Split (2)

train · 226k rows

question stringlengths 3 301	answer stringlengths 9 26.1k	context list
that temporary "watermark" on our vision when we look at something bright then either look away or close our eyes?	The color-sensing cone cells in your eyes need time to "recharge". When light hits those cells, special molecules absorb the light and are forced to change shape, which activates the nerves in your retina. When you stare at a bright light, your cone cells are all firing, all of those molecules are getting bent, and w...	[ "These cause permanent obstruction of aqueous outflow. In some cases, pressure may rapidly build up in the eye, causing pain and redness (symptomatic, or so-called \"acute\" angle closure). In this situation, the vision may become blurred, and halos may be seen around bright lights. Accompanying symptoms may includ...
...how do boogers form?	Lots of the dirt and dust and junk in the air get filtered through the hairs in our nose when we breath in. Once its trapped in the cilia, the hairs in your nose, your mucus membrane releases a fluid to wash them off that normally runs into your stomach. Left over bits dry out before draining into your stomach and t...	[ "Humbugs are a traditional hard boiled sweet available in the United Kingdom, Ireland, South Africa, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. They are usually flavoured with peppermint and striped in two different colours (often black and white). Humbugs may be cylinders with rounded ends wrapped in a twist of cellophan...
Why do so many medications interact with MAOIs?	First of all, [Prozac is the trade name for fluoxetine, which is a a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI).](_URL_1_) So your fiancee is not taking an MAOI. MAOIs are monoamine oxidase inhibitors. So, as the name suggests, [they inhibit (stop/block) an enzyme call monoamine oxidase.](_URL_2_) ...	[ "Classical MAOIs, including isocarboxazid, are used only very rarely due to prominent food and drug interactions and have been largely superseded by newer antidepressants such as the selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs). The cause of the interactions is because MAOIs inhibit the metabolism of dietary ami...
how does squinting your eyes work? specifically when you are looking at something and without closing your eyelids, blur your vision?	This question ask been asked and [answered](_URL_0_) many times before. I'm linking to an [askscience](_URL_1_) answer here since it's good and quite simple, but there have been many other answers in eli5 too.	[ "Squinting is most often practiced by people who suffer from refractive errors of the eye who either do not have or are not using their glasses. Squinting helps momentarily improve their eyesight by slightly changing the shape of the eye to make it more round, which helps light properly reach the fovea. Squinting a...
What do we know about the origins of slavery? Is there any evidence of slavery in prehistoric times?	We do know that the Hammurabi Code, our oldest known written legal code, had rules for slaves. So 4000 (ish) years ago slavery was an accepted established part of that society. That takes it back to the beginning of written history.	[ "Slavery was known in almost every ancient civilization and society including Sumer, Ancient Egypt, Ancient China, the Akkadian Empire, Assyria, Ancient India, Ancient Greece, Carolingian Europe, the Roman Empire, the Hebrew kingdoms of the ancient Levant, and the pre-Columbian civilizations of the Americas. Such i...
Upon racial integration of America's school system what happened to all of the African American teachers?	Despite tension and potential violence, black teachers did much the same as black students and integrated the previously existing school system staying teachers and principals. This model was able to work because though integration had dissolved the previously binary (or in some cases trinary) school systems, some form...	[ "In late 1963, nearly a decade after the Supreme Court ruling in \"Brown v. Board of Education\" that segregation of schools was unconstitutional, African Americans were still trying to get St. Augustine to integrate the public schools in the city. They were also trying to integrate public accommodations, such as l...
the decline of zimbabwe under mugabe	While there are a number of reasons, one of the big ones was that he forcibly took the farmlands that belonged to longstanding white zimbabwe citizens (people who's family may have been in the country for generations. By the 90's, about 70% of the arable land was held by white families) and gave them to his associates....	[ "Robert Mugabe became Prime Minister of Zimbabwe in 1980, when his ZANU-PF party won the elections following the end of white minority rule; he was the President of Zimbabwe from 1987 until his resignation in 2017. Under Mugabe's authoritarian regime, the state security apparatus dominated the country and was respo...
how can water be reflective and see through at the same time?	Pretty much any object absorbs, reflects, and transmits some amount of light that strikes it. Nothing is perfectly absorptive, transmissive, or reflective. This is also why objects can display colors when you shine white light on them, they're selectively reflecting certain wavelengths and absorbing others. The color y...	[ "Specular reflection from a body of water is calculated by the Fresnel equations. Fresnel reflection is directional and therefore does not contribute significantly to albedo which primarily diffuses reflection.\n", "At the scale of the wavelength of light even wavy water is always smooth so the light is reflected...
what the fbi is investigating on hillary and why it is so important	The FBI believes that Hillary may have kept emails that were intended to be kept secret on an unsecured home server. It's like if someone working at Fort Knox took a couple bars of gold home, and kept them in a shoe box. Even if the gold wasn't stolen, it would be criminal to expose the gold to that much risk.	[ "On July 10, 2015, the FBI opened a criminal investigation into Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server while she was Secretary of State. On June 29, 2016, Attorney General Loretta Lynch and Bill Clinton met aboard her plane on the tarmac of the Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport, leading to calls for...
Historians of reddit how hard is it to become a historian ?	Depends what you mean! Anyone can become a historian for free in the sense of doing historical research and doing historical writing. There are many independent scholars out there. However, I assume you mean a professional historian attached to an institution, who gets paid a regular salary for being a historian. T...	[ "Amateur historians dominated publications in the 19th century, and are still very widely read, and pulling many tourists to museums and historic sites. They favored such themes as the colonial history, exploration, and the great contest for control between the British and the French. Professional historians emerge...
How will the current injection of excess CO2 into the atmosphere affect the eventual coldening due to the Milankovitch cycles?	A little background here: glacial periods occur naturally due to the syncopation between 1) our planet's axial tilt cycle every 41,000 years, 2) the spinning orbital precession cycle every 26,000 years, and 3) the orbital eccentricity cycle every 100,000 years in a process known as [Milankovitch cycles](_URL_3_). These...	[ "Since the Montreal Protocol came into effect, the atmospheric concentrations of the most important chlorofluorocarbons and related chlorinated hydrocarbons have either leveled off or decreased. Halon concentrations have continued to increase, as the halons presently stored in fire extinguishers are released, but t...
how can i get a jumpstart on developing stable finances? (more like eli19)	1.) Never impulse buy ANYTHING. This goes for candy bars in the check out lane to cars and computers. When you go to make a purchase, make sure you have thought about it and researched the product. 2.) Pay yourself first on any paycheck. Set aside at least $20 to $25 bucks in a savings account that is not tied to...	[ "BULLET::::4. Investment and accumulation goals: planning how to accumulate enough money – for large purchases and life events – is what most people consider to be financial planning. Major reasons to accumulate assets include purchasing a house or car, starting a business, paying for education expenses, and saving...
why does the military do those fancy rifle drills?	Originally they did only ordinary drills, where the soldiers were just practicing the methods to stay organized in large groups, such as when marching or when getting ready for a fight. Over time some groups became proud of their precision skills, and enjoyed showing them off in parades. Gradually they started adding ...	[ "In America, exhibition rifle drill has become more popular, due to many factors. Active duty military groups have for many decades raised the profile of drill purpose rifles. These groups are hosted by all five services, with the most well-known being the United States Marine Corps Silent Drill Platoon and the U.S...
