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why hematocrit (ht) is usually three times the hemoglobin (hb)?	Hi there - there’s no mathematical formula behind this, it’s more of an incidental observation. Haematocrit is the percentage by volume of red blood cells in total blood. Blood can be simply thought to be made up of plasma, which is fluid, white cells and platelets and red blood cells. Now, haemoglobin ( to defin...	[ "Hemoglobin is involved in the transport of other gases: It carries some of the body's respiratory carbon dioxide (about 20–25% of the total) as carbaminohemoglobin, in which CO is bound to the heme protein. The molecule also carries the important regulatory molecule nitric oxide bound to a globin protein thiol gro...
If the Earth became subject to another catastrophic event that left nearly everything extinct...	Our sun isn't due to go red giant for another [5 billion years or so](_URL_0_). That's as long as Earth has been around already. When a mass extinction event occurs what happens is that lots of environmental niches open up - theres lots of food or nutrients suddenly available that are not being used by the now extinct...	[ "It was believed that the extinction was due to the climate changes, but human activities as an extinction driver is still possible yet unproven. There is a growing consensus that the extinction of the megafauna was caused by progressive drying starting about 700,000 years ago (700 ka). It is revealed recently that...
How did warfare change with the introduction of the flintlock musket?	A bit of clarification is needed here - is your question about the impact of; A) The introduction of the musket - a gunpowder-based smoothbore projectile weapon that could be handled and operated by a single soldier B) The introduction of flintlock mechanisms - every firearm needs a method of igniting the gunpowd...	[ "Firearms using some form of flintlock mechanism were the main form of firearm for over 200 years. It was not until Reverend Alexander John Forsyth invented a rudimentary percussion cap system in 1807 that the flintlock system began to decline in popularity. The percussion ignition system was more weatherproof and ...
When measuring astronomical distances do we take into account the distance the object has traveled during the time it took the light to reach us?	Not usually, no. Most astronomical distances are rounded. Typically the numbers are so large that people just say things like "millions of light years."	[ "BULLET::::- NASA astronomers report that the Hubble Space Telescope can now precisely measure distances up to 10,000 light-years away by using spatial scanning, a ten-fold improvement over earlier measurements. ()\n", "There is no evidence that Rømer thought that he was measuring : he gives his result as the tim...
What happens to a ship that sinks?	Why would it be flattened? I think you misunderstand how water pressure works. Water pressure presses in on all sides rather than pressing down like a giant anvil. The structural stresses induced in a large ship as it sinks will break it into pieces, and compartments containing air will likely implode, but the pieces w...	[ "The immediate cause of the sinking appears to have been a build-up of sea-water in the hull, when the fire-fighters were trying to extinguish a fire in the engine-room. This was compounded by design faults inherent in Ro/Ro vessels, where minor flooding of the deck can gain rapid momentum due to a mechanism known ...
Can we create ball lightning artificially?	Not a scientist at all. It’s not well understood and it looks like it’s not even completely accepted as a naturally occurring phenomenon. Therefore there’s no way to recreate “natural” ball lightning because no one knows exactly how it happens in nature. There are however theories explaining how it happens and corre...	[ "Scientists have long attempted to produce ball lightning in laboratory experiments. While some experiments have produced effects that are visually similar to reports of natural ball lightning, it has not yet been determined whether there is any relation.\n", "Seward proposes that ball lightning is a spinning pla...
Does a simple fire emit ultraviolet light? lf no, then how does our sun do so? Ks it a matter of thermonuclear fusion, or something else?	The light radiated by a hot object has a central maximum at a wavelength determined by its absolute temperature and intensity falls off on both sides with a characteristic shape. In principle UV will be present at any temperature but at low temperatures very little. The atoms at the sun surface are very hot and so emit...	[ "A fire emits radiation, which human eye experiences as the visible yellow red flames and heat. In fact, during a fire, relatively sparsely UV energy and visible light energy is emitted, as compared to the emission of Infrared radiation. A non-hydrocarbon fire, for example, one from hydrogen, does not show a CO pea...
Question re: First Battle of the Marne (WW 1)	The major thing is that taking Paris was not going to be some cake walk. Liege was hopelessly outnumbered and double pincered and it still took the Germans something of over a week to neutralize them fully. Paris was Liege on steroids. Shit Paris was Verdun on steroids. Fortresses that unlike Liege were supported by a ...	[ "The Battle of the Marne (, also known as the Miracle of the Marne, \"Le Miracle de la Marne\") was a World War I battle fought from It resulted in an Allied victory against the German armies in the west. The battle was the culmination of the German advance into France and pursuit of the Allied armies which followe...
What was Eastern warfare like?	The Art of War by Sun Tzu, The Mongol Art of War by Timothy May, and Southeast Asian Warfare, 1300-1900 by Michael W. Charney. Edit: Mongols used psychological warfare, such as committing genocide after defeating a nation to show what would happen if one opposed the Khan. Genghis made scouts and guards of nightly camp...	[ "The war in the East began with Russian invasion of East Prussia (1914) and the Austro-Hungarian province of Galicia. The first ended in a Russian defeat by the German Empire in the Battle of Tannenberg (1914). In the west, a Russian Expeditionary Force was dispatched to France in 1915.\n", "Recreating the Easter...
what causes those moments of slight lightheadedness that feel out-of-body/surreal	This may or may not be what you're talking about, but as someone stated below it sounds like switching from a sitting or prone position to standing really fast. This can cause a lightheaded feeling known as orthostatic hypotesnion or temporary low blood pressure. Your body takes a short time to adjust to the change in ...	[ "Flicker vertigo, sometimes called the Bucha effect, is \"an imbalance in brain-cell activity caused by exposure to low-frequency flickering (or flashing) of a relatively bright light.\" It is a disorientation-, vertigo-, and nausea-inducing effect of a strobe light flashing at 1 Hz to 20 Hz, approximately the freq...
what is the reasoning behind the texas law that says it’s illegal for a person serving (jail) time or out on probation to vote l in a political election ?	I imagine they want to keep people who break laws from influencing the law itself. But the end result is just a method to disenfranchise whatever population you want to persecute.	[ "The Texas law was struck down because it was found to discriminate against black and Hispanic voters. A North Carolina law was overturned as \"its provisions deliberately target African-Americans with almost surgical precision … in an effort to depress black turnout at the polls.\" North Carolina appealed to the U...
why do so many people catch lobsters out of the ocean. isn't it easier and cheaper to raise them in a farm?	As I understand it, lobster larvae take a long time to mature, as well as requiring a lot of food. But a more likely reason is that there was never a need to because of the massive lobster population off the coasts of places like New England. Only in recent years has the lobster population began to rapidly decline. I...	[ "A large amount of the seafood that is consumed by people living in the United States does not always come from legal fishing. Americans eat an estimated 5 billion pounds of seafood every year. Lobsters, which are a well-known seafood dish, are highly requested in American restaurants. Since lobsters have to be imp...
