the 14th century the Hague became the administrative capital of the county of Holland.
In ... | [
"The Hague is the seat of the Cabinet, the States General, the Supreme Court, and the Council of State of the Netherlands, but the city is not the constitutional capital of the Netherlands, which is Amsterdam. King Willem-Alexander lives in Huis ten Bosch and works at the Noordeinde Palace in The Hague, together wi... |
What exactly did the Jewish aristocracy do in Babylon? | As a corollary to OP's question:
What was the life of an average Jew in Babylon like? How were the classes divided? Were Jews well integrated into Babylonian society? | [
"Although most of the Jewish people during this period, especially the wealthy families, were to be found in Babylonia, the existence they led there, under the successive rulers of the Achaemenids, the Seleucids, the Parthians, and the Sassanians, was obscure and devoid of political influence. The poorest but most ... |
How true is the statement that the Soviet Union won the World War II in Europe? | There are two acceptable answers to this question. Militarily, the Soviet Union wins World War Two. They grind the Germans up, tie down major parts of the German army, and push gigantic distances (while taking serious casualties) to throw the Nazis back onto Berlin. The Russian steamroller tied down men, tanks, brillia... | [
"By the end of 1943 the tide of the war in Europe had shifted, and there was no doubt either about the survival of the USSR or the ultimate outcome of the Second World War. With the Red Army moving inexorably westward, the possibility of a Communist Europe seemed within reach to the party faithful. Cooperation betw... |
Okay, so I don't know anything about physics, but this question has been on my mind. | What you're looking for is called [Gravitational Lensing](_URL_2_)... and nothing can go faster than the speed of light (without funky quantum mechanical [jibber](_URL_1_) [jabber](_URL_0_)). | [
"\"Physics\" (from ) is a natural science that involves the study of matter and its motion through spacetime, along with related concepts such as energy and force. More broadly, it is the general analysis of nature, conducted in order to understand how the universe behaves.\n",
"“What I liked about physics is tha... |
why toddlers are happy one moment then screaming and crying the next moment | One theory I have heard is that basically *everything* is a new experience for them, and they don't yet routines in place for dealing with things that seem trivial to adults.
Me: I dropped my pen. Drat. I will pick it up and then resume writing.
Toddler: I dropped my toy. FUCK! WHAT DO I DO? IT'S ALL SO INTENSE! | [
"Happy that they are save, they start laughing and mocking each other. The principal tells the parents that they are not worried about what happened and are happy. Feeling ashamed, the parents leave the children alone. \n",
"Beginning at birth, newborns have the capacity to signal generalized distress in response... |
Why was being able to flank an opponents army so powerful pre-gunpowder? | More can always be said, but the following previous answers are quite excellent explanations.
u/Iphikrates offers a [comprehensive treatment on just this topic here](_URL_0_), and u/theshadowdawn has a [similar answer here](_URL_1_), with special reference to the Battle of Cannae. | [
"Until the invention of gunpowder-based weapons (and the resulting higher-velocity projectiles), the balance of power and logistics definitely favored the defender. With the invention of gunpowder, cannon and mortars and howitzers (in modern times), the traditional methods of defense became less effective against a... |
why do so many animals like deer, boars, and tapirs all have dapple camouflage only when they are babies? why do they lose it when they grow older? | I think I’ve heard that the camouflage babies have only really works if they’re sitting completely still, which is fine because their parents will bring them food. But when they move, those spots become sort of a bulls eye, and they can’t afford to sit still anymore. | [
"Camouflage is a powerful influence in a large number of mammals, as it helps to conceal individuals from predators or prey. In arctic and subarctic mammals such as the arctic fox (\"Alopex lagopus\"), collared lemming (\"Dicrostonyx groenlandicus\"), stoat (\"Mustela erminea\"), and snowshoe hare (\"Lepus american... |
why do loud noises (e.g gun shots) trigger car alarms? | (10+ years selling/installing car security)
The part of the alarm that does this is called the "shock sensor". It's a little device that detects a "shock" to the vehicle via vibration.
The most common is a "504D" made by DEI. Feel free to search the part number if you'd like to see what it looks like/how it's install... | [
"Frequently, false alarms occur because car alarm owners use high sensitivity settings. This may be the main reason why loud bass frequency sound (loud music, other cars or motorcycles with loud exhaust systems, thunderstorms, etc.) can set off car alarms. The second possible reason is that some parts of the alarm ... |
how do people "live" in an embassy for extended periods of time? i've never visited an embassy, are they like hotels or something or it just a very awkward situation? | It really depends on the countries involved and the situation. A lot of embassies are nothing more than office buildings with no living accommodations.
The U.S. Embassy in London is an office building and the U.S. amabssador lives in a huge mansion called Winfield House in Regents Park. Most of the staff are locals an... | [
"A temporary resident is a foreign national granted the right to stay in a country for a certain length of time (e.g. with a visa or ), without full citizenship. This may be for study, business, or other reasons.\n",
"Though travelling to and from countries is generally permitted (with some limitations), most gov... |
how do soldiers in modern armies accurately direct artillery fire? | I had to learn artillery fire when I was a scout in the Army. Back then we didn't have GPS and our range finders never worked.