What now extinct animals would early hunter gatherers have encountered?	It depends on what you mean by “early hunter gatherers” because according to recent studies the origin of modern humans (Homo sapiens) has been extended back quite a bit to as far as 300,000 years ago. This means an exhaustive list of extinct animals that were contemporary with pre-agricultural (ie. hunter gatherers) m...	[ "Hunter-gatherers from 10,000 years Before Present hunted and lived in a difficult terrain, traversed deep canyons and areas of few animals and limited vegetation, and managed limited access to water - which made life difficult and limited the size of their hunt groups. They were adaptive to find sufficient food, s...
how are babies' cells created?	In a sense, yes. The cells are made from protein and fats supplied to the fetus from the mother (via the umbilical cord). The mother gets these substances from the food she eats.	[ "During conception, the father's sperm cell and the mother's egg cell, each containing half the amount of DNA found in other body cells, meet and fuse to form a fertilized egg, called a zygote. The zygote contains a complete set of DNA molecules, a unique combination of DNA from both parents. This zygote divides an...
In Nazi Occupied countries, was there any acts of insurgency like what happened in Iraq?	Yes, just about every occupied country did have insurgencies in one form or another. Here is an example. The most successful in Europe was the National Liberation Army and Partisan Detachments of Yugoslavia (later known as the Yugoslav army). It was the only country to self liberate from the Fascists without major f...	[ "Even after the rapprochement, there was still use of terror tactics in some cases. After the Red Army recaptured occupied territories, many clergy in these territories were arrested and sent to prisons or camps for very long terms, allegedly for collaboration with the Germans, but effectively for their rebuilding ...
Would be the dying sun ejected material massive enough to allow the formation of a smaller star, a.k.a red dwarf?	Yes absolutely. In fact this is exactly how the next generation of stars form from the previous! & nbsp; An example is the process by which white dwarfs are created. A white dwarf is the end of a small and intermediate mass stars life. If at any stage of the shell burning process the shell runs out of fuel the core ...	[ "Stars with initial masses less than about eight times the sun never develop a core large enough to collapse and they eventually lose their atmospheres to become white dwarfs, stable cooling spheres of carbon supported by the pressure of degenerate electrons. Nucleosynthesis within those lighter stars is therefore ...
why does emf/induced current occur when flux and therefore magnetic fields change?	Here's the argument: it's not ELI5 but it's as close as I can get. 1) Magnetic forces from motion. According to the Lorenz force law, charges in a segment of wire will experience a force proportional to the magnetic field strength, and to their velocity. We'll take this as a given for this explanation. 2) EMF from ...	[ "To understand the origin, consider a wire loop, placed in magnetic field. According to Faraday's law of induction, if the magnetic flux is changed through the loop, an emf will be induced in this. The magnetic flux may be changed by changing the area of the loop or by changing the magnetic field. Why a changing ma...
Can the body fight off cancer before you know you have it?	Well technically we fight off a lot of potentials for cancer (i.e. our body does stop some abnormal growths naturally). I would suggest following up on the updated version of "Hallmarks of Cancer". For a cancer to, well become a cancer, it must evade and penetrate through many of the natural cellular defenses that our ...	[ "Despite cancer cells causing increased inflammation and angiogenesis, they also appear to be able to avoid interaction with the body’s via a loss of interleukin-33 immune system. (See cancer immunology)\n", "Treatment and survival is determined, to a great extent, by whether or not a cancer remains localized or ...
If I set my car's AC to 72 degrees, will my car use less energy if the outside temperature is 78 instead of 90?	It would use less energy, yes. The reason is that the compressor and fans will still be using the same amount of power, but the AC will be on for shorter periods of time because the time taken to cool from 78 to 72 is shorter than from 90 to 72. The car also will absorb much more energy if the outside temperature is 90...	[ "In the battery used for electric vehicles, Nominal battery performance is usually specified for working temperatures somewhere in the +20 °C to +30 °C range; however, the actual performance can deviate substantially from this if the battery is operated at higher or, in particular, lower temperatures, so some elect...
Where can I find good sources on common historic clothing items?	I probably sound like a bit of a broken record, but what you need is to ask this to a reference librarian! You need an encyclopedia of historical costume, something like [this book](_URL_0_), this is the only one of this genre I've ever used for this sort of question. A decent public library should have something lik...	[ "The RISD Museum has one of the finest collections of historical textiles and items of dress in this country, with a range that spans the centuries from at least 1500 BCE to the present and that includes representative cloth and clothing from as many geographic areas as possible. Starting with items such a pair of ...
How do gas masers work?	How is this question different from the [one](_URL_0_) you asked yesterday?	[ "The maser is based on the principle of stimulated emission proposed by Albert Einstein in 1917. When atoms have been induced into an excited energy state, they can amplify radiation at a frequency particular to the element or molecule used as the masing medium (similar to what occurs in the lasing medium in a lase...
how does ´´having a bunch of attorneys/lawyers´´ change the outcome of a court case?	More lawyers means more eyes looking at the case. More research being done. More chances at finding a loophole or previous example of law that puts disney in the right. The money side means that disney can afford to pitch a protracted battle. Their lawyers can request all sorts of things that keep the case going. ...	[ "Up until the mid-20th century, in much of the United States, an attorney often had to follow an objection with an exception to preserve the issue for appeal. If an attorney failed to \"take an exception\" immediately after the court's ruling on the objection, he waived his client's right to appeal the issue. Excep...
What is the difference, if any, between a conductor and a superconductor?	[Here](_URL_0_) is a link that shows a graph of the resistance vs. temperature of a superconductor and a conductor (resistance is in arbitrary units). A regular conductor has low resistance, which is what makes it a conductor. A super conductor is a regular conductor at most temperatures, but when cooled to below the ...	[ "Superconductivity is the set of physical properties observed in certain materials, wherein electrical resistance no longer exists and from which magnetic flux fields are expelled. Any material exhibiting these properties is a superconductor. Unlike an ordinary metallic conductor, whose resistance decreases gradual...
why do we still talk about the 90's, 80's, 70's, etc as their own era yet we tend to lump 00's - now together?	Maybe because the birth of the internet and social media sharing has made it difficult to pin down what is the "2000's" ? I always feel its easier to kinda say what music was most popular for any of the pre 2000 decades. Maybe its because we can look back on the completed decades and decide what was popular. Compar...	[ "The term \"'Me' Decade\" describes a general new attitude of Americans in the 1970s, in the direction of atomized individualism and away from communitarianism, in clear contrast with social values prevalent in the United States during the 1960s.\n", "The 1990s (pronounced \"nineteen-nineties\", commonly shortene...