how a newton's cradle knows how many balls you have pulled from one side to replicate the motion on the other side?	A single ball moving twice as fast would satisfy conservation of momentum but not conservation of energy. Each ball has mass 1kg, and the two balls pulled back and released have speed 1m/s when they hit the third and fourth balls. Kinetic energy of the system = 0.5mv^2 =0.5x2x1= 1 Total energy of system= 1 + GPE (gr...	[ "Newton's cradle can be modeled with simple physics and minor errors if you incorrectly assume the balls always collide in pairs. If one ball strikes four stationary balls that are already touching, the simplification can't explain the resulting movements in all five balls, which are not due to friction losses. For...
when planets are visible from earth, why do they appear as stars to us on the surface of earth?	They're reflecting light from the sun, just like the moon does. Now imagine that the moon was much further away- you wouldn't see all the craters on it. You'd just see a white dot, which could look like a star. That's the same thing that's happening with the planets. They're just so far away that they look white.	[ "Five planets can be recognized as planets from Earth with the naked eye: Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn. Under typical dark sky conditions Uranus (magnitude +5.8) can be seen as well with averted vision, as can the asteroid Vesta at its brighter oppositions. The Sun and the Moon—the remaining noticeable...
what is with americans and the importance of not impeding the mail?	Commerce (especially before the invention of the telephone and internet) is highly dependent on reliable mail. Orders, payments, instructions to agents, and so forth. America, if nothing else, is all about keeping business functioning smoothly. Calvin Coolidge famously said "The chief business of America is busine...	[ "In response to a US Supreme Court ruling (Rowan v. Post Office Dept., 397 U.S. 728 (1970)), the United States Postal Service enables an applicant to obtain a Prohibitory Order, which gives people the power to stop non-governmental organizations from sending them mail, and to demand such organizations remove the co...
How does artificial food dye not dye your stool/urine?	to answer your question: it doesnt get into the urine or stool because its broken down into non-coloured chemicals during digestion. & #x200B; but 'artificial' doesnt really mean much in this context. for example, some people cant digest betanin, found in beets, and it turns their urine reddish (beeturia). Its a '...	[ "In an article published in 2000, Snopes confirmed such a dye did not exist. However a study published by the University of Alberta in 2017 identified urine in hot tubs and swimming pools based on other markers such as acesulfame potassium, used extensively as an artificial sweetener, being passed chemically unchan...
[Computing] When a hacker gains access to a site's database (with the intent to crack passwords), do they also gain access to the hashing function?	The code of the website will contain references to the hashing function used. After all, the website will have to execute this function whenever someone tries to log in. In addition, the size of the hash can give some indication as to the hashing function use as different functions may provide differently sized outputs...	[ "With this kind of two-factor authentication, mere knowledge of username and password is not sufficient to break into a user's account; the attacker also needs knowledge of the shared secret key, or physical access to the device running the Authenticator app. An alternative route of attack is a man-in-the-middle at...
If you put a speaker in a gas with high or low density, would it sound different?	Higher density means higher speed of sound. So the wave will travel farther during each periodic cycle, meaning a longer wavelength. This might make it seem like the sound would be lower pitched. But even though the wavelength is longer, the speed is faster so the frequency doesn't change. Since we hear based on freque...	[ "For reproduction, the entire surface of the volume would have to be covered with closely spaced loudspeakers, each individually driven with its own signal. Moreover, the listening area would have to be anechoic, in order to avoid sound reflections that would violate source-free volume assumption. In practice, this...
how does australia now have a new prime minister without an election?	You vote for a representative for your local area. They may or may not belong to a party. The party or coalition with the most support in the lower house (House of Representatives) of parliament is said to form government. Their leader is put forth to the Governor General to be the Prime Minister which is not a Constit...	[ "Each appointment of a new Prime Minister is considered to result in a new cabinet, irrespective if the Prime Minister is reappointed or not. However, there is no automatic resignation following a defeat in a general election, so an election does not always result in a new cabinet.\n", "On six occasions in the tw...
If I put on a coat to stay warm, will that make the room colder for everyone else?	Technically, yes. (But by a very, very tiny amount.) Here's the science: Assuming that the room is surrounded by an area that is colder (i.e. it has an external wall, and the temperature outside is lower than the temperature inside.) I am also assuming that the room is otherwise not being modified in temperature (no c...	[ "I have enough to eat till my hunger is stayed, to drink till my thirst is sated; to clothe myself as well; and out of doors not [even] Callias there, with all his riches, is more safe than I from shivering; and when I find myself indoors, what warmer shirting do I need than my bare walls?\n", "Normal insulation ...
why do things taste good or bad? why and how do our brains associate certain tastes with being pleasant or nasty?	Sugar tastes good because our sensation of taste comes from adaptations that came about when not getting enough food was the bigger concern. We have receptors on our tongues that detect certain chemicals. Sugars, sodium, protein, fat, etc. Our brains are built to interpret those things that provide us with calories a...	[ "As taste senses both harmful and beneficial things, all basic tastes are classified as either aversive or appetitive, depending upon the effect the things they sense have on our bodies. Sweetness helps to identify energy-rich foods, while bitterness serves as a warning sign of poisons.\n", "As taste senses both ...
What was the first true "Role playing game"	Ive been into strategy gaming since the mid 70s, both using miniatures and board based. I'd be curious if there were any actual 'gaming' historians around, but until one turns up I'll put my 2 cents worth in. Prior to the 70s most games were either military miniature based, board games, card or 'party' games. I canno...	[ "\"Dungeons & Dragons\" was the first modern role-playing game and it established many of the conventions that have dominated the genre. Particularly notable are the use of dice as a game mechanic, character record sheets, use of numerical attributes and gamemaster-centered group dynamics. Within months of \"Dungeo...
What happens if you drink a two liter of coke and swallow a mentos whole?	[Not very much](_URL_0_)	[ "A Diet Coke and Mentos eruption (also known as a soda geyser) is a reaction between the carbonated beverage Diet Coke and Mentos mints that causes the beverage to spray out of its container. The gas released by the candies creates an eruption that pushes most of the liquid up and out of the bottle. Lee Marek and \...
Is it possible a powerful supernova could wipe out the earth with no way to detect its approach?	Not really. The nearest stars are all several light years away, so even if one of the stars that's close enough to be visible to the naked eye went supernova it would only be about as bright as the sun in the sky. The ensuing panic of a second sun might cause some mayhem, but I don't think we can hold the supernova acc...	[ "Research has suggested that Type Ia supernovae can irradiate the Earth with significant amounts of gamma-ray flux, compared with the typical flux from the Sun, up to distances on the order of 1 kiloparsec. The greatest risk is to the Earth's protective ozone layer, producing effects on life and climate. While SN 1...
how do animals separate living objects from non living objects?	It's probably quite a hard one to say for sure since we don't know what goes on in animals heads and they are quite different from dolphins to ants ect. But I think it's safe to assume they for the most part may not have a concept of living and non living as we understand it. A lot of animals are mainly concerned wit...	[ "Animals are multicellular eukaryotes, and are distinguished from plants, algae, and fungi by lacking cell walls. All animals are motile, if only at certain life stages. All animals except sponges have bodies differentiated into separate tissues, including muscles, which move parts of the animal by contracting, and...
when monkeys learn sign language do they just repeat things or do they sign for themselves	Koko, the most famous of the gorillas that learned sign language, did a [live chat](_URL_0_) with people over the internet back in 1998. If you read through it you can tell that it's hard to determine how much exactly she understands, and how much of the conversation is colored by the person doing the interpretation.	[ "A similar debate exists in the controversy over Great Ape language, in which nonhuman primates are said to have learned some aspects of sign languages but the significance of this learning is disputed.\n", "Koko and Nim Chimpsky are two apes that have successfully learned to use sign language, but not to the ext...
