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question stringlengths 3 301	answer stringlengths 9 26.1k	context list
The BBC Ice Finger video on the front page. How does the phenomenon happen?	What's going on here is actually fairly simple. Firstly, the process begins as water freezes. The crystalline lattice of water molecules has no room for impurities, so the salt molecules naturally present in seawater are forced out of the ice solution and into the water nearby. This water, called brine, now has all t...	[ "Sobotka is the man responsible for removing the thrown creatures from the ice. He is known for swinging the tossed octopuses above his head when walking off the ice. On April 19, 2008, NHL director of hockey operations Colin Campbell sent a memo to the Red Wings organization that forbade Zamboni drivers from clean...
when does my generation stop and the next one start?	In a lot of ways, trying to pigeon hole this is arbitrary and debatable. There is certainly nothing "official." That said, you'd be safe ticking off a generation every 20 - 25 years or so. So in the US: Baby boomers born in the late 40s to the early 60s. Gen X born from late 60s early 80s. Millennials born in the l...	[ "BULLET::::- Generation Z is the cohort of people born after the Millennials. Demographers and researchers typically use the mid-1990s to early-2000s as starting birth years. There is little consensus regarding ending birth years.\n", "Note (0): Strauss and Howe base the turning start and end dates not on the gen...
do extreme supplements such as emergen-c (1000% vitamin c) actually help to get rid of colds faster?	In short - there is absolutely no scientific evidence to suggest that colds are affected by any supplement especially vitamin c. This myth endures because there was a famous scientist that believed it - but it hasn't proven to be true	[ "Currently, there have been very few studies that have investigated intravenous ascorbic acid therapy usefulness to alleviate the \"common cold\". Following the result of a 2014 medical review, approximately 16 studies reported that vitamin C supplements had little to no preventative or therapeutic effect on decrea...
what stops drinking bottles from exploding?	The pressure doesn't cause the bottle to explode because the bottles are designed to hold up to the amount of pressure exerted. When the pressure gets high enough, the amount of gas dissolving back into the water becomes equal to the amount of gas leaving the water, so there's no overall change.	[ "In Southern Saskatchewan, the term \"Rev-Bomb\" is used to describe the act of piercing the bottom of the bottle with a knife, covering the hole, then opening the top and chugging the entirety of the drink. This is a form of shotgunning.\n", "In October 2005 there were several reports of Innocent smoothies \"exp...
why is happiness fleeting, but sadness is constant? why do humans have to strive to achieve happiness but default to sadness?	Different cultures and people define what happiness and sadness is. Some people think always achieving more is happiness so they feel sad if they stop achieving things. They think sadness is losing things. There was a study of an isolated culture that were very happy because they didn't understand the idea of success e...	[ "Even when happiness can be affected by external sources, it has high hedonic adaptation, some specific events such as an increase in income, disability, unemployment, and loss (bereavement) only have short-term (about a year) effects on a person's overall happiness and after a while happiness may return to levels ...
Can someone please explain in layman's terms what exactly is the science behind this study? (Genetics)	I work in this field, so I can take a stab at it (explaining how these methods actually work, and what Razib's post means), but first I want to ask: what's your background in this area? If I say "Hardy-Weinberg Equilibrium" does that mean anything to you?	[ "Genetics Research is an open access, peer-reviewed scientific journal covering all aspects of human and animal genetics, reporting key findings on genomes, genes, mutations and molecular interactions, extending out to developmental, evolutionary, and population genetics as well as ethical, legal and social aspects...
In nuclear reactions, where does the mass that gets converted into energy come from?	The mass comes from the fissing/fusing atoms themselves. In fission something heavy like uranium atoms get split. The sum of the mass of the resulting atoms/particles is less than the mass of the original atom. In fusion, something light like deuterium smashes together with another deuterium to make helium. The mass of...	[ "Nuclear energy is released by the splitting (fission) or merging (fusion) of the nuclei of atom(s). The conversion of nuclear mass-energy to a form of energy, which can remove some mass when the energy is removed, is consistent with the mass-energy equivalence formula:\n", "In a nuclear reaction, the total (rela...
What was the mindset of the Middle Ages?	Also, guys? Don't downvote stuff like this. People like this are precisely the type for which historians are needed. Educate and correct, don't condemn.	[ "The term \"Late Middle Ages\" refers to one of the three periods of the Middle Ages, along with the Early Middle Ages and the High Middle Ages. Leonardo Bruni was the first historian to use tripartite periodization in his \"History of the Florentine People\" (1442). Flavio Biondo used a similar framework in \"Deca...
if frequency changes only the pitch of a sound, what affects "how" it sounds? in other words, how do the soundwaves coming from a piano differ from the soundwaves of a violin, if they're playing the same tone?	In addition to the dominant frequency (aka the pitch you hear) there are harmonics at play. Wood resonates differently than metal and thus creates different harmonics.	[ "When the tuning note in an orchestra or concert band is played, the sound is a combination of 440 Hz, 880 Hz, 1320 Hz, 1760 Hz and so on. Each instrument in the orchestra or concert band produces a different combination of these frequencies, as well as harmonics and overtones. The sound waves of the different freq...
why does apple use the "i" prefix on their products? (ipod, iphone, ipad etc.)	The i- prefix was created as part of the iMac in the late 90s and was adopted into a full product line shortly after. The original meaning was "internet", meaning the iMac was capable of internet connectivity out of the box, but Apple and Jobs used it more to refer to "individuality" and "innovation". But the long an...	[ "Apple Inc. is especially connected to the \"i\" prefix. They first employed it for the iMac line of computers starting in 1998, and have since used it in many of their other product names, including \"iCal, iSync, iChat, iBook, iDVD, iLife,\" \"iMessage,\" \"iPod (and iPod Socks), iSight,\" \"iPhone\", \"iWeb,\" \...
Whats the earliest historical account known?	The Kish tablet from ancient Sumer dates back to ~3500 BC and gives us an accurate account of the city of Kish's administration.	[ "The earliest securely dated event in Chinese history is the start of the Gonghe Regency in 841 BC, early in the Zhou dynasty, a date first established by the Han dynasty historian Sima Qian. Attempts to establish earlier dates have been plagued by doubts about the origin and transmission of traditional texts and t...
why aren't laptop plugs grounded anymore?	They're all double insulated now. Even if there's a short, you won't be exposed to a dangerous voltage so there's no need to have the ground prong.	[ "Another problem arises after much use with the motherboard power connector; flap-like metal parts which contact the outside of the plug lose their tension and fail to make contact so that power does not reach the computer. The \"official\" solution is to replace the connector on the motherboard, which requires par...
what is "mental exhaustion"?	Your brain in a resting state will burn around 20% of calories even though it's less then 5% of your bodyweight. Actively using your brain literally burns more calories, and I think something like repeat firing of pathways leads to decreased neurotransmitter response over time and so you feel burnt out	[ "The concept of stress is used in many situations that would be described as mental fatigue, but the two concepts are distinctly different. Stress involves preparation for an anticipated event that has been evaluated as being threatening or harmful. Though mental fatigue may well result from stressful circumstances...