The mythic history of the ancient Near East - Egypt, Canaan, Syria, Babylon - is full of "magicians" and "sorcerers" going around and doing impressive things to kings and such. Were these the same sort of tricks as magicians use today, and did people of that time really take them seriously?	I can only partially answer this question, as an Egyptologist, with little experience in near Eastern cultures. However, I'll try to give you as best as answer I can from my experience. In Egypt, 'magic' was linked very closely to medicine and religion. Magicians could have multiple roles, and often used ivory 'wands'...	[ "In literature, Rick Riordan has written three books based on Egyptian mythology in the modern world: The Kane Chronicles - The Red Pyramid, The Throne of Fire, and The Serpent's Shadow. These books are about the adventures of two siblings, Sadie and Carter Kane, who discover that the ancient Egyptian world is stil...
If I turn away/hold my breath after people sneeze/cough am I less likely to catch a disease?	Quite. But it would be more helpful if THEY turned their heads and covered their mouths.	[ "The infection occurs mostly in children under the age of one when they are unimmunized, or children with faded immunity, normally around the ages 11 through 18. The signs and symptoms are similar to a common cold: runny nose, sneezing, mild cough, and low-grade fever. The patient becomes most contagious during the...
why do nurses ask for the woman to push and then stop during childbirth ?	Also, a nurse/doctor/paramedic/midwife/etc, may tell a woman to stop pushing if a problem is discovered, like when the umbilical cord presents first, before the body. They'll need her to stop pushing until they can intervene, as it may cause more problems.	[ "BULLET::::- When preparing to nurse, mothers should allow the initial letdown reflex to occur and then subside before beginning the nursing session. Or they may stop the nursing momentarily until that strong letdown reflex passes. This will allow the milk flow to normalize. For very young infants, it may help to h...
what determines the path that veins and arteries take through the body	The veins and arteries do follow a similar path in every body - at least the main arteries and veins do -, they teach that in med school and med students are supposed to identify them by location. You can find blood vessel maps online. The path that they take is determined by the placement of the organs in your body. ...	[ "The arteries are perceived as carrying oxygenated blood to the tissues, while veins carry deoxygenated blood back to the heart. This is true of the systemic circulation, by far the larger of the two circuits of blood in the body, which transports oxygen from the heart to the tissues of the body. However, in pulmon...
what is fm synthesis and what are the difference between fm, subtractive, and additive synthesis?	FM stands for "frequency modulation." In general it refers to any sort of time that we're changing the frequency of a signal. FM radio, for example, sends a signal by modulating (changing) the carrier frequency very slightly. When you tune into a radio station, the channel number is the carrier frequency at which they ...	[ "FM synthesis (frequency modulation synthesis) is a process that usually involves the use of at least two signal generators (sine-wave oscillators, commonly referred to as \"operators\" in FM-only synthesizers) to create and modify a voice. Often, this is done through the analog or digital generation of a signal th...
it seems clear that subatomic particles aren't solid little spheres, what are they?	Bear with me, physicists, this is super ELI5... Subatomic particles are both an infinitely-small dot, and a spread-out fuzzy cloud representing the chances that this dot will be seen at any given location. But that gives the wrong idea that the dot is the real particle, and the cloud is just a description of it. But...	[ "Similarly, spherical particles were used in early prototypes but were later substituted with cylindrical particles. This is mainly because cylindrical particles gain much more charge than spherical particles, as they stand on end when being charged. Given also that cylinders penetrate a liquid's surface more easil...
why do american semi trailers have a long hood and european trailers don't?	My understanding is that in Europe (and elsewhere in the world) there are limits on how long the total length of the truck + trailer can be, so not having a long hood allows for a longer trailer length. In the US there is no length restrictions, and the long hood actually provides better aerodynamics and is easier to s...	[ "BULLET::::- Box or van trailers are the most common type. They are quite simply a metal box on wheels with some doors on the back, though some offer additional access doors on the sides. Standard lengths in North America are , , , , , , , and . Due to maximum length regulations and the need to maximize cargo withi...
why is it that humans have a strong hand and a weak hand?	There's no definitive answer, but there are many theories. I'm not a specialist in this area, but the theory that appeals to me is that it is related to hormones in the womb. The vast majority of people are right-handed, so it is thought that slight changes in hormone levels is what causes some people (such as ...	[ "Grip strength is a general term also used to refer to the physical strength of an animal and, for athletes, to the muscular power and force that can be generated with the hands. In athletics, grip strength is critical for rock climbers and in competitions such as the World's Strongest Man. Grip strength training i...
A question about centrifugal force in a weightless environment?	If you are not in contact with the wall of the cylinder at all and it starts to spin, you won't suddenly feel a centrifugal force pushing you outwards in your frame of reference. However if you hold onto the side of the cylinder while it spins up, your rest frame is now non-inertial. And now there is a centrifugal f...	[ "In these scenarios, the effects attributed to centrifugal force are only observed in the local frame (the frame in which the object is stationary) if the object is undergoing absolute rotation relative to an inertial frame. By contrast, in an inertial frame, the observed effects arise as a consequence of the inert...
Why do we refer to rome (post julius) as an empire even though they never refered to themselves as such?	Well, "emperor" is the English term derived from the Latin "imperator" which Augustus did use as a title. In Latin it just means something like "successful general" but Augustus and his family monopolized the term. It doesn't have anything to do with "empire" in the sense of having one state dominating others. Rome ...	[ "Though Marcellinus does not refer to the Empire as a whole after 395, only to its separate parts, he clearly identifies the term \"Roman\" as applying to the Empire as a whole. When using terms such as \"us\", \"our generals\", and \"our emperor\", Marcellinus distinguished both divisions of the Empire from outsid...
When does the body know to release Insulin?	Essentially, the concentration of sugar (glucose) in the blood activates the beta islet cells in the pancreas to release insulin. The more glucose, the more the cells are triggered, releasing more and more insulin. The mechanism goes: glucose diffuses in to the beta cell, goes through the metabolic process of creati...	[ "Evidence of impaired first-phase insulin release can be seen in the glucose tolerance test, demonstrated by a substantially elevated blood glucose level at 30 minutes after the ingestion of a glucose load (75 or 100 g of glucose), followed by a slow drop over the next 100 minutes, to remain above 120 mg/100 ml aft...
What (if anything) are jellyfish filled with? Also, if pierced, what would happen to one?	The "jelly" inside jellyfishes is the [mesoglea](_URL_0_). It is present in all cnidarians but it is extra thick in jellyfish. It is composed of connective tissue and water and doesn't have very many cells, so I don't have any guesses as to what would happen if you punctured it.	[ "This box jellyfish is highly venomous. The stings cause great pain and have caused several deaths in Japanese waters. The symptoms include cardiac arrest and respiratory failure with acute pulmonary oedema.\n", "When the jellyfish are swimming, the tentacles contract so they are about 15 cm long and about 5 mm i...
