Split (2)

train · 226k rows

question stringlengths 3 301	answer stringlengths 9 26.1k	context list
what happens to my old memories and skills after a brain transplant? am i the new persons brain now? do i have their memories and skills? am i still me?	Isn't this question literally unanswerable at the moment? Brain transplant has never been done	[ "A significant proportion of the prior learning and the development of skills which has already taken place within an adult's brain can often be retained post injury. However, a brain at the earlier stages of development, if damaged, might never develop the capacity to learn those skills, leading to subsequent diff...
what is continuous compounding?	The effect your describing is misleading. If my bank account gives me 6 cents per dollar I have in the bank in interest, you might say I get 6% interest. How often this is compounded(figured out and added) is important. Its always 6% per year, but what if it's calculated annually? Dec31st roles around, my dollar is n...	[ "BULLET::::- In finance, continuous compounding is the limiting case of compound interest in which the compounding period becomes infinitesimally small, achieved by taking the limit as the number of compounding periods per year goes to infinity.\n", "Compounding is the operation of bringing together all the ingre...
what's up with the cern drama, what are they trying to do?	What CERN drama? I can find nothing significant about CERN in the news. Are you sure you didn't find a five year old fear-mongering website about how "oh the LHC will destroy the wooooorrrrlldddd!!!!1!"	[ "CERN brings to the community an opening on to the world of physics which is perhaps unique in the world. Conferences are very frequently organised and some of these are open to the public. It is possible to visit the exhibition centre at CERN and also, with a prior appointment, to make a half day visit to CERN its...
why are modern superhero comics more darker than the classic ones?	The medium changes to fit the audience. A lot of the main audience were kids/young teens when they first started and now they've grown up and demand more mature content, which usually equals darker and grittier. It also seems to be what the average person wants these days, it's why the Batman movies got a super gritt...	[ "Superhero Comics became darker with the release of landmark deconstructive works such as \"Watchmen\" and \"The Dark Knight Returns\", which led to many imitations. In the 1990s, Image Comics released successful new characters including the anti-hero Spawn which were predominantly creator owned as opposed to Marve...
the practices/beliefs of the jewish religion.	Judaism is a monotheistic religion - i.e., we believe in "One God", indivisible. The foundation of Judaism is found within the Torah (a.k.a. the old testament) wherein you will find every law (halachah) that a Jew must follow. These are referred to as "mitzvot". There are 613 Mitzvot. These concern everything from die...	[ "Jewish culture is the culture of the Jewish people from the formation of the Jewish nation in ancient Israel through life in the diaspora and the modern state of Israel. Judaism guides its adherents in both practice and belief, so that it has been called not only a religion, but an orthopraxy. Not all individuals ...
how can computers just be a whole bunch of "1's and 0's" when they can seemingly do many more things than that?	You are just a whole bunch of carbons, oxygens and hydrogens. But here you are reflecting on the nature of computers.	[ "Computers usually manipulate bits in groups of a fixed size, conventionally named \"words\". Like the byte, the number of bits in a word also varies with the hardware design, and is typically between 8 and 80 bits, or even more in some specialized computers. In the 21st century, retail personal or server computers...
the differences (jurisdictional, logistical, cooperative, etc) between law enforcement off and on an american indian reservation.	Kind of a broad topic, and hard to generalize as there are hundreds of reservations and each one is handled differently. Tribes have a high level agreement with the federal government and another for the state they are in that says officers can come onto the reservation under special situations i.e. with a warrant, b...	[ "American Indian reservations are areas of land managed by an American Indian tribe under the United States Department of the Interior's Bureau of Indian Affairs. There are about 310 Indian reservations in the United States. Tribes possess limited tribal sovereignty over the land in their reservation. As a result, ...
i read that heisenberg's uncertainty principle is often confused or conflated with the observer effect. if they aren't the same thing, then what is the uncertainty principle?	The uncertainty principle is a consequence wave mechanics. Take the probability density of a wave with a single well-defined frequency. That wave exists everywhere, so you can know the frequency but you have no idea of the location of a particle represented by that wavefunction. Any wave function that is localized (...	[ "The uncertainty principle has been frequently confused with the observer effect, evidently even by its originator, Werner Heisenberg. The uncertainty principle in its standard form describes how precisely we may measure the position and momentum of a particle at the same time – if we increase the precision in meas...
wanna cry malware and how a system acquires it.	Long story short, the ransomware utilises two main exploits in Windows systems, known as EternalBlue and DoublePulsar. These were leaked by a Russian hacker group known as 'The Shadow Brokers' in April this year and most likely originated with the NSA. EternalBlue is a method of exploiting a legacy file transfer proto...	[ "Shedun-family malware is known for auto-rooting the Android OS using well-known exploits like ExynosAbuse, Memexploit and Framaroot (causing a potential privilege escalation) and for serving trojanized adware and install themselves within the system partition of the operating system, so that not even a factory res...
How do deadly/immobilizing viruses like HIV remain prevalent if they cause their hosts to die?	viruses only have to "live" long enough to infect another host or hosts. What happens to the host after that is irrelevant. There's a positive correlation between virulence (how much damage the pathogen can cause) and infectivity (the ability of a pathogen to start new infections). Plenty of pathogens can spread to new...	[ "Although viruses and other pathogens can be transmitted to cimicids, they rarely transmit them to their hosts. \"O. vicarius\" is a vector of several arboviruses, but is not killed by these viruses. \"Trypanosoma cruzi\", the trypanosome that causes Chagas disease, is rarely transmitted from cimicids to bats, but ...
Was enslavement to North America the first instance of African slavery? If not, who was the first to enslave Africans?	No, and not by a long shot. Africans (which of course is an extremely vague term encompassing thousands of ethnic groups who happen to occupy the same massive continent) have been getting enslaved at least since the time of the Roman Empire. Likewise, centuries before the discovery of the Americas, there existed a l...	[ "Many Native American tribes practiced some form of slavery before the European introduction of African slavery into North America; but none exploited slave labor on a large scale. The arrival of the Europeans ushered in the Atlantic slave trade, where Africans were sold into chattel slavery into the American conti...
why do some devices need huge, clunky transformers to go from ac to dc, while others (like usb) are just a tiny plug?	Transforming power from AC to DC is a relatively simple task if you only need a little bit of power. However, if you need lots of power then you start worrying about the amount of heat that you are producing. Something like a USB plug is not going to have to supply more than a few watts. Such a device is never going...	[ "Compared to domestic AC power plugs and sockets, DC connectors have many more standard types that are not interchangeable. The dimensions and arrangement of DC connectors can be chosen to prevent accidental interconnection of incompatible sources and loads. Types vary from small coaxial connectors used to power po...
is the universe loosing density?	Yes, this expansion will ultimately lead to heat death unless something happens in the interim.	[ "Milne proposed that the universe's density changes in time because of an initial outward explosion of matter. Milne's model assumes an inhomogeneous density function which is Lorentz Invariant (around the event t=x=y=z=0). When rendered graphically Milne's density distribution shows a three-dimensional spherical L...
