question stringlengths 3 301 | answer stringlengths 9 26.1k | context list |
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why is there a need of an additional checkin process in flight travel. why cant we just use the tickets to board the plane? | Having passengers check in before boarding allows the airline to confirm which passengers have actually shown up for the flight. This can be important if a flight is overbooked (too many passengers), or if a flight has open seats that could be filled by standby passengers.
If they waited until boarding to check all of... | [
"This service is generally promoted by the airlines to passengers as being easier and faster because it reduces the time a passenger would normally spend at an airport check-in counter. Some airlines, however, would still require passengers to proceed to a check-in counter at the airport, regardless of preferred ch... |
If ice was suddenly denser than water, how would it affect the world? | The seas would freeze solid in many places because cold water would continue to become more dense until it freezes instead of becoming less dense below 4 degrees C. Most life on Earth would eventually cease to exist because of that and the temperature extremes that wouldn't get smoothed out by the ocean currents...this... | [
"On the continent itself, the large volume of ice present stores around 70% of the world's fresh water. This ice sheet is constantly gaining ice from snowfall and losing ice through outflow to the sea.\n",
"The result of this process is that ice (in its most common form) floats on liquid water, which is an import... |
where credit card companies and banks get all that money to loan out? | Also, by the magic of [fractional reserve banking](_URL_0_), a lot of what the companies loan out is not "real" money (I'm using it as a very loose term), as in they loan out money that they do not actually own.
Let's say I deposit $100 in a bank. I may want to withdraw this at any time, so if I'm the only person depo... | [
"In this respect, credit creation is the most significant function of commercial banks. While sanctioning a loan to a customer, they do not provide cash to the borrower. Instead, they open a deposit account from which the borrower can withdraw. In other words, while sanctioning a loan, they automatically create dep... |
The late roman army in 420AD had around 350k soldiers, and yet Egypt and Spain were conquered (in 642AD and 710AD) with less than 15k men. What caused such a massive decline in "warfare scale"? | There are a few things to keep in mind here, generally speaking. First is - there is a difference between a field army, and the total number of troops.
A total number would include garrisons, militias, and so on - who might not participate in offensive expeditions, and not require full pay and equipment. In contrast, ... | [
"At the same time, more recent work has suggested that the regular army of the 2nd century was considerably larger than the c. 300,000 traditionally assumed. This is because the 2nd-century auxilia were not just equal in numbers to the legions as in the early 1st century, but some 50% larger. The army of the Princi... |
why are banana's considered berries? | A berry is a juicy fruit with seeds rather than a stone inside the fruit body, it doesn't have to be round so a banana fits the description of a berry. | [
"In regions such as North America and Europe, \"Musa\" fruits offered for sale can be divided into \"bananas\" and \"plantains\", based on their intended use as food. Thus the banana producer and distributor Chiquita produces publicity material for the American market which says that \"a plantain is not a banana\".... |
[META] Sources, our use of them, and the need to expand upon them when necessary. | Looking through this and the linked posts/comments, this is all great advice and a great breakdown of the importance of citing sources and what sources are. But can we also take a step back and make sure not to take ourselves too seriously?
This is, after all, the internet, and highly informal. Correct and supportable... | [
"BULLET::::- Using Primary Sources as Evidence is the ability to locate, choose, understand and provide context for the past using primary sources. This approach to reading a source will be dependent on the kind of source being used and the kind of information the user is trying to find (e.g. reading to a book for ... |
what does the lds church control in utah/salt lake city government? | Officially, nothing. Giving the LDS church official control over any level of government would indeed violate the First Amendment.
However, the opinions and desires of the LDS church strongly influence the voters in Utah and Salt Lake City. So, if a politician came out in favor of a policy that the church disagreed wi... | [
"The Salt Lake Temple is a temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) on Temple Square in Salt Lake City, Utah, United States. At , it is the largest LDS temple by floor area. Dedicated in 1893, it is the sixth temple completed by the church, requiring 40 years to complete, and the fourt... |
if i were to copy a work of art w/o the intent of stealing it, could i be held accountable for forgery or plagerism? | It depends on what you actually do with the artwork.
If you attempt to pass the artwork off as your own for any reason, its plagiarism.
If you attempt to sell your copy claiming it is the original, then it is forgery.
If you attempt to profit in anyway using copies of the artwork, then it is a copyright violation.
... | [
"However, Arthur Koestler in \"The Act of Creation\" answers that if a forgery fits into an artist's body of work and produces the same kind of aesthetic pleasure as other works by that artist, there is no reason to exclude it from a museum.\n",
"There are essentially three varieties of art forger. The person who... |
How and/or why does UV light destroy so much stuff? | UV is the most energetic light that things on Earth are commonly exposed to in substantial quantities. Higher frequencies like X-rays and gamma rays would indeed do more damage, it's just that objects don't ordinarily get exposed to much of those. The Sun emits very little in the way of x-rays or gamma rays (at least c... | [
"UV is a form of electromagnetic radiation with higher energy than visible light. It does not contribute to the accurate viewing of collections and is ideally completely eliminated; otherwise materials may be weakened in any number of ways ranging from yellowing to disintegration. Organic materials, especially text... |
In historical fiction medieval nobles are often portrayed speaking to each other in dramatic, fanciful language. Is this historically accurate? | I can only speak to language in historical fiction, so I'll leave aside the question of metaphor or hidden barbs for someone else.
The language used in historical fiction is an affectation of the form and can't be taken as an actual representation of speech. Even authors who set their work in today's world use affecte... | [
"In her medieval novels particularly, she makes her characters, including Huns and Mongols, speak in semi-colloquial English, apparently intended to give the reader the impression of listening in on a conversation in the speakers' own vernacular.\n",
"Narrator (Dariusz Kamys) introduces the viewer to medieval Eng... |
Help making sense of the hexagons and connectors of chemical structure illustrations? | A few points
* All unlabeled vertices are carbons
* All hydrogens directly bound to carbons aren't shown
* The two-dimensional rings on the right half are planar
* Those odd looking bow-tie looking things are 6 membered rings in [chair conformation](_URL_0_#mediaviewer/File:Cyclohexane-chair-colour-coded-3D-balls.png)... | [
"construction set\". Its elements consist of small connector nodes and struts of various colors. The overall shape of a connector node is that of a non-uniform small rhombicosidodecahedron, except that each face\n",
"Lewis structures (or \"Lewis dot structures\") are flat graphical formulas that show atom connect... |
how does the constant change between cold and warm weather effect hibernating wildlife? | It's more than just the temperature, seasonal ques like the shortening of days plays a major role. | [
"The warming also affects insects and animals. The change in temperatures can affect many aspects from the times that insects emerge throughout the year to the changes in the habitats of animals throughout seasonal changes. In Maine, the loss of certain habitats and the increase in temperatures, especially in the c... |
Vacuum Airship? | Yes, the problem is that the envelope would need to be impossibly light and rigid. A secondary issue would be with such a light material and pressure differential you'd have diffusion of atmosphere into the envelope, so you would need some sort of pump to keep the balloon a vacuum. | [
"A vacuum airship, also known as a vacuum balloon, is a hypothetical airship that is evacuated rather than filled with a lighter-than-air gas such as hydrogen or helium. First proposed by Italian Jesuit priest Francesco Lana de Terzi in 1670, the vacuum balloon would be the ultimate expression of lifting power per ... |
where is my bus getting its wifi? | It uses 3G (or 4G) just like your cellphone connection. If you got a wireless hotspot you can use it virtually anywhere you can get cell service. | [
"At the end of March 2014, all public buses were upgraded with Wifi for free use by all passengers. Speeds fall into the 3G HSDPA mobile range. Also, as an upgrade to the ticketing system, since the same time, tickets and per day all bus lines subscriptions can be bought via SMS, accepted by all national operators.... |
congress ends corn subsidy. how was the corn subsidy bad, and why is it good that it's over? | When I first read this I saw "porn subsidy."