During the Great War, what were the pros/cons of serving as: a pilot, on a tank crew, on a ship or in the trenches?	Pilot Pro: Glamor, half-decent living conditions at airfield Con: Very High casualty rate (operationally as well as combat.) Tank Crew Pro: none? Con: Early tank interiors loud enough to cause hearing loss and tanks overall very uncomfortable. Tanks allocated only to major attacks and therefore high cas...	[ "Historically, crews have varied from just two members to a dozen. For example, pre-World War II French tanks were noted for having a two-man crew, in which the overworked commander had to load and fire the gun in addition to commanding the tank. First World War tanks were developed with immature technologies; in a...
Why, after Charlemagne, did France remain large and (generally) unified, whereas Germany split in to many small states?	I'd like to add to this question I don't think France particularly held together better than the German states, rather it wasn't until around 1600 when France as we know it, consolidated. Prior to this, and following Charlemagne, France had it's many pieces, independent Duchies and Counties that generally were unde...	[ "The Kingdom of Franks was partitioned during both Merovingian and Carolingian dynasties. A permanent future division took place in 842, when three sons of late Emperor Louis I partitioned the royal lands in Verdun, thus creating the division between France and Germany.\n", "In 800, the Frankish king Charlemagne ...
were people in classical times aware that technology had been less sophisticated in the past?	Certainly they were aware of technological change, because they could observe other civilisations that had more or fewer technological conveniences than they did. It's very difficult to be clear in the case of specific technologies, though. In the case of iron: well, yes, Homeric epic does seem to assume that iron was ...	[ "During the growth of the ancient civilizations, ancient technology was the result from advances in engineering in ancient times. These advances in the history of technology stimulated societies to adopt new ways of living and governance.\n", "The technologies that developed in Europe during the second half of th...
when surgeons remove a part of the brain, how do they fill the hole left behind?	The brain is suspended in a layer of fluid, called cerebrospinal fluid (or CSF). If parts of the brain are removed, the "gaps" get filled with CSF.	[ "In surgery the doctor breaks the fused sutures to allow for brain growth. Doctors remove the cranial plates of the skull, reshape them and replace them back onto the skull in an attempt to reshape the head to appear more normal. Although the sutures are broken during surgery they will quickly refuse, and in some c...
what led to world war ii? could the war have been prevented?	> What led to World War II? World War 1. Specifically the harsh terms that Germany was hit with by the Armistice > Could the war have been prevented? Certainly, by not being dicks to Germany when they didn't even lose WWI. This is why the Allies put tons of resources into rebuilding Japan and Germany after the war...	[ "World War II was the most devastating conflict in history with much of Europe and Asia left in ruins at war's end. Yet, there was no peace. The superpowers of the United States and Soviet Union and their ideologies of democracy versus tyranny competed for prominence on the world stage in a cold war. For over 40 ye...
What does color mixing look like in terms of math?	Every image reproduced with RGBA or CMYK is a color blend, that's how they work. You blend between the three primary colors and the alpha/key for brightness. So it's not so much an algorithm as manipulating the fundamentals behind how we represent color in the first place. In image processing, color is really a singl...	[ "A color solid is the three-dimensional representation of a color model, an analog of the two-dimensional color wheel. The added spatial dimension allows a color solid to depict an added dimension of color variation. Whereas a two-dimensional color wheel typically depicts the variables of hue (red, green, blue, etc...
Questions about the titles "count" and "prince" in 19th century Russia	1. Prince (Knyaz, Князь) had a higher ranking. Most (well, excluding HUGE amount of georgian princes) of princes were Ryurik (russian) or Gedimin (lithuanian) descendants. Volkonskys are Ryurikovichi, Kurakins are Gediminovichi. 2. Direct familial relationship would be Great Prince. Though Ryurik descendants are from o...	[ "The first bearer of the title was Abatai (1589–1646), the seventh son of Nurhaci, the founder of the Qing dynasty. In 1644, he was awarded the status of a \"junwang\" (prince of the second rank) by his nephew, the Shunzhi Emperor, under the title \"Prince Raoyu of the Second Rank\" ( \"doroi bayan giyūn wang\") or...
how does a relatively small transformer fire light up almost an entire city? also, why is it blue?	Even a relatively small transformer draws a massive amount of power. The power supply is high voltage AC, which is arcing in the open air. Basically, the open air is acting as a fluorescent bulb. It's mostly light from nitrogen, which glows blue, like neon glows red. It's not an unusual thing to have happen, but I'...	[ "Witnesses reported seeing bright blue flames leaping 40 feet (12 metres) into the sky, with the glow visible across the entire city. Neighbouring buildings, including a tobacco warehouse, an ice cream factory and the Harland and Wolff engine works, were engulfed.\n", "Fire-Lite was founded in 1952 by Edward Levy...
Why is lighter skin considered better looking in the Indian sub-continent?	A follow-up question for any historians of South-Asia: Was this colorism ever noted in Vedic/classican Indian sources? How old is this bias?	[ "South Asia has some of the greatest skin color diversity outside of Africa, mainly due to the endogamous nature of jātis, more commonly called castes. In one study by the CCMB in Hyderabad, a higher average melanin index (darker skin tone), found more often in lower castes than upper castes, was correlated with a ...
Where is the exact spot Columbus landed in Hispañola?	Just to make it clear, when Columbus reached Hispaniola, he had already first landed on several smaller islands of which we are unsure of which exactly, and then coasted and landed several times on Cuba. His landing on Hispaniola happened on the very north east of the island, in a bay he named Puerto de San Nicolas...	[ "A few days after this first encounter, on 14 August 1502, Columbus arrived on the mainland of Honduras. He dropped anchor at a place he named as Punta Caxinas, afterwards generally known as the Cape of Honduras, near the modern town of Trujillo. He claimed possession of the territory for the king of Spain, and the...
why restaurants have policies to throw out food at the end of the day instead of donating/eating it?	A policy of allowing staff to eat the food tends to encourage staff to "accidentally" prepare more food than what's actually required. A policy of donating food causes issues of liability if someone should suffer from food poisoning from food they haven't paid for, that may not be eaten immediately and may have passed...	[ "In 2008, the company caused outrage after discontinuing the free side of bread after 20 years due to wheat costs and started charging 49 cents. In addition, the restaurants only offered sourdough bread with certain items that were purchased such as entrées, soups and salads. However, the discontinuation was recall...
How does the additive color system work with regards to superposition?	The superposition of 550nm and 700nm light does not create 600nm light, physically speaking. The resulting wave would instead just be a superposition of the two component waves, i.e., E = Aexp(i[k^700nm x - w^700nm t]) + Bexp(i[k^550nm x - w^550nm t]), where E is the electric field vector, k is the wave vector, and w i...	[ "Additive color, or \"additive mixing\", is a property of a color model that predicts the appearance of colors made by coincident component lights with distinct colors, i.e. the perceived color can be predicted by summing the numeric representations of the component colors. Modern formulations of Grassmann's laws d...