How white did one have to be to be classified as "Aryan" by the Nazi government?	It should be noted that the Nazis did kill millions of Slavs in addition to Jews. Some of these killings of Slavs are considered to compose part of the Holocaust. The "Aryan" concept was not necessarily based on "white" but on which ethnic groups were considered German or Germanizable by Hitler. From Ian Kershaw's *St...	[ "In Nazi Germany, the Aryan certificate () was a document which certified that a person was a member of the Aryan race. Beginning in April 1933 it was required from all employees and officials in the public sector, including education, according to the Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service. It w...
why is it that we readily accept exaggerated features and facial distortions in animated films, but would find those same features to be repulsive in real humans?	It depends on how exaggerated you are talking about. There's a concept called the uncanny valley. Imagine there is a graph where the base is that something doesn't appear to be human-like at all, and the top of the graph is "exactly human" Then you see something like a Teddy Bear. Teddy Bears don't look like bears....	[ "Due to the complexity of human body functions, emotions and interactions, movies with important roles for fully 3D-animated realistic-looking human characters have been rare. The more realistic a CG character becomes, the more difficult it is to create the nuances and details of a living person, and the greater th...
how can stuff be "rediscovered" in museum collections? don't museums keep a detailed list of everything they have?	Not all museum records are as good as you might hope. Detailing everything in a museum collection can be quite hard. And then keeping the records and catalogs up to date is a continuous effort. Things get mislabled or misplaced all the time. If you have a giant collection you might only look at an artifact once every c...	[ "Replicas of artifacts and art have a purpose within museums and research. They are created to help with preserving of original artifacts. In many cases the original artifact may be too frail and be to much at risk of further damage on display posing a risk to the artifact from light damage, environmental agents, a...
how come some of our blood vessels aren't crushed under our own weight when we sit down?	They do! At least the ones at the surface do (let's say your rear end sitting down). Normally you move around enough so that it doesn't actually do any damage, combined with the fact that those tissues can survive awhile without much blood flow, collateral circulation, etc. This is a problem in patients who are not ve...	[ "Failure to relieve the pressure can result in the death of tissues (necrosis) in the affected anatomical compartment, since the ability of blood to enter the smallest vessels in the compartment (capillary perfusion pressure) will fall. This, in turn, leads to progressively increasing oxygen deprivation of the tiss...
What exactly happens when you get executed by hanging? Technically speaking.	It depends. There are four different kinds of hanging: suspending, short, standard, and long. Suspending is putting a noose around someone and then lifting them up which strangles them. A short drop is when you are on and object and that object is removed, leaving you dangling there.. The drop isn't enough to break yo...	[ "Hanging is the suspension of a person by a noose or ligature around the neck. The \"Oxford English Dictionary\" states that hanging in this sense is \"specifically to put to death by suspension by the neck\", though it formerly also referred to crucifixion and death by impalement in which the body would remain \"h...
Is it possible to have an acid stronger than a pH of 14?	Acids have a pH < 7 while bases have a pH > 7. The pH is the negative log of the concentration of hydrogen ions in solution. That is, the higher the concentration of hydrogen ions (H+, acid) the lower the pH. A pH of 0 corresponds to a hydrogen ion concentration of 1 molar, or one mole of hydrogen ions per liter ...	[ "Any acid with a p\"K\" value which is less than about -2 is classed as a strong acid. This results from the very high buffer capacity of solutions with a pH value of 1 or less and is known as the leveling effect.\n", "The more positive the value of p\"K\", the smaller the extent of dissociation at any given pH (...
what does all of the engine oil characteristics mean?	This isn’t going to be too helpful, but I’ll give it a go. The specs are a bunch of different numbers show the overall “weight” of the oil. The mix of synthetic and organic compounds in the oil. Your manufacturer will tell you what to buy. (5W/40 for example). But they can make 5W40 in lots of ways, so the other numb...	[ "Motor oil, engine oil, or engine lubricant is any of various substances comprising base oils enhanced with additives, particularly antiwear additive plus detergents, dispersants and, for multi-grade oils viscosity index improvers. Motor oil is used for lubrication of internal combustion engines. The main function ...
Why did Israel annex the Golan heights in 1981?	The Golan Heights are very strategically important. Their occupation gives Israel complete control over the water in the Sea of Galilee. The elevation makes the area an excellent artillery firing position, which Syria exploited during its wars with Israel. Finally, the rugged terrain (including hills and swamps) made i...	[ "On 14 December 1981, Israel passed the Golan Heights Law, extending Israeli administration and law to the territory. Israel has expressly avoided using the term \"annexation\" to describe the change of status. However, the UN Security Council has rejected the \"de facto\" annexation in UNSC Resolution 497, which d...
Is the color pink within our visible light spectrum?	Pink is a non-spectral color, meaning that it is not made of a single wavelength of light and cannot be found on the visible spectrum. Pink is a combination of red and white light. Other non-spectral colors include purple (but not violet) and grayscale.	[ "Pink is any of a number of similar colors evoked by light, consisting predominantly of a combination of both the longest, and shortest wavelengths discernible by the human eye, in the wavelength ranges of roughly 625–750 nm and 380-490 nm.\n", "Yellow is the color of light with wavelengths predominately in the r...
what is modernism?	Yer not alone in askin', and kind strangers have explained: 1. [ELI5: what is Modernism and what is Postmodernism ](_URL_1_) 1. [ELI5: Modern vs. Post-modern ](_URL_3_) 1. [ELI5:What is the difference between modernism and postmodernism? ](_URL_5_) 1. [ELI5: What is Modernism and Post-Modernism? What is the difference...	[ "The term Modernism describes the modernist movement in the arts, its set of cultural tendencies and associated cultural movements, originally arising from wide-scale and far-reaching changes to Western society in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. In particular the development of modern industrial societies a...
what is formal logic and how is it useful?	Formal logic is a way of drawing conclusions that you can trust based on known facts. The important thing is that formal logic can work on any abstract axiomatic system. In ELI5 terms, that means that the system of formal logic can work any time you know that certain things are true for sure, regardless of what those...	[ "\"Logic\" (from the Greek \"λογική\" logikē) is the formal systematic study of the principles of valid inference and correct reasoning. Logic is used in most intellectual activities, but is studied primarily in the disciplines of philosophy, mathematics, semantics, and computer science. Logic examines general form...
what does it mean when cash is referred to as "unmarked"?	Bills have numbers on them that are unique like a serial number. "Marked" bills would be a certain set of numbers that were recorded so they could be kept track of. This way if someone ends up with a bill number in that range, you can figure out where they got it because those bills were not in circulation. For example...	[ "The English word \"cash\", meaning \"tangible currency\", is an older word from Portuguese \"caixa\" or Middle French \"caisse\" (\"box\", or \"case\"). The term was first used on coins issued in Kwangtung (Guangdong) Province in 1900. It did not appear on paper money until later. The plural forms \"cash\" and \"c...