Moving along, things that come to mind:
-Corn that is being used for ethanol isn't being used for food or fodder, causing prices to rise. Keep in mind that in our processed world, corn is used in *everything.* Read the labels on the things at Giant and check for high fruct... | [
"The Federal Farm Board's purchase of surplus could not keep up with the production; as farmers realized that they could just sell the government their crops, they reimplemented the use of fertilizers and other techniques to increase production. Overall, the deflation could not be countered because of a massive fau... |
If I were a traveller in 13th century England. What would I eat on the road and how would I find a place to sleep. | I hope you don't mind if I focus a little later? Account records for the travels of warden and other officials from Merton College, Oxford, exist from 1270, and G. H. Martin has a great article laying out the itineraries and purchases from some of the better recorded years (mostly fourteenth and fifteenth centuries).
... | [
"The German traveller C. P. Moritz stayed the night on a walking tour in 1782: \"There were three inns adjacent to each other in Costock, which, to judge by their exteriors, were dens of the most abject poverty. At the one where I stayed only the landlady was at home... During the evening I felt a kind of fever, sl... |
how, and why do operating systems, and software become outdated? | Software becomes outdated when:
* it lacks features that have become commonplace
* it relies on features in hardware or other software that are no longer being provided
For example, an application might run in 32 bit mode only. A new OS might decide they are no longer supporting 32 bit mode, and require all software... | [
"Abandonware advocates also frequently cite historical preservation as a reason for trading abandoned software. Older computer media are fragile and prone to rapid deterioration, necessitating transfer of these materials to more modern, stable media and generation of many copies to ensure the software will not simp... |
Is the theory that Gilles de Rais was innocent and just a victim of a plot framing him for murder accepted by mainstream historians? | Fringe theory.
Admittedly, my knowledge of Gilles de Rais' crime is more passing interest than "expert" but from all I have read, the veracity of his guilt is not in doubt among academic circles. What usually is contested is the actual number of victims and the exact nature of his crimes, but even then that's usually ... | [
"Gilles' origins are obscure. There was a \"zanni\" Giglio in the Italian troupe of the academic \"Intronati\" as early as 1531, and some historians link him to Gilles. But no line of succession has been traced. The French expression \"\"faire gilles\"\", meaning \"to go bankrupt\" or \"to run away\", dates from th... |
Had the Japanese ever developed double edged swords? and if so, why did the single edged sword stuck around? | Japanese double edged swords, known as *tsurugi*, have been used in Japan ever since the Yayoi period (from 800\~300 B.C. to 300 A.D). In fact, the most famous sword in Japanese mythology, *Ame no Murakumo*, is double-edged. They continued to see prevalent use in the succeeding Yamato Empire. The Yamato national army w... | [
"The swordsmiths of China are often credited with the forging technology that was carried to Korea and Japan, allowing swordsmiths in those places to create such weapons as the \"katana\". This technology included folding, inserting alloys, and differential hardening of the edge, which historically has been the mos... |
Was the Siege of Baghdad really responsible for snuffing out the intellectual flowering of Islam in its infancy? | It is indeed being wildly overstated to the point of absurdity. The Sack of Baghdad was not important at all to the decline of Islamic intellectual life. This is one of those things that’s been long discredited and ignored by academia, but hasn’t quite filtered through to popular culture yet- partially because pop-hist... | [
"In 1534, Baghdad was captured by the Ottoman Turks. Under the Ottomans, Baghdad continued into a period of decline, partially as a result of the enmity between its rulers and Iranian Safavids, which did not accept the Sunni control of the city. Between 1623 and 1638, it returned to Iranian rule before falling back... |
Does the size of a woman's breasts have any correlation with how much breastmilk she can produce? | No, breast milk production is regulated by hormonal processes. Milk storage within the breast between feedings is slightly correlated with size. But breast make-up is more important. How much of the breast tissue is fat vs milk producing glands etc.
_URL_0_ | [
"The dimensions and weight of the breast vary widely among women. A small-to-medium-sized breast weighs 500 grams (1.1 pounds) or less, and a large breast can weigh approximately 750 to 1,000 grams (1.7 to 2.2 pounds) or more. The tissue composition ratios of the breast also vary among women. Some women's breasts h... |
Since we are a product of dead stars and some of the stars we see at night are long dead while the light is still reaching us, Is there a way to measure how long the star has been dead and possibly find the oldest one that we know of? | Are you asking if there's a way to measure how long a star has been dead by measuring the either light that we're still receiving or by examining particles? | [
"The light observed from the star was emitted when the universe was about 30% of its current age of 13.8 billion years. Kelly suggested that similar microlensing discoveries could help them identify the earliest stars in the universe. The star no longer exists as a blue supergiant, given the known lifetime of such ... |
why do certain muscles on my body sometimes "pulse"? | The NIH has a nice simple page explaining various causes. They're usually benign and nothing to worry about.
_URL_0_
If it's concerning you, the first steps are:
* ease up on the caffeine
* make sure you're eating well and not getting a nutritional deficiency, and
* try to manage your stress, maybe with some relax... | [
"In medicine, a pulse represents the tactile arterial palpation of the heartbeat by trained fingertips. The pulse may be palpated in any place that allows an artery to be compressed near the surface of the body, such as at the neck (carotid artery), wrist (radial artery), at the groin (femoral artery), behind the k... |
OK, so electrons don't exist in a single place but exist distributed as a probability function--is that also true for protons? | Yes! All subatomic particles are described by probability functions.
Since the proton is about 2,000 times more massive than the electron, however, its Compton wavelength is 2,000 smaller. The Compton wavelength is a good measure of the spatial "extent" of a quantum particle's probability distribution, so the proton... | [
"An article by Yakir Aharonov and colleagues in 2001 pointed out that the number of electrons or positrons in each branch is theoretically observable and is 0 in the \"w\" branches and 1 in the \"v\" branches. And yet, the number of electron–positron \"pairs\" in any combination is \"also\" observable and is not gi... |
the google and youtube privacy policy changes. | Instead of having a separate privacy policy for each product, Google wants to have one privacy policy that covers all their products. They weren't identical, so some had more changes than others.