Askscience special thread - Panelists, what are you working on?	With the Kepler telescope's final death in October, I'm switching over to the new TESS telescope (launched in April) to discover exoplanets. TESS is going to be the next big step in exoplanet science, with the goal of finding planets around close, bright stars so that we can follow up and learn about individual planets...	[ "The forum's members work across the sector, taking in frontline teaching roles to backroom policy and everything in-between. Its members share information through an online discussion group and a regular newsletter.\n", "The workshops are interdisciplinary gatherings of around 20 experts, primarily academic, but...
how scripting works and the differences between the different types, i.e.: c, c+, c++, c#, etc...	'Scripting' often refers to quick and dirty programming tasks, which are often written in so called 'scripting languages'. These include fully functional languages like python and perl, which are much slower than a lower level language than something like C, but in return they're very easy to quickly write a program in...	[ "A scripting language is usually interpreted from source code or bytecode. By contrast, the software environment the scripts are written for is typically written in a compiled language and distributed in machine code form.\n", "A scripting language is a high-level programming language that is used to control the ...
Why do tightrope walkers carry a long beam?	In addition to what has been said before, the beam significantly increases the walkers rotational inertia around the rope axis. So the same small imbalance in center of mass causes much less acceleration with the beam in hand. The walker has to react much less quickly to correct his position.	[ "Tightrope walking, also called funambulism, is the skill of walking along a thin wire or rope. It has a long tradition in various countries and is commonly associated with the circus. Other skills similar to tightrope walking include slack rope walking and slacklining.\n", "Tightwire-walkers typically perform in...
How the hell do siphonophores work?	Siphonophores are a type of hydrozoan. Probably the best known hydrozoan is a [hydra](_URL_2_), a small freshwater animal that's similar to a sea anemone. I'm going to start off talking about hydras to explain the basics, since they are like a highly simplified siphonophore, and then move on to the real thing. Take...	[ "\"Perophora viridis\" is a filter feeder. It draws water in through the buccal siphon and food particles such as bacteria and zooplankton get trapped in a mucus net that lines the pharynx. This gets rolled up and moved along by cilia and passes into the gut where digestion takes place. The anus is near the atrial ...
What impact did the V2/A4 Rocket have on WWII?	Overall, the V2 rocket had a negligible impact on the war, although it had potential. From over 3,000 rockets fired on Britain, only about 7,500 civilians died as a result. This was partially due to an act of deception by British, who managed to direct many of the rockets away from London. The accuracy of the V2 rocket...	[ "Unlike the V-2, the V-1 was a cost-effective weapon for the Germans as it forced the Allies to spend heavily on defensive measures and divert bombers from other targets. More than 25 per cent of Combined Bomber Offensive's bombs in July and August 1944 were used against V-weapon sites, often ineffectively. In earl...
How rapidly (or not) does a newborn star "ignite" once it reaches critical mass? Hours, days, years?	It happens so gradually there isn't a clear moment of "ignition". Protostars are glowing hot long before any fusion starts. As they collapse under their own weight they heat up, as any gas will when you compress it. At this phase, the protostar is converting its gravitational potential energy into heat, which provides...	[ "The protostar at first only has about 1% of its final mass. But the envelope of the star continues to grow as infalling material is accreted. After 10,000–100,000 years, thermonuclear fusion begins in its core, then a strong stellar wind is produced which stops the infall of new mass. The protostar is now consider...
is there a reason the color blue doesn’t appear very often in nature?	Edited, because hoo boy did I get this wrong/backwards and wow I am so sorry folks. Don't answer science posts drunk, my friends! For people who want the answer quick: Red was a later color to evolve in eyesight for a lot of animals, because most plants are green and brown, and dirt/dead stuff is also often brown. ...	[ "The title 'blue' arose because there are minute particles of clay in colloidal suspension within the water. These suspensions variously diffract the light depending on the particles' size (with differences in size often linked to changes in concentration and pH), yielding colours from red-brown, through grey and g...
Why didn't the Imperial Japanese Navy commit more conventional surface forces to the attack on Pearl Harbor	Because the Japanese fleet was operating at the limit of its endurance as it was, and the raid was intended from the start to be a raid, not a sustained battle. I've written more about the Pearl Harbor attack before, [here](_URL_1_) and /u/parksungjun tackled it [here](_URL_0_). To briefly summarize those couple of p...	[ "The Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) sought naval superiority in the Pacific by sinking the main American battle fleet at Pearl Harbor, which was tactically centered around its battleships. The December 1941 surprise attack on Pearl Harbor did knock out the battle fleet, but it did not affect the three U.S. aircraft c...
Adam's Apple	The Adam's Apple, or laryngeal prominence is simply a protrusion of thyroid cartilage. Women have the exact same cartilage, but because the male larynx lowers and enlarges more than the female during puberty it creates a sharper angle that causes this cartilage to protrude further than in women.	[ "Adam's Apple is a 1928 British silent comedy film directed by Tim Whelan and starring Monty Banks, Lena Halliday and Judy Kelly. An American on his honeymoon in Paris, organises the kidnapping of his interfering mother-in-law. It was made by British International Pictures at their Elstree Studios.\n", "The Golde...
taurine, its role in bodily functions, and why it is in energy drinks	It's an amino acid which is widely distributed in the tissues of the body and manufactured by the body if the person has a normal diet. It is in energy drinks because the manufacturers make money using a version of the following fallacious argument: X is essential to physiological system Y, our product contains X, ther...	[ "Taurine has many biological roles, such as conjugation of bile acids, antioxidation, osmoregulation, membrane stabilization, and modulation of calcium signaling. It is essential for cardiovascular function, and development and function of skeletal muscle, the retina, and the central nervous system. Taurine is a co...
why do anti-biotics have to be taken at regular intervals?	The goal is to keep the amount of the antibiotic in your system consistently high. If you were to just take a dose and then throw the rest away, the only bacteria that it would kill would be those not well adapted to deal with the antibiotic. Those with adaptations that allow for some degree of resistance would still b...	[ "In recent years, drug companies have worked together to combine these complex regimens into simpler formulas, termed fixed-dose combinations. For instance, there are now several options that combine 3 or 4 drugs into one pill taken once daily. This greatly increases the ease with which they can be taken, which in ...
why is the body of a 400-lb person able to carry around 200 lbs extra day after day, but a healthy 200-lb person who weight trains extensively would be exhausted carrying 200 lbs for an hour?	A 400lb man's weight is centralized to his frame, spread throughout his entire body. There would probably be excess around his mid frame, which causes a lot of overweight men to have back problems. because of this increase in mass, the overweight person has more blood with which to oxygenate his muscles, making it poss...	[ "Loads for equids are disputed. The US Army specifies a maximum of 20 percent of body weight for mules walking up to 20 miles a day in mountains, giving a load of up to about 150 kg. However an 1867 text mentioned a load of up to 800 pounds (about 360 kg). In India, the prevention of cruelty rules (1965) limit mule...