Medically, how does mindful breathing/box breathing reduce anxiety?	It’s a topic with a bit of depth. It’s not limited to “state of mind” or “mindfulness.” There are actual biological imperatives that correlate. Long story short, breathing type and ratio can have an effect, somewhat, on your nervous system / structure (parasympathetic / sympathetic, for instance), as well as provide s...	[ "Breathing techniques is one of the easiest ways to reduce stress. It requires little effort and can be done anywhere at any time. Proper breathing techniques that incorporate deep abdominal breathing have been shown to reduce the physical symptoms of depression, anxiety and hypertension as well as everyday emotion...
how can my eyes focus on the moon 240k miles away but my camera (phone) can't	Once things get far enough away, then the same level of focus works on pretty much everything. It's generally referred to as focusing on "infinity". As far as your eyes are concerned, focusing on something 100 miles away and something 240 thousand miles away isn't really any different. One big advantage that our eyes...	[ "Close focus distance is the closest point that the binocular can focus on. This distance varies from about 0.5 m to 30 m, depending upon the design of the binoculars. If the close focus distance is short respect to the magnification, the binocular can be used also to see particulars not visible to the naked eye.\n...
We often hear about a purging of "counter-revolutionaries" after revolutions. Is there any evidence of this happening after the American Revolution?	Hi, yes; these people are often referred to as [United Empire] Loyalists. Not discouraging more contributions here, but fyi, there have been a few great threads on their post-American Revolution experience. These posts are all archived by now, so if you have follow-up questions for any of the users, just post here and...	[ "In 1793, a counter-revolutionary movement was led by the vicar Lambesc Angelier, who was later guillotined with other friends in Marseille. This period of unrest between Federated and Republicans, led to sacking of the convent by the revolutionaries.\n", "There were several signs in early February 1905 that a ne...
Regarding the transition from the Roman Empire to Charlemagne	> When did the "reunification" started, and most importantly, why ? Reunification essentially began and ended with Charlemagne. Charlemagne was the first and last guy of the middle ages to hold France, Italy, and Spain (well, the Spanish March part of it anyway) under solitary control, which is far more than anybo...	[ "In 800, the Frankish king Charlemagne was crowned emperor and founded the Carolingian Empire, which was later divided in 843 among his heirs. Following the break up of the Frankish Realm, for 900 years, the history of Germany was intertwined with the history of the Holy Roman Empire, which subsequently emerged fro...
How did the Germany of WWII not use their air force and technology effectively? If Hitler used the Luftwaffe more efficiently, could there have been a much different outcome?	Without getting into an absolutely massive post with, in a way, speculations about what the Germans could've, would've, should've done in terms of operations, there are a few main points I would highlight regarding the German Luftwaffe in WW2. Not only was there the political interference so typical of Nazi Germany, ...	[ "The German Air Force, or Luftwaffe, was also the best force of its kind in 1939. It was designed to support the army, but in air combat the German planes were superior to most designs fielded by the Allies. In the rearmament period from 1935 to 1939, the production of German combat aircraft steadily mounted, and t...
immigration to Iceland in the medieval/viking age.	i know not of many books but our first settlers settled here for a really short time, the first person was ofcourse Ingólfur Arnarsson and most of the big names that immigrated early on were richer than usual and were evading taxes and such (angry relatives of their foes). thats my small insight, though my sources are...	[ "The Viking Age, a period of migrations of Scandinavian peoples, occurred from the late 8th century to the middle 11th century. The Normans, descendants of the Vikings who settled in Northern France, had a significant impact on many parts of Europe, from the Norman conquest of England to Sicily. The Rus' people fou...
why is the holy grail the center of so many movies (indiana jones, da vinci code, etc.)	It's a McGuffin: it's valuable and used a lot because the plot needs something all the characters want. This kind of plot device is used in a lot of other movies where it's not the Holy Grail. To list a few: * The Ark, stones, and crystal skulls in Indiana Jones * The Maltese Falcon from the book/film of the same ...	[ "In the late 20th century, British writers Michael Baigent, Richard Leigh and Henry Lincoln created one of the most widely known conspiracy theories about the Holy Grail. The theory first appeared in the BBC documentary series \"Chronicle\" in the 1970s, and was elaborated upon in the bestselling 1982 book \"Holy B...
juggalos, the "religion," and esp. that magnet thing.	A Juggalo is someone who identifies with the culture associated with ICP. Often, they refer to themselves as 'Ninjas' or 'Family.' The 'religion' thing is simple. The 'band' came out in a song, saying in no uncertain terms, that they are religious, and all their ideology and all the messages they had been putting forth...	[ "Magnet is accepting and open to new cultures and tries to recognize and celebrate these cultures through the Multicultural Club, and French Club. In addition to this club, there is also drama club, Science Olympiad and math league for those interested in science and math competitions, robotics, chess club, yearboo...
What if Louis XVI did not fire Jacques Necker?	Sorry, but your submission has been removed because we [don't allow hypothetical questions](_URL_0_). If possible, please feel free to rephrase the question so that it does not call for such speculation, and resubmit. Otherwise, this sort of thing is better suited for /r/HistoryWhatIf. You can find a more in-depth disc...	[ "Necker's dismissal provoked the storming of the Bastille on 14 July. At the insistence of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette, Charles and his family left France three days later, on 17 July, along with several other courtiers, including the Duchess of Polignac, the queen's favourite. His flight has historically been l...
if the phases of the moon are due to the earths shadow, why is the half moon a straight line/perfect semi circle, instead of a rounded shadow?	Unless you're looking at a lunar eclipse, the part of the moon that's not lit up is not in the Earth's shadow, it's in the moon's shadow. The bright portion is facing the sun, and is therefore illuminated, and the dark portion is facing away from the sun, and therefore not illuminated.	[ "Earth's shadow is as curved as the planet is, and its umbra extends into outer space. (The antumbra, however, extends indefinitely.) When the Sun, Earth, and the Moon are aligned perfectly (or nearly so), with Earth between the Sun and the Moon, Earth's shadow falls onto the lunar surface facing the night side of ...
why is it that the department of justice planned to file an antitrust lawsuit if comcast bought time warner cable, but charter was able to buy them just recently without issue?	Comcast was by far the largest cable provider in the country with about 23 million subscribers. Time Warner was the #2 cable provider with ~11 million. Charter was the #3 provider with ~6 million. Had Comcast and Time Warner merged it would have created a single company that controlled the overwhelming majority of...	[ "Citing the reduction of competition in the broadband and cable industries that would result from the merger, the Department of Justice planned to file an antitrust lawsuit against Comcast and Time Warner Cable in an effort to block it. On April 24, 2015, Comcast announced that it would withdraw its proposal to acq...
how do twitter bots work?	A program checks Twitter for 'triggers' and responds. The trigger can be a certain sequence of words or, for more advanced bots, they could perform some more intelligent analysis to determine if they're 'needed'. Twitter provides a public API that make this easy. You can programmatically request tweets to look for yo...	[ "A Twitterbot is a program used to produce automated posts on the Twitter microblogging service, or to automatically follow Twitter users. Twitterbots come in various forms. For example, many serve as spam, enticing clicks on promotional links. Others post @replies or automatically \"retweet\" in response to tweets...