Before you go out, you and your artillery-men you are likely to be working with on the radio are given specific maps. On these maps are pre-designated areas with codes, you could use anything ... | [
"Artillery gunners are taught how to use direct fire to engage a target such as mounted or dismounted troops attacking them. In such a case, however, the artillery crews are able to see what they are shooting at. With indirect fire, in normal artillery missions, the crews manning the guns cannot see their target di... |
What was the role of light infantry in Napoleonic era battles? | So, first I'll unpack a few things. What I will be talking about is mainly focused on the French Imperial Army, I don't know enough of the other army compositions to help but I am sure that we have the right people to help. Second, within the French army, there is a difference between light infantry and skirmishers and... | [
"Light infantry sometimes carried lighter muskets than ordinary infantrymen while others carried rifles and wore rifle green uniforms. These became designated as \"rifle regiments\" in Britain and \"Jäger\" and \"Schützen\" (sharpshooter) regiments in German-speaking Europe. In France, during the Napoleonic Wars, l... |
why does so many people hate the baby boomer generation? | The current economic, political, and environmental climates were almost entirely influenced by members of that generation to where they are today.
The housing market, education costs, this team mentality for politics, climate, all are in pretty shitty shape for the next generation to deal with. Its also not super unco... | [
"This population is sometimes referred to as Generation Jones, and less commonly as Tweeners. These cuspers were not as financially successful as older Baby Boomers. They experienced a recession like many Generation Xers but had a much more difficult time finding jobs than Generation X did. While they learned to be... |
why does this paper shatter after being folded seven times with a hydraulic press? | Paper, when folded in half, effectively doubles its thickness. When folded six times in half, there is too much thickness and not enough surface area for anything to make an effective seventh fold.
However, the hydraulic press has enough force to fold it, but that puts extreme stress on the paper, which is eventually ... | [
"The Hydraulic Press Channel (HPC) is a YouTube channel operated by Finnish factory owner Lauri Vuohensilta and his wife Anni. Launched in October 2015, the channel publishes videos of various objects being crushed in a hydraulic press. On 31 October 2015, the channel published a video of Vuohensilta unsuccessfully... |
why can i usually smoothly fast forward a digital video (netflix, hbo go, dvds, etc) but reverse playback is always a jerky mess? | Vidoes general are usually buffered forwards not backwards. Basically they assume that once youve seen it already it's unlikely that you will go back to see it again.
So if you do have to go back all the currently buffered data is tossed out and then you are basically starting fresh from that new point that you jumpe... | [
"Analogue VCRs provided fast-forward by simply playing the tape faster. The resulting loss of synchronization of the video was accepted because it was still possible to make out approximately what was happening in the video to find the desired playback point. Modern digital video systems such as DVR and Video on De... |
Why are things from the past so far underground? In millions of years when our skeletons are where the dinosaurs skeletons are now, where did the old ground go? Where did the new ground come from? | If you drop dead right now and left your body to nature, you won't end up underground like fossils. Scavengers will pull you apart and eat you, you will rot and the rains and ravages of time will remove all traces of you. Even if you were buried at a funeral, you won't become a fossil.
The conditions needed for you to... | [
"Guy Darrough, a paleontologist from St. Louis, Missouri currently working at the dig site, said it was \"pretty much a miracle\" that dinosaur bones were found in Missouri, because the state's soft soil has resulted in the deterioration of most prehistoric remains. However, some of the remains found have been dama... |
Following the death of Augustus, why didn't he wish full power to go back to the Senete? | *EDIT: While I love the period, I'm not an expert, so please read /u/LegalAction's counterpoints below.*
There is an overly idealised fantasy, portrayed in for example the film Gladiator though it is not limited to Hollywood, of the Roman Republic as this freedom-loving democratic nation. It was not.
The Roman Republ... | [
"Augustus' final goal was to figure out a method to ensure an orderly succession. Under Augustus' constitution, the Senate and the People of Rome held the supreme power, and all of his special powers were granted for either a fixed term, or for life. Therefore, Augustus could not transfer his powers to a successor ... |
in what sense have creditors been "pillaging" greece for the past five years? | Greeks feel that the austerity measures imposed on Greece by it's creditors, which are enforced because the lenders feel they will make the greek economy more competitive and a more attractive target for investment, aren't actually helpful. They see austerity more as a punishment for the greek people, or at best a poor... | [
"It stands out in the history of sovereign defaults. Greek debt restructuring of 2012 achieved very large debt relief – with minimal financial disruption, using a combination of new legal techniques, exceptionally large cash incentives, and official sector pressure on key creditors. But it did so at a cost. The tim... |
Why were there so few violent border changes between the Christian Iberian kingdoms? | A reply to /u/HenkWaterlander ,
Maybe you can clarify what assertion you are questioning, because your wording is ambiguous. Are you suggesting that the Christian kingdoms of Iberia had very little among themselves *before* the Reconquesta? How do you determine "very little"?