Were the Nazis aware that their policies were driving away many of the finest scientific minds of the time? Did the Allies actively encourage the resulting immigration? Had Germany been as far 'ahead' in physics before this as it seems? Was this typical in other scientific fields as well?	Yes, the Nazis understood this. They generally did not care. The scientists they were driving away, in their minds, were not people they wanted. Either because they were in an undesirable category (Jews, Communists) or because they were, by definition, disloyal (after all, only a disloyal person would abandon one's own...	[ "A project to halt the research was codenamed \"Project Safehaven\", and it was not initially targeted against the Soviet Union; rather the concern was that German scientists might emigrate and continue their research in countries such as Spain, Argentina or Egypt, all of which had sympathized with Nazi Germany. In...
when muscles get stronger they grow. how do our lungs get stronger if you go for a long run?	Your lungs aren't actually a muscle. They themselves can't get stronger, because they're not the thing providing the power to breathe. You breathe with a muscle called your diaphragm. It's a sheet of muscle that separates your chest from your belly. When it contracts, it moves downwards. This increases the press...	[ "The lungs are expanded with the help of the diaphragm, a muscular sheet of tissue which contracts away from the thoracic cavity, thereby decreasing the pressure and pulling air into the lungs. When fully expanded, the lungs can reach to the 16th rib of the horse.\n", "The lungs are not capable of inflating thems...
What are these weird circles and bumps on these rocks?	Those look like concretions in sandstone. I cannot conclusively identify what their specific chemistry is just from eyeballing the pix (which are quite good BTW), but I'll provide one common example of how such features may develop. There are others. Picture a river depositing layers of sand, and that porous sand is ...	[ "Pebbles come in various colors and textures and can have streaks, known as veins, of quartz or other minerals. Pebbles are mostly smooth but, dependent on how frequently they come in contact with the sea, they can have marks of contact with other rocks or other pebbles. Pebbles left above the high water mark may h...
what is the issue with combating illegal immigration from mexico?	There is a fallacy called the lump of labour: _URL_0_ Which means that people mistakenly think that employment is a zero-sum game, that is, there's only a fixed amount of jobs to go around and that if one person gets a job, it must mean someone else doesn't get a job (which is false). Immigrants pay taxes (even illeg...	[ "In September 2007, Mexican President Calderón harshly criticized the United States government for the crackdown on illegal immigrants, saying it has led to the persecution of immigrant workers without visas. \"I have said that Mexico does not stop at its border, that wherever there is a Mexican, there is Mexico\",...
Is there a way to insulate a magnetic field?	Magnetic field strength dies off as 1/r^3 , which is faster than most other physical phenomena (light, sound, gravity...) The foam is simply keeping a safe distance between the magnet and any magnetic metals. Superconductors can shield from magnetic fields, but they aren't really applicable to this purpose. _URL_0_ ...	[ "Over the past 15 years, significant improvements in rare earth magnetic technology have created the ability to use magnetic fields as a filter or separator medium which is environmentally and user friendly, highly efficient, and cost effective.\n", "The connection between magnetic field lines and fluid in ideal ...
If I were to use a hair growth product (Rogaine, Bosley, etc.) on a full head of hair, would anything happen?	I can't speak to Rogaine, but Bosley is a hair transplant process, not a hair growth product. [Source](_URL_0_)	[ "Lotions that contain minoxidil (rogaine) or finasteride can help new hair grow but it doesn't work for everyone, minoxidil (rogaine) grows fuzz on the crown of the head and finasteride tends to grow actual hairs on the crown of the head if the medications do not work scalp reduction surgery may be a good option.\n...
why do plastic/office/work and school chairs have a hole or nothing right where your ass crack is.	At my high school it was so boys could drop pencils down girls' butt cracks.	[ "Sharp corners increase concentrations, which are prone to air entrapments, air voids, and sink marks hence weakening the structural integrity of the plastic part. It must be eliminated using radii whenever is possible.\n", "Handholes are plastic or polymer concrete structures set below ground with their lids flu...
why do aerosol cans explode/catch fire when exposed to heat?	Heat makes the contents expand, aerosol cans already are pressurised by design so it doesn't take massive amounts of expansion for it to become too much, then kaboom!	[ "BULLET::::- The propellants in aerosol cans are typically combinations of ignitable gases and have been known to cause fires and explosions. However, non-flammable compressed gases such as nitrogen and nitrous oxide have been widely adopted into a number of aerosol systems (such as air fresheners and aerosolized w...
why do doctors say to take antibiotics and wait (x) amount of time between the antibiotics and eating food	Antibiotics are typically absorbed better on an empty stomach. Some of them, especially penicillin and amoxicillin, are best absorbed when taken with a full glass of water.	[ "A course of one week of antibiotics is usually sufficient to treat the condition. However, if the condition recurs, antibiotics can be given in a cyclical fashion in order to prevent tolerance. For example, antibiotics may be given for a week, followed by three weeks off antibiotics, followed by another week of tr...
why is mother teresa so revered?	Because she got big. Devoting your life to helping others is big. Founding an organization that inspires many people to devote their lives to helping others is bigger. And if you get big enough to make the church look good, you get to be a saint. Also, be aware there is a lot of controversy over the degree to whi...	[ "Mother Teresa (Juliet Stevenson), recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, is considered one of the greatest humanitarians of modern times. Her selfless commitment changed hearts, lives and inspired millions throughout the world. The film is told through personal letters she wrote over the last forty years of her life ...
What happens to the Molecules when an object like a ball is Bounced?	Not sure for something as "wobbly" as jello, but for most crystal structures, you can think of each molecule as a type of "ball" and their bonds acting like springs. So when you hit one side of the object, a compression wave is sent down the crystal lattice like a lattice of balls and springs. This is sort of well demo...	[ "Nevertheless, bouncing an oval-shaped ball is still a volatile skill. Even top level players will occasionally lose the ball while bouncing it, by accidentally bouncing the ball on its point, only to see it quickly skid away from him or her.\n", "When a ball impacts a surface, the surface recoils and vibrates, a...
Can an ancient text be decoded through anything other than a "rosetta stone"?	The Rosetta stone was not so much a necessity as a shortcut -- albeit a tremendously useful and quick shortcut. Any text in an unknown language requires a certain amount of supporting information, context, and clues, for it to become decipherable. The Rosetta stone happened to be a particularly useful and impressive ...	[ "In order to attempt to conceal their deception, fraudsters may simply buy ancient papyrus, for example online or in an Egyptian souk. This saves them time and effort on producing fake papyrus, and it results in a credible carbon-14 dating when tested in a laboratory. There are also ways of counterfeiting ink and w...
Is it possible for an organism to organically produce gold, or any precious metal?	It's possible for an organism to take in or at least utilize some kind of precious metal from its environment, such as in [this study about gold-digging bacteria](_URL_0_). However, you'll never find an organism creating precious metals from other elements, as this would involve a nuclear reaction, which does not occur...	[ "A bacterium, Cupriavidus metallidurans plays a vital role in the formation of gold nuggets, by precipitating metallic gold from a solution of gold (III) tetrachloride, a compound highly toxic to most other microorganisms.\n", "Living organisms obtain energy from organic and inorganic materials; i.e. ATP can be s...