One change, if you can call it that, is that there's a reference to storing your cell phone number. This has a lot of peopl... | [
"Google had publicly stated on January 24, 2012, that its privacy policy will once again be altered. This new policy will change the following for its users: (1) the privacy policy will become shorter and easier to comprehend and (2) the information that users provide will be used in more ways than it is presently ... |
When did armies stop "wintering" or pausing their campaigns during the winter months? | This is less of a when, and more of a what/why question; why did armies stop dispersing into winter quarters, bringing operations to a pause? The when varies a lot by place, but in general, campaigns paused for the winter because armies depended on supplies (food, fodder for horses etc.) taken from the seat of war, an... | [
"Armies in the Seventeenth Century generally campaigned between April and October and avoided combat during the winter. Bad weather made movement of artillery and supplies difficult as autumn rains and spring floods turned roads to mud. Food and kindling for the men were hard to come by in the winter, as was fodder... |
Could we, and if we can, should we, make The Sahara fertile? | It is *possible* with current technology, but probably very unwise. Assuming there was enough fresh water, you could simply irrigate the Sahara and have fertile, arable land, but that seems to be something that is fairly unworkable on a very large scale simply due to the amount of water needed.
You could simply build... | [
"A greening of the Sahara on the one hand may allow agriculture and pastoralism to expand into hitherto unsuitable areas, but increased precipitation can also lead to increased water borne diseases and flooding. Also, expanded human activity may be vulnerable to climate reversals as demonstrated by the droughts tha... |
Questions about rogue planets | if a cloud forms an object that is too small for nuclear fusion to occur it is called a [sub-brown dwarf ](_URL_0_). The difference between a rouge planet and an a sub-brown dwarf is that a rouge planet was ejected from a solar system and a sub-brown dwarf formed from its own cloud. | [
"Rogue planets in fiction usually originate outside the Solar System, but their erratic paths lead them to within detectable range of Earth. In reality, no rogue planet has ever been detected transiting the Solar System.\n",
"A rogue planet (also termed an interstellar planet, nomad planet, free-floating planet, ... |
Did corporations of the past have major influence in US politics? | The realm of corporate control in which we see the most effects that can be clearly shown, is that of foreign affairs. USA corporations have a long and sordid history of creating foreign affairs policies, from Cuban Independence to the Mexican Revolution, to the Nicaraguan interventions. The most notorious of these cor... | [
"In the United States, the corporation has emerged as an association of owners, known as stockholders, who form a business enterprise governed by a complex set of rules and customs. Brought on by the process of mass production, corporations, such as General Electric, have been instrumental in shaping the United Sta... |
Did Belisarius really win over the local populations during his campaigns? | I think it would be fair to say that Belisarius had always tried to win over the local population if required, since it was a policy that made political sense for reconquered territories in the West, but circumstances often intervened, forcing him or his replacements to adopt a harsher policy. It is therefore debatable... | [
"Belisarius had fortified the city in the twelve weeks since Ad Decimum, but knew about Gelimer's agents and could no longer trust the Huns in his forces. Instead of waiting for a possible treachery during a siege, he formed up his army and marched out with the cavalry at the front, the Byzantines in the center, an... |
why do iron infusions (or any other vitamin/mineral intake that your body needs) cause negative side effects | The first noble truth in buddhism is that "life is suffering". To put it another way, our nervous systems are calibrated by evolution to always feel uncomfortable. The discomfort of this or that situation is actually the discomfort of your brain being tacked like a fridge magnet onto different situations.
So consc... | [
"High doses of ascorbic acid administered by intravenous infusion have been shown to increase the absorption of iron. However, in individuals with hemochromatosis (a genetic disorder where the body takes up and stores too much iron), intravenous ascorbic acid is contraindicated as high dosages of ascorbic acid may ... |
Why were Potatoes such a major crop from the Colombian Exchange? | The answer I'll be giving you is purely based on a functional perspective and not on historical records.
As you may know, potatoes are a great source of carbohydrates and these are the main source of energy on our diet, even though we're able to produce energy from fats and proteins too. So, despite other essential n... | [
"The South American highlands became a center of early agriculture. Genetic testing of the wide variety of cultivars and wild species suggests that the potato has a single origin in the area of southern Peru, from a species in the \"Solanum brevicaule\" complex. Over 99% of all modern cultivated potatoes worldwide ... |
Ethnic tensions in the Soviet Union | While the Soviet Union did improve upon the Russian Empire in terms of the treatment of Jews, there was still widespread antisemitism. Look up [Rootless cosmopolitan](_URL_2_) & the [Doctors' plot](_URL_1_). Jews were often excluded from a variety of different professions. According to Sergey Brin, Jews took their Mo... | [
"This theory also states that the minimum requirement for ethnic tensions to result in ethnic violence on a systemic level is a heterogeneous society and the lack of a power to prevent them from fighting. In the ethnic conflicts that erupted after the end of the Cold War, this lack of outer controls is seen as the ... |
what happens if a cop uses a speed radar gun while he is driving? does the driving affect what the gun picks up? | Yes, the driving would impact the detected speed of the target. However many such systems are connected to the vehicle so it can automatically adjust based on its own speedometer. | [
"BULLET::::- Radar speed gun – A handheld Doppler radar used by traffic police to measure the speed of vehicles to determine if they are obeying the local speed limit. When the officer points the gun at a vehicle and presses a trigger, its speed appears on a numeric display. Speed guns use the X band or K band.\n",... |
Is it possible that that big bangs are happening all the time, but REALLY far away from each other? | It is certainly possible that big bangs occur elsewhere. It would probably be incorrect, however, to say that the big bangs happen very far apart. It might be true in an abstract sense, but you need to know that the big bang is NOT a large explosion IN space, but rather a fast expansion OF space itself.
Consider th... | [
"It is now proven via satellite radar studies that waves with crest to trough heights of to , occur far more frequently than previously thought. It is now known that rogue waves occur in all of the world's oceans many times each day. In 2004 the ESA MaxWave project identified more than ten individual giant waves ab... |
AMA: I am Alex Wellerstein, historian of science, creator of the NUKEMAP — ask me anything about the history of nuclear weapons | What caused the vertical smoke lines in [this nuclear test image](_URL_0_)? | [
"The \"Primer\" became designated as the first official Los Alamos technical report (LA-1), and though its information about the physics of fission and weapon design was soon rendered obsolete, it is still considered a fundamental historical document in the history of nuclear weapons. Its contents would be of littl... |
Can humans be born psycopaths, or is that a learned thing? | Psychopathy is a really difficult one. Science now knows that psychopaths have a different brain structure to "regular" people in the sense that the part of their brain responsible for processing emotions is damaged (fewer connections).