Leon was united with Castile only after ... | [
"Ultimately, the Christian kingdoms in the north of the Iberian Peninsula overpowered the Muslim states to the south. In 1085, Alfonso VI captured Toledo, starting a gradual decline of Muslim power. With the fall of Córdoba in 1236, most of the south quickly fell under Christian rule and the Emirate of Granada beca... |
How are human skulls or other complex body structures posthumously extracted from a cadaver for use in museums or medical schools? | There are a combination of methods. One is maceration. Basically, it involves removing as much of the soft tissue as is practical, then allowing the rest to decompose under controlled conditions, often in temperature-controlled water, until the rest of the tissue is soft enough to be cleaned away. Another method can... | [
"Skulls Unlimited International, Inc. not only sources their specimens, they still also process the carcasses using the methods Jay perfected in his adolescence. This process begins with removing the majority of the soft tissue from the carcasses by hand. Then two methods are used to detail clean the skulls: dermes... |
how does the human body tend to itself when you havent eaten for days? what about havent drank? | There's a general rule of threes for your body's survival. 3 weeks without food, 3 days without water and 3 mins without air.
Without food, your body starts to consume its reserves. First to be consumed is the sugar reserve kept in your liver (about 500 grams). Then the body will try to breakdown the body's fat and mu... | [
"When the human body becomes dehydrated, it experiences thirst. This craving of fluids results in an instinctive need to drink. Thirst is regulated by the hypothalamus in response to subtle changes in the body's electrolyte levels, and also as a result of changes in the volume of blood circulating. The complete eli... |
if my car is on a steep downward incline and i put it into reverse gear, why does it roll backward up the hill even if i don't press the accelerator? | Because you put it in reverse gear. So long as the engine is producing enough power to move the car, and the clutch is capable of translating that much power without slipping, the car is going to move, otherwise the engine is just going to stall if it's not producing enough power. | [
"Pulling the car \"backward\" (hence the name) winds up an internal spiral spring; a flat spiral rather than a helical coil spring. When released, the car is propelled forward by the spring. When the spring has unwound and the car is moving, the motor is disengaged by a clutch or ratchet and the car then rolls free... |
please expain noam chomsky and his
views on the ideal type of governance li12 | I don't think Chomsky can be properly explained in the format of an ideal form of government (maybe he can, but it'd hurt the LI12-level of it all).
At the heart of Chomsky's political thought is the question of authority. Why does the government get to tell people what to do, and why should it be like this? He's said... | [
"In a 2011 interview with the Institute for Global Law and Policy at Harvard University, Parsi asserted that his thesis had \"been vindicated\" by recent events. \"I believe it is increasingly clear that efforts to divide the region between moderates vs radicals, democracies vs non-democracies etc is of little util... |
How, and why, do ants make new hills? | An "anthill" is just one extension of an ant hive that reaches the surface. The hills form when dirt is left by the entrance of the hills.
_URL_0_
Additionally, some species of ants have more than one queen per colony (polygyne), while others have one per colony (monogyne).
_URL_1_ | [
"Ant hill art is a growing collecting hobby. It involves pouring molten metal (typically non-toxic zinc or aluminum), plaster or cement down an ant colony mound acting as a mold and upon hardening, one excavates the resulting structure. In some cases, this involves a great deal of digging. The casts are often used ... |
In a _URL_0_ photoplasty, one of the facts stated that if you were a child in England in the middle ages you would have been sewn into your winter clothing until spring. Can anybody give information on this? Is it even true? | I can't say that it's never happened, but it seems unlikely that it was widespread. A quick review of a handful of texts doesn't show anything suggesting that this was typical. ("The Culture of Children in Medieval England", *Medieval Children*, *The Ties that Bound: Peasant Families in Medieval England*, *Growing Up i... | [
"In the 19th century, photographs were often taken of the boy in his new trousers, typically with his father. He might also collect small gifts of money by going round the neighbourhood showing off his new clothes. Friends, of the mother as much as the boy, might gather to see his first appearance. A letter of 1679... |
How often did people in various time periods hear music? | Before the advent of recording, music was fairly rare, but depended on the situation (especially social class). I can comment briefly on America in 1910 and Germany post-1850.
In 19th century Germany, music would have been heard in church, where there was typically an organ, a choir, and possibly even a small orchestr... | [
"In many cultures, there is less distinction between performing and listening to music, since virtually everyone is involved in some sort of musical activity, often communal. In industrialized countries, listening to music through a recorded form, such as sound recording or watching a music video, became more commo... |
why do i get impulses to do things that i would never ever act on? | The latest scientific thinking on this is that it's an evolutionary adaptation which actually makes you less likely to do dangerous stuff.