How fast could a Roman Empire era galley travel the Mediterranean?	[this](_URL_0_) site is great for exploring questions like yours. It estimates a trip from Rome to Alexandria would take about 15 days if you traveled over open sea, or about 26 days if you took the (safer) coastal route.	[ "Most of the surviving documentary evidence comes from Greek and Roman shipping, though it is likely that merchant galleys all over the Mediterranean were highly similar. In Greek they were referred to as \"histiokopos\" (\"sail-oar-er\") to reflect that they relied on both types of propulsion. In Latin they were c...
Did Russia really employ female snipers (and soldiers) in significant numbers during WWII?	Russia employed female soldiers in large numbers, mostly in non-combat rules (signaler, nurse, doctor) but also as snipers, tank crew, machine gunners, partisan fighters, and combat pilots. 800.000 women served in the Red Army. Of these, about 2000 were snipers. The fact that the snipers and the female pilots are the...	[ "The Soviet Union deployed women as snipers and in a variety of infantry roles. Between 1941 and 1945, a total of 2,484 soviet female snipers were functioning in this role, of whom about 500 survived the war. Their combined tally of kill claims is at least 11,000. The most famous snipers during the war included Lyu...
If a solid is ground extremely finely, will it become a liquid?	You'd have what's called a granular fluid, which has some properties of liquids but some different. [Here's a gif](_URL_1_) from [this page](_URL_0_). One thing that granular materials do that liquids don't is jam, where if you try to flow it through a funnel or something it can stop moving and become rigid.	[ "Solid is one of the four fundamental states of matter (the others being liquid, gas, and plasma). In solids particles are closely packed. It is characterized by structural rigidity and resistance to changes of shape or volume. Unlike liquid, a solid object does not flow to take on the shape of its container, nor d...
what is happening when you shake a can of spray paint?	The paint has been sitting and has separated, i.e. become unmixed. There is a marble inside the can. When you shake it, the marble helps mix up the paint.	[ "As a gas or as a gaseous suspension, the paint is suspended in solid or liquid form in a gas that is sprayed on an object. The paint sticks to the object. This is called \"spray painting\" an object. The reasons for doing this include:\n", "This process occurs when paint is applied to an object through the use o...
what do ferrite beads do? how do they work?	Ever been listening to a radio station and been annoyed by all of the static in the background? Well, power supplies can have "static" as well, in the form of high frequency power disruptions. Ferrite beads act as a filter to eliminate those high frequency disruptions. The energy from them is dissipated as heat. Ha...	[ "A ferrite bead or ferrite choke is a passive electric component that suppresses high-frequency noise in electronic circuits. It is a specific type of electronic choke. Ferrite beads employ high-frequency current dissipation in a ferrite ceramic to build high-frequency noise suppression devices. Ferrite beads may a...
Currently studying Arabic in the ME. What can I do to learn about Israel and wars involving it in the ME?	OK I'm going to touch this with a ten foot pole. First of all, both sides seem to have a frenzied hatred towards each other that tends to conflict with the facts. Both sides also muddy the internet so don't try getting information there. Books and especially films are your best bet. Though I've noticed that Arabic film...	[ "In addition, a significant number of Israeli Jews know spoken Arabic, although only a very small number are fully literate in written Arabic. Arabic is the native language of older generations of Mizrahi Jews who immigrated from Arabic-speaking countries. Arabic lessons are widespread in Hebrew-speaking schools fr...
why do 2gb torrents of movies look better than the. 4.7/9.4(dl) dvd?	Because DVD's are made to play in consumer electronics devices that don't change over time. In order to maintain consumer confidence and interoperability, every DVD and every DVD player has to be built to the same standard so that every DVD can play in every player, and vice versa. I have a DVD player from 2002 that ...	[ "In the past with the first two types, the digital copy files based on existing files included only the main audio track (often only stereo) and no subtitles, compared to the multiple audio tracks and multiple subtitle options available from DVD and Blu-ray. Also, the quality was limited by the bitrate used to enco...
Question about brain tumor, in particular Glioblastoma?	A) Glioblastoma is severe for a few reasons. First, it grows very quickly and has a tendency to appear "out of nowhere" already quite severe. Here's [one month's growth](_URL_1_), if you want to see an example. Second, it's hard to remove via surgery, since it can often have "tendrils" that are hard to find and reach i...	[ "Brain stem glioma is a distinct category of central nervous system tumor because of its unique location and behavior. The histology of brain stem gliomas spans the spectrum of gliomas located elsewhere in the central nervous system. The cause of these tumors is still unknown. Researchers have not found any direct ...
why do some tv commercials get shorter overtime?	Because now that it's already ingrained in your head, they just need to remind you, not explain it again.	[ "Since the 10 total commercial breaks for the second half are to be finished prior to the end of regulation, commercial breaks are rarely needed in overtime situations, apart from a break immediately after the end of regulation. Commercials for these purposes are sometimes pre-sold on an if-needed basis (such as th...
how does an individual count bars of music?	Standard songs have 3 sections: A,B and C. A is the verse (where the "story" of the song happens), B is the chorus (where the "hook" happens), C is the bridge ( where something totally different happens, like a key change or breakdown). Typical songs are ABABCB. Each bar is 4 beats (in 4/4). Count how many times ...	[ "In musical notation, a bar (or measure) is a segment of time corresponding to a specific number of beats in which each beat is represented by a particular note value and the boundaries of the bar are indicated by vertical bar lines. Dividing music into bars provides regular reference points to pinpoint locations w...
Is there a maximum size that a lightning bolt can get? What would prohibit a lightning bolt from being one mile in circumference?	Not an expert here, so don't expect too much. Lightning happens when there is a huge buildup of charges in a cloud, positive charges wandering to the top of the cloud, negative charges to the bottom. If this difference in charges (electrical potential) reaches a certain level, the air between the two spots gets ionize...	[ "BULLET::::- Superbolts are rather loosely defined as strikes with a peak source power of more than 100 gigawatts (most lightning strikes come in at around 1 gigawatt). Events of this magnitude occur about as frequently as one in 240 strikes. They are not categorically distinct from ordinary lightning strikes, and ...
freud's theory of religion as an illusion.	Basically by having a mythology which has a superior illusionary being at the top it doesn't require the population to think about the mysteries of life because they can put it all down to god did it. No need for education of the masses other than in god where there is no need to attempt to prove that a god exists beca...	[ "Freud's description of religious belief as a form of illusion is based on the idea that it is derived from human wishes with no basis in reality. He says, \"Thus we call a belief an illusion when a wish-fulfillment is a prominent factor in its motivation, and in doing so we disregard its relations to reality, just...