Why did Japan sign the plaza accords?	To answer my own question, I think it's because a stronger Yen allowed Japan to make important investments/purchases in the US. Someone correct me if I'm wrong.	[ "The Plaza Accord was signed between Japan, the United Kingdom, France, West Germany, and the United States in 1985, aimed at reducing the imbalance in trade between the countries. At that time, Japan had a huge trade surplus, as the Japanese yen was weaker against U.S. dollar, while the United States suffered from...
why we can't immunize against the bacteria that causes tooth cavities	First of all, I read that same post on Reddit and it's BS. Yes, you aren't born covered in bacteria but it's very true that you depend on bacteria to live. Bacteria are on your skin. They are in your intestines. If you're a girl, they are all up in your vagina as well. And while they can sometimes make you sick, some...	[ "Research in the field of microbiotas shows that only a limited set of microbes cause tooth decay, with most of the bacteria in the human mouth being harmless. Focused attention on cavity-causing bacteria such as \"Streptococcus mutans\" has led research into new mouthwash treatments that prevent these bacteria fro...
why can't reptiles regulate their bodyheat but mammals can?	Because they never evolved the necessary organs/glands/nervous system/bits and pieces to regulate body temperature. They've never needed because being cold-blooded does grant certain advantages in the environments that reptiles have evolved in. While dependent on ambient temperature, they possess a greater degree of co...	[ "They also require a constant water source, for bathing and drinking. Being reptiles, which cannot control their body temperature internally, they require a varied area in which they can access both sun and shade. This allows them to move around and thus to regulate and maintain their body temperature constant.\n",...
To what degree does stellar fusion occur in Black Holes? Are crazy elements formed?	We don't know exactly what is going on inside a Black hole, but it's less-compressed cousin is the 'neutron star' which is completely composed of neutrons. In a neutron star, the neutrons are compressed so closely that they literally cannot get any closer (to do so would mean that multiple neutrons are occupying the...	[ "Brown dwarf stars and gas-giant planets do not achieve sustained fusion, as they contain insufficient mass to gravitationally compress the reactants to the degree required to initiate a reaction. If the density of the star or planet could be increased, fusion could be initiated. One such method is to \"seed\" the ...
anthropic selection	I will explain with another question: "Why do we only get motivational speakers who overcame cancer, rather than those who didn't?" Obviously you don't because people who died from cancer can't attend speaking engagements. This is the basic idea behind the anthropic principle, the idea that observations of the univer...	[ "Apostatic selection is a form of negative frequency-dependent selection. It describes the survival of individual prey animals that are different (through mutation) from their species in a way that makes it more likely for them to be ignored by their predators. It operates on polymorphic species, species which have...
Will cryogenically frozen people ever wake up?	You might look at the [FAQ at Alcor](_URL_1_), and the [FAQ for scientists](_URL_0_) at the same source. They don't freeze people these days: the process used is vitrification, which minimizes ice crystal formation when performed under ideal circumstances. Fine structure in the brain is preserved. The same would be ex...	[ "Cryonics procedures can begin only after clinical death, and cryonics \"patients\" are legally dead. Cryonics procedures ideally begin within minutes of death, and use cryoprotectants to prevent ice formation during cryopreservation. It is however not possible for a corpse to be reanimated after undergoing vitrifi...
why do so many coups occur in africa?	Development is going to be the primary cause. The main reason countries fall behind in development is political instability. Economic growth comes from investing in the future, and that requires people to believe in the future. If thugs, criminal or government, are going to just take whatever you produce, your focus...	[ "There was a recurring pattern of coups and counter-coups, that were a succession of increasingly authoritarian and corrupt governments all full of false promises of democracy and new starts. ‘Decalo lists the following reasons for African military coups: ethnic rivalries, intramilitary quarrels, personal jealousie...
what exactly is vector data in the context of gis?	There are two types of data in gis: raster and vector. Basically, raster is represented by pixels which have a different value and are continuous so an entire map will be taken up by these pixels. Vector data is comprised of points, lines, and polygons. Which might be a road, a tree, or a lake for example. With raster ...	[ "GIS data represents real objects (such as roads, land use, elevation, trees, waterways, etc.) with digital data determining the mix. Real objects can be divided into two abstractions: discrete objects (e.g., a house) and continuous fields (such as rainfall amount, or elevations). Traditionally, there are two broad...
Himmler diaries, any updates?	I'm waiting for those myself, but yes, it takes a huge amount of time to analyze every single entry - you have not only to comment, you have to cross-reference the diaries (actually, appointment calendars) with tens of thousands of other documents. And we're talking about at least two whole years here -1943 and 1944 (t...	[ "The 16 pages of photographs include those of Ivan Klimenko, head of autopsy commission Faust Shkaravsky, the locations of Hitler's burning and burying site outside the \"Führerbunker\"s emergency exit, SMERSH agents exhuming Hitler and Braun's remains, a diagram of where the corpses of Hitler, Braun, Joseph and Ma...
Did Mitterand give Thatcher codes to disable Argentina's Exocet missiles during the Falklands War in exchange for chunnel?	The claim originates from Ali Magoudi's 2005 book Rendez-vous: La psychanalyse de François Mitterrand. Magoudi was Mitterrand's psychoanalyst between 1982 and 1984 and published the book several years after Mitterrand's death. So, there's the obvious ethical issues with a therapist spilling the beans on his patient's...	[ "In 1982 there was a failed plan codenamed Operation Algeciras conceived by the Argentinian military to sabotage the British military facilities in Gibraltar during the Falklands War. The Spanish authorities intervened just before the attack, and deported the two Argentine Montoneros and military liaison officer in...
What was the relation between the different Archaic Greek poetries?	(Forewarning: I really didn't intend to write anything this long! I apologise, I got carried away. Skip to the last paragraph for the actual answer to your question.) We have little evidence on performance circumstances of any genre of poetry prior to the 5th century BCE, and prior to the late 6th century it's practic...	[ "Modern surveys of \"Greek lyric\" often include relatively short poems composed for similar purposes or circumstances that were not strictly \"song lyrics\" in the modern sense, such as elegies and iambics. The Greeks themselves did not include elegies nor iambus within melic poetry, since they had different metre...
how is music able to be unevenly distributed through headphones?	So others have mentioned that this is called stereo sound, and no it doesn't have to be programmed. There is one channel for each headphone, so each ear is getting slightly different audio (surround sound works similarly, there are just more channels). When mixing, each input (microphone or instrument input) can be p...	[ "Conventional music recording is produced for stereo playback which makes use of only Left and Right playback for speakers and headphones. The implementation of Dummy Head allows the recording artist to make use of three dimensional sound reproduction. This is because through playback via headphones the listener pe...
why do our stomachs 'get full' based on the mass of the food we eat, rather than the food's calorie content?	Actually appetite is controlled by both of these things. If you eat something bulky but low in calories, you'll be hungry again in two hours. And if you eat something extremely rich, as long as you take your time, you'll feel satisfied before your stomach is actually filled up.	[ "Due to the high volume or water content of fiber-rich foods, fiber displaces available calories and nutrients from the diet. Consumption of viscous fibers delays gastric emptying, which may cause an extended feeling of fullness. Satiety is also induced by increasing chewing, which limits food intake by promoting t...
how come atms spit out crisp dollar bills when people put in wrinkle money?	the ironing elves. (all of the money that goes into an ATM is collected and processes. all money that comes out is put in "freshly" by the ATM armored truck dudes)	[ "A scrip cash dispenser may have many components in common with an ATM, but it lacks the ability to dispense physical cash and consequently requires no vault. Instead, the customer requests a withdrawal transaction from the machine, which prints a receipt or scrip. The customer then takes this receipt to a nearby s...