If a person has a tendency to imagine things like jumping off cliffs or attacking people, he/she will naturally imagine the negative consequences of the action, during the course o... | [
"An impulse is a wish or urge, particularly a sudden one. It can be considered as a normal and fundamental part of human thought processes, but also one that can become problematic, as in a condition like obsessive-compulsive disorder, borderline personality disorder, and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.\n... |
why is there a gust of air when you open a door to the subway station? | they keep the pressure higher in the station in order to help evacuate fumes etc from the platforms | [
"Airflow through a door depends on wind forces, temperature differences (convection), and pressure differences. Air doors work best when the pressure differential between the inside and outside of the building is as close to neutral as possible. Negative pressures, extreme temperature differences, elevators in clos... |
why are so many people with mental illnesses successful? | Some forms of mental illness can be defeated with effort (such as dyslexia). Other such as certain kinds of bi-polar or OCD can actually be beneficial in certain kinds of job as the manic periods or obsessive traits make them more efficient at said jobs. | [
"Mental health problems are common in the community, so members of the public are likely to have close contact with people affected. However, many people are not well informed about how to recognize mental health problems, how to provide support and what are the best treatments and services available. Furthermore, ... |
Can a brain completely deprived of sensory input perceive time? | You can, you'd just be really bad at it. See: Campbell, S. S. (1990). Circadian rhythms and human temporal experience. In R. A. Block (Ed.), Cognitive models of psychological time, (pp. 101-118). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
I think where you're going wrong is that memory is *not* dependent on external sensory input. Repea... | [
"One major goal of sensory neuroscience is to try to estimate the neuron's receptive field; that is, to try to determine which stimuli cause the neuron to fire in what ways. One common way to find the receptive field is to use linear regression to find which stimulus characteristics typically caused neurons to beco... |
how is it that light appears to travel at the speed of light relative to everything else if all of space-time is relative? | Because "all of space-time is relative" is not the full concept. In full, the Special Theory states (roughly) "all of space-time is relative except for the speed of light in a vacuum, which is always constant no matter what frame of reference you are using".
To make that concept work in the real world, strange things ... | [
"According to the equivalence principle of general relativity, the rules of special relativity are \"locally\" valid in small regions of spacetime that are approximately flat. In particular, light always travels locally at the speed \"c\"; in our diagram, this means, according to the convention of constructing spac... |
Did Roman occupation of areas end suddenly (England 410 AD) or did they slowly withdraw over many years or even decades? | England is a tricky case, because we don't have much in the way of written sources, and archaeology isn't as good for answering polical-administrative questions as it is other lines of inquiry.
What we know is that the last legions left Britain in 410 (probably - the sources for this are pretty sketchy, actually), pro... | [
"Roman occupation was withdrawn to a line subsequently established as one of the \"limites\" (singular \"limes\") of the empire (i.e., a defensible frontier) by the construction of Hadrian's Wall. An attempt was made to push this line north to the River Clyde-River Forth area in 142 when the Antonine Wall was const... |
how is the design of the u.s. gov't "deliberately inefficient"? | The checks and balances system ensures that one person or one branch of government can't make quick, unilateral changes. For a law to be passed and take effect, all three branches have to be (more or less) in agreement. The fact that legislation can be difficult to pass, even if one party has a majority, makes some peo... | [
"Government agendas are created when problems are recognized that have viable solutions that will be politically correct to make at the time of decision making. Kingdon recognizes when these three aspects join together using the term \"policy window\". When a policy window is recognized and open, there is a potenti... |
How is it that it took until the mid 19th century for people to understand the negative correlation between keeping a wound clean, and that wound becoming infected? | This has more to do with differing definitions of "clean" than it does with people in the past being stupid. Dressings were expected to kept fresh. People spend a lot of time covered in dirt and grime, but manage not to get infected all the time. Why should the inside of the body be different than the out? Still, they... | [
"The history of wound care spans from prehistory to modern medicine. Wounds naturally heal by themselves, but hunter-gatherers would have noticed several factors and certain herbal remedies would speed up or assist the process, especially if it was grievous. In ancient history, this was followed by the realisation ... |
How tall was King Louis XVI of France? | The real height of Louis XVI is not known. However, his coronation " outfit " is between 1,90m and 1,93m.
The tallest King of France was François Ier which was described to be between 1,95m and 2,00m however, thanks to one of his armour, his height was 1,98m. | [
"Louis XVI of France (born Louis Auguste de France, also known as Louis Capet) (1754–1793) was King of France and Navarre from 1774 until 1791, after which he was subsequently King of the French from 1791 to 1792, before his deposition and execution during the French Revolution.\n",
"Louis XVI (; 23 August 1754 –... |
why aren u.s isps only targeting netflix and not the likes of youtube or hulu? | Netflix is 30%+ (?) of traffic, they are a big player.
Also, YouTube at least is run by Google... who with Fiber is already suggesting that they won't take the ISPs shit. | [
"Because ISPs route the traffic of all of their customers, they are able to monitor web-browsing habits in a very detailed way allowing them to gain information about their customers' interests, which can be used by companies specializing in targeted advertising. At least 100,000 United States customers are tracked... |
if losing weight is just about burning more calories than you eat, why would avoiding carbohydrates help? | Yes! Finally something I can answer. I am sad at the amount of misinformation and incorrect things written below. This may get a touch long, but I'll do my best.