In series circuit how can the current be the same on every consumer if each of them have different resistance?	From all my EE college professors: Think of current like water flowing through a series of connected pipes. Regardless of how wide or narrow the individual pipes may be, the same amount of water will flow through all pipes. I hope this helps your understanding.	[ "If the resistance are simply in series without any transformer between them, the circuit acts as a voltage divider, because the same current formula_7 runs through the wire resistance and the powered device. As a consequence, the useful power (used at the point of consumption) is:\n", "The resistance between two...
How accurate are the points in this Cracked article?	It's actually not terrible, which is unusual for Cracked. I feel like the author might have actually done some research for it. This isn't to say it is perfect (for example, even though the Church was the center of "learning" it wasn't as if everyone else was uneducated) but I think this article might actually lead peo...	[ "The crackpot index is a number that rates scientific claims or the individuals that make them, in conjunction with a method for computing that number. While the indices have been created for their humorous value, their general concepts can be applied in other fields like risk management.\n", "Though the index wa...
if i make a profit is someone making a loss?	No, because your profit is your share of the global growth. Yes, because your share of the global growth is generated by the exploitation of someone else.	[ "Loss of profits can be caused as a result of the loss of company reputation, the loss of clients or a decline in sales. For example, if a key sales manager had built up a relationship with key clients, they may no longer want to work with the business if that key person were no longer around. This can cause them t...
When were the first railroads built in Africa?	The first railway line that actually went forward, between Alexandria and a port on the Nile, began moving traffic in 1854; in 1856 it extended to Cairo, and in 1858 to Suez. The idea of railways had been on Egyptian radar since the 1830s, but nothing had come of the plan until Khedive Abbas's appointment of an Englis...	[ "In South Africa and South West Africa, where the South African Railways operated, all early mainline railway construction took place working inland from harbours and ports. Construction on these lines began in the years from 1859 to 1887 in South Africa and from 1897 to 1908 in South West Africa.\n", "The buildi...
Is it possible to get drunk by undergoing alcohol enemas, and still be able to pass a breathalyzer test?	I don't think so, but I'm not an expert. Breathalyzers test for expelled blood gases coming from the lungs, not for things like remnants of alcohol in the mouth. (These can interfere with readings but that's not the point of the test.) Since you would still be absorbing alcohol into your bloodstream, it would still sh...	[ "Breath test is a widespread method for quickly determining alcohol intoxication. A breath test measures the alcohol concentration in the body by a deep-lung breath. There are different instruments used for measuring the alcohol content of an individual though their breath. Breathalyzer is a widely known instrument...
if a man is castrated, what comes out of his ejaculate?	Testicles create sperm. Semen is a mixture things the whole milky white fluid and the microscopic sperm. The testicles contribute relatively little volume, the seminal vesicles and prostate contribute most of it. Basically there wouldn't be a noticeable difference until its looked at under the microscope.	[ "Castration is removal of the testicles. The Arabic word translated here as castration may also refer to removal of the testicles and penis. Some scholars differentiated between the two and said: If his testicles only are cut off, then he is a eunuch; if his penis is cut off, then he is emasculated. \n", "The ter...
Why don't we hear about Tesla in history classes?	Same reason you don't get to hear about [Heinrich Göbel](_URL_0_): History classes are about evolutions and people who had an impact on their society and today. By this metric, Tesla simply wasn't important enough to warrant spending time on him during your classes in high school - no matter how much today's geeks love...	[ "Tesla was a good friend of Francis Marion Crawford, Robert Underwood Johnson, Stanford White, Fritz Lowenstein, George Scherff, and Kenneth Swezey. In middle age, Tesla became a close friend of Mark Twain; they spent a lot of time together in his lab and elsewhere. Twain notably described Tesla's induction motor i...
what happens when there is a power outage?	To answer this best, it is a good idea to describe how power is distributed first. The power distribution system (called the "power grid") is like a mesh, with various elements capable of redirecting power. For instance, if one power plant needed to take some generators offline for maintenance, another could increase i...	[ "A power outage is an interruption of normal sources of electrical power. Short-term power outages (up to a few hours) are common and have minor adverse effect, since most businesses and health facilities are prepared to deal with them. Extended power outages, however, can disrupt personal and business activities a...
Do we have any idea how detailed and complete our memory is?	Human memory is weird. Like really weird. Generally speaking, people's earliest memories are from when they're around three years old (sometimes older, sometimes younger). Assuming that the average person has had no traumatic occurrences that cause selective amnesia and/or super vivid traumatic memories, they should ha...	[ "Several memory models have been proposed to account for different types of recall processes, including cued recall, free recall, and serial recall. However, to explain the recall process, the memory model must identify how an encoded memory can reside in the memory storage for a prolonged period until the memory i...
how come people in africa are starving but there are uncontacted tribes in the amazon who are surviving just fine? why cant the starving people in africa do that those tribes are doing?	I would wager it has to do with location (availability of resources) and population (how many people are competing for said resources) as well as land that others (elites or governments generally) won't allow access to for free.	[ "The native tribes of the Amazon have often been abused during the Amazon's deforestation. Loggers have killed natives and encroached onto their land. Many uncontacted peoples have come out of the jungles to mingle with mainstream society after threats from outsiders. Uncontacted peoples making first contact with o...
how does a dam decrease water flow downstream if it does not take away any water?	The decrease of water flow isn't the problem. The problem is that it's not a consistent flow anymore.[Here](_URL_0_) you can read about it.	[ "When water flows it has the ability to transport particles heavier than itself downstream. This has a negative effect on dams and subsequently their power stations, particularly those on rivers or within catchment areas with high siltation. Siltation can fill a reservoir and reduce its capacity to control floods a...
How is it that such an unwieldy animal such as a horse was so effective in combat, especially when used to charge heavy infantry formations.	First I have to ask you; are you aware how large a typical war horse was? A good Destrier could average and even exceed 15 hands, other breeds similar; making an average warhorse or charger over a meter and a half in size. Asides from being incredibly close to the height of (for a good chunk of human history) an above ...	[ "In battle their main role was to act as advance troops on the front lines and demoralise the marching opposing army by using guerrilla tactics, and to put them in a state of confusion and shock. They could be likened to a scythe in a wheat field. They would basically hit the enemy with arrows. When attacked in mel...
Where does The Feminine Mystique fit into the historical conversation about women?	The book comes sandwiched between Women's Studies and Gendered Studies. So it was a result of the sudden upsurge and dominance of 'The New Social History' of the 1960s and 70s in the US and Western Europe. The Annales School was falling out of favor (never really caught on in the US) and historians were moving toward...	[ "The phrase \"feminine mystique\" was created by Friedan to show the assumptions that women would be fulfilled from their housework, marriage, sexual lives, and children. It was said that women, who were actually feminine, should not have wanted work, get an education, or have political opinions. Friedan wanted to ...