American Presidential Historians, what were the most fascinating bits of the Truman era?	Truman very much struggled with the decision to drop the Atomic bombs, and refused to give into pressure to drop a third bomb. It's something interesting with fairly easy access to material. Of course you also have the development of the Truman doctrine, and could look into US aid to assist the Greeks in their civil wa...	[ "In August 1949, Leviero wrote for the \"Times Magazine\" about the presidential press conference, calling it \"a great institution\" that had become \"a factor in our checks-and-balances system of government. Nothing anywhere else in the world compares with it.\" In a book about Truman's relationship to the news m...
how can boats have holes in the bottom to drop things into the ocean?	They are kept afloat by other sections that don't have holes in them. Think of a twin-hulled catamaran: the whole middle is a giant hole, but each of the two closed hulls still floats.	[ "Holes, or \"hydraulics\", (also known as \"stoppers\" or \"souse-holes\". See also Pillows), are formed when water pours over the top of a submerged object, or underwater ledges, causing the surface water to flow back upstream toward the object. Holes can be particularly dangerous—a boater may become stuck under t...
why is it important to search for methane on mars? is methane actually present on mars?	Methane is a by product of life on Earth. If found on Mars it could indicate that there is life.	[ "The 2003–2004 observations of methane gas on Mars were made remotely by three teams working with separate data. If the methane is truly present in the atmosphere of Mars, then something must be producing it on the planet now, because the gas is broken down by radiation on Mars within 300 years, therefore the impor...
How would the contagiousness (R0) of seasonal flu compare to COVID-19 virus, if nobody was immune to flu either?	In the H1N1 pandemic of 2009/10, no one was immune to the new H1N1 virus (which is why it caused a pandemic). Its R0 was estimated as between 1 and 2 (for example, see [The Transmissibility and Control of Pandemic Influenza A (H1N1) Virus](_URL_0_)).	[ "The virus is contagious and is believed to spread from human to human in much the same way as seasonal flu. The most common mechanisms by which it spreads are by droplets from coughs and sneezes of infected people, and also potentially touching a surface or the hand of a person contaminated with the virus and then...
Slave culture in the caribbean - can anyone recommend some reliable sources?	There are many on here who have more expertise in the later 18th century Caribbean than I, but I do know a few sources that you could consult. The first issue you will confront is that there is a dearth of sources from enslaved people's point of view at any time during the eighteenth century. Olaudah Equiano's narrati...	[ "\"The Autobiography of a Slave\" is the only existing documented account of 19th century Cuban Slavery and the only existing narrative account of slavery in Spanish America. Irish abolitionist Richard Robert Madden published his \"Poems by a slave in the island of Cuba\" in 1840. Manzano's play \"Zafira\" was publ...
if computers have been able to win at chess for years, why did it take them this long to win at go?	You answered your own question. Go is considered to be the pinnacle of strategy games, because while it's instructions are easier than chess, there is much skill and little luck involved in winning at higher levels, which the number of options are far larger than chess in the early and mid stages of the game.	[ "Chess computers were first able to beat strong chess players in the late 1980s. Their most famous success was the victory of Deep Blue over then World Chess Champion Garry Kasparov in 1997, but there was some controversy over whether the match conditions favored the computer.\n", "Computer scientists believed th...
why do we have to separate paper from plastics, glass, and metals when recycling?	Because glass is melted and paper is turned into liquid pulp. Can't recycle them together during the same process, and recycling is expensive enough without paying some poor worker to separate them for you.	[ "Plastic recycling is the process of recovering scrap or waste plastics and reprocessing the material into useful products. Compared to glass or metallic materials, plastic poses unique challenges. Because of the massive number of types of plastic, they each carry a resin identification code, and must be sorted bef...
How do Islamic writings of the Trans-Saharan Slave trade routes in Africa compare to those of the Western writings of the Atlantic Slave Trade?	> I'm interested to hear what people with actual credentials say about the historiography of slavery. Yes, this is a necessary step of any historical research project! Ideally, a major history paper (although I don't know about the specifics of your particular assignment) includes a section at the beginning that dis...	[ "Early Muslim writings confirm that the people of West Africa operated a sophisticated network of trade, usually under the authority of a monarch who levied taxes and provided bureaucratic and military support to his kingdom. Sophisticated mechanisms for the economic and political development of the involved Africa...
- how the dial lock on a safe works.	Im too lazy to find pics. Imagine a pizza on a table. Stand the pizza on its edge. Remove one slice from the pizza. Place a metal bar above the pizza. Now as you rotate the pizza the metal bar will fall into the pizza when the missing section is aligned with the bar. Now imagine you had 2 pizzas with 1 piece missing e...	[ "Mechanical safe locks are manipulated primarily by feel and vision, with sound helping the process occasionally. To find the combination the operator uses the lock against itself by measuring internal movements with the dial numbers. More sophisticated locks use advanced mechanics to reduce any feedback a technici...
Do less attractive people tend to be more kind, and very attractive ones less so?	I found this abstract of an [article](_URL_0_): > Common maxims about beauty suggest that attractiveness is not important in life. In contrast, both fitness-related evolutionary theory and socialization theory suggest that attractiveness influences development and interaction. In 11 meta-analyses, the authors evaluat...	[ "Many have asserted that certain advantages tend to come to those who are perceived as being more attractive, including the ability to get better jobs and promotions; receiving better treatment from authorities and the legal system; having more choices in romantic or platonic partners and, therefore, more power in ...
why do some people cut most of a dog's ears off?	Cropping the ears used to be for working dogs, and unfortunately for fighting dogs. Now it's more for breed standards and stupid owners.	[ "German Pinschers previously had their tails docked and ears cropped in countries where the procedures are legal. Historically, tail docking was thought to prevent rabies, strengthen the back, increase the animal's speed, and prevent injuries when working. Ears also were cropped, as they were thought to prevent inj...
why do tv shows and films often have their characters using fake social media websites/search engines on screen?	It is considered advertising and there are a few reason they avoid it. 1) It being advertising they want to be paid for it. Most will not pay so they make imitation products. It is the same reason they invent soda or beer brands, and why apple computers will have the apple logo covered or altered. 2) If the product...	[ "Due to the show's format, impersonated celebrities are usually female, although there have been several instances of contestants choosing male celebrities whose public images were sufficiently flamboyant to fit in with a drag aesthetic; one contestant also chose to create the character of a male public figure's im...