Losing weight is most certainly about calorie balance. If you burn more than you eat, you will lose weight. Where the weight comes from depends on a few othe... | [
"In his early books such as \"Dr Atkins' New Diet Revolution\", Atkins made the controversial argument that the low-carbohydrate diet produces a metabolic advantage because \"burning fat takes more calories so you expend more calories\"; the Atkins diet was claimed to be \"a high calorie way to stay thin forever\".... |
Does the surface of our planet have areas that are more susceptible to meteor and comet impacts? (i.e. do certain regions get hit disproportionately compared to others? and if so, why?) Alternatively, do all regions have an equal chance of being struck? | I work in a department of meteoriticists and proposed this question to them, because a lot of the meteorites they study come from Antarctica.
So, I asked if there was a bias towards meteorites falling near the poles, or was it just because they're easier to find in Antarctica.
In theory there is a greater chance of ... | [
"Impact science also benefits from the delivery of meteorites. The Earth has been struck by large impacts in there past e.g. Chicxulub crater, and the materials left behind and the effect on the ground improves impact modeling predictions. The effects on Earth can also be used to understand similar patterns that ha... |
If heat rises, wouldn't turning on a ceiling fan raise the ambient temperature underneath? | Any kind of circulation will make you feel cooler.
The reason you sweat is to expel heat from your body. As it evaporates, it takes the heat with it. The problem is when it is too humid in your immediate vicinity and the sweat can't evaporate in a reasonable amount of time.
When the air in the room you are in is movi... | [
"Due to the rising warm air from convector heaters, warm air may accumulate at the ceiling of the room. Therefore, convector heaters are often paired with ceiling fans, especially in rooms with tall ceilings. In the winter, setting a fan to turn clockwise will allow for more air circulation and will keep heat from ... |
i saw two squirrels fighting in a tree, they fell off the branch and tumbled about 30 feet to the floor without seeming to break their fall when they landed. they then got up and ran off. how did they not sustain the kind of terrible injuries i would falling from that height? | An ant can survive a fall from any height. You could drop one out of an airplane, and it would survive the impact. The ant is fine because it is so light. It isn't the hitting the ground that kills you, it's your own mass that crushes you after hitting the ground.
The formula for force is: F = M * A . Force is equal t... | [
"As the squirrels march deeper into the forest, they encounter a bat, whom they soon discover is no more than a child. It is Vesper, who has secretly left his home to try to participate in the battle. The squirrels force him to march with them.\n",
"The squirrel is reading a newspaper, but he hears a sawing noise... |
Was there a large amount of fear in the 1930s that the Spanish Civil War would spill out into a larger regional or even global conflict? | Certainly.
This fear was such, that, early on, a non-intervention agreement was signed by many European countries in August of 1936, which created the aptly named Non-Intervention Committee. The most vocal parties for non-interventionism were the French and British. While Italy and Germany were on the committee, they ... | [
"The atrocities that had happened at the outset of the Spanish Civil War in 1936 were seen by both sides as a possible precedent for Colombia, causing both sides to fear it could happen in their country; this also spurred the credibility of the conspiracies and the rationale for violence. Catholics everywhere were ... |
how is a movie made for vhs and dvd converted to be a blu-ray? | Film - the original clear plastic stuff with thousands of pictures on it - is actually much higher resolution than DVD, BluRay or even 4K. Provided you have access to it, you can convert it to whatever digital resolution you want, by in effect taking a photo of each frame and running them together.
If you *don't* have... | [
"The film was released on Blu-ray, Blu-ray 3D, DVD, and movie download on August 9, 2011. The release is produced in three different physical packages: a four-disc combo pack (Blu-ray, Blu-ray 3D, DVD, and \"Digital Copy\"); a two-disc Blu-ray combo pack (Blu-ray and DVD); and a single-disc DVD. The \"Digital Copy\... |
what in the world is half life 3? | Half-Life is a series of video games by Valve.
The first game came out in 1998, and was a huge success. The second game came out in 2004 (after being delayed for over a year) and was also a huge success.