How can nanocrystals function as semiconductors?	I'm no expert on nanocrystals, but I think I can answer some of your questions. > I understand band gap and excitation to a free state and electron holes, but how is the energy from this process collected? No energy is collected from this process, in fact you need to increase the energy of the system for this to oc...	[ "Solid-state nanopores are generally made in silicon compound membranes, one of the most common being silicon nitride. Solid-state nanopores can be manufactured with several techniques including ion-beam sculpting and electron beams.\n", "Single crystal silicon is used in the fabrication of semiconductors. On the...
if glass stops uv radiation, why can i still feel the heat of the suns rays? can i still get a tan?	UV and Thermal radiation are two different things. And yes it is possible to get tans and burns through glass, only UV filtered glass will filter the UV radiation, and even then long enough exposure through said glass theoretically could create a tan or burn, due to the fact it rarely filters 100% of the radiation. W...	[ "Photochromic lenses filter 100% UVA as well as UVB. UVB light is more energetic and causes sunburn as well as skin damage including cancers, UVA light causes skincancers but not usually sunburn. UVB is blocked by all glass, UVA light is not blocked by ordinary windows or lenses glass.\n", "When this radiation st...
Would it have been possible for the Romans to travel to South America starting at around 187 AD onwards?	The Romans were not blue water sailors. Going out of sight of land for several weeks would have been quite bad for them. Most of their vessels were built with coastal work in mind. A galley type warship cannot hand the open ocean. Some of their trading ships would be ok, those with deep curved hulls, but many would not...	[ "During this time, Romans proposed to William Legge, 2nd Earl of Dartmouth, Secretary of State for the Colonies and President of the Board of Trade and Foreign Plantations, an expedition to the northeastern parts of Asia. Romans gave more details of his scheme to Dr. Hugh Williamson, a fellow member of the American...
thermal paste, how does it work?	It's basically a grease designed specifically to transmit heat well (for example between a chip and the heat sinks so heat moves away). You need the grease because it will tend to fill or absorb any air pockets due to imperfections in the surface of the chip or the base of the heat sink. Air is a good thermal insulat...	[ "Pasteurization is a mild heat treatment of liquid foods (both packaged and unpackaged) where products are typically heated to below 100 °C. The heat treatment and cooling process are designed to inhibit a phase change of the product. The acidity of the food determines the parameters (time and temperature) of the h...
did "free market" economy develop out of human behaviour and nature, or was it institutionalized after the theory of adam smith (like communism and karl marx)?	Adam Smith was not a founder, progenitor, or even staunch advocate of the free market or capitalism. Rather, he was simply a Scottish professor who wrote on a variety of economic, philosophical, and morality issues --- one of which was the free-market system (as opposed to the general European model of the day in whic...	[ "Behind the free market ideology there is a model, often attributed to Adam Smith, which argues that market forces—the profit motive—drive the economy to efficient outcomes as if by an invisible hand. One of the great achievements of modern economics is to show the sense in which, and the conditions under which, Sm...
does all the money in the world really exist physically? if you added up all the bank accounts, would there be physical money to equal that?	Not only does the money not physically exist, there is no means to tell exactly how much money DOES exist at any given time. Let me give you an example. You have $10,000. You put that $10,000 in the bank. You still have $10,000. The bank (being a bank) lends $9000 of that money out to a company. You still have...	[ "Money may take a physical form as in coins and notes, or may exist as a written or electronic account. It may have intrinsic value (commodity money), be legally exchangeable for something with intrinsic value (representative money), or only have nominal value (fiat money).\n", "Modern money (and most ancient mon...
if obesity is one of the most serious health issues that our societies are facing, then why aren't the governments restricting or forbidding access to products that are high in calories but offer little nutritional value, such as alcohol and foods rich in added sugar?	Because personal liberty. It's not the government's role to protect me from myself. That's on me.	[ "The lower price of energy-dense foods such as grains and sugars could be one reason why low-income people and food insecure people in industrialized countries are more vulnerable to being overweight and obese. According to the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, meat and dairy production receive 63% of ...
how are we able to come up with responses to questions so quickly without thinking about what we are going to say in conversation?	Because your brain is much much faster than your mouth. It might not feel like your brain is lining the words up and then waiting for your mouth to say them, but it kinda is.	[ "The students can answer the questions with just one or two words. The point of asking these questions is not to force the students to speak; rather, the questions are a method of checking comprehension while simultaneously repeating the target vocabulary in context. Therefore, students need not worry about speakin...
Were there any Jewish empires besides the Kahzars and the Israelites?	Several rulers of [Himyar](_URL_0_) in southern Arabia converted to Judaism in order to remain a plausible neutrality while trading between Persia and the Byzantine Empire. [Adiabene](_URL_1_), a border kingdom between Persia and Asia Minor, did the same a few centuries earlier. Stretching this a bit to add some ex...	[ "According to some ancient texts, there were Israelites that began traveling to Central Asia to work as traders during the reign of King David of Jerusalem as far back as the 10th century B.C.E. When Persian King Cyrus conquered Babylon, he encouraged the Jews he liberated to settle in his empire, which included ar...
why can't our hands be 100% steady still?	Your hands depend on a feedback loop from your nerves to your brain to your muscles. That's never going to win a match with a tripod to hold a camera steady. But, you can learn to ride a unicycle, and a tripod can't do that.	[ "The hands act like oars, and do not waste any power by oblique action. In ordinary swimming on the right side, the left arm moves gently in the water, almost at rest. Then, when the used arm becomes tired, the swimmer turns on the other side, and the left arm works while the right arm rests.\n", "Most hand injur...
Why do telescopes flip images but binoculars don't?	binoculars do also. they just do it again so the image is rightside up. it's a form follows function thing. binoculars are typically used for looking at stuff on the ground, things for which orientation matters, plus you aim the binoculars on the fly. telescopes built for astronomy, well it's just not imperative ...	[ "Most telescope designs produce an inverted image at the focal plane; these are referred to as \"inverting telescopes\". In fact, the image is both turned upside down and reversed left to right, so that altogether it is rotated by 180 degrees from the object orientation. In astronomical telescopes the rotated view ...
why can't we use heaters/radiators to cool our homes in the summer by running cold instead of hot water through them?	It can be done. I lived in such a building. However, water can condense on the cool radiators, making a huge puddle. Thus, forced air (blowing across the cooling pipes with a fan) is usually used.	[ "Outdoor heating allows people to stay in substantially unenclosed spaces, when it would otherwise be too cold to do so. To this end, various outdoor heating appliances are available, including gas patio heaters, quartz or ceramic electric lamps, and wood burning chimenea and fire pits.\n", "Waste heat recovery f...