Can something be too cold to burn?	Former US Navy trained firefighter here. This is exactly how water extinguishes a fire. There are four components to fire: fuel, oxidizer, heat, and a chemical chain reaction. Remove any one of those components, and the fire goes out. Water extinguishes fire by absorbing heat, cooling the fuel to a temperature bel...	[ "Treating an object with heat is a method used to disinfect objects by either an oven or a commercial kiln. When the internal temperature reaches “130°F for three hours it will kill any insect”; however, this kind of heat can damage veneer, damage finish of specimens, warp lumber, or melt glues.\n", "A thermal bu...
why is the diamond pattern used so much on metal plate?	It's cheap / it's rugged/ it's got grip/ and it looks bad ass. Perfection	[ "Diamond plate, also known as checker plate, tread plate and Durbar floor plate, is a type of metal stock with a regular pattern of raised diamonds or lines on one side, with the reverse side being featureless. Diamond plate is usually steel, stainless steel or aluminum. Steel types are normally made by hot rolling...
What truth is there for the ferocity of indigenous American tribes in torture and execution.	There is certainly some truth to it. The most horrific example I know of is the alleged death of Lt. Thomas Boyd during the American War of Independence. Boyd was part of the Sullivan Expedition, one of the United States' largest military campaigns of 1779. He was captured by the Seneca Indians. Following a bought of...	[ "Indians who felt wronged would then indiscriminately kill Hispanic persons, sometimes first subjecting them to torture, and would conduct or participate in raids and ambushes whose goal was retaliation/revenge more than economic gain. Over the two centuries of interaction with the Spanish the Apache bands had acqu...
Are the secret doors, complex puzzle locks, deadly traps, and other ancient mechanisms that we see in movies based in reality?	There are some very old stories about actual traps. One of the most famous is the claim that [the tomb of the Qin Emperor had crossbow traps](_URL_0_). At present excavation of what is strongly believed to be the site is ongoing but very slowly, due to among other issues extremely high mercury levels. I don't know of a...	[ "Hidden trapdoors occasionally appear in fiction, as entrances to secret passageways, dungeons, or to secret tunnels. They also appear as literal traps into which a hapless pedestrian may fall if he or she happens to step on one.\n", "Other rooms include the casino, where creatures gamble for either pleasure or t...
why do so many different types of animals have whiskers? i understand their uses, but how did so many creatures evolve to have them?	They didn't all evolve them separately. Every mammal that has whiskers is descended from an ancestor that had whiskers.	[ "Animals that do not whisk, but have motile whiskers, presumably also gain some advantage from the investment in musculature. Dorothy Souza, in her book \"Look What Whiskers Can Do\" reports some whisker movement during prey capture (in cats, in this case):\n", "Animal tails are used in a variety of ways. They pr...
how did countries joining the euro & issuing euro bonds change the bond markets in countries like greece?	this is just an illusion. it doesn't change the bond market. What it does change is the expectation of risk: PIGG country = notional risk = higher returns. BUT Euro = bailout = no risk. so for the banks we move from high risk high returns, to no risk high return. Capitalism at it's best.	[ "Foreseeing a possible sovereign default in the eurozone, the general public, international and European institutions, and the financial community reassessed the economic situation and creditworthiness of some Eurozone member states, in particular Southern countries. Consequently, sovereign bonds yields of several ...
Why were the conflicts in Northern Ireland not considered a civil war?	This is a more complex question than it might appear. Given that the majority of the victims and perpetrators of the violence came from NI you might assume it was a civil war. There are some reasons for not using the term: Politically it is rejected by Republicans because it turns the emphasis away from the Irish - Br...	[ "The fact that the Irish Civil War was fought between Irish Nationalist factions meant that the sporadic conflict in Northern Ireland ended. Collins and Sir James Craig signed an agreement to end it on 30 March 1922, but, despite this, Collins covertly supplied arms to the Northern IRA until a week before his death...
The Development of Democracy?	Although it is credited with the ancient Athenians, democracy in a broad sence, is believed to have already been practiced by several other lesser civilizations and tribes. A widely accepted theory is that in any close knit tribe where the community knows each other, that democracy will naturally form. This is tribalis...	[ "A majority of researchers on the determinants of democracy agree that economic development is a primary factor which allows the formation of a stable and healthy democracy (, ). Thus, some researchers have argued that economic development also plays a factor in the establishment of peace.\n", "Extensive research...
when does mass murder become genocide?	It's not a question of numbers, either absolute or relative. Genocide is the systematic attempt to exterminate a group of people based upon some shared characteristic, for example religion, skin colour, or nationality. That's why even though Stalin ended up killing more people than Hitler, most historians don't consi...	[ "A mass killing, as defined by a genocide scholar Ervin Staub, is \"killing members of a group without the intention to eliminate the whole group or killing large numbers of people without a precise definition of group membership\". This term is used by a number of genocide scholars because the term \"genocide\" (i...
why do so many english native speakers use double negation when it's grammatically incorrect ?	Double negation is not grammatically incorrect. ( < --- see what I did there?) It might sound strange and it's often used incorrectly, but it's grammatically fine. "We don't need no education," is grammatically correct and can be parsed to mean that we require at least the smallest possible amount of education. What ...	[ "Double negation is uncommon in other West Germanic languages. A notable exception is Afrikaans, where it is mandatory (for example, \"He cannot speak Afrikaans\" becomes \"Hy kan nie Afrikaans praat nie\", \"He cannot Afrikaans speak not\"). Dialectal Dutch, French and San have been suggested as possible origins f...
Could a binary star system have a planet tidally locked to the baricenter?	No. It's an unstable equilibrium. Any perturbation, no matter how small, would cause the planet to accelerate away from the barycentre towards one or other star. Exactly what orbit it would then go into depends on the relative masses of the stars and the ellipticity of their orbits.	[ "Close binary stars throughout the universe are expected to be tidally locked with each other, and extrasolar planets that have been found to orbit their primaries extremely closely are also thought to be tidally locked to them. An unusual example, confirmed by MOST, may be Tau Boötis, a star that is probably tidal...
Are there any practical uses for trying to get a Noble gas to react with other elements/compounds.	Noble gas compounds have fairly niche uses, in general. Many are very strong oxidising agents and could be quite useful because there's little chance of any side reactions happening - [xenic acid](_URL_0_) can oxidise other compounds without introducing any impurities into the reaction, since it liberates stable xenon ...	[ "The noble gases are generally non-reactive because they have fully filled electronic shells, which are extremely stable. Until the 1960s, no chemical bond with a noble gas was known. In 1962, Neil Bartlett used fluorine-containing platinum hexafluoride to react with xenon. He called the compound he prepared xenon ...