What happens if several historians write about the same topic/historical event?	No work of history exists in a vacuum, and needs to acknowledge the ways in which it relies on the work of others. But for academic writing at least, it's expected that the thesis at least will be original - that is, you are making an argument that previous work hasn't, and are not just restating what we already know. ...	[ "Articles on major historical events are often preceded by ironic articles criticizing the irresponsibility that led to such events: For example, an issue dated a week before the 1929 crash of the American stock market heralds the market as \"invincible\" and urges readers to \"put everything they have into the sto...
why does my car's battery die after a month without being driven?	If your car has an alarm it's going to be using the battery for power	[ "All batteries gradually self-discharge (whether installed in a device or not) and dead batteries will eventually leak. Extremely high temperatures can also cause batteries to rupture and leak (such as in a car during summer) as well as decrease the shelf life of the battery.\n", "SLI batteries (starting, lightin...
If 2 space ships accelerated away from each other at 1/2 the speed of light, what would they see behind them?	Let's answer this question two ways. First, let's set up the question differently. Imagine a space station, with two space ships. The space ships then leave the space station, moving 0.5c with respect to the space station. The question is: what does someone on the space station see, and what does someone on the space s...	[ "Explanations of why ships can travel faster than light in hyperspace vary; hyperspace may be smaller than real space and therefore a star ship's propulsion seems to be greatly multiplied, or else the speed of light in hyperspace is not a barrier as it is in real space. Whatever the reasoning, the general effect is...
If low temperatures slow down cells, do people who live in cold climates have a longer life expectancy?	You should probably remember that humans are warm blooded, which means they all operate at around 37 degrees Celsius.	[ "It has been theorised that low body temperature may increase lifespan. In 2006, it was reported that transgenic mice with a body temperature 0.3–0.5 C lower than normal mice lived longer than normal mice. This mechanism is due to overexpressing the uncoupling protein 2 in hypocretin neurons (Hcrt-UCP2), which elev...
how does a toxicology test work?	Using analytic equipment. There are machines called Mass Spectrometers that take a sample, and can display the mass, and rough percentage of how much of the sample is comprised of the given compound. So if I run a blood sample through a typical gas chromatography mass Spectrometer (or GCMS for short) for a drug test ...	[ "Toxicology testing, also known as safety assessment, or toxicity testing, is conducted to determine the degree to which a substance can damage a living or non-living organisms. It is often conducted by researchers using standard test procedures to comply with governing regulations, for example for medicines and pe...
Many americans apparantly moved to the Soviet Union in the early 1930s. How well did they adapt to Soviet life? Did they survive the great purge?	There's a lot more to say on the subject (a couple books' worth at least!), but for starters you might want to check out an [answer](_URL_0_) I wrote recently on the topic.	[ "Despite all of this, The Great Depression caused mass immigration to the Soviet Union, mostly from Finland and Germany. Soviet Russia was at first happy to help these immigrants settle, because they believed they were victims of capitalism who had come to help the Soviet cause. However, when the Soviet Union enter...
how come when you use a faucet in tall buildings, water comes out? how does it 'flow upwards'?	There is always a pump.	[ "Water from the surrounding area – including a number of local springs and streams – is collected in a cistern, which is above the level of the top of the wheel. A closed pipe connects the cistern to the top of the wheel; thus the water flows up the tower as an inverted syphon. The water falls from the pipe into th...
Is menopause an artifact? As in people did not used to live that long so the body never evolved to produce eggs in twilight years.	There are a couple hypotheses out there, falling in two main camps. The first supports a kin selection model where the grandmother enhances the survival of her grandchildren (and thus 1/4 of her genetic material) by helping helping them rather than continuing to reproduce herself. The second asserts that, given the soc...	[ "The theories discussed above assume that evolution directly selected for menopause. Another theory states that menopause is the byproduct of the evolutionary selection for follicular atresia, a factor that causes menopause. Menopause results from having too few ovarian follicles to produce enough estrogen to maint...
During the 1974 World Cup in West Germany, were East Germans allowed to enter West Germany/Berlin to support their team?	According to [this article in Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung](_URL_1_) from 2006 the average GDR citizen was not allowed to attend games during the World Cup in West Germany. Instead fans were handpicked when "worthy and reliable". According to the article "hundreds of Stasi agents [...] dressed as football fans" were ...	[ "The West German embassy in Stockholm was occupied by the Red Army Faction in 1975. In 1989 its embassies in Budapest and Prague sheltered fleeing East Germans while waiting for permission to travel onwards to West Germany; permission was subsequently given by the Czechoslovakian and Hungarian governments, accelera...
Capturing ships?	Prize policy and prize law are massive subjects in maritime history, so I won't be able to give you a completely comprehensive answer. I'll focus mostly on the Royal Navy and the U.S. Navy roughly between 1800 and 1900. This, of course omits major seafaring nations like the Netherlands, Spain, and France, although th...	[ "Throughout naval history during times of war battles, blockades, and other patrol missions would often result in the capture of enemy ships or those of a neutral country. If a ship proved to be a valuable prize efforts would sometimes be made to capture the vessel while inflicting the least amount of damage as was...
why are pages in textbooks divided down the middle or sometimes into three columns?	Simply put, it's easier for people to read short lines without losing track of where they are. If the lines get too long, it's harder to scan back to the beginning of the line without losing track of where you are making it harder to read/comprehend/retain the material. It's a pretty straightforward typographical pri...	[ "Where a text is written in horizontal format, pages are read in the same order as English books, with the binding at the left and pages progressing to the right. Vertical books are printed the other way round, with the binding at the right, and pages progressing to the left.\n", "Text can also be \"centered\", o...
Other than cost and regulations, what challenges or technological limitations are preventing the rollout of driverless cars to the public?	There was a recent article I can't find right now about the ethics involved in the programing. For example, say there is a situation where an accident is unavoidable. The computer analyzes the data and determines that the only options are turning right, turning left, or going straight. Going straight only poses dange...	[ "The automation of vehicles could prove to have a substantial impact on the environment, although the nature of this impact could be beneficial or harmful depending on several factors. Because automated vehicles are much less likely to get into accidents compared to human-driven vehicles, some precautions built int...
how come raw eggs are bad to eat now? 20 years ago, i'd put a raw egg in a milkshake and eat the hell out of cookie/cake/brownie batter. now if i do it, i get sick. what happened?	If you are a healthy person with normal immune system, then raw eggs are just edible as they were before. However people with compromised immune system are more at risk of contracting serious salmonella infection (which is rare, but if it happens it can be life threatening, even on otherwise healthy people). Restauran...	[ "Eggs are susceptible to \"Salmonella\" contamination. Thorough cooking eliminates the direct threat (i.e. cooked egg whites that are solid and not runny), the threat of cross-contamination remains if people handle contaminated eggs and then touch other foods or items in the kitchen, thus spreading the bacteria. In...