We have cases of children doing horrific things to themselves, each-other and anim... | [
"BULLET::::- PSY – Psychically mutated human whose mutation and defects are of the mind, such as telepathy and telekinesis. These mutants are feared by others due to their mind powers so they usually hide by pretending to be normal humans due to that.\n",
"This book also introduces the idea of mutant humans and f... |
Why is North America and Europe largely void of native marsupials like sweet Platypuae or awesome koalas/kangaroo? | Basically it has to do with continental drift and the isolation of Australia (and South America). South America eventually became connected to North America which resulted in placental mammals migrating and taking over niches there. Australia is still isolated and therefore the marsupials have been relatively left alon... | [
"However, while some agricultural development has enabled kangaroos to expand their population in the harsh conditions of arid Australia, other human developments pose problems to these marsupials. For example, many farmers have reported seeing kangaroos drowning in the watering holes of free-range cattle. As the c... |
raoult's law | Raoult's law states that the partial vapor pressure of each liquid in a mixture, under ideal conditions, will be equal to the vapor pressure of the pure liquid multiplied by its molar fraction in the mixture. Vapor pressure is the pressure the vapor of a liquid puts on the surface of the liquid in a closed container. H... | [
"Raoult's law is a phenomenological law that assumes ideal behavior based on the simple microscopic assumption that intermolecular forces between unlike molecules are equal to those between similar molecules: the conditions of an ideal solution. This is analogous to the ideal gas law, which is a limiting law valid ... |
mcu ( marvel cinematic universe) | All the MCU movies (and TV shows) take place in the same universe. That's really about it. Some of them have had some common themes (you see the infinity stones/gems in a bunch), but some are really just a comment or two that may as well be throwaways (like references to "the attack" on New York).
There's no "MCU plo... | [
"The Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) films are a series of American superhero films produced by Marvel Studios based on characters that appear in publications by Marvel Comics. The MCU is the shared universe in which all of the films are set. The films have been in production since 2007, and in that time Marvel Stu... |
Why do particles in a spinning fluid collect at the center of the vortex? | It's not about the leaves, it's about the tea! While you can't see it, the tea itself is moving toward the center in a thin layer near the bottom, carrying the leaves with it. Why?
When you first stir the tea, centrifugal force* pushes the tea to the outside of the cup, so its surface forms a shallow bowl shape. Th... | [
"A swirling flow in a viscous fluid can be characterized by a central core comprising a forced vortex, surrounded by a free vortex. In an inviscid fluid, on the other hand, a swirling flow consists entirely of a free vortex with a singularity at its center point. The tangential velocity\n",
"In the dynamics of fl... |
Do sound canceling headphones function as hearing protection in extremely loud environments, such as near jet engines? If not, does the ambient noise 'stack' with the sound cancellation wave and cause more ear damage? | Destructive interference, such as that found in ANC earphones, ~~will~~ can, in theory, completely cancel the soundwaves it interferes with, hence "destructive". The problem with super loud noises, however, is that they are beyond the capabilities of the headphones. They simply can't reproduce the right amplitude and f... | [
"Noise cancellation makes it possible to listen to audio content without raising the volume excessively. It can also help a passenger sleep in a noisy vehicle such as an airliner. In the aviation environment, noise-cancelling headphones increase the signal-to-noise ratio significantly more than passive noise attenu... |
how does light charge things that glow in the dark? | Glow in the dark stuff contains phosphors. Phosphors act kind of like a leaking battery. Light charges them and then they slowly give off light. Depending on which phosphor is in the product will determine how long the light lasts. | [
"In the photoelectric effect, it was observed that shining a light on certain metals would lead to an electric current in a circuit. Presumably, the light was knocking electrons out of the metal, causing current to flow. However, using the case of potassium as an example, it was also observed that while a dim blue ... |
how do directors/producers take extra noise/people out when they're filming in busy areas? | They use microphones that are made to be very directional and only pick up whoever is speaking. Before of after they film the scene, they record the sound of the place without the actors talking. Just the ambient noise. Then they layer them on top of each other so it sounds natural. | [
"Some below-the-line film and television film crews operate in pre-production, production, or post-production stages of filmmaking. For example, the film editor may work solely in the post-production stage of filming but they might also work throughout the production, editing the film as it is shot and advising the... |
What was the attitude of regular German soldiers towards the SS in WWII? | The answer to this is complicated. On the Eastern Front, regular German soldiers commonly collaborated with SS forces (the Einsatzgruppen, the SD, the Orpo) in their operations. These operations included the mass murder of Jews and "partisans". Wehrmacht troops gave both logistical and direct support. In July 1941 Eins... | [
"SS formations committed many war crimes against civilians and allied servicemen. From 1935 onward, the SS spearheaded the persecution of Jews, who were rounded up into ghettos and concentration camps. With the outbreak of World War II, the SS \"Einsatzgruppen\" units followed the army into Poland and the Soviet Un... |
I need help finding credible information on Elizabeth Bathory. | _URL_0_ (noted some factual errors), _URL_1_ (have you read the books posted with this article?), _URL_2_ | [
"The case of Elizabeth Báthory inspired numerous stories during the 18th and 19th centuries. The most common motif of these works was that of the countess bathing in her victims' blood to retain beauty or youth. This legend appeared in print for the first time in 1729, in the Jesuit scholar László Turóczi’s \"Tragi... |
Special relativity question: length contraction vs time dilation | When you measure the time between two events, you're measuring the time between two *events*. By definition, all observers agree on what those events are. For a timelike separation, dT is at a minimum in the frame where dX = 0.
Likewise, for two events separated by a spacelike interval, dX is at a minimum in the frame... | [
"Length contraction, like time dilation, is a manifestation of the relativity of simultaneity. Measurement of length requires measurement of the spacetime interval between two events that are simultaneous in one's frame of reference. But events that are simultaneous in one frame of reference are, in general, not si... |
why is the guess who not inducted into the rock n' roll hall of fame? | I don't think it's necessarily their country of origin keeping them out of the HOF.... HOF's are overrated. They aren't a one hit wonder that's for sure. Kind of like Todd Rundgren... under-appreciated. | [
"The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame has garnered criticism for allegedly allowing the nomination process to be controlled by a few individuals, nominating too many artists in too many genres that are not entirely rock, ignoring entire rock genres, and using technicalities to induct groups who may not have been among th... |
do the eyes have a shutter speed? | Imagine a spinning wheel getting faster and faster. At some point, it looks like it's suddenly reversed direction, spinning backwards, right? And then as it keeps on accelerating, it looks like the wheel is stopped. (Of course, the wheel is blurry, since it's going fast -- your brain interprets this as a spinning wheel... | [
"Cameras with sync speeds for S, M, and F had delays designed so any given camera's fastest shutter speed would be centered at the point of peak intensity for any of the three given delay classes of bulbs. This maximized the guide number at the fastest shutter speeds since errors of even several milliseconds would ... |
why some gifs load like mini videos on mobile | If you are referring to imgur's gifv links or to gfycat links, they look like videos because they *are* videos. imgur and gfycat automatically convert uploaded gifs into videos. | [
"GIFs are another example of remix culture. They are illustrations and small clips from films used for personal expressions in online conversations. GIFs are commonly taken from an online video form such as film, T.V. or YouTube videos. Each clip usually lasts for about 3 seconds and is \"looped, extended and repea... |
What happens to the energy used in a Air Conditioner? | The energy is expelled as heat.