After the seconds game, Valve decided to create new sequels as three "episodes" (which were more like expansion to... | [
"Half-Life (stylized HλLF-LIFE) is a series of first-person shooter games developed and published by Valve. The major installments feature protagonist Gordon Freeman, a physicist who battles an alien invasion. \"Half-Life\" (1998) and \"Half-Life 2\" (2004) are full-length games, while \"\" (2006) and \"\" (2007) a... |
What role did slavery have in the industrial revolution, if any? | (1/2)
Well, you've inadvertently waded into what is probably the biggest ongoing debate in the historiography of slavery in North America right now! There is a huge debate raging at the moment regarding the exact role slavery has had to play in the development of modern capitalism, and the industrial revolution specif... | [
"Historians and economists have debated the economic effects of slavery for Great Britain and the North American colonies. Many analysts suggest that it allowed the formation of capital that financed the Industrial Revolution, although the evidence is inconclusive. Slave labour was integral to early settlement of t... |
I'm interested in military formations and how they actually work -- what made them effective against certain types of combat, etc. Any links or videos about this stuff? | This is too wide a topic to cover in a single post so let me deal with the one question you specifically asked. The hollow square (as a pike formation mostly) works well against cavalry for a couple of reasons. Firstly, the pike is a good weapon versus cavalry due to its reach. A pike formation on the other hand is nor... | [
"close order formation combat, in which soldiers were held in very strict formations as to maximise their combat effectiveness. Formation combat was used as an alternative to mêlée combat, and required strict discipline in the ranks and competent officers. As long as their formations could be maintained, regular tr... |
why do all these food companies have non gmo-labels on their products? is it propaganda? | If it's not a modified organism then they're not lying. I could poop in your salad and certify it as non gmo | [
"Opponents claimed Prop 37 backers real intent was to ban GMOs via labeling schemes removing consumer choices, citing claims by proponents like Jeffrey M. Smith that labeling requirements in California would cause food companies to source only non-GMO foods to avoid having labels that consumers would perceive as wa... |
Why can't we use animal embryonic stem cells? | > presumably reducing the chance of rejection
one of the biggest reasons for why we would want to use stem cells is to *prevent* rejection. if i donate my kidney to some guy, he will have to take immusuppressor drugs *for the rest of his life*. and we are the same species! if he got a monkey's kidney, then it would b... | [
"In mice, there is an additional option for genetic transfer that is not available in other animals. Embryonic stem cells provide a means to transfer new DNA into the germline. They also allow precise genetic modifications by gene targeting. Modified embryonic stem cells can be selected in vitro before the experime... |
What are some ways to test microbial evolution as an experiment? | You might be interested in Richard Lenski's long-term evolution of E. coli [experiment](_URL_0_). | [
"Experimental evolution studies are a means of testing evolutionary theory under carefully designed, reproducible experiments. Given enough time, space, and money, any organism could be used for experimental evolution studies. However, those with rapid generation times, high mutation rates, large population sizes, ... |
Did ancient cultures have any concept of the waxing and waning of the moon being caused by Earth casting a shadow? | Just as a point of clarification: the waxing and waning of the moon are not caused by the earth's shadow; it is a result of the moon rotating around the earth, and from our perspective, the full half of the moon that is illuminated by the sun appears in phases. The only instance of the earth's shadow affecting the illu... | [
"The ancient Greek philosopher Anaxagoras (d. 428 BC) reasoned that the Sun and Moon were both giant spherical rocks, and that the latter reflected the light of the former. His non-religious view of the heavens was one cause for his imprisonment and eventual exile. In his little book \"On the Face in the Moon's Orb... |
how is it that marijuana is legal in some places in the us, but there are many people in jail for possession? if weed becomes legal in more places, what happens to those in jail for possession? | They will remain in jail, absent some executive clemency. Everyone is subject to the laws in place at the time; just because something becomes legal later doesn't mean you're innocent of committing a crime when it was criminal. | [
"Until the passage of the 2018 United States farm bill, under federal law, it was illegal to possess, use, buy, sell, or cultivate cannabis in all United States jurisdictions, since the Controlled Substances Act of 1970 classified marijuana as a Schedule I drug, claiming it has a high potential for abuse and has no... |
why is backwards video understandable while backwards audio is incomprehensible? | It is because in a video we can see the actions leading up and proceeding from that action, while audio, the sound is laid out in a very specific way. (English phonetics are very complicated) When a small thing is changed, it becomes nearly impossible to understand. | [
"A backward message in an audio recording is only fully apparent when the recording is played reversed. Some backward messages are produced by deliberate backmasking, while others are simply phonetic reversals resulting from random combinations of words. Backward messages may occur in various mediums, including mus... |
How did 0-60 become the standard by which a car's acceleration is judged? Why did 60mph become synonymous with "fast"? | Automotive journalist here.
Your question is intimately tied to the history of automotive magazines, and I’m not aware of a really good, academic history exploring that. I can tell you that the form itself dates back to the earliest days of motoring — Carl Benz filed his patent for the “vehicle powered by a gas engi... | [
"A \"Road & Track\" road test recorded acceleration from 0–60 mph in 22.4 seconds, \"almost half of the VW’s 39.2.\" However the magazine noted that at , a common American cruising speed at the time, the Metropolitan was revving at 4300 rpm, which shortened engine life, whereas the Volkswagen could travel at the sa... |
What happened to ancient cities such as Sparta, Carthage and Troy? | All were destroyed; Troy before the Golden Age of Greece, Carthage by a victorious Rome around 150 BC, and Sparta was sacked by the Goths around 400 AD after centuries of empty autonomy as a curiosity within the Roman Empire.