What goes on inside the newborn after the umbilical cord is cut? And what is going on inside in pre-belly button times?	The umbilical cord connect the foetus to the placenta, which in turn is attached to the uterine wall. At the placenta the foetal blood circuit runs in a series of villi (fingerlike projections) into a pool of maternal blood which has leaked into cavities in the placenta. The barrier between the two is extremely thin, s...	[ "In placental mammals, the umbilical cord (also called the navel string, birth cord or funiculus umbilicalis) is a conduit between the developing embryo or fetus and the placenta. During prenatal development, the umbilical cord is physiologically and genetically part of the fetus and (in humans) normally contains t...
Who actually wrote/compiled the Qur'an?	You might find [this discussion ](_URL_0_) useful to answer the question about where and how the text originated. There aren’t good theories as to who wrote the Quran if Muhammad wasn’t the author (or transmitter, in the Islamic worldview) — some people have their favorite candidates, but none are proven. Since you’r...	[ "The text of the Qur'an is generally considered by university scholars to record the words spoken by Muhammad as the search for variants in Western academia has not yielded any differences of great significance. The Qur'an, however, mainly records the ideological and spiritual considerations of Muhammad, and only f...
How were the most recently discovered Elements (ie. 113, 117, 119 ect.) documented, when their half lives are so short?	Depending on the lifetime of the nuclide and your experimental setup, you may or may not have time to directly detect it before it decays. If not, you can just detect its decay products and infer what the original nucleus was. The shortest nuclear lifetimes are in the order of 10^(-22) seconds, and those ones can’t be...	[ "In 1959, the Swedish team attempted to explain the Berkeley team's inability to detect element 102 in 1958, maintaining that they did discover it. However, later work has shown that no nobelium isotopes lighter than No (no heavier isotopes could have been produced in the Swedish experiments) with a half-life over ...
why do our eyes strain when we look up instead of down when we're awake, even though they automatically rest looking upwards when we're asleep?	It's not the eyes straining when looking up, but your upper eyelid trying to stay above your pupil.	[ "Primary reasons is eye fatigue as a result of excessive pressure on the eyes because of reading, watching TV, computer, poor lighting, etc. Some other reasons are poor posture, poor diet, lack of sleep, etc.\n", "The eyes are never completely at rest. They make fast random jittering movements even when we are fi...
what do gulf countries have against al jazeera in particular?	Authoritarian states are usually distrustful of any media they don't control. The Qatari government has allowed AJ to report on corruption and human rights abuses that the other Gulf countries would have preferred not to be covered.	[ "Qatar's support for the Muslim Brotherhood across the Middle East-North Africa (MENA) region, Hamas and radical Islamists in Libya has led to increasing tensions with other Arab states of the Persian Gulf. These tensions came to a head during a March 2014 meeting of the GCC, after which the UAE, Saudi Arabia and B...
Why are elementary-aged students in the US knowingly taught a version of US History that middle and high schools have to completely contradict and reexplain?	I am not a historian per se, but I am a teacher, so hopefully I can answer this question in a way that the mods will allow to remain. If not, forgive me. Teachers in all states of the United States are required by law to teach certain standards (standards may vary). I'm based in the state of Texas and we are required...	[ "Nevertheless, the older systems do persist in many jurisdictions. While they are in the minority today, there are still school districts which, instead of adopting the \"middle school\", still distinguish between junior and senior high schools. Thus, high schools can be either 9–12, which is most common, or 10–12....
almonds trees and alike 'use' a lot of water, where does all that water go?	It goes away quite quickly: they run it up to their leaves, and it evaporates from there. This in turn pulls more water up, and so it continues.	[ "Denver Water's primary water sources are the South Platte River, Blue River, Williams Fork and Fraser River watersheds, but it also uses water from the South Boulder Creek, Ralston Creek and Bear Creek watersheds.\n", "Water lilies are aquatic rhizomatous perennial herbs, sometimes with stolons, as well. The lea...
how do people tame predators such as tiger or lions?	Raising them from birth helps. If you feed something and give it enough food and space and entertainment, it won't be as inclined to kill you. Although they're tame, not domesticated, so they could snap at any moment.	[ "With smaller prey, such as monkeys and hares, the tiger bites the nape, often breaking the spinal cord, piercing the windpipe, or severing the jugular vein or common carotid artery. Though rarely observed, some tigers have been recorded to kill prey by swiping with their paws, which are powerful enough to smash th...
if you’re short sighted, are you able to see something clearly in a mirror that is close to you showing a reflection of something that is further away? or is it still not readable even in the mirror?	Looking into a mirror or directly at this far away object, the light from the object has to travel such a distance any way you look at it, so the object would still not be readable even in the mirror.	[ "Looking through a mirror from different positions (but necessarily with the point of observation restricted to the halfspace on one side of the mirror) is like looking at the 3D mirror image of space; without further mirrors only the mirror image of the halfspace before the mirror is relevant; if there is another ...
How much does the toothpaste you use really affect your dental hygiene?	Fluoride ions in toothpaste and drinking water intercalate into the enamel that covers the outside of the tooth increasing resistance to decay and acidic erosion. Also, triclosan, a bactericidal agent, is added to some brands to inhibit plaque formation and gingivitis. It also combats bad breath due to bacterial growth...	[ "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...
A question about the human body	I would say that an organ (such as the heart) fails to meet at least key one criterion of the [definition of a living creature](_URL_0_) - it can't reproduce. Even the most basic of parasites can make more parasites. A heart can't make more hearts. It might be alive by some definitions, but it's not a living creature...	[ "Most aspects of human physiology are closely homologous to corresponding aspects of animal physiology. The human body consists of the legs, the torso, the arms, the neck, and the head. An adult human body consists of about 100 trillion (10) cells. The most commonly defined body systems in humans are the nervous, t...
Why didn’t other American colonists mix cultures and have children to the extent the Spanish did?	This question comes up from time to time and has [a section in the faq](_URL_0_). The most interesting answers from there might be: [This one raising a few general points]( _URL_3_ ); this one going into [Spanish American organisation](_URL_2_). For a more specific example, [I've written here]( _URL_1_ ) about "mixi...	[ "In the early colonial years, children born of one Indigenous and one non-Native parent usually had a white father and an Indigenous mother. This was largely due to the majority of the early colonists being male. As many Native American tribes had matrilineal kinship systems, they considered the children to be born...