Air conditioners essentially move heat from inside a building to outside, and the heat released outside is more than the heat absorbed, because some of it is heat from the energy used to run the air conditioner. | [
"Production of the electricity used to operate air conditioners has an environmental impact, including the release of greenhouse gases. According to a 2015 government survey, 87% of the homes in the United States use air conditioning and 65% of those homes have central air conditioning. Most of the homes with centr... |
if trees need carbon dioxide to survive, how did they exist before land animals spawned | You've got it backwards, CO2 existed in the earth's original atmosphere. It's O2 (oxygen gas) which did not exist, and was created by plants, who came first. Animals were only able to evolve into existence because of the O2 created by plants. | [
"When the levels of carbon dioxide fall to the limit where photosynthesis is barely sustainable, the proportion of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is expected to oscillate up and down. This will allow land vegetation to flourish each time the level of carbon dioxide rises due to tectonic activity and respiration f... |
is spicy a flavor like sweet, sour or salty? | I always understood it as a litteral burning of your taste buds... But I maybe be way off the mark here | [
"Filipino cuisine centres around the combination of sweet (\"tamis\"), sour (\"asim\"), and salty (\"alat\"), although in Bicol, the Cordilleras and among Muslim Filipinos, spicy (\"anghang\") is a base of cooking flavor.\n",
"The Five Flavors, sometimes also translated as \"Five Tastes\", are: acrid/pungent (辛),... |
if you stood in front of a hugely radioactive source what would physically happen to you in the short term? also would the type of radioactivity change the result? | In the short term you would get something like a sunburn if the exposure was strong enough. Alpha particles have trouble penetrating the skin and are only harmful if ingested or inhaled. Beta rays are more energetic, thus causing more damage. Gamma rays are the worst. They can penetrate some thickness of lead, and the ... | [
"Releases of radioisotopes can expose future generations to ionizing radiation and the calculation of the collective dose from such releases will contain uncertainties. For example, it is impossible to be sure of future population sizes and habits (e.g. diet and agricultural practices). Also the effects of a given ... |
how do animals "breathe" under water? | They inhale water through their mouth, their gills filter out the oxygen, and release the de-oxygenated water back out. | [
"Breathing involves expelling stale air from their blowhole, forming an upward, steamy spout, followed by inhaling fresh air into the lungs, however this only occurs in the polar regions of the oceans. Dolphins have rather small, unidentifiable spouts.\n",
"Breathing air is primarily of use to fish that inhabit s... |
how can a negative emotional state create physical symptoms, such as depression causing you to become sick or sore ? | Think about fight, flight, or freeze response. When do they usually kick in? When you perceive a threat. Your body physically responds to that emotion of fear. Adrenaline increases your heart rate, blood pressure, & energy supply to do what you need to.
There’s also this other hormone called cortisol. It’s known as ... | [
"It has long been believed that negative affective states, such as feelings of anxiety and depression, could influence the pathogenesis of physical disease, which in turn, have direct effects on biological process that could result in increased risk of disease in the end. However, studies done by the University of ... |
why are bank buildings so big? | In many cases the building is an investment, and the bank uses part and rents out the rest to other tenants. | [
"Skyscrapers are rarely seen in small cities and they are characteristic of large cities, because of the critical importance of high land prices for the construction of skyscrapers. Usually only office, commercial and hotel users can afford the rents in the city center and thus most tenants of skyscrapers are of th... |
what is http secure and why is it important? | It means two things:
1. The communication between you and the website is encrypted. This means that anything you do on the website can be seen only by you and the site, so you can freely transfer sensitive data (such as passwords, bank account information, credit card number etc.) without anybody being able to eavesdr... | [
"HTTP is not encrypted and is vulnerable to man-in-the-middle and eavesdropping attacks, which can let attackers gain access to website accounts and sensitive information, and modify webpages to inject malware or advertisements. HTTPS is designed to withstand such attacks and is considered secure against them (with... |
why is there not only h2o in a bottle of water while the chemical formula for water is h2o ? | Purified water (just H2O) is not very healthy, it removes electrolytes from the body. All the extra minerals in bottled water prevent this from happening while also providing trace minerals required for health. People say "pure water" but they just mean it's clean and relatively pure. | [
"Semiheavy water, HDO, exists whenever there is water with light hydrogen (protium, ) and deuterium (D or ) in the mix. This is because hydrogen atoms (hydrogen-1 and deuterium) are rapidly exchanged between water molecules. Water containing 50% H and 50% D in its hydrogen actually contains about 50% HDO and 25% ea... |
What is the difference between Nazi's National Socialism and Bernie Sanders Democratic Socialism | You might want to check out the [FAQ section](_URL_0_) with contributions from myself and /u/g0dwinslawyer
In short, there are no real similarities between Sanders or any other self-described democratic socialist and the Nazis. One of the other problems of this line of thinking is that it is usually transpositioning t... | [
"National Socialism is banned outright in Germany as anti-constitutional; it is illegal to found or belong to a Nazi party. Any party considered to be National Socialist can be banned by the Bundesverfassungsgericht, Germany's highest court. Likewise, publications in support of such groups are automatically placed ... |
how passwords work? what happens in the backend when you type password in gmail,facebook etc?what about phone passwords? | Well at is most basic you type in something and the computer checks that against the value stored in a database.
You might enter "gaussianpc" as your username and "hunter2" as your password and the computer checks a table of usernames and passwords if the password next to the username your gave is the same as the one ... | [
"Another method used is to send all or part of the original password in the email. Sending only a few characters of the password, can help the user to remember their original password, without having to reveal the whole password to them.\n",
"The process is often initiated by the user clicking on a forgotten pass... |
are main battle tanks obsolete? | People popularly think that MBTs are losing against weaponry, but tend to forget to factor in just how hard it is to score the necessary hit against a tank to kill it. Sure, in a "spherical tanks in a vacuum" type way, an infantry deployed rocket system *can* kill a tank, in perfect range conditions, against a stationa... | [
"Modern main battle tanks or \"universal tanks\" incorporate recent advances in automotive, artillery, armour, and electronic technology to combine the best characteristics of the historic medium and heavy tanks into a single, all around type. They are also the most expensive to mass-produce. A main battle tank is ... |
why most old computers/keyboards all a yellowish white | It was the style at the time (btw the colour you are thinking of is beige).
Manufacturers wanted people to buy computers to use in their homes, and to make them so common that they were just another piece of furniture or something to have around the house.
There's an old adage - beige goes with everything, which is e... | [
"Through the 1990s, most computer cases had simple rectangular shapes, and were often painted beige or white with little attention given to visual design. Beige box designs are still found on a large number of budget computers assembled from generic components. This class of machines is still known as white box com... |
After it was officially shut down, what happened to the MKULTRA research and the people working on it? Did they learn anything useful? Did any of them move into other fields or other countries? | I'm assuming you're mostly interested in the LSD/"Mind Control" aspects of MKUltra.