Because of the curvature of the Earth, are nearby skyscrapers closer together at the base than they are at the top?	Yes. If the two 100-floor buildings are one NYC block apart, which is 0.05 mile or 1/500000 of Earth's circumference, their 100th floors, which are .2 mile higher than their first floors, are going to be 2 * .2 mi * pi / 500000 further apart than their first floors, which comes out to .16 inches or 4 mm.	[ "Structural engineers generally consider a skyscraper as slender if the width:height ratio exceeds 1:10 or 1:12. Slim towers require the adoption of specific measures to counter the high strengths of the wind in the vertical cantilever, like including additional structures to endow greater rigidity to the building ...
What was the shifting nature of authority like during the decline of the "Wild West" in the US?	Since you're correct that this is very broad, and also as I don't think that given you want this research for a script, I don't think that an answer written here would do you justice, so instead allow be to point you in the direction of a source I'd highly recommend. Richard Slotkin's "Gunfighter Nation: The Myth of th...	[ "According to the research of Terry L. Anderson and P. J. Hill, the Old West in the United States in the period of 1830 to 1900 was similar to anarcho-capitalism in that \"private agencies provided the necessary basis for an orderly society in which property was protected and conflicts were resolved,\" and that the...
Why is varicella more dangerous to get as you grow older?	Essentially what we know is that the reason varicella is worse/more harmful as you get older is because you’re more likely to suffer complications. By this I mean everything else other than blisters/rashes, like flu symptoms, high fever, loss of appetite, these kind of complications. Regardless if you’re immunocompro...	[ "Infection occurs more easily as one ages, as the immune system starts to slow and become less effective. Aging also changes how the immune system reacts to infection, making new infections harder to detect and attack. Essentially, the immune system has a higher chance of being compromised the older one gets.\n", ...
Why are bulldogs a popular mascot in American collegiate athletics?	because it's known as a very determined breed of dog	[ "Bulldogs have a longstanding association with English culture, as the BBC wrote: \"to many the Bulldog is a national icon, symbolising pluck and determination.\" During World War II, Bulldogs were often likened to Prime Minister Winston Churchill and his defiance of Nazi Germany. When the English settled in the Am...
how is the death penalty seen as justice and not revenge?	Who says it can't be both? The law mandates that crime begets punishment, and execution is seen by many as an appropriate (perhaps the ultimate) punishment. By that logic, what legal punishment isn't revenge?	[ "Supporters of the death penalty argued that death penalty is morally justified when applied in murder especially with aggravating elements such as for murder of police officers, child murder, torture murder, multiple homicide and mass killing such as terrorism, massacre and genocide. This argument is strongly defe...
how does a game console know the difference between a retail disc and a burned disc?	A burned disc contains only the directly-readable digital content of the game. Retail discs contain other features - extra tracks not readable by most disc readers, specific wobble in the tracks, error correction codes that don't actually correct errors but instead contain authentication data. Modchips will return a s...	[ "Discs became popular as the storage medium for console games during the fifth generation due to the ability to store large amounts of data and be produced cheaply. The increase in space provided developers with a medium to store higher quality assets but means they had to take into account that you could not write...
How are the colors determined in colored space pictures (of planets and galaxies)?	You are asking about 2 different types of photos. In the Mercury case its a false color enhanced photo. After the photo was taken in whatever wavelengths (it might not have been visible light) the data was shifted so that the differences stand out in the visible spectrum. They would take the longest wavelength of valua...	[ "In astronomy, color–color diagrams are a means of comparing the apparent magnitudes of stars at different wavelengths. Astronomers typically observe at narrow bands around certain wavelengths, and objects observed will have different brightnesses in each band. The difference in brightness between two bands is refe...
How should common people research about a historical topic?	The reason people accuse "history" of being propaganda is because history is important. People base claims to their identities, their nations, their actions, their morality, and so on, on historical claims. So it is going to be as complicated and fraught as any topic with real "stakes" associated with it. As for how ...	[ "BULLET::::12. Historical research allows one to discuss past and present events in the context of the present condition, and allows one to reflect and provide possible answers to current issues and problems. Historical research helps us in answering questions such as: Where have we come from, where are we, who are...
How often a day/month/etc. do stars cease to exist?	On what scale are we talking about? In our solar system stars die about once every 10 billion years. (We only have one star in our solar system.) In our Galaxy there are several stars ending their lives at any given moment. Most star deaths take about 10,000-10,000,000 years. Very few are instantaneous. Of those we a...	[ "By (100 trillion) years from now, star formation will end. This period, known as the Degenerate Era, will last until the degenerate remnants finally decay. The least massive stars take the longest to exhaust their hydrogen fuel (see stellar evolution). Thus, the longest living stars in the universe are low-mass re...
How could the Yuan field 650.000 men in a 14th century battle ?	Sources from the early modern era and before are generally speaking not reliable when it comes to numbers of troops in a given battle. It is surprisingly difficult to count an army that's large enough that the troops can't be seen all at once. Here are some threads on this general subject: _URL_0_ _URL_1_ and any ...	[ "According to the Yuanshi, the Yuan fleet set out with an estimated 15,000 Mongol and Chinese soldiers and 1,600–8,000 Korean soldiers in 300 large vessels and 400–500 smaller craft along with several thousand sailors, although figures vary considerably depending on the source and many modern historians consider th...
what does adrenaline do so that you don't feel the pain , such as from a knife wound or a gunshot?	It's been a while since I've taken endocrinology so someone can correct me if I'm wrong and add what I miss. Adrenaline causes a feedback loop of hormones that do things such as increase your heart rate and your reaction time. It primes you for movement (fight or flight, if you will). I'm sure that the same feedback lo...	[ "Adrenaline, or other wise known as Epineephrine) is released from the Adrenal medulla. Adrenaline is also released in response to the stimulation of the sympathetic nervous system or stress. Adrenal is known as the \"fight or flight\" hormone as rapidly rushes blood to muscles and brain and produce the effects:\n"...