[META] Recommended readings from other disciplines?	Of all the books we read in my Historical Theory class in grad school (in which we read from a variety of disciplines), the book that has really stuck with me is Benedict Anderson's Imagined Communities. Anderson is more in the political science/government world, though he does overlap into history, so the book might...	[ "Perspectives in Biology and Medicine is a peer-reviewed academic journal established in 1957. It publishes essays that explore biology and medicine in relation to their place in society. Authors write informally, presenting their \"perspectives\" as the title suggests. Topics covered are sometimes explicitly scien...
what happens to an unborn baby that is going to have a nut allergy (or any other type of allergy) when the mother consumes nuts?	It doesn't hurt the child because the mother is processing the food for the child. You mostly want to avoid things that get into the blood or can be passed through the placenta to the baby and have a harmful impact (such as alcohol). Studies have actually shown that mothers who eat nuts during pregnancy have children...	[ "Those with tree nut allergies may be allergic to one or to many tree nuts, including pecans, pistachios, pine nuts, and walnuts. Also seeds, including sesame seeds and poppy seeds, contain oils in which protein is present, which may elicit an allergic reaction.\n", "One of the most common food allergies is a sen...
how will we classify who owns land in space like the moon and other planets?	At the moment every nation that is capable of space travel has signed onto [The Outer Space Treaty](_URL_0_) which states that nobody can own any territory in space - it's free to be used by anybody. But it's very easy to agree to that when there's nothing to do in space at the moment except explore and study it. Once...	[ "Ownership of space is not restricted to land. Ownership of airspace and of waters is decided internationally. Other forms of ownership have been recently asserted to other spaces—for example to the radio bands of the electromagnetic spectrum or to cyberspace.\n", "Extraterrestrial real estate refers to claims of...
How would you define 'c'?	You may not realize it, but you're asking two distinctly different questions here. One is the question you seem to think you wanted to ask, which is "What is the numerical value of the quantity c?" This turns out to be a completely uninteresting question, for reasons I'll explain in a moment. The other, differe...	[ "C is the third letter in the English alphabet and a letter of the alphabets of many other writing systems which inherited it from the Latin alphabet. It is also the third letter of the ISO basic Latin alphabet. It is named \"cee\" (pronounced ) in English.\n", "Ċ (minuscule: ċ) is a letter of the Latin alphabet,...
Do we have a map of where Voyager 1 and 2 will be in the next 10, 100, 1,000 years?	They both have escape velocity, so they will continue to move away from the Sun indefinitely (into interstellar space, not intergalactic--they don't have anywhere near enough speed to leave the galaxy). They'll still be within the solar system's Oort cloud for more than 10,000 years.	[ "In March 2012, \"Voyager 1\" was over 17.9 billion km from the Sun and traveling at a speed of 3.6 AU per year (approximately ), while \"Voyager 2\" was over 14.7 billion km away and moving at about 3.3 AU per year (approximately ).\n", "\"Voyager 1\" is expected to reach the theorized Oort cloud in about 300 ye...
why do we see those spikes on the stocks price after hours but the real price never rises when the stock is live?	Just be cause the exchange is closed doesn't mean people aren't trading. People that know each other directly or thru another exchange can still trade	[ "Over the years, stock traders and analysts noted that a company touted on W$W on Friday would experience a spike (rapid short term advance) in its stock price the following Monday. This phenomenon, dubbed \"The Rukeyser Effect,\" was described as a further demonstration of the program's influence. However, in 1987...
how do space telescopes like new horizons capture images of pluto's surface, being travelling too fast in space?	Travelling at 13 km/s looking at an object is 12 500 km away is the similar to sitting in a car driving 50 km/h (13 m/s) looking at an object 12.5 km away. It's not as hard as it seems.	[ "In more modern telescopes, such as the Hubble or ground-based telescopes using adaptive optics, separate images of Pluto and Charon can be resolved, and the \"New Horizons\" probe took images showing some of Charon's surface features.\n", "\"New Horizons\" captured its first (distant) images of Pluto in late Sep...
Is there a psychological reason why when walking people are usually polite but as soon as we are in cars we become angry?	I doubt there's much of a statistically significant difference, and where there is, I'd imagine it's due to a lot of complex and multilayered factors that have little to do with the actual act of walking or driving itself. For the most part, I'd imagine any difference (if a significant difference exists at all) is due...	[ "It is most comfortable for people to engage in behaviour which conforms to their own personal habitual norms. When things go wrong, people are more likely to attribute the negative outcome on any abnormal behaviour leading up to the mishap. After a car crash, people may say \"if only I didn't leave work early\", b...
why can't we just put a compressed folder into an another compressed folder, and keep doing that until the size of the file we're compressing becomes extraordinary small?	You can't compress something more than once. It will just make it bigger. Ever seen one of those vacuum bags that you can use to pack clothes more tightly for storage? You put your clothes inside, then vacuum the air out. Would it make any sense to try to wrap that inside a SECOND vacuum bag and suck the air out? No,...	[ " files are archives that store multiple files. ZIP allows contained files to be compressed using many different methods, as well as simply storing a file without compressing it. Each file is stored separately, allowing different files in the same archive to be compressed using different methods. Because the files ...
Could we use a railgun type technology to put objects into orbit?	Check out the Wikipedia article for [space gun](_URL_0_) and [Project HARP](_URL_1_), a past US/Canadian effort to implement such a system.	[ "In addition to being considered for destroying ballistic missile threats, railguns were also being planned for service in space platform (sensor and battle station) defense. This potential role reflected defense planner expectations that the railguns of the future would be capable of not only rapid fire, but also ...
i am told i might have a hernia. no clue what that really means. explain it like i'm five please! :-)	Imagine a football inside your body. There is a split in the leather. The rubber bladder inside, that gets filled with air, is poking through the leather like a bubble. The doctor has to get inside your body, push the bubble back in the football and sew or patch the leather so the bubble no longer pokes through.	[ "Perineal hernia is a hernia involving the perineum (pelvic floor). The hernia may contain fluid, fat, any part of the intestine, the rectum, or the bladder. It is known to occur in humans, dogs, and other mammals, and often appears as a sudden swelling to one side (sometimes both sides) of the anus.\n", "A herni...
Why were the Knights Templar were accused of sodomy?	During the Middle Ages, sodomy designated all sorts of sexual behavior that had no reproduction purposes, so the variety of practices that covers is wide and is not the practice we imagine nowadays, where it is mainly assimilated to anal sex. As for the reality of the allegations, the Templars being made of men only, ...	[ "The Knights Templar were accused by Philip IV of France of maleficium. The trial of the Knights Templar set a social standard for the popular belief in maleficium and witchcraft that contributed to the great European witch hunts. In early New England, more men would get accused of such maleficium that was \"non-ma...
why does lighting make such a difference in the way we look?	Good lighting either creates or eliminates shadows on our bodies and faces that would be visible or invisible in normal lighting. For example: bright lights shone on the face from all directions prevents shadows that would be see from the dark circles under our eyes. On the flip side, light shone directly above us c...	[ "Natural and surreal are just different sides of the same cause and effect coin. Understanding what makes lighting seem natural makes it easier to understand how to create other desired reactions. Natural light usually comes from above, so strategies which place the key light below the face will appear to be unusua...