Much of the official CIA/DoD documentation on MKUltra was destroyed during the 1970's in a big document purge around the time of the Church Comittee. After the revelations of Watergate as well as the era of the post J. Edgar Hoover F... | [
"Project MKUltra was first brought to public attention in 1975 by the Church Committee of the United States Congress and Gerald Ford's United States President's Commission on CIA activities within the United States. Investigative efforts were hampered by the fact that CIA Director Richard Helms ordered all MKUltra ... |
Is diabetic nocturia different from just having to urinate a lot? | I am a type 1 diabetic, so I unfortunately have a degree of familiarity with all the exciting aspects. Diabetes only causes nocturia if you are not balancing your sugars well. Specifically if you are running a high blood sugar.
A high blood sugar level is caused when you take insufficient insulin for how many carbs ... | [
"This is because patients experience polyuria (an excretion of over 2.5 liters of urine per day), and that the urine content does not have an elevated glucose concentration, as opposed to diabetes mellitus. The two diseases were named (in ancient times) for the fact that one is excessive urination in which the urin... |
How efficient are electric vehicles like the Tesla Model 3 in cold weather? | What I was told was that the pre-drive warm-up was for the car's cabin, not the batteries. In gas powered cars, waste heat from the engine is used to heat the inside, an application that doesn't result in more fuel consumption. The **in**efficiency for EVs comes from the fact that power for keeping the passengers war... | [
"Newer designs are focused on using super-insulated cabins which can heat the vehicle using the body heat of the passengers. This is not enough, however, in colder climates as a driver delivers only about 100 W of heating power. A heat pump system, capable of cooling the cabin during summer and heating it during wi... |
Why do some motor skills, like riding a bike, stay with you forever, while others, like boxing or shooting a gun, require regular practice? | Your question assumes something that likely isn't true. A person who has boxed or shot a gun will also retain motor skills associated with those activities. That is, even after they stop regular practice they will be demonstrably better at those skills than somebody who has never learned how to box or how to fire a g... | [
"Bicycles are often used by people seeking to improve their fitness and cardiovascular health. In this regard, cycling is especially helpful for those with arthritis of the lower limbs who are unable to pursue sports that cause impact to the knees and other joints. Since cycling can be used for the practical purpos... |
Did Hitler's decision to redirect Army Group Center to subduing Ukraine instead of continuing onward to Moscow contribute to their ultimate defeat by the Red Army 1941? | **TL;DR: NO**
> There seems to be some merit to this claim, considering that even after capturing Ukraine, the Panzer divisions were said to be within binocular distance of Moscow (about 20 miles). Some claim that if they had had an additional few months, they could have steamrolled Russian central command before th... | [
"In April 1942 Stalin overrode Stavka by ordering the Soviets' first serious counter-attack, an attempt to seize German-held Kharkov in eastern Ukraine. This attack proved unsuccessful. That year, Hitler shifted his primary goal from a overall victory on the Eastern Front, to the goal of securing the oil fields sou... |
the so called "mega earthquake" that is said to be coming for the west coast. | They've been talking about it for a long time. I remember being in middle school when the whittier-narrows earthquake happened in Los Angeles (September 1987). At that point, it was the strongest quake in Southern Cal since 1972 (and then we had a stronger one, the Northridge quake in 1994). But it was the Whittier ... | [
"On Tuesday October 17, 1989, the Loma Prieta earthquake occurred in the greater San Francisco Bay Area in California, interrupting preparations for Game 3 of the 1989 World Series between the Bay Area's two Major League Baseball teams, the Oakland Athletics and the San Francisco Giants. In the morning edition of \... |
Why did the Russian Confederation continue to be a part of the UN Security Council after the fall of the USSR? | The UN Charter had no measure written into it for what to do if a permanent member of the Security Council were to cease to exist. As such, there was a bit of confusion about what to do when the USSR was dissolved. However, what was clear was that there had to be some sort of succession of the USSR on the Security Coun... | [
"The USSR collapsed in late 1991. Eleven of the twelve members of the Commonwealth of Independent States signed a declaration on December 21, 1991, agreeing that \"Member states of the Commonwealth support Russia in taking over the USSR membership in the UN, including permanent membership in the Security Council.\"... |
Are we ever so slightly lighter during the day? | Yes, but for the greater influence of the Moon as described below, you would weigh slightly less at noon than at sunrise due to the gravitational influence of the sun, and at midnight too.
It's not the gravity of the sun itself that you have to worry about, because the scale that you use to calculate your weight doesn... | [
"BULLET::::- Due to the thin atmosphere, the temperature difference between day and night is much larger than on Earth, typically around 70 °C (125 °F). However, the day/night temperature variation is much lower during dust storms when very little light gets through to the surface even during the day, and instead w... |
[META] AskHistorians Showcase Submissions [Europe] | I'm volunteering /u/elos_ 's answer [here](_URL_0_) on what being German meant and the unification of Germany. | [
"Nouvelle Europe organizes regular conferences, debates and so-called s(t)imulation seminars with school classes to simulate the European Parliament or the Council of the European Union. Their events – which mostly take place in Paris, but also in cities such as Istanbul, Kaliningrad or Dnipro – cover topics relate... |
from a buddhist approach, what exactly is 'nothing?' | I can try to take an ELI5 whack at this.
"Nothing" is the absence of an external object, an "external object" is something outside of the mind.
However, there are countless debates about whether "nothing" or "the absence of an external object" is actually an object itself. In short, nothing could be just another ex... | [
"Buddhists do not believe that at the core of all human beings and living creatures, there is any \"eternal, essential and absolute something called a soul, self or atman\". Buddhists reject the concept and all doctrines associated with atman, call atman as illusion (\"maya\"), asserting instead the theory of \"no-... |
How effective was propaganda before the printing press? | It could be extremely effective ;) The most effective case of propoganda in history (in my personal opinion) was that of Sparta - which was so prolific that most people still believe it today. The propoganda itself was spread by only allowing certain things to be sent out of the city - and the only people allowed to vi... | [
"In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, propaganda techniques became more refined and effective due to, on the one hand, the growth of new communication technologies (e.g. underseas cables, wireless radio, silent motion pictures), and on the other, the development of modern advertising and public relations. Gab... |
why do i see the same length of my body in the mirror no matter how far i am from the mirror? | What do you mean by "length of my body"? Do you mean you see yourself as the same height? You see yourself as the same height because you are still the same height. looking in a mirror is like looking at a person on the other side of a piece of glass, standing as far from the glass as you. Since they're still the same ... | [
"By the laws of reflection, the images of the objects, placed within the angles of the mirrors, are multiplied, and some appear more distant than others, so that the objects of one cell will appear to take up more space than is contained in the entire chest. Looking through each hole will produce a new scene, each ... |
how come sometimes when we sneeze, cough or laugh right after drinking something, it can come out of our nose? | Because you nose is connected to your esophagus seeing as this is how the air gets to your lungs. And if air can get one way drinks can go the other. Just need some push to get over gravity and a sneeze does exactly that | [
"Irritation of nerve endings within the nasal passages or airways, can induce a cough reflex and sneezing. These responses cause air to be expelled forcefully from the trachea or nose, respectively. In this manner, irritants caught in the mucus which lines the respiratory tract are expelled or moved to the mouth wh... |
how does the xbox kinect differentiate between you and your environment? | The Kinect doesn't look at your outline. It looks at your skeleton.