Did any of the 17th century European powers take the concept of Sweden forming colonies in North America serious?	The Dutch and Spanish took it seriously. The Dutch Governor of New Netherlands, Willem Kieft, lodged a formal complaint with the Governor of New Sweden Peter Minuit (then in Swedish service) over the colonisation of what he considered Dutch land. However, as Sweden and the Netherlands were allied against the Habsburgs...	[ "Sweden established colonies in the Americas in the mid-17th century, including the colony of New Sweden (1638–1655) on the Delaware River in what is now Delaware, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Maryland, as well as two possessions in the Caribbean during the 18th and 19th centuries.\n", "Like many European powers...
why don't we put probes/satellites to orbit the other planets in solar system ?	We do! Check out [this diagram](_URL_3_) of where all our current probes are. Mars is looking very crowded. [Juno](_URL_4_) will arrive at Jupiter in a year and start orbiting. [Cassini](_URL_2_) is currently orbiting Saturn. [Messenger](_URL_0_) was orbiting Mercury until a few months ago. The Japanese [Akatsuki](_U...	[ "Mercury and Venus are believed to have no satellites chiefly because any hypothetical satellite would have suffered deceleration long ago and crashed into the planets due to the very slow rotation speeds of both planets; in addition, Venus also has retrograde rotation.\n", "With the exception of Hyperion all the...
If you were floating in a large body of water that was struck by lightning, how strong would the shock be, depending on proximity?	So if you were in a pool and you knew you were about to get struck, dive underwater?	[ "Other termination shocks can be seen in terrestrial systems; perhaps the easiest may be seen by simply running a water tap into a sink creating a hydraulic jump. Upon hitting the floor of the sink, the flowing water spreads out at a speed that is higher than the local wave speed, forming a disk of shallow, rapidly...
Will we be able to see a flat surface that is only one atom thick?	Yes. _URL_0_ That is what a single layer of 1 atom thick graphene looks like.	[ "Atomic dimensions are thousands of times smaller than the wavelengths of light (400–700 nm) so they cannot be viewed using an optical microscope. However, individual atoms can be observed using a scanning tunneling microscope. To visualize the minuteness of the atom, consider that a typical human hair is about 1 m...
Why can't we just put some dead COVID-19 viruses in a syringe and call it a vaccine?	Viruses aren't really alive in the first place, they're basically a twisted knot of proteins and DNA which has a specific shape that encourages living cells to absorb them, then make more and more until the cell explodes, dumping all the new copies into your body. Other than this, they don't eat or breathe or respirat...	[ "Currently, no vaccine exists to prevent infection by all parvoviruses, but recently, the virus's capsid proteins, which are noninfectious molecules, have been suggested acting as antigens for improving of vaccines.\n", "The current vaccines are very safe. Minor side effects may occur at the site of injection. Th...
why is comedy less funny the more you watch it?	Comedy is probably best defined as the juxtaposition between the expected and the actual. For example, take the simple joke: Two men walk into a bar, but neither one ducked. You expected that "bar" meant "drinking establishment" but it actually meant "metal rod". The difference between what you expected and what was...	[ "Contrary to common annoyance of canned laughter in television shows, television studios have discovered that they can increase the perceived \"funniness\" of a show by merely playing canned laughter at key \"funny\" moments. They have found that even though viewers find canned laughter highly annoying, they percei...
why does online video (specifically youtube) get so insanely blurry at lower resolutions? why doesn’t the 240p option output a sharp and pixelated video?	You could always use VLC to watch YouTube. Then you can go: Tools- > Preferences- > Video- > Show Settings- > All- > Video- > Filters- > Swscale And choose something like "Nearest Neighbour". I predict that you will quickly decide that this is worse to look at, unless the videos are of low-res video games or si...	[ "In the case of most media, such as DVD movies and video games, the video is blurred during the authoring process itself to subdue interline twitter when played back on interlace displays. As a consequence, recovering the sharpness of the original video is impossible when the video is viewed progressively. A user-i...
How are nuclear arms/weapons safely created and stored to prevent accidents related to arming and detonations?	You can sort of chunk the history of US nuclear weapons safety into a few broad categories: * 1940s through early 1950s: The early weapons were _very dangerous_ once assembled. They had very few safety protections. They could be set off by lightning, fires, what have you. The main safety precaution was that the nuclea...	[ "In addition, land-based ICBM silos can be hardened. No missile launch facility can really defend against a direct nuclear hit, but a sufficiently hardened silo could defend against a near miss, especially if the detonation is not from a multimegaton thermonuclear weapon. In addition, ICBMs can be placed on road or...
why do sister cellular companies such as simple mobile (t-mobile) exist, isn't that competition to themselves?	They aren't related at all. Companies like Simple Mobile have contracted with other companies, in this case T-Mobile, to sell their own service using the T-Mobile network. Simple mobile is MVNO service and has nothing to do with the actual service of T-Mobile.	[ "Nevertheless, the fundamental principle of GSM and its successors, is open interfaces which encourage competition among multiple vendors. This is the reason a mobile phone is, in fact, a combination of phone and the subscriber identity (SIM). Locking the phone to a network is not much different from having the SIM...
how does a grandfather clock work?	The weights provide the power to turn the gears that turn the hands on the clock. The pendulum is connected to this mechanism such that the gears/hands can't turn any faster than the pendulum allows. And a pendulum has a time to swing that depends on how long it is and how heavy the weight on it is. So it serves as t...	[ "A grandfather clock (also a longcase clock, tall-case clock, grandfather's clock, or floor clock) is a tall, freestanding, weight-driven pendulum clock with the pendulum held inside the tower or waist of the case. Clocks of this style are commonly 1.8–2.4 metres (6–8 feet) tall. The case often features elaborately...
Do objects other than black holes emit Hawking radiation?	Hawking radiation is a form of [Unruh radiation](_URL_0_). The ground state of space ("vacuum") looks different for different observer: What you might see as empty space appears to be full of radiation for another accelerating observer. This effect is thought to occur in various places, namely when you look at a black...	[ "BULLET::::- \"Lifetime, Hawking radiation and gamma-rays:\" One way to detect primordial black holes, or to constrain their mass and abundance, is by their Hawking radiation. Stephen Hawking theorized in 1974 that large numbers of such smaller primordial black holes might exist in the Milky Way in our galaxy's hal...
why do some all-organic, natural healthy etc. fruit juice drinks have 0% vitamin c?	Grapes have very little vitamin C. But I am not aware of any case where the fruit does have plenty of vitamin C and then its juice doesn't. Can you please provide a link to such a product?	[ "According to US Food and Drug Administration reports, Fruits are known to be rich in nutrients such as Vitamin A, C and Calcium. This is why in addition to its communication as containing No Added Sugar, No Preservative, No Artificial Colours, Chivita 100% Fruit Juice also considers its 100% juice a Nutrient densi...
do wild animals know if humans are trying to help them (i.e. stuck sheep or trapped bear cubs)?	This is a difficult question to answer. Intelligence and cognitive abilities vary widely from one species to another. Each species' brain is different in terms of size, allocation of functions, etc. so we have to answer this question for each species individually. What it all comes down to is whether the animal in que...	[ "Wildlife rescue groups, unlike many other animal rescue organizations, focus on the rehabilitation and care of wild animals saved from illegal breeders, roadside circuses, and many other abusive situations. They do not seek to find adoptive homes for the animals, but rather to reintroduce the animals to lifestyles...
realism (international relations) & the cold war	Ok back to my old IR days, see if I can break this down.. Realism - The world is in anarchy, shit is fucked! I don't trust you, you don't trust me, we both certainly don't trust that weird looking dude over there. We basically don't have any rules because even if we did we certainly don't trust each other enough to f...	[ "There are several different international relations theory schools. Supporters of realism in international relations argue that the motivation of states is the quest for security, and conflicts can arise from the inability to distinguish defense from offense, which is called the security dilemma.\n", "Post-reali...