Interestingly, it appears that the last few speakers of the Spartan dialect are dying out. A... | [
"None of the Mycenaean palaces of the Late Bronze Age survived (with the possible exception of the Cyclopean fortifications on the Acropolis of Athens), with destruction being heaviest at palaces and fortified sites. Thebes was one of the earliest examples of this having its palace sacked repeatedly between 1300 an... |
what is going on in missouri and at yale with super liberal student protests? | Yeah! So the faculty sent out an email telling the student body not to be super racist and wear offensive costumes on halloween. Then a professor responded to that email saying that it wasn't the school's responsibility to police students like that and they should make their own judgement and face the social consequenc... | [
"In 2015, a series of protests at the University of Missouri related to race, workplace benefits, and leadership resulted in the resignations of the president of the University of Missouri System and the chancellor of the flagship Columbia campus. The moves came after a series of events that included a hunger strik... |
why does driving the same speed feel much faster when it's dark than when it's light | Your field of vision is much shorter at night (the length of your headlights), so things appear to move by you quickly. During the day you see things further down the horizon. | [
"BULLET::::- The loss of night vision because of the accommodation reflex of drivers' eyes is the greatest danger. As drivers emerge from an unlighted area into a pool of light from a street light their pupils quickly constrict to adjust to the brighter light, but as they leave the pool of light the dilation of the... |
If I put a flashlight in space, would it propel itself forward by "shooting out" light? | Yes, very slowly.
Light has momentum, even though it is massless, so if you shoot a beam of light in one direction, conservation of momentum will push you in the opposite direction.
A reasonably powerful LED flashlight will use about 1-3 Watt, lets say 3 W. The efficiency of a LED is somewhere between 25% and 40%, so... | [
"In 1913, Georges Sagnac showed that if a beam of light is split and sent in two opposite directions around a closed path on a revolving platform with mirrors on its perimeter, and then the beams are recombined, they will exhibit interference effects. From this result Sagnac concluded that light propagates at a spe... |
how debt/credit card transactions work | It goes to a service called "Fedwire". Everyone has different banks, so the backbone is a service provided by the Fed that "clears" transactions.
You swipe your card and Target's bank infrastructure, say its Chase, needs your money from BoA. The data is sent about transaction to Fedwire over internet/phone lines when ... | [
"In many countries, when a customer submits an application for credit from a bank, credit card company, or a store, their information is forwarded to a credit bureau. The credit bureau matches the name, address and other identifying information on the credit applicant with information retained by the bureau in its ... |
how does a smartphone compass app works if a magnet (in the speakers) are so close to them? | Because the magnets in the speakers don't need to be very strong and as such aren't going to impact the readings very much. For any impact they do have you can also calibrate the magnetic sensor to ignore it from the speakers as that will be constant and always on a single dimension where most smartphone compasses meas... | [
"A magnetometer is built-in since the iPhone 3GS, which is used to measure the strength and direction of the magnetic field in the vicinity of the device. Sometimes certain devices or radio signals can interfere with the magnetometer requiring users to either move away from the interference or re-calibrate by movin... |
why is it that when we get hit or injured pretty bad we faint? what is it that makes our brain kinda shut down in that moment? | One reason is that basically the brain is floating in water inside our skulls and if the the blow is strong enough to push the brain with enough momentum to bounce on part of the skull to another and the brain gets short circuited.
Another reason is that a certain amount of pain and/stress is too much to handle and our... | [
"Fainting can be caused by excessive parasympathetic and vagal activity that slows the heart and decreases perfusion of the brain. The sympathetic irritant effect is exploited to counteract these vagal parasympathetic effects and thereby reverse the faint.\n",
"It can cause dizziness, lightheadedness, headache, b... |
How tall was Jesus Christ? |
There is no literary or other ancient evidence that directly bears on this question, so one is forced to speculate based on average heights of people in antiquity.
The only article I've ever seen address this is a 2002 issue of Popular Mechanics, which suggests that based on skeletal remains a 1st century Semitic mal... | [
"\"Jesus de Greatest\" is tall and weighs 40 tons. It stands barefoot with both arms outstretched, and was carved out of white marble. It was unveiled on January 1, 2016. Mass was held at St. Aloysius Catholic Church, Abajah with the presiding of the bishop of Orlu Catholic Diocese, Ret. Rev. Augustine Ukwuoma with... |
if modern computers are so extremely powerful, how can it take more than 30 hours to render one frame of cg in a movie? | Because 30 hours is the sweet spot. Frames took 30 hours to render 20 years ago, despite the lower computing power available at the time.