What was the climate in the Mediterranean in antiquity?	The data you seek should be available through paleoclimatic reconstruction combining data from dendrochronology, palynology and stratigraphy. You should turn towards geological sources and find what you need. A very quick search turned up the following paper: A Review of 2000 Years of Paleoclimatic Evidence in the Medi...	[ "The Mediterranean climate is most readily associated with the areas around the Mediterranean basin, where viticulture and winemaking first flourished on a large scale due to the influence of the Phoenicians, Greeks, and Romans of the ancient world.\n", "BULLET::::- The Mediterranean, developing from scattered Ph...
is a "meal-in-a-pill" theoretically possible? if so, what are the current limitations in developing it?	So we've got ones that have all the vitamins and minerals already, that part is down. The issue would be shoving all the calories in there, in a way your body could digest them. That part is a lot harder. There is going to be a lot more mass to the pill suddenly trying to fit 2000 calories into it (though odds are y...	[ "Mortars and pestles are also used as drug paraphernalia to grind up pills to speed up absorption when they are ingested, or in preparation for insufflation. To finely ground drugs, not available in liquid dosage form is used also, if patients need artificial nutrition such as parenteral nutrition or by nasogastric...
X-post from DAE - what causes the "fizzy" sound in your neck?	I don't have a great answer for this, but I can tell you it is fairly common, could be due to several different things, and most all are likely benign. If you have concerns please talk to your doctor.	[ "A souffle () is a vascular or cardiac murmur with a blowing quality when heard on auscultation. It is particularly used to describe vascular murmurs or transmitter heart sounds which occur during pregnancy, either from the uterus and breasts of the mother, or from the fetus.\n", "Hamman's sign (rarely, Hammond's...
Why are planets not tidally locked with the sun?	Given enough time, all the planets will become tidally locked with the Sun. The timescale involved though are in the billions - trillions of years (for the outer planets). How fast a planet becomes tidally locked depends on the mass of the star and the distance from the planet to the star. We have found exo...	[ "It is suggested that all seven planets are likely to be tidally locked into a so-called synchronous spin state (one side of each planet permanently facing the star), making the development of life there much more challenging. A less likely possibility is that some may be trapped in a higher-order spin–orbit resona...
How were Gobekli Tepe and Ollantaytambo constructed at the time they were, apparently without any advanced tools?	Basically, slow methods that use up tools. We're used to fast methods that don't destroy our tools, so it's hard to imagine working in such a way. Hitting rocks against each other, rocks rubbing on other rocks with hard grit between, soft materials loaded with hard grit to act like sandpaper, eventually copper saws r...	[ "Göbekli Tepe is regarded by some as an archaeological discovery of great importance since it could profoundly change the understanding of a crucial stage in the development of human society. Ian Hodder of Stanford University said, \"Göbekli Tepe changes everything\". If indeed the site was built by hunter-gatherer...
what is the point of having a separate police force? why not just have the army do the policing?	The army is trained to kill enemies. The police is trained to keep the peace. It's not the same training at all, having the army do the policing is a recipe for an authoritative government.	[ "In the UK, service police are the formations of the British Armed Forces responsible for policing armed forces personnel. They are comparable to the provosts of other countries, however the term 'provost' in the UK has various uses including reference to the staff of military prisons and senior service police offi...
how does the information travel through cords to make sound on speakers?	As electrical voltages and currents. If you put a 1 kHz AC current (current that swap directions 1000 times a second) on the wire, it causes the speaker to move at 1 kHz, which causes the air to move at 1 kHz, which makes you hear a 1 kHz tone. To play more complex sounds, you just put a more complex electrical current...	[ "In operation, a signal is delivered to the voice coil by means of electrical wires, from the amplifier through speaker cable, then through flexible tinsel wire to the moving coil. The current creates a magnetic field that causes the diaphragm to be alternately forced one way or the other, by the magnetic field pro...
Were there ever any cases of "Wizards" being put to death during the period of hysteria about witchcraft? How were they treated as opposed to the women in their "trials"?	In the European middle ages about 50% of trials for sorcery with intent to harm (malefica) were against men. By the early modern period (after ~1500 CE) males accounted for 20% or thereabouts, reflecting the shift from politics to accusations among neighbours and the concomitant increase. The treatment was identical...	[ "During the seventeenth century there were cases of witchcraft: in 1630 an unknown number of women confessed to the crime and were confined in the dungeon at Rothesay Castle, left without food or water and died from starvation. Other instances are recorded but the most fervent activity occurred during the Great Sco...
why does built-in navigation cost so much more?	Because they can. It's not exactly rare that the official accessories and addons costs more than 3rd party alternatives that often are better as well. The reason for why it works out for them is that lots of people simply don't bother to look for alternatives.	[ "Sailing cost shows how easy a ship is to maneuver. Some action cards didn't use a fixed cost, but relied instead upon a ship's sailing cost (sometimes modified up or down). The advantage of a small ship was the fact that it could fill fast and press the offensive quickly.\n", "The supply of cargo ships is genera...
what is the white stuff (i assume it's ice) that i always see falling off of space shuttles at take off and what does it do?	It's ice. It forms on the fuel tanks becauce the fuel is very cold. What does it do? It falls off. Edit: Our benevolent overlords have required more details about the fuel and tank. Very well, but no peeking in this section if you are under five. The fuel consists of liquid hydrogen, along with a liquid oxy...	[ "The shuttle's main fuel tank was covered in thermal insulation foam intended to prevent ice from forming when the tank is full of liquid hydrogen and oxygen. Such ice could damage the shuttle if shed during lift-off.\n", "On 9 May 2013, at around 10:30 a.m. CDT, the ISS crew reported seeing small white flakes fl...
If you were to travel passed a sound source and fly through its sound waves at supersonic speeds, would you hear the sound backwards?	Sort of, but not really. This is one case where the math is a little misleading unless complemented by physical intuition. Mathematically, you can just use the general expression for the Doppler shift which is: f=(c+vr)/(c+vs)\*f0, where f is the observed frequency, fo is the original frequency, c is the speed of sound...	[ "A common analogy is the sonic boom of a supersonic aircraft. The sound waves generated by the supersonic body propagate at the speed of sound itself; as such, the waves travel slower than the speeding object and cannot propagate forward from the body, instead forming a shock front. In a similar way, a charged part...
Was the Uncle of a King a Prince?	The use of prince you are referring to is the direct sons of a ruling monarch. If said uncle was the son of a king, then theoretically they would still be a prince. That said, these men often received other titles and often those took precedence. If you were a prince who was made a Duke, you'd likely style yourself D...	[ "Although he was only a grandson of a British Sovereign, by the time of his birth it had become obvious that his uncle would not have any children, so he received a coat of arms as if he were a son of the Sovereign. Said arms consisted of those of the kingdom, differenced by a \"label argent of three points, on eac...
if looking up personal information on public wifi is considered dangerous, why does no one seem to warn about doing the same on cell phone networks shared by way more people?	In a cell phone network, data is encrypted between you and the tower, this makes it fairly secure unless someone pretends to be the tower On public WiFi, if it's open then your data is flying around in it's natural exposed form that anyone can read. If it's a secured network, then your data is encrypted on its way to ...	[ "Online surveillance, such as recording and retaining details of web and e-mail traffic, may have effects on lawful activities. People may be deterred from accessing or communicating legal information because they know of possible surveillance and believe that such communication may be seen as suspicious. According...