Do babies in utero recognize language differences in multi-lingual mothers?	Babies in utero are very likely processing language during pregnancy. I don't think there are enough replications to call it fact though. _URL_0_ However, I doubt that categorisation or distinctions between languages will be generated during pregnancy, because they are not just based on verbal cues. Perhaps you could...	[ "At birth, infants have broad abilities to detect similarities and differences among languages. The phonemes of different languages sound distinct to infants less than six months of age, but as the infant grows and their brain develops, they become less able to distinguish phonemes of nonnative languages and more r...
why do some intellectuals not believe in free will?	There's a really good summary of one of the arguments in Orson Scott Card's Xenocide. If you think of any action as the result of innate human nature like instinct combined with that person's specific history, there is only one possible decision they will ever make to any given situation. Therefore we have no free ...	[ "Many Christians have opposed the view that humans do not have free will. Saint Thomas Aquinas, the medieval Roman Catholic theologian, believed strongly that humanity had free will. (However, though he desired to defend a doctrine of free will, he ultimately ended up espousing what today would be known as compatib...
in space, given an infintie amount of fuel could something accelerate forever?	Yes, given infinite fuel a rocket could accelerate forever at a constant rate. Note that this does not imply that the rocket will surpass the speed of light at any point. Velocity is not given by the simple Newtonian equation v=a*t at relativistic speeds, but by the slightly more complicated equation v = c tanh(aT/c)...	[ "Crewed space vehicles must be slowed to subsonic speeds before parachutes or air brakes may be deployed. Such vehicles have kinetic energies typically between 50 and 1,800 megajoules, and atmospheric dissipation is the only way of expending the kinetic energy. The amount of rocket fuel required to slow the vehicle...
How do engineers determine their recommendations for an engine's oil?	There are hand calculations you can do to choose the appropriate oil, related to the oil film bearing loads and temperatures the engine is likely to see, but these days the engine design software most commonly used in the auto industry (GT Power) includes the ability to perform oil calculations. When I worked on an OEM...	[ "ICP-AES is used for motor oil analysis. Analyzing used motor oil reveals a great deal about how the engine is operating. Parts that wear in the engine will deposit traces in the oil which can be detected with ICP-AES. ICP-AES analysis can help to determine whether parts are failing. In addition, ICP-AES can determ...
why drugs have the stigma that they possess today?	Well... it's obvious there have been enormous negative social impacts from drug use. I think it'd be ridiculous to say it's "purely" because of corrupt governments or money. Obviously the War on Drugs didn't help their public image, and some-not-quite-as-bad drugs were caught in the "drugs are terrible" crossfire, bu...	[ "Drugs (especially opioids and stimulants) can change the motivational patterns of a person and lead to desocialization and degradation of personality. Acquisition of the drugs some times involves black market activities and leads to criminal social circle.\n", "According to addiction researcher Martin A. Plant, ...
what is the bends?	When you go underwater to a deep level, the increase in pressure forces nitrogen gas into your blood, just like increased pressure can force CO_2 into pop/soda. When you come up too quickly, the drop in pressure decreases the solubility of the nitrogen, and it comes out of solution and forms gas bubbles in the vascular...	[ "Bending can be done with the hammer over the horn or edge of the anvil or by inserting a bending fork into the hardy hole (the square hole in the top of the anvil), placing the work piece between the tines of the fork, and bending the material to the desired angle. Bends can be dressed and tightened, or widened, b...
why is the shanghai index plummeting right now?	There are many reasons, but broadly speaking it has to do with motive. Who is motivated to see stock prices to go up and down? Simply speaking there are 3 main parties to this, shareholders, management and the government. Shareholders want to see the price of a stock go up. The higher it goes the more they can sell i...	[ "BULLET::::- 2007-2008 - A \"stock market frenzy\" as speculative traders rush into the market, making China's stock exchange temporarily the world's second largest in terms of turnover. After reaching an all-time high of 6,124.044 points on October 16, 2007, the benchmark Shanghai Composite Index ended 2008 down a...
how do solid state hybrid drives work?	Imagine the sshd (solid state hybrid drive) is a refrigerator. A few times a day, you come back to the fridge to get a glass of juice. You take the juice out. Pour some in a glass and put the juice back. Presumably near the front of the shelf. Because its at the front of the shelf, you can access it very quickly. But ...	[ "Solid-state hybrid drives (SSHDs) are based on the same principle, but integrate some amount of flash memory on board of a conventional drive instead of using a separate SSD. The flash layer in these drives can be accessed independently from the magnetic storage by the host using ATA-8 commands, allowing the opera...
Is my southern boy perspective on Robert E. Lee tainted?	Lee was held in very high esteem by fellow officers on both sides of the war, and even afterwards was seen as an upright and honorable man, a sentiment his support of reconciliation and Reconstruction undoubtedly furthered. However, over the years, a cult of personality around Lee grew up, hand in hand with the devel...	[ "On August 15, 2017, McDaniel claimed on his Twitter account that Robert E. Lee, commander of the Confederate States Army, was opposed to slavery. (Lee accepted \"the extinction of slavery\" provided for by the Thirteenth Amendment, but believed slavery was good for black people, publicly opposed racial equality, a...
when you can see the moon during the day, does the mean the other side of the planet can't see the moon at night? does this have to do with the phases of the moon?	Yes. Sort of. If the moon were on the horizon at noon, then someone on the other side of the planet could see it for about half of the night. See [this](_URL_0_) link for a diagram. Hopefully it'll all be clear with that.	[ "Typically, a number of high ridges undergoing sunrise or sunset can view it. Although the Moon is in Earth's umbra, both the Sun and an eclipsed Moon can be simultaneously seen because atmospheric refraction causes each body to appear higher in the sky than their true geometric positions.\n", "The Moon is direct...
why metal nanoparticles, like gold, exhibit surface plasmon resonance?	When photons hit the metal nanoparticle, they excite the “sea of electrons” in the metal and form an oscillating surface wave (called the surface plasmon). When you use photons of different wavelengths, the oscillating wave will change in amplitude and will absorb a greater/lesser amount of the incoming light. The amo...	[ "Gold nanoparticles improve the sensitivity of optical sensor by response to the change in local refractive index. The angle of the incidence light for surface plasmon resonance, an interaction between light wave and conducting electrons in metal, changes when other substances are bounded to the metal surface. Beca...
Can anyone help me identify this piece of Pearl Harbor history?	Not to discourage further discussion, but the OP might want to cross post this to the [_URL_0_ discussion boards](_URL_1_). The contributors to the forum include a number of relic collectors and other specialists in IJN and USN equipment.	[ "The Pearl Harbor Commemorative Medal, also known as the \"Pearl Harbor Survivor’s Medal\", is a bronze commemorative medal which was established by the United States Congress on November 5, 1990 (P.L. 101-510, 104 Stat. 1721).\n", "The Pearl Harbor Commemorative Medal, also known as the \"Pearl Harbor Survivor’s...