Help with U.S. Army WWII history? Investigating a family member's last letter.	At the Top of your great-uncle's letter his return address is "Co. B 10th Inf" which means B company of the 10th Infantry regiment. Here is the wikipedia entry for the 10th Infantry regiment. _URL_1_ According to that wikipedia (Mods forgive me!) entry, your Great Uncle's unit was the 5th Infantry division. Here i...	[ "Memorial: Letters from American Soldiers is a 1991 American short documentary film directed by Bill Couturié. It was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Short. It shows footage from World War I, World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War and the Gulf War, overlaid with readings of letters from U...
why are subtitles sometimes out of sync and progressively get worse?	Its playing slightly slower than the movie, so the problem accumulates. When you pause, it resets because subtitles are usually linked to specific times in a movie. A decent free media player (like gomplayer, my go to) will usually allow you to speed them up a bit	[ "In the audiovisual system, even when more than one language was used, subtitles maintained their position unchanged for many years. The newest software technologies for mobile devices, which came out as an alternative to subtitling in cinemas, or the possibilities opened up by head-mounted displays, such as subtit...
how true knowledge of future events have a bearing on the current ones?	[Here's Martin Gardner's kid-friendly introduction to time travel and the paradoxes it creates.](_URL_0_) Start on the linked pages, and read through the following pages to an appropriate level for your six year old.	[ "1) \"History cannot always accurately predict the future.\" Using relations derived from historical data to predict the future implicitly assumes there are certain lasting conditions or constants in a complex system. This almost always leads to some imprecision when the system involves people.\n", "Theories of h...
probably a dumb question but here goes. if someone has lice why exactly can't they just dip their head in water and drown the lice?	Lice can survive a long time underwater, about 14 hours. I would imagine that their eggs would survive and repopulate as well. So perhaps you could drown them, but you'd have to drown yourself first.	[ "LIS does, however, have a number of potential side effects including problems with incision site healing and incontinence to flatus and faeces (some surveys of surgical results suggest incontinence rates of up to 36%).\n", "Head lice are spread through direct head-to-head contact with an infested person. From ea...
In 1950 do you think the people at the top of the USSR really believed in communism (or believed they believed) and thought their actions were somehow good for it, or do you think they were just in it for the power?	Just a quick modnote. This question is worded to ask "do you believe..." If you choose to answer this question, please be prepared to reference documents that demonstrate what senior Soviet leadership thought. Please do not justify your answers with "well, this is what I believe, anyway".	[ "The Soviet achievement in the 1930s seemed hugely impressive from the outside, and convinced many people, not necessarily Communists or even socialists, of the virtues of state planning and authoritarian models of social development. This was later to have important consequences in countries like China, India and ...
if there were bacteria on mars, why wouldn't it be everywhere like on earth?	Mars lacks a functional magnetosphere to protect the planet's surface from the Sun's radiation, and the atmosphere is incredibly thin and diminishing more every day. As a result there are very few locations on Mars where bacterial life could live for a prolonged period of time. To put this in perspective, even after a...	[ "There are also studies in the field of astrobiology regarding the possibility of \"Halobacterium\" on Mars. Similarly to the Dead Sea, any water located on the Martian surface would be a brine with an extremely high salt concentration. Therefore, microbial life on Mars would require adaptations similar to those of...
If I were to release oxygen into the vacuum of space where would it go?	For small amounts, it would just disperse. If you have HUGE amounts of it (like the size of a large planet), it will have enough mass to clump together. However, things like solar winds will also play a role in dispersing it.	[ "An additional source of atmospheric free oxygen comes from photolysis, whereby high-energy ultraviolet radiation breaks down atmospheric water and nitrous oxide into component atoms. The free H and escape into space, leaving O in the atmosphere: \n", "Oxygen generators on board the International Space Station pr...
Could we have wifi in the visible spectrum of light?	Yes, we already have this. It's called [free-space optical communications](_URL_0_). In the simplest example, if you stand on one mountain at night and your friend stands another mountain away from obstructions, you could communicate with your friend by pointing your flashlight at him and turning it on and off accordin...	[ "There is wireless network that for data transmission uses visible light, and does not use intensity modulation of optical sources. The idea is to use vibration generator instead of optical sources for data transmission.\n", "Various sources define visible light as narrowly as 420–680 nm to as broadly as 380–800 ...
What happens to the cash/gold reserves of occupied countries in WW2?	I base part of this answer on [an earlier one on German pre-war and war spending here](_URL_2_). Most countries had a cold reserve, a reserve of hard currency and other items and would store it at a central bank. They often also had assets at foreign banks, especially if they had a lot of trade with those countries. S...	[ "Prior to the Polish Defensive War of 1939 against Third Reich and Soviet Union, all of the gold reserves (105,000 kg) were evacuated from Poland to the Banque de France (Paris) and then most of it to Canada and London. The Bank continued its functioning in exile, as the central bank of the Polish Government in Exi...
Is it possible to produce viable offspring from two very different dog breeds?	Yes, it happens all the time. I've seen puppies from a (male) dachshund and (female) St. Bernard before. Keep in mind that all dogs, regardless of breed, are still canis lupus familiaris, and as such, can produce offspring with each other.	[ "Dog crossbreeds (first generation crosses from two purebred dogs, also called dog hybrids) are not breeds and are not considered purebred, although crossbreds from the same two breeds of purebreds can have \"identical qualities\", similar to what would be expected from breeding two purebreds, but with more genetic...
if a child loses a limb, and it's successfully reattached, can the limb still grow?	It depends on how clean the separation is, how the limb was preserved (cooled) and how skilled the surgeon is. It will never stop growing. If it is attached successfully and is still alive then it will continue to heal and grow as usual. And it does not matter if it is kids or adults. Sharks do tend to tear the limb of...	[ "If extensive necrosis and gangrene has set in an arm or leg, the limb may have to be amputated. Limb amputation is in itself usually remarkably well tolerated, but is associated with a substantial mortality (~50%), primarily because of the severity of the diseases in patients where it is indicated.\n", "People w...
Does copper IUD stop implantation of a fertilized egg?	The copper in the IUD serves as an pro-inflammatory agent. The inflammation prevents proper proliferation and physiologic functioning of the endometrium, which is required for the implantation of the fertilized egg. The fertilized egg therefore rolls around and without endometrium to implant and obtain nutrients, event...	[ "The primary mechanism of action of copper-releasing intrauterine devices (IUDs) as emergency contraceptives is to prevent fertilization because of copper toxicity to sperm and ova. The very high effectiveness of copper-releasing IUDs as emergency contraceptives implies that they must also prevent some pregnancies ...