Not really, but you're right, it does look for motion. Your joints are places it pays most attention to and constructs your skeleton based on the relative position of your joints. It finds joints by looking at motion and calculating the direction of ... | [
"In 2010, the Kinect was released by Microsoft as a 3D scanner/webcam hybrid peripheral device which provides full-body detection of Xbox 360 players and hands-free control of the user interfaces of video games and other software on the console. This was later modified by Oliver Kreylos of University of California,... |
Lots of media depict Nazi officers as able to execute their subordinates on a whim, and no repercussions would happen. How true was this in real life, if at all? | I haven't seen that, but I have seen the same depiction of commissars in the red army. How true is that depiction and how often did it happen? | [
"Though no physical brutality is used, the Germans at one point stage a mock execution to scare a prisoner. Another prisoner is subjected to isolation to heighten his fear. Red Cross officers and a nurse (Poldi Dur) use their positions to extract information from the prisoners. Each airman eventually provides usefu... |
why do bunnies/rabbits attack each other randomly? | Hares and a few other kinds of rabbit males fight each other during mating seasons to compete for females. It is where the term "Mad as a March Hare" comes from. | [
"Bugs Bunny and his next door neighbor, Casbah, are preparing to go on a date with Daisy, but a fight for Daisy begins as soon as Casbah and Bugs exit their rabbit holes. Bugs and Casbah both leave their holes with flowers for Daisy. Seeing each other's gifts, they try to outdo each other with bigger and better gif... |
why were european tvs assigned to 50hz and america/japan set to 60hz? | Its not the tv standard, it's the electric power standard. Different countries came up with different electricity standards at different times, They didn't get together and discussk what the standard should be | [
"In 1940, Francisco Franco changed the time zone by changing 16 March 1940 23:00 Greenwich Mean Time to 17 March 1940 00:00 Central European Time during World War II. This was made permanent in 1942 in order to be in line with German occupied Europe. Several western European countries, including France, Belgium, an... |
the meaning of auld lang syne | > Should old acquaintance be forgot,
> and never brought to mind?
> Should old acquaintance be forgot,
> and old lang syne?
Should we forget our old friends?
Should we forget the times we had?
> CHORUS:
> For auld lang syne, my dear,
> for auld lang syne,
> we'll take a cup of kindness yet,
> for ... | [
"\"Auld Lang Syne\" (: note \"s\" rather than \"z\") is a Scots-language poem written by Robert Burns in 1788 and set to the tune of a traditional folk song (Roud # 6294). It is well known in many countries, especially in the English-speaking world, its traditional use being to bid farewell to the old year at the s... |
If our brain controls and regulates everything that goes on in our body, then why aren't we conscious of it? | > and we control our brain
There's where you went wrong. We don't control our brain, consciousness is sort of a top-level, after-the-fact experience. Check out [this book](_URL_0_). | [
"Unconscious processing goes on in the mind of humans, not because we have to filter out threatening stimuli and impulses, but because many cognitive operations go on without conscious participation. The brain operates in this way in order not to flood the conscious part of the mind with impressions. The unconsciou... |
How much do we know about Muhammad? | There are several sources you can go to. The Qur’an isn’t really a good source for Muhammad’s life, it’s not a biography like the Gospels are and usually only contains allusions to events that were occurring. The main chunk of information we have comes from the hadith. These are sayings of Muhammad which come from peop... | [
"144,000 is alleged to have been the number of Sahaba of Muhammad, though other totals have been given. The number is also given as the total number of prophets in Islam, although this has also been reported as 124,000 or 244,000. The actual number of prophets or Sahaba (Companions) is not known, however, 25 prophe... |
why has hollywood resorted to revealing every arc and twist of a movie, in a single trailer? when did thirty second commercial spots become not enough? do they have so little faith in our attention span? | I think you need to go watch older trailers, trailers from the 60s or 70s often had a narrator who would walk you through the entire story scene by scene. It was only later that trailers kinda turned into abstract music videos. | [
"In 1954, 20th century Fox filmed the movie \"White Feather\" (La Ley del Bravo) with Robert Wagner and Debra Paget. It was the first Hollywood feature to be shot in the state, followed closely by \"Robber's Roost\" (Antro de ladrones) by United Artists. The two films mark the beginning of a movie industry that con... |
Why does oral sex not spread the same infections on a massive scale which we prevent through requiring food handlers to wash their hands? | Food poisoning is not due to bacteria from the genitourinary tract (penis, vagina). It is from bacteria in fecal matter.
So why do you have to wash your hands even if you only go #1? There are two main reasons:
*
You are touching a dirty bathroom that could be covered in bacteria from someone else, and
* It's a... | [
"Oral sex is not necessarily an effective method of preventing sexually transmitted infections (STIs), although some forms of STIs are believed to be less commonly spread in this way, and oral sex has been recommended as a form of safe sex. In the United States, no barrier methods for use during oral sex have been ... |
why does your hand get hot if you stick it in a tub of powdered laundry detergent? | There are (at least) three reasons why this happens:
1) the air spaces between the particles trap the heat from your hand. Because the air can’t move around freely it has insulating properties;
2) if the powder has exothermic properties (for example Portland cement powder), it absorbs the moisture from your skin and ... | [
"BULLET::::- If you come in contact with a phototoxic substance, \"immediately wash the affected area with soap and cold water, and avoid any further exposure to sunlight\" for at least 48 hours. Heat and moisture can worsen the skin reaction, which is why it’s important to wash the affected area with soap and cold... |
Why does a tube guitar amp "sound better" to the human ear? | [I'm not an acoustics expert]
The first thing to realise is, a priori there's a good chance that it doesn't. People hear what they want to hear, what they expect to hear, what they're told to hear. It's astonishing how strong this effect can be - how real the differences can sound even when they're not there. So to fi... | [
"While tube-based circuitry is technologically outdated, tube amps remain popular since many guitarists prefer their sound. Tube enthusiasts believe that tube amps produce a \"warmer\" sound and a more natural \"overdrive\" sound. \n",
"Many electric guitar, electric bass, and keyboard players in several genres a... |
How can lions, tigers, and jaguars breed together when they are separate species? | The definition of species takes into account other factors, like geographical location and behaviour. Species are defined by what limits gene flow between populations. We can look a many barriers to gene flow external and internal:
**External**: The two populations can no longer physically meet (separated by a mountai... | [
"Likewise, lions and tigers have historically overlapped in a portion of their range and can theoretically produce wild hybrids: ligers, which are a cross between a male lion and female tiger, and tigons, which are a cross between a male tiger and a female lion; however, tigers and lions have thus far only hybridiz... |
Is the oil that makes plastic grocery bags the same oil that could end up as gasoline? | [There is an invention which converts some plastics including plastic bags back into oil.](_URL_0_) | [
"A by-product can be useful and marketable or it can be considered waste: for example, bran, which is a byproduct of the milling of wheat into refined flour, is sometimes composted or burned for disposal, but in other cases, it can be used as a nutritious ingredient in human food or animal feed. Gasoline was once a... |
In space movies and documentaries, there is always some scene where you are traveling through space and passing little lights all around you to simulate movement forward. Are each of those little lights Stars? Or is this an inaccurate portrayal of galaxies? | Stars make up galaxies, so the answer is yes to both. Leaving the finer points of the impossibility of luminal or supraluminal travel aside, the depictions are also inaccurate insofar as all the light isn't compressed to a tiny blinding point of light and ultra hard radiation directly ahead in the direction of travel.