If it took more time it would be very annoying to work with, and if it took less time, we could do more in CG^[1], run a more accurate simulation, or build more complex shots withou... | [
"The bulk of computer processing power for rendering the film was donated by the BSU Xseed, a 2.1 TFLOPS Apple Xserve G5-based supercomputing cluster at Bowie State University. It reportedly took 125 days to render, consuming up to 2.8GB of memory for each frame.\n",
"In July 2011, Lindelof said that the film wou... |
Spanish Gold Inflation. | What essentially happened was that the Spanish became importers as opposed to exporters. Spain was so wealthy, that they simply paid for all of the goods they required from other European nations including textiles, weapons, ships even. Spain would simply buy it since they had enough wealth to outsource any internal de... | [
"Generally it is thought that this high inflation was caused by the large influx of gold and silver from the Spanish treasure fleet from the New World, including Mexico, Peru, and the rest of the Spanish Empire.\n",
"The withdrawal of the Bank of Spain's gold reserves to Moscow has been pointed out to be one of t... |
why are teslas super fast off the line and yet at a certain point a non-electric super car will catch up to it? | It's pretty simple, they have instant full torque at any RPM (where most automatic cars are at ~4000RPM or 1500RPM-3000RPM if turbo boosted), however, they are not powerful motors, at least not as powerful as a Lambo, meaning their horsepower isn't enough, plus, Tesla's are damn heavy, over 1000lb heavier. | [
"In a May 2013 interview with All Things Digital, Musk said that to overcome the range limitations of electric cars, Tesla is expanding its network of supercharger stations, tripling the number on the East and West coasts of the U.S. that June, with plans for more expansion across North America, including Canada, t... |
What causes of death allow or rule out organ donation? | In order to be declared brain dead there are a number of preconditions that must be met. These can vary slightly in different jurisdictions, but essentially there has to be a known disease process that has resulted in extensive brain damage. The damage must have involved the most basic parts of the brain, the brain ste... | [
"Another major debate around organ donation concerns with the definition of death. Because if the accepted definition if death is \"incorrect,\" removing a heart from a donor who was established dead under the \"wrong\" criteria is tantamount to murder. With life-support and cardiopulmonary resuscitative technology... |
How do elements inside cells interact and move to the right places? | Most of the processes in the cell occur by diffusion. Meaning a lot of what is happening is random chance, but since cells are small and much more compact than textbooks and animations show, these processes can occur rather quickly.
Enzymes (the do-ers of the cell) don't really "know" what they're doing. They just do... | [
"Solid areas contain fibrous tissue islands or epithelium that interconnect through strands and sheets. The epithelial cells tend to move the nucleus away from the basement membrane to the opposite pole of the cell. This process is called \"reverse polarization\". Two main histological patterns most often occur: \"... |
if there is a bee in a car and the car is travelling at 50mph, does the bee have to fly faster than 50mph to move from the backseat to the front seat? | > does the bee have to fly faster than 50mph to move from the backseat to the front seat?
No. The bee flies by pushing against the air around it, and all of the air in the car is moving along with the car.
It's much the same as the fact that, even though the earth is rotating from west to east at hundreds of miles ... | [
"BULLET::::- When landing, the ground becomes closer and therefore appears to be moving faster. By keeping the apparent velocity of the ground constant, the bee reduces its own velocity in a continuous manner.\n",
"Although capable of limited flight, it spends most of its time on the ground, and can run at speeds... |
"the loudness war", and its effect on music | There are loud and quiet parts in music. Every media format (especially digital ones) has some limit of maximum sound level, so loudness of entire track is determined by it's loudest part.
Most of music producers try to make music louder than their competitors to get the advantage on the radio, etc (people tend to pr... | [
"The loudness war (or loudness race) refers to the trend of increasing audio levels in recorded music which reduces audio fidelity and, according to many critics, listener enjoyment. Increasing loudness was first reported as early as the 1940s, with respect to mastering practices for 7\" singles. The maximum peak l... |
What is the Hercules-Corona Borealis Great Wall? | Over the largest scales galaxies seem to arrange themselves in a foam like structure with the material we can see sitting where the bubble walls would be. Here is a [picture](_URL_0_) of a universe simulation to give you an impression.
The Great Wall in this would be a particular dense area. Our viewpoint is outside o... | [
"The central tumulus is built from smaller rocks, and is thought to have been constructed after the surrounding walls were constructed. Connecting to it are four main stone walls. The first wall, shaped like a semicircle, is 50m in diameter and 1.5m wide. That wall is connected to a second one, an almost complete c... |
can some please explain what a information system architecture is? | It's basically a diagram of how they want a system or process or *whatever* to work. It's hard to define because it's a pretty vague thing to start with that you can take in many different directions. I bet if your teammates drew you a picture of what they're talking about it would work a lot better than trying to defi... | [
"The Information Architecture is the \"what\" of information systems which defines and organizes all information needed to perform business operations and describes the relationships among this information. The Functional Architecture is the \"how\" of information systems which defines and organizes the business fu... |
why is it considered more professional to be clean shaven? | Primary answer: Beards are easier maintained shaven than left to grow. Not having it there in the first place is considered professional since it implies that the person in question takes hygiene seriously by being willing to groom themselves every day.
Ancillary answer: Western cultures prefer cleanly shaven men to r... | [
"Since the mid-twentieth century, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) has encouraged men to be clean-shaven, particularly those that serve in ecclesiastical leadership positions. The church's encouragement of men's shaving has no theological basis, but stems from the general waning of facia... |
What happens to all the hair that is shaved off or cut, how does it decompose? | Hair is a source of nitrogen, and can be composted to make a fertilizer. I've thrown pet hair in the compost bins for years.
I suspect that it might also, in larger quantities, help soil drainage (though I very well could be wrong about this). | [
"Temporary hair removal may last from several hours to several weeks, depending on the method used. These procedures are purely cosmetic. Depilation methods, such as trimming, shaving, and depilatories, remove hair to the level of the skin and produce results that last several hours to several days. Epilation metho... |
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