Did the therm 'gothic architecture' come from italian clergymen lookng to ridicule northern european ecclesiastic architecture by comparing it to the barbarian tribe, who sacked Rome?	From [my answer to a similar question a while ago](_URL_0_): 'Gothic' is a term we receive from the Italian renaissance and then further embellished as a pejorative in the subsequent two centuries. Gothic stems from the 'goths', or barbarians, which various renaissance and baroque historians used to refer to the 'dark...	[ "Gothic architecture was known during the period as (\"French/Frankish work\"). The term \"Gothic architecture\" originated in the 16th century and was originally very negative, suggesting something barbaric. Giorgio Vasari used the term \"barbarous German style\" in his 1550 \"Lives of the Artists\" to describe wh...
in the classical period, being homosexual seemed quite socially acceptable (just based on what i've seen from greeks and romans); why then did the bible have parts in it that discouraged homosexual relationships?	The original text of the bible wasn't written by Greeks or Romans. Eventually people tangentially related to the late Roman empire collected and translated various texts to compose the modern bible, but they didn't write it. The various books of the bible were written by culturally distinct Middle Eastern peoples ove...	[ "The conceptions of homosexuality found in classical Islamic texts resemble the traditions of classical Greece and those of ancient Rome, rather than modern Western notions of sexual orientation. It was expected that many or most mature men would be sexually attracted to both women and adolescent boys (with differe...
why does the world appear faster at night?	Next time you're in a fast moving vehicle (and not driving) look as far off into the distance as you can, then look right beside the vehicle. Things really far away barely seem to be moving while things really close to you appear to be zipping by. At night, the distance you can see is greatly reduced so all you can s...	[ "As I sat there in Southwold overlooking the German Ocean, I sensed a quite clearly the earth's slow turning into the dark. The huntsmen are up in America, wrote Thomas Browne in the \"Garden of Cyrus\" and they are already past their first sleep in Persia. The shadow of the night is drawn like a black veil across ...
What was the speed of glacial retreat prior to the 1900's?	There aren't a lot of measurements of glacier positions before the 1900s, but there are some. [This paper](_URL_0_) gives a great summary of all the available data. Figures 8 and 9 are particularly useful. Between 1760 and 1800, 42 glaciers were measured: their lengths typically changed by +5 to -10 m/year, with a...	[ "The glacier advanced rapidly during the Little Ice Age, reaching a maximum in the early eighteenth century. Having retreated several kilometres between the 1940s and 1980s, the glacier entered an advancing phase in 1984 and at times has advanced at the phenomenal (by glacial standards) rate of 70 cm a day. The flo...
Why in the history of Japan and Vietnam, many emperors chose to abdicate but retain their political power?	> What are the reasons causing such disparities? I guess for some cases, such abdications might be beneficial to the smooth transition of powers to their desired successors Right on the money! In Japan the system of emperors "abdicating," but still exercising power is referred to as Insei ("monastery administratio...	[ "The emperors of the last dynasty of Vietnam continued to hold this title until the French conquered Vietnam. The emperor, however, was then a puppet figure only and could easily be disposed of by the French for more pro-France figure. Japan took Vietnam from France and the Axis-occupied Vietnam was declared an emp...
studded tires vs winter tires.	Honestly if studded tires are allowed where you live get studded tires	[ "Many jurisdictions in Asia, Europe, and North America seasonally allow snow tires with metal or ceramic studs to improve grip on packed snow or ice. Such tires are prohibited in other jurisdictions or during warmer months because of the damage they may cause to road surfaces. The metal studs are fabricated by enca...
why is the severity of bad weather so different from when a cold front moves into a warm area, versus a warm front moving into a cold area?	Warm fronts tend to slide above the cold air they are pushing out. This means they have a long, horizontal, almost flat border. Since that border is what produces the clouds, the clouds are high up in the air, thin, flat and cover a vast area. So the rain is light because the clouds are thing, but last a while becaus...	[ "The cooler and denser air wedges under the less-dense warmer air, lifting it. This upward motion causes lowered pressure along the cold front and can cause the formation of a narrow line of showers and thunderstorms when enough moisture is present. On weather maps, the surface position of the cold front is marked ...
why when guys pee it some times splits into a double stream?	sexytime fluids caught in the urethra.	[ "Video Mode: After shooting the right scoop 8 times, shoot either the left or right scoop to begin Video Mode. In this mode, a peeping Tom appears, and the player must engage the left or right flippers to punch the peeping Tom a certain number of times.\n", "Threesomes in Roman art typically show two men penetrat...
When did people start seeing the Spanish Inquisition as a bad thing? How was it viewed while it was occuring? How about within & outside of Spain?	The Inquisition played an interesting role in the Spanish colony of Nueva Grenada. Slaves found that if they brought themselves before the Inquisition and claimed that they had been beaten until they blasphemed, they might be sold to a kinder master because the Inquisition saw blasphemy as a danger to the slave's soul....	[ "The Spanish Inquisition was established in 1478 to keep Catholic orthodoxy. The first \"auto-da-fé\" took place in Seville in 1481, when six \"conversos\" (Jews forcibly converted to Christianity) were burnt at the stake. In Goya's lifetime he would have been quite aware of the history and strong influence that th...
why or how videos on youtube differ so much in quality of image?	Some people have potato quality cameras, and some people have multi-thousand dollar 8K cameras and everywhere in-between. There is also lossy video compression (used to get a smaller video file size at a given resolution but lowers quality).	[ "Video quality is a characteristic of a video passed through a video transmission/processing system, a formal or informal measure of perceived video degradation (typically, compared to the original video). Video processing systems may introduce some amount of distortion or artifacts in the video signal, which negat...
What kind of headgear did ancient Incan Warriors really wear?	I'm assuming you're talking about things like these? [1](_URL_6_), [2](_URL_2_), [3](_URL_7_) In actuality, they're not that far off from [Spanish](_URL_3_) drawings of [headgear.](_URL_0_) (Also see pages 104,106,110,112...) These are each Inca kings (Sapa Inca), so the specific headgear is likely more fancy than the ...	[ "Men either went naked or wore cloths covering their lower regions; women wore fine skirts woven from cotton, and some used a fine white cloth to cover their head and chest. The Manche Chʼol, based on their distinctive attire, in particular their turban-style headdresses, were probably descended from the Classic pe...
why does placing a plastic bag over a credit card help a device read its magnetic stripe better?	The black rectangle on your card holds a number. Actually it's a set of numbers separated by delimiters, but that's not important. Just pretend it's one number. If your card gets damaged, gaps appear in the electrical reading of the black strip, which means that inconsistencies appear in the number. That's no good;...	[ "Motorized readers are built in, for example ATMs. The credit/debit-card is inserted into the card slot, where the first magnetic head is placed. If a magnetic stripe can be recognized, a shutter will be opened and the card will be transported to the second magnetic head by roles. The card is read, thereby the devi...