Just how aggressive are wasps?	Regular paper wasps aren't really that aggressive. Don't bother their nest and they won't bother you. Africanized bees and hornets are much more aggressive.	[ "The posture of wasps is very telling of which is dominant or subordinate. The dominant wasp generally sits higher than the subordinate, whereas the subordinates have a lower stance. For wasps of equal rank, it is not uncommon for them to continuously try to rise higher and begin to aggressively fight each other un...
Is friction a point force or distributed force?	Can you go into more detail on why you would ask this? In theory friction is the result of tiny defects in surfaces gripping each other, so it is a distribution of point forces. However, it is even enough that we can model it as a point force if we want for statics purposes.	[ "Friction is a surface force that opposes relative motion. The frictional force is directly related to the normal force that acts to keep two solid objects separated at the point of contact. There are two broad classifications of frictional forces: static friction and kinetic friction.\n", "The Coulomb friction f...
why are some businesses classified as "non-profit," but are clearly wildly profitable based on their executive's salaries?	A business has ownership, whether it be a sole proprietor, dual proprietors, private shareholders. or public shareholders, someone is there to collect the profit as the owner of the company. Non profit organizations don't have someone to collect profits, instead the profits are invested back into the company. They do h...	[ "While an executive may be any corporate \"officer\"—including president, vice president, or other upper-level manager—in any company, the source of most comment and controversy is the pay of chief executive officers (CEOs) (and to a lesser extent the other top five highest-paid executives) of large publicly traded...
How has the baptist denomination evolved within the United States from the beginning of independence to the present?	I'm on my phone atm, so can't give a comprehensive reply, but I'll give the short answer now. Baptism then still considered itself an outsider branch of Christianity. The ostracism that Baptists faced in the UK was still very much present in their minds. For example, Baptists were practically barred from holding polit...	[ "The Triennial Convention (so-called because it met every three years) was the first national Baptist denomination in the United States. Officially named the General Missionary Convention of the Baptist Denomination in the United States of America for Foreign Missions, it was formed in 1814 to advance missionary wo...
how does the internet exist? no i'm not talking about us using it but more so, what's actually causing it to run and who's in charge, who could possibly end it?	The Internet is what we call a global data network consisting of many sub networks belonging to various companies and governments. It's kind of like asking who owns the road? What road? The world is connected with roads, some going from one country to another, and in many cases many countries. They connect places and ...	[ "BULLET::::- Internet – The internet arose because of extensive research on ARPANET between various university, corporations, and ARPA (Advanced Research Project Agency), an agency of the Department of Defense. Scientist theorized a network of computers connected to each other. Computing capabilities contributed to...
why is it that every time i am in a customer phone support menu that asks for my (acct., citation,order, etc.) # the first thing i have to do when the rep comes online is give them that exact same info. why ask for it if it doesn't show up?	Sometimes it's as dumb as you suggest, but most of the time it's a form of two-factor authentication. The system asks for your account number, and then the rep on the other hand has that account open. Then the rep will ask for the account number again, to make sure they're looking at the right account, as well as askin...	[ "Users have the option of ordering from the website or from a Seamless mobile app for Android, BlackBerry, or iOS. Users enter their address, and Seamless returns a list of restaurants that will deliver to the submitted address. Users then select a restaurant, create an order from the online menu, and submit the or...
why is my facial hair darker than my head hair?	Im a blonde and my beard grows in a nice deep red..just genetics	[ "Pubic hair and underarm hair can vary in color considerably from the hair of the scalp. In most people, it is darker, although it can also be lighter. In most cases it is most similar in color to a person's eyebrows.\n", "Malnutrition is also known to cause hair to become lighter, thinner, and more brittle. Dark...
Couldn't the cure for cancer be no cure at all?	The problem is that cancer typically strikes late in life. If something happens post-reproduction then it's invisible to selection. What that means is that selection acts on differential reproductive success and by the time you've reproduced it's acting on the genes you've passed on to your offspring; which means th...	[ "it is unlikely that there will ever be a single \"cure for cancer\" any more than there will be a single treatment for all infectious diseases. Angiogenesis inhibitors were once thought to have potential as a \"silver bullet\" treatment applicable to many types of cancer, but this has not been the case in practice...
Why does caffeine cause jitteriness in some people? From what I understand, caffeine doesn't "wake you up", it just affects the binding of adenosine thereby -Preventing- sleepiness.	Caffeine does both effects, a quick google search has all the answers. From the top google result we have.... _URL_0_ > So, How Does Caffeine Affect Adenosine and Sleepiness? > Caffeine belongs to the xanthine chemical group. Adenosine is a xanthine that is naturally occurring in the brain, used as a neurotran...	[ "Caffeine's mechanism of action differs from many stimulants, as it produces stimulant effects by inhibiting adenosine receptors. Adenosine receptors are thought to be a large driver of drowsiness and sleep, and their action increases with extended wakefulness. Caffeine has been found to increase striatal dopamine ...
this is a delicate subject so i’ll start with this is not intended to hurt feelings or be disrespectful. why if you say something against a person solely based on ethnicity is it called racism, unless that person is jewish, what exactly does anti-semitic mean?	The TL:DR is that Judaism has roots in a religious movement, as opposed to a purely race concept so it’s a clearer label to make everyone aware of exactly who you’re trying to insult. That’s a very short wrap up, but make no mistake. Being anti Semitic, is racist. It’s just that a white man doesn’t automatically belon...	[ "Racial antisemitism is prejudice against Jews based on a belief or assertion that Jews constitute a distinct racial or ethnic group that has inherent traits or characteristics that are in some way abhorrent or inherently inferior or otherwise different to that of the rest of society. The abhorrence may be expresse...
Why can I see the "shadow" of a gas from a ground vent, but I can't see anything in the air?	Not bouncing, no. The light is being refracted (not to be confused with reflected) as it changes from one medium to another, though some amount may be absorbed. The same effect can be seen if you put part of a pencil in a glass of water. The pencil appears bent at the water line, but it is not the pencil bending, but t...	[ "In principle, we cannot directly see a difference in temperature, a different gas, or a shock wave in the transparent air. However, all these disturbances refract light rays, so they can cast shadows. The plume of hot air rising from a fire, for example, can be seen by way of its shadow cast upon a nearby surface ...
why can foods be too salty, sweet, sour, bitter, and spicy, but not too savory?	Go get a big ol' chunk of Parmigiano-Reggiano. Not crappy pre-grated 70% cellulose parmesan, the real stuff. Now grate a cup or two of that. Now eat it all at once. Just shove as much of it in your mouth at once as you can and chew on it. Then tell me if you still think things can't be "too umami".	[ "Sour and salt tastes can be pleasant in small quantities, but in larger quantities become more and more unpleasant to taste. For sour taste this is presumably because the sour taste can signal under-ripe fruit, rotten meat, and other spoiled foods, which can be dangerous to the body because of bacteria which grow ...

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