When did our ancestors stop laying eggs, and why?	Unforutanely the related scientific community isn't sure exactly when there was a clear divergence in ancestry from reptile to mammalian birth. The latest discovery in the fossil record is from the early cretaceous, but it is suspected from mitochondrial research that mammals appeared much earlier than that. The diffic...	[ "If the question refers to eggs in general, the egg came first. The first amniote egg—that is, a hard-shelled egg that could be laid on land, rather than remaining in water like the eggs of fish or amphibians—appeared around 312 million years ago. In contrast, chickens are domesticated descendants of red junglefowl...
if we never actually touch something due to the pauli exclusion principle what actually causes friction? i thought it would simply be atoms jostling each other creating heat, but if they don't actually touch what is causing them to move and create heat?	This comes up a lot on this sub, and mostly comes down to a a misunderstanding of what "touching" means. First off, it's not the Pauli exclusion principle, that prevents things from "touching", but rather electrostatic repulsion between electrons. The Pauli exclusion principle basically says "Atoms have slots for ele...	[ "When two objects were touched together, sometimes the objects became spontaneously charged. One object developed a net negative charge, while the other developed an equal and opposite positive charge. Then it was discovered that 'piles' of dissimilar metal disks separated by acid-soaked cloth, Voltaic piles, could...
what is the point of feeling certain emotions (mainly looking at anger)?	Its part of survival if someone is stealing your food everyday you need to feel anger to stop it. Without it you would constantly be taken advantage of.	[ "Emotionality is the observable behavioral and physiological component of emotion. It is a measure of a person's emotional reactivity to a stimulus. Most of these responses can be observed by other people, while some emotional responses can only be observed by the person experiencing them. Observable responses to e...
How did Colonists, in the thirteen colonies, react to the Protectorate/Interregnum in England?	Well, I can tell you that the 13 Colonies pretty much constituted a microcosm of interregnum era England. New England settlers largely came from England's puritan cities, such as Cambridge, Boston and Hatfield (which many New England places are named after), and came to support Cromwell's Commonwealth as a result. Many...	[ "The Thirteen Colonies had a high degree of self-governance and active local elections, and they resisted London's demands for more control. The French and Indian War (1754–63) against France and its Indian allies led to growing tensions between Britain and the Thirteen Colonies. In the 1750s, the colonies began co...
why are 1st 2nd and 3rd unique, and every number following gets the "th"?	The word "first" comes from a very old English word meaning "before all the others". The basic word was "fore", meaning "forward", "ahead"; "fyrst" was the superlative, and meant "most fore" -- so the phrase "first and foremost" is actually redundant. "Second" is a word borrowed from Latin: "secundus" meant "the one a...	[ "In music from Western culture, a sixth is a musical interval encompassing six note letter names or staff positions (see Interval number for more details), and the major sixth is one of two commonly occurring sixths. It is qualified as \"major\" because it is the larger of the two. The major sixth spans nine semito...
Is there a telescope powerful enough to view and man-made objects on the moon?	There is no telescope on Earth, nor any telescope in Earth orbit, powerful enough to see the objects at lunar landing sites. These objects are a few meters across (or less) and are ~400,000,000 meters away. If we take a lunar rover as an example, it's 3 meters across, which gives an angular size of about 0.0015 arcseco...	[ "To some it may be more desirable to utilize a telescope in which case far more options for observing the Moon exist. Even a small, well-made telescope will show the observer much greater detail than is visible with the naked eye or small binoculars. As the aperture of the telescope mirror (in the case of a reflect...
how can i protect my internet browsing data from my isp?	the best way is to write your representative and tell them that you don't approve. Technical solutions include using VPN, but those have drawbacks when it comes to your internet speed. Right now your ISP can see what websites you visit because they are the ones through which those websites are send to you. If you vi...	[ "Many of the privacy advocates who oppose ISP data sharing also oppose tracking by ad networks and technology companies such as Google but find ISP tracking extra worrisome as ISPs have access to all of one's browsing data − not just data from specific sites that share their data with particular ad networks, and as...
big city vs small town. why do people (even strangers) seem friendlier in small towns?	Same quality of people, just a different environment. When you live around fewer people, every social encounter becomes markedly more valuable to your social life. In urban settings, the vast number of people allows you to practice social trial and error a bit more. The demand for friendship is the same, but the s...	[ "Jacobs posits cities as fundamentally different from towns and suburbs principally because they are full of strangers. More precisely, the ratio of strangers to acquaintances is necessarily lopsided everywhere one goes in the city, even outside their doorstep, \"because of the sheer number of people in small geogr...
How effective was Cold War espionage between the USA and USSR?	As to the question of arsenal sizes, a lot of it is still classified, in particular the period before the arms limitation treaties such as SALT and START. However, a big part of those treaties involved limits on the number of available delivery platforms, and for the US in particular, providing effective verification ...	[ "Soviet espionage in the United States during the Cold War was an outgrowth of World War II nuclear espionage, with both sides utilizing and evolving techniques and practices practiced during World War II. Cold War espionage has been fictionally depicted in works such as the James Bond and Matt Helm books and movie...
if i fell into a literal bottomless pit how long would i survive? what would be the cause of my death?	Assuming you've managed to keep air out of the hole, then after about 22 mins, you'll be falling/flying through the Earth's core incredibly fast. More than likely, you'd be quite well cooked already by that point. Oh, make sure to position your pit on the poles. Otherwise the Earth's rotation will swiftly slam you in...	[ "Falling into holes in the floor does not cause death but instead leads to a dungeon (\"Trouble 3\") which can be escaped with some effort. On easier difficulty levels, this is a delay and a source of annoyance. However, this may be strategically necessary on the harder difficulty levels so that you can stock up ro...
"Oil" effect when looking at a tinted window w/ sunglasses.	You're looking through polarized glasses. Your LCD screen has a polarizer built in, so you're seeing the interaction between the sunglasses and the LCD polarizer. Also, if you look at tempered glass with polarized sunglasses, you'll see the stress patterns in the glass.	[ "The vertical angle of the back light can change the effect. A low angle can make the light hit the camera lens, causing lens flare. A high angle can make the subject's nose extend out from the mostly vertical shadow of the head, producing a potentially unwanted highlight in the middle of the face.\n", "The Mande...
Why do bacteria evolve and express a receptor for bacteriophages that would potentially compromise their survival? Are the receptors specific or do they just happen to be recognized by the phages?	It's the phage that recognizes an already existing protein in the bacteria as their receptor, not the other way around. For example, the [Phage Lambda](_URL_0_) binds to an outer membrane protein in E. coli involved in Maltose uptake.	[ "Because of the specificity of toll-like receptors (and other innate immune receptors) they cannot easily be changed in the course of evolution, these receptors recognize molecules that are constantly associated with threats (i.e., pathogen or cell stress) and are highly specific to these threats (i.e., cannot be m...
Were composite bows effective on the post-gunpowder battlefield?	While the reflex-recurve composite bow does have better energy storage for a given draw weight (and draw length) than a longbow, and typically higher efficiency with light arrows, "far better than European longbows" seems exaggerated. About 20% more stored energy is fairly typical, and poor efficiency of a longbow with...	[ "The last regular unit armed with bows was the Archers’ Company of the Honourable Artillery Company, ironically a part of the oldest regular unit in England to be armed with gunpowder weapons. The last recorded use of bows in battle in Britain seems to have been a skirmish at Bridgnorth; in October 1642, during the...