... | [
"Fulci has proclaimed that to film the scene where a space ship takes off in the film, he used four lights, a black cloth over a stage with a lot of little bulks on the floor for stars that was shot in slow motion. Fulci referred to this scene as \"a source of pride for me!\". Howarth, a Fulci biographer commented ... |
Why didn't Edward VIII just reform the Church of England, like Henry VIII did? | I assume you mean, so he could marry Wallis Simpson?
It's important to note that these two monarchs existed on differing sides of a very important document -- the 1689 Bill of Rights. Among other things, this Bill severely curtailed the powers of the monarch, as well as setting out certain rights that Parliament had. ... | [
"In the 1530s, Henry VIII, angered by the Pope Clement VII's refusal to annul his marriage to Catherine of Aragon, decided to break with the Church and set himself as ruler of the Church of England. The monarchs of Great Britain have retained ecclesiastical authority in the Church of England since Henry VIII, havin... |
How far away must an object be to orbit a neutron star? | Distance is not the limiting factor. If you're moving fast enough, you can orbit as close as you want.
Excepting, of course, that the object isn't destroyed by proximity. And that there isn't some form of drag slowing the object down. | [
"If the radius of the neutron star is 3\"GM\"/\"c\" or less, then the photons may be trapped in an orbit, thus making the whole surface of that neutron star visible \"from a single vantage point\", along with destabilizing photon orbits at or below the 1 radius distance of the star.\n",
"It has been calculated th... |
how does the body use anabolic steroids? if you have an undetectable or close to 0 amount of steroids in your body, does the drug still have an effect? | So... if you could hypothetically have two exact people train the same, eat the same, for say 9 months and one was using steroids. The one on gear would get bigger, quicker. So even if he stops say 3 months before an event or the end of the 9 month period. He would have advanced further than the natty guy would have, e... | [
"Anabolic-androgenic steroids (AAS) were first isolated, identified and synthesized in the 1930s, and are now used therapeutically in medicine to induce bone growth, stimulate appetite, induce male puberty, and treat chronic wasting conditions, such as cancer and AIDS. Anabolic steroids also increase muscle mass an... |
blowing on boiling pasta water effects? | You induce a low pressure system over the water. It makes it evaporate faster. It also causes the bubbles to expand and then pop. Doesn’t do much to the pasta but does make the water boil away slightly faster. | [
"Starch gelatinization and protein coagulation are the major changes that take place when pasta is cooked in boiling water. Protein and starch competing for water within the pasta cause a constant change in structure as the pasta cooks.\n",
"The pasta is cooked in moderately salted boiling water. The guanciale is... |
Why do people pace back and forth when they're thinking really hard about something? | I don't know if there is any literature on the subject out there, but one possible reason may be less about thinking and more of a physiological response to the stress or anxiety that comes along with it. We tend to use rocking or rhythmic patterns when trying to regulate. (You can look into research on stress regulati... | [
"Speed thinking is a type of thinking technique proposed by authors such as Dr Ken Hudson, Malcolm Gladwell and Edward de Bono that, according to the authors, could accelerate the pace of thinking and improve how an individual or group thinks, creates, solves and acts.\n",
"The phrases \"going forward\" or \"movi... |
jailbreaking | They try to break the chain of trust as high up as possible.
*What is the chain of trust?*
It is the chain of components that are run when booting your device. For example, on the iPhone, it starts with the *bootrom* and goes over various other parts like *iBoot* or the Kernel until it finally runs your installed appli... | [
"Two-Way Stretch, sometimes titled Nothing Barred, is a 1960 British comedy film, about a group of prisoners who plan to break out of jail, commit a robbery, and then break back into jail again, thus giving them the perfect – that they were behind bars when the robbery occurred. However, their plans are disrupted b... |
Do our bodies depend on quantum effects to function? | There are some papers suggesting that smell might rely on quantum effects, particularly that a molecule's vibrational properties (which are quantum) affect how our nose detects it ([recent BBC story](_URL_0_)). But this is the sort of thing that's still very speculative and as far as I know pretty controversial. It see... | [
"Perhaps the final question is, what difference does it make if quantum effects are involved in computations in the brain? It is already known that quantum mechanics plays a role in the brain, since quantum mechanics determines the shapes and properties of molecules like neurotransmitters and proteins, and these mo... |
can some explain how the carbon and nitrogen cycle works? | The carbon cycle is basically CO2 (predominantly) in the air gets absorbed by plants, which puts it back in the ground/plants. Things eat the plants (or things that ate plants) and then breathe it back out into the air. It can also burn or decompose and release carbon.
We also artificially add to this process by burni... | [
"The nitrogen cycle is the biogeochemical cycle by which nitrogen is converted into multiple chemical forms as it circulates among atmosphere, terrestrial, and marine ecosystems. The conversion of nitrogen can be carried out through both biological and physical processes. Important processes in the nitrogen cycle i... |
can someone explain this to me? the same thing happens with flashing lights. | The platform the metronomes are sitting on isn't rigid. It's suspended and allowed to move. Each metronome when swinging is exerting a opposite direction force on the platform. That opposite force on the platform translated to a tiny force on each of the other metronomes. That tiny force pushes each other metron... | [
"Headlight flashing is the act of either briefly switching on the headlights of a car, or of momentarily switching between a headlight's high beams and low beams, in an effort to communicate with another driver or drivers. The signal is sometimes referred to in car manufacturers' manuals as an optical horn, since i... |
In the 1918 Influenza epidemic, did the flu strike both sides equally? | It hit the Central Powers harder because, by that point in the war, they were already lacking for manpower, and the Allied blockade had created food shortages so their citizens and soldiers were relatively less able to withstand a virulent outbreak of disease.
-taken generally from "Cataclysm" by David Stephenson. | [
"The 1918 flu epidemic began with a wave of mild cases in the spring, followed by more deadly waves in the autumn, eventually killing hundreds of thousands in the United States and 50–100 million worldwide. The great majority of deaths in the 1918 flu pandemic were the result of secondary bacterial pneumonia. The i... |
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