When did contractions become grammatically correct?	I think your question is back to front. It seems that only in the last couple of hundred years have contractions been considered to be poor stylistically. So actually you might have been better of asking when contractions became grammatically incorrect (though that would not really be the proper question either), since...	[ "Contractions were first used in speech during the early 17th century and in writing during the mid 17th century when \"not\" lost its stress and tone and formed the contraction \"-n't\". Around the same time, contracted auxiliaries were first used. When it was first used, it was limited in writing to only fiction ...
credit card signatures	Nobody said it was the best way. It's a carry over from when credit cards were processed manually. The card would be put thru the machine to imprint on the receipt and the signature was to provide proof a person was there. If the credit card owner disputed the charge they could compare signatures to the customer's actu...	[ "Until the introduction of Chip & PIN, all face-to-face credit or debit card transactions involved the use of a magnetic stripe or mechanical imprint to read and record account data, and a signature for purposes of identity verification. The customer hands their card to the cashier at the point of sale who then pas...
When using sunscreen, can our body produce Vitamin D?	To the extent it blocks the sun's rays from interacting with your skin, no. Here's a very recent article about Vitamin D and sunscreen. It's for a lay audience, but it references reputable research and it's extremely interesting. _URL_0_	[ "Vitamin D production. Concerns have also been raised about potential vitamin D deficiency arising from prolonged use of sunscreen. Typical use of sunscreen does not usually result in vitamin D deficiency; however, extensive usage may. Sunscreen prevents ultraviolet light from reaching the skin, and even moderate p...
how come shows that are cancelled on more popular networks (like a cbs show with 9 million viewers) don't get picked up on less popular networks (like nbc) even though their more popular shows only average, say 6 million viewers?	Even though the network has cancelled the show, they still own the rights to it. They might not think it profitable to keep producing it themselves, but they certainly don't want their competitors to profit off of it if they can.	[ "Shows that are successful with audiences and advertisers receive authorization from the network to continue production, until the plotline ends (only for scripted shows) or if the contract expires. Those that are not successful are often quickly told to discontinue production by the network, known as \"cancellatio...
If we know an asteroid's mass and velocity, why does it have a "chance" of hitting the Earth?	Basically, we don't know the position, velocity, or mass (although mass isn't very important here). You have to take measurements over a period of time to track its movement, and there are always uncertainties. Sometimes we don't even spot an asteroid until it's on the way out of the Earth-moon system. But even with ...	[ "For asteroids that are actually on track to hit Earth the predicted probability of impact continues to increase as more observations are made. This initially very similar pattern makes it difficult to quickly differentiate between asteroids which will be millions of kilometres from Earth and those which will actua...
I just read that the first people to cross the Atlantic weren't the Vikings, like I thought, but Native Americans in 60BCE. Is there any way this is (possibly) true?	An entertaining premise, [but not likely.](_URL_0_)	[ "The Solutrean hypothesis posits that a population derived from the Solutrean culture of Western Europe may have crossed the North Atlantic Ocean along the edge of pack ice that extended from the Atlantic coast of France to North America during the Last Glacial Maximum, before 17 kya. The model postulates early inh...
What differences are there between a deuteron (proton/neutron) and a bound Δ++/ Δ- pair?	The Deltas have spin 3/2, while the nucleons have spin 1/2.	[ "The triplet deuteron nucleon is barely bound at E = , and none of the higher energy states are bound. The singlet deuteron is a virtual state, with a negative binding energy of . There is no such stable particle, but this virtual particle transiently exists during neutron-proton inelastic scattering, accounting fo...
why is the third wheel on an airplane in front when it used to be in the back of the plane?	In old planes the wings, and main wheels, were located at the front. So the extra wheel came in the back. Now in modern planes the wings and main wheels are more to the center, a little to the back, and the extra wheel comes in front.	[ "Another problem in this maneuver is that higher lift from the faster moving outside wing will roll the airplane to the left (or to the right). Most pilots find holding forward right (or left) stick necessary throughout the pivot.\n", "BULLET::::- The captain’s application of full throttle to both right-hand engi...
Does the gravity of everything have an infinite range?	In theory, yes. Gravity has an infinite range. However, it also takes some time to propagate - information about local changes in the gravitational field will propagate at the speed of light. So if a supernova goes off and creates a black hole, we won't feel the gravitational disturbance until we see the light from the...	[ "Another kind of fifth force, which arises in Kaluza–Klein theory, where the universe has extra dimensions, or in supergravity or string theory is the Yukawa force, which is transmitted by a light scalar field (i.e. a scalar field with a long Compton wavelength, which determines the range). This has prompted a lot ...
Strange little creatures washed up on the beach after a storm?	They look a bit like jellyfish.	[ "The empty small (15 to 25 mm) shells of \"Donax variabilis\" and \"Donax fossor\" may be found washed up on the beach, especially at low tide. The living animals can often be seen where the waves wash the sand around in the most shallow part of the littoral zone as the tidal level changes. These clams can use the ...
atlas shrugged and it's significance in modern day society,	The shortest possible explanation is that it's basically an attempt to justify greed.	[ "\"Atlas Shrugged\" is set in a dystopian United States at an unspecified time, in which the country has a \"National Legislature\" instead of Congress and a \"Head of State\" instead of a President. The government has increasingly extended its control over businesses with increasingly stringent regulations. The Un...
how do you identify the difference between alcohol flush reaction and an allergy?	You don't really get rashes in alcohol flush reaction. You blush, get dizzy and feel unwell but you don't get the typical the typical allergy symptoms as in itchiness or hives. Plus, alcohol flush reaction mostly concerns some South East Asians populations. One way to clearly separate the two thought is to make a b...	[ "Diagnosis of alcohol sensitivity due to allergic reactivity to the allergens in alcoholic beverages can be confirmed by standard skin prick tests, skin patch tests, blood tests, challenge tests, and challenge/elimination tests as conducted for determining the allergen causing other classical allergic reactions (se...
In this Wikipedia gif about the spread of the black plague, the area around Poland seems completely spared. Why so?	This gif seems to be misleading. Poland (and Milan) were not "spared", they actually simply took less of a hit from the plague - Poland only seems to have lost a quarter of its population and Milan lost only around 15%. That said, I don't know why they took less of a hit. Edit: have been reading on the topic and it s...	[ "The Black Death, a plague that ravaged Europe from 1347 to 1351 did not significantly affect Poland, and the country was spared from a major outbreak of the disease. The reason for this was the decision of Casimir the Great to quarantine the nation's borders.\n", "The Black Book of Poland is a 750-page report pu...

Subsets and Splits

No community queries yet

The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.