Why is George C. Marshall so highly regarded as a general? What did he accomplish and how did he do it?	George Marshall is a bit of an anomaly as a general. He is great and highly regarded in the way that Henry Halleck, Chief of Staff during the US Civil War is. Why? Because his actions behind the scenes made many of the actions on the field possible. Marshall began his term as Chief of Staff from the US Army on the da...	[ "Marshall's abilities to pick competent field commanders during the early part of the war was decidedly mixed. He was instrumental in advancing the careers of the highly capable generals such as Dwight D. Eisenhower, Omar Bradley, George S. Patton, Walter Krueger and Mark W. Clark. A notable exception was his recom...
How do bumblebees fly?	It's an[ old myth](_URL_1_), completely unfounded on science. But insect wings function differently than bird wings; [specifically they swim through the air](_URL_0_).	[ "As with most bumblebees, the males of this species patrol a fixed circuit, marking objects along the route, about a meter above ground, with a pheromone to attract queens. This behaviour was noted by Darwin 1886 in his own garden.\n", "Their larvae are endoparasites of bumble bees of the genus \"Bombus\", especi...
In early America, why were log homes so popular? Wouldn't a wigwam or longhouse be easier to build?	In the prairies, at least, log cabins often weren't the first type of dwelling built. From Will Cather's novel O Pioneers!: > On one of the ridges of that wintry waste stood the low log house in which John Bergson was dying. The Bergson homestead was easier to find than many another, because it overlooked Norway Cr...	[ "Later German and Ukrainian immigrants also used this technique. The contemporaneous British settlers had no tradition of building with logs, but they quickly adopted the method. The first English settlers did not widely use log cabins, building in forms more traditional to them. Few log cabins dating from the 18th...
Hasn't the earth been experiencing periods of Global Warming and Global Cooling for most (all?) of its existence? How does this period of Global warming differ from any other post Ice Age period?	This warming period is [happening much more quickly than any other warming period](_URL_0_), so it presents a shock to plants and animals. Also, the last time anything like this happened there weren't 7 billion humans on the Earth. You could just as easily ask why arson-caused forest fires are different from forest fi...	[ "Between roughly 19ka, the end of the Last Glacial Maximum (or LGM) to 11ka, which was the early Holocene, the climate system experienced drastic transformation. Much of this change was occurring at an astonishing rate, as the earth was dealing with the end of the last ice age. Changes in insolation was the princip...
The earth developed slowly and progressively - yet we call it 4.5 billion years old. What was the turning point that marks the beginning of "the earth?"	Essentially, the solidification of the surface. This is when the clock starts for the age of the oldest rocks, the ones scientists use to estimate the age of the planet.	[ "Early in the 22nd century, the world underwent a vast and rapid change. The tectonic plates of the Earth began to shift and rapidly changed the face of the planet. Since then, the events of this time have grown to be known as the time of the \"Great Shift\" or the \"Great Chaos\"- and have become myth and legend. ...
How common has it been in history for democracies to be transformed into dictatorships? How was it usually done?	That's a hard question to answer without a clear definition of "democracy" and a clear definition of "dictatorship." We consider a lot of modern countries to be democracies even if they put very few issues up to a vote; we consider a lot of countries to be dictatorships even if the average citizen lives no more restric...	[ "Many early twentieth century regimes failed through political instability and/or the interventions of heads of state, notably King Victor Emmanuel III of Italy's failure to back his government when facing the threat posed by Benito Mussolini in 1922, or the support given by King Alfonso XIII of Spain to a prime mi...
how do kangaroos become so muscular?	Genetics, they are genetically predisposed to develop substantial amounts of muscles in the legs and tail to enable them to hop at speed to avoid predators, as well as muscles for fighting other males.	[ "Kangaroos have large, powerful hind legs, large feet adapted for leaping, a long muscular tail for balance, and a small head. Like most marsupials, female kangaroos have a pouch called a marsupium in which joeys complete postnatal development.\n", "Osteological information (predominantly cave floor surface finds...
Why are some Native American (in the USA) tribes in considered "official" and can receive reparations while others cannot?	I be interested to see the contrasted with the Canadian system. Anyone know of any articles?	[ "In many cases, they have recognized tribes that were landless; that is, did not have an Indian reservation or communal land holdings. In addition, such states have often established commissions or other administrative bodies to deal with Native American affairs within the state. It has resulted from the process of...
What will happen to Voyager when it reaches the Oort cloud?	The voyager probes are roughly [100 and 120](_URL_0_) AUs from the Sun right now after 34 years of travel and they are slowing down due to the Sun's gravity and pressure from interstellar gas. The Oort cloud is thought to be 50,000 AUs from the sun. Both probes will have run out of power long before they reach it. Th...	[ "Space probes have yet to reach the area of the Oort cloud. \"Voyager 1\", the fastest and farthest of the interplanetary space probes currently leaving the Solar System, will reach the Oort cloud in about 300 years and would take about 30,000 years to pass through it. However, around 2025, the radioisotope thermoe...
what is modal jazz? how does it sound different?	Modal jazz has no, or very minimal, chord changes. While artists during the bebop area were infatuated with chord changes, Miles Davis and John Coltrane began an era of modality. Their music did not rely on chord changes, so it was much more light and relaxed in texture. It was often labeled as "cool" jazz, as it had t...	[ "Modal jazz is jazz that uses musical modes rather than tonal scales and thinking as a framework. Although precedents exist, modal jazz was crystallized as a theory by composer George Russell in his 1953 book \"Lydian Chromatic Concept of Tonal Organization\". \n", "Modal jazz is a development which began in the ...
Which resources essential to our existence today are expected to be gone forever from the earth first, and how will it affect us?	to the best of my knowledge, which is limited, the only elements we lose are hydrogen and helium that are gasses that escape the atmosphere. We also lose fissile materials (elements that undergo fission, nuclear reactor fuels). Now we have a huge store of hydrogen (water) and to the best of my knowledge, enough fiss...	[ "Resources abound in the world and many are those not yet discovered, when their needs will arise, new discoveries will be made. Those who argue that the world will run out of resources are wrong. As long as human beings remain on earth, there will always find new ways to meet their needs.\n", "Based on known ter...
how can we have confident projected winners in elections with less than 10% of votes reported?	it is kind of like an educated guess except that there are sound mathematics behind it. once you count a certain percentage of the votes and a candidate is in the lead by a certain amount you can calculate that the odds of someone else winning are less than a gazillion to one. the government counts all votes for the of...	[ "Suppose that in a three-way election for a large country, candidate A received 20% of the votes, candidate B received 30% of the votes, and candidate C received 50% of the votes. If six voters are selected randomly, what is the probability that there will be exactly one supporter for candidate A, two supporters fo...
how does vx nerve agent work?	It's lethal because it blocks a key enzime in the cycle of muscle contraction. The cause of death is paralysis of diaphragm, the muscle responsible for respiration. Antidotes exist, but you need to deliver them as soon as possible, because respiratory arrest ensues fast.	[ "VX, short for \"venomous agent X\", is one of the best known of the V nerve agents and was first discovered at Porton Down in England during the early 1950s based on research first done by Dr. G. Schrader, a chemist working for IG Farben in Germany during the 1930s. Now one of a broader V-series of agents, they ar...

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