Why is it easier to open lids when you put in under hot water?	The simplest answer I can give you is that the lid is probably made of metal. Metals expand when exposed to heat, and therefore it's easier to open the lid from the jar. (Lid is now bigger than it used to be)	[ "The cold water release method involves using slow running cold tap water, over the edge of the pressure cooker lid, being careful to avoid the steam vent or any other valves or outlets and never immersing the pressure cooker under water, otherwise steam can be ejected from under the lid, which could cause scalding...
what are the known psychological effects of long periods in space?	From the article it makes it look like bad psychological effects, however, there's such a thing as the [Overview Effect](_URL_0_), in which astronauts change their perspectives about life after seeing the earth as a tiny little part of the immense universe. It ultimately makes them see our problems as meaningless compa...	[ "The psychological effects of living in space have not been clearly analyzed but analogies on Earth do exist, such as Arctic research stations and submarines. The enormous stress on the crew, coupled with the body adapting to other environmental changes, can result in anxiety, insomnia and depression.\n", "Humans...
why does stomach pain from a virus or food poisoning come in waves?	Many intestinal issues come in “spasms”, wich is a way your guts tell you there is something wrong. It is a short term activity spike (spasm) that we can feel. I believe this is because most of our digestive tract doesnt have that many nociceptors, thus you feel only the big spikes of abnormal activity. A constant pa...	[ "Symptoms often include vomiting, fever, and aches, and may include diarrhea. Bouts of vomiting can be repeated with an extended delay in between, because even if infected food was eliminated from the stomach in the first bout, microbes, like bacteria, (if applicable) can pass through the stomach into the intestine...
Concerning the Aurora on Saturn, what is generating the magnetic field of this planet is a Gas giant? (Video in comments)	The source of the gas giants' magnetic fields is thought to be generated in the same way as the Earth's. Except that instead of molten iron generating the field, metallic hydrogen is thought to be responsible.	[ "Unlike Jupiter's, the Saturn's main auroral ovals are not related to the breakdown of the co–rotation of the plasma in the outer parts of the planet's magnetosphere. The aurorae on Saturn are thought to be connected to the reconnection of the magnetic field under the influence of the Solar wind (Dungey cycle), whi...
can you "break" the hippocratic oath? if that's possible, does doing so prevent you from working as a physician?	It is more a formal thing that you can elect to take when you graduate but are not required to. _URL_0_ You can break it all you want, so long as doing so does not violate the standards of where you are working.	[ "A Hippocratic Oath for scientists is an oath similar to the Hippocratic Oath for medical professionals, adapted for scientists. Multiple varieties of such an oath have been proposed. Joseph Rotblat has suggested that an oath would help make new scientists aware of their social and moral responsibilities; opponents...
why did russia decide in the late 1500's to attempt to conquer siberia - an unimaginably large & frigid territory - which would increase the size of its kingdom by ~17x?	The time of Russian territorial expansion was a time of colonialism for all the great powers of Europe. Russia was not well situated to become a maritime power like most of Western Europe, but it did have essentially exclusive access to "unclaimed" territory to its east. While Britain, France, Spain, Portugal, and the ...	[ "Russian expansion into Siberia began with the conquest of the Khanate of Sibir in 1582. By 1643 they reached the Pacific at Okhotsk. East of the Yenisei River there was little land fit for agriculture, except Dauria, the land between the Stanovoy Range and the Amur River which was nominally subject to the Qing dyn...
what's the difference between an application and a server?	Think of an application as another word for a program, or a piece of software. Microsoft Word is an application and so is the game of candy crush on your phone. A server is basically a computer that acts like a central repository of programs or files that many different people can connect to and access. A business...	[ "Application servers are system software upon which web applications or desktop applications run. Application servers consist of web server connectors, computer programming languages, runtime libraries, database connectors, and the administration code needed to deploy, configure, manage, and connect these component...
In the American South of the 1950s-1970s, was it typical for older men (in their 20s or older) to 'court' teenage girls? What were typical marriage ages and age gaps?	The most famous example in the 1950s-1970s of a man from the American South 'courting' a teenage girl is of course the white rock'n'roller Jerry Lee Lewis, who married his first cousin Myra Gale in 1957, when he was 22 and she was 13. To give some more specific context than 'the American South', Jerry Lee Lewis had c...	[ "After 1860, as the larger cities opened department stores, middle-class women did most of the shopping; increasingly they were served by young middle-class women clerks. Typically, most young women quit their jobs when they married. In some ethnic groups, however, married women were encouraged to work, especially ...
What medicine was used by American field medics in WW2? Was it superior or inferior to other countries?	You might be interested in [this previous answer I wrote](_URL_0_) which covers the importance of penicillin for the Allied war effort, especially compared to less effective sulphonamides the Germans used.	[ "During World War I, d'Hérelle and assistants (his wife and daughters among them) produced over 12 million doses of medication for the allied military. At this point in history, medical treatments were primitive, compared to today's standards. The smallpox vaccine, developed by Edward Jenner, was one of the few vac...
why can only 2/3rd’s of a plastic be recycled?	Certain types of plastics, urethanes in particular, are chemically cured thermoset plastics which cannot simply be melted down to be re-formed into new shapes. They do not melt but instead slowly degrade on heating to a variety of toxic compounds. They could potentially be burned as fuel with the proper exhaust handl...	[ "As a subset of plastic, FR plastics are liable to a number of the issues and concerns in plastic waste disposal and recycling. Plastics pose a particular challenge in recycling because they are derived from polymers and monomers that often cannot be separated and returned to their virgin states. For this reason no...
Can a single photon spontaneously split into two photons as long as momentum is conserved?	While the photon is the exchange boson of electric charge, it itself is not electrically charged (QED is an abelian gauge theory), so a photon can't directly radiate another photon. However photons can do electron-positron pair creation, which can then annihilate to produce multiple photons as a final state. So yes the...	[ "To illustrate the significance of these formulae, the annihilation of a particle with its antiparticle in free space must result in the creation of at least \"two\" photons for the following reason. In the center of momentum frame, the colliding antiparticles have no net momentum, whereas a single photon always ha...
why do tortilla chips not come in individual-sized bags?	Because regular tortilla chips are a bit too bland and dry to eat by themselves and are mostly consumed at parties or a home environment, where they can be dipped in salsa.	[ "Unsalted chips are available, e.g. the longstanding British brand Salt 'n' Shake, whose chips are not seasoned, but instead include a small salt sachet in the bag for seasoning to taste. Many other popular brands in the United States, such as Frito-Lay, also offer such a product.\n", "Tortilla chips are the quin...

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