Split (2)

train · 226k rows

question stringlengths 3 301	answer stringlengths 9 26.1k	context list
Do any historians use the Holocene Era calendar in their work? (current year = 12013 HE)	Would this really solve things? It's still arbitrary and yet western-centric. I agree it's inconvenient having a date system that reverses at one point, but it's still better than the traditional reign-year system they still use in Japan. FWIW, I've taken history courses (India, China, Japan, Korea) and anthro courses...	[ "The Holocene calendar, also known as the Holocene Era or Human Era (HE), is a year numbering system that adds exactly 10,000 years to the currently dominant (AD/BC or CE/BCE) numbering scheme, placing its first year near the beginning of the Holocene geological epoch and the Neolithic Revolution, when humans trans...
what are the specific characteristics that define classical music?	In the broadest sense, "classical" music can mean any type of Western "art music" played by acoustic instruments, particularly the violin family, and with less emphasis on improvisation and repetition than folk or popular music. Stricter definitions only include music from the classical period (1730 to 1820). Earlier...	[ "Classical music can have multiple layers, including a melodic line, harmony structure and base line. All of these aspects work together with other things to create different layers of musical sound. Classical music is written in different forms: ternary form, sonata form, theme and variations, prelude and tone poe...
Is there any form of Earthly life deriving energy that did not originate from the sun to fuel itself?	The Earth's centre is primarily heated by radioactive decay (it also had a kick-start due to gravitational heating). Anything that gets its energy from thermal vents is getting energy from a non-solar source.	[ "Until the 1970s, life was thought to be entirely dependent on energy from the Sun. Plants on Earth's surface capture energy from sunlight to photosynthesize sugars from carbon dioxide and water, releasing oxygen in the process that is then consumed by oxygen-respiring organisms, passing their energy up the food ch...
Sources of steel/iron in medival Europe.	In England during Roman times there were several iron mines with fairly advanced techniques. After the Romans, in the Early Middle Ages, these shut down and most of the iron was bog iron, which can be found as large chunks of high grade ore by probing in bogs. During this time iron and steel were scarce. Weapons wer...	[ "Iron, as the major component of steel, is of major importance to mining. Crude steel produced in Swedien in 2017 (4,9 million tons) consisted of 1/3 scrap iron and 2/3 of pig iron made from iron ore. Sweden's iron was important to both Nazi Germany and the Allies of World War II.\n", "Eisenwerke Oberdonau (Germa...
why do so many train tracks run along creeks and rivers?	Rivers tend to form in places that have a long, continuous, mostly-gradual path from high to low places. This is exactly the sort of path trains need, as they cannot climb (or safely descend) very steep slopes. Some rivers do have steep bits (rapids, waterfalls), and in these bits the train will of course take a diffe...	[ "Railway tracks (like roads and highways) are often colonized by non-native invasive species. In North America, such species include trees such as Ailanthus altissima, Paulownia tomentosa, Siberian Elm, and Norway Maple, and invasive non-woody plants such as Japanese Knotweed and Phragmites. The railway tracks prov...
why are some words pluralized with an "i"?	Those are words of Latin origin of male gender ending in -us. The ~~declination~~ declension of those words demands an -i in the plural. See [here](_URL_0_) for a full list of all forms of the second ~~declination~~ declension in Latin.	[ "The plural is formed by putting \"ol\" before the word. For example, \"bia\" 'beer'; \"ol bia\" = \"beers\". \"Ol\" comes from the English \"all\". When used with numbers, the singular form is used. 2 bia, 3 bia, etc.\n", "BULLET::::- In English, the subjective form of the singular first-person pronoun, \"I\", i...
how can carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen be rearranged to make up so many different things?	Actually hydrogen cannot be arranged too differently. It can be H2, the gas. When combined with oxygen it can form water, H2O, or a hydoxyl group which will react with something. It is when these two types of atom combine with the carbon which normally has 4 bonds available. Substituting the hydroxyl group for a hydrog...	[ "In a rearrangement reaction, the carbon skeleton of a molecule is rearranged to give a structural isomer of the original molecule. These include hydride shift reactions such as the Wagner-Meerwein rearrangement, where a hydrogen, alkyl or aryl group migrates from one carbon to a neighboring carbon. Most rearrangem...
Why doesn't a plane naturally go in circles when one engine fails?	It is true the the plane will tend to yaw to one side This especially applies to planes that have the engines under the wings. Since they are further away from the center of mass, they will create more torque. The plane is designed in such a way that the pilot can keep the plane straight by using the rudder. The mos...	[ "In a multi-engine aircraft, failure of a single engine usually results in a precautionary landing being performed, for example landing at a diversion airport instead of continuing to the intended destination. Failure of a second engine (e.g. US Airways Flight 1549) or damage to other aircraft systems caused by an ...
if i file for bankruptcy....	The people you owe money to get screwed. The Court (assuming they agree to your claim of bankruptcy) will gather up all of your assets and sell them off, paying out the proceeds to your debtors. This never ends up being worth it to them, they get pennies on the dollar.	[ "Individuals who reside, have a place of business, or own property in the United States may file for bankruptcy in a federal court under Chapter 7 (\"straight bankruptcy\", or liquidation). Chapter 7, as with other bankruptcy chapters, is not available to individuals who have had bankruptcy cases dismissed within t...
how are us military units numbered? if there's a 501st battalion, are there 500 others active at the same time?	The military gets bigger and smaller over time. A lot of units are disbanded based on requirements or the most decorated and acomplised ones are kept when others are cut but they keep their names. Same reason for MI5 and MI6, as far as I recall there were something like 14-17 (british) MI (military intelligence) unit...	[ "There are only thirty currently existing units in the U.S. Army with lineages that go back to the colonial and revolutionary eras. Five Army National Guard units (101st Eng Bn, 125th MP Co, 175th Inf, 181st Inf and 198th Sig Bn) and one Regular Army Field Artillery battalion (1-5th FA) are derived from American un...
Is there value in viewing history through a lens of modern morality?	NSFW Warning, Quotation From 1910s Letter With Racist, Anti-semitic Language, Be advised > What I mean by this is often I'll see people defend atrocious acts or now condemned opinions of past peoples or simply ignore as "A product of the time". > > **an example being H.P Lovecrafts writings are often co...	[ "BULLET::::- Understanding the Moral Dimension of History is the ability to learn about moral issues today by examining the past. This is an important step in historical literacy because it requires reserving present day moral judgments to understand actions from the past without approving of those actions.\n", "...
Are there lone groups of "planets" in the distance between stars?	Groups? Doubtful. Rouge planets do get kicked out of solar systems during their formation, or systems with complicated and unstable orbits can eventually kick out a planet (or gravitational interaction with a nearby stellar mass object). There's an article on r/science where they measured Saturn's gravitational influin...	[ "Planets that orbit just one star in a binary pair are said to have \"S-type\" orbits, whereas those that orbit around both stars have \"P-type\" or \"circumbinary\" orbits. It is estimated that 50–60% of binary stars are capable of supporting habitable terrestrial planets within stable orbital ranges.\n", "In th...
How does a DDWFTTW vehicle actually get energy to move in a straight line directly downwind faster than the wind behind it?	In analyzing the system, you can look at either forces or energy. In either case you must not come up with a contradiction. In looking at forces, we have the force of the propeller against the air and the force of the wheels against the ground (call these F_p and F_w). I define a sign convention such that if F_p is ...	[ "On 7 and 8 March 2010, the team reported testing their vehicle on a motor-driven moving belt (treadmill), showing that it would advance against the belt, which means that it can progress dead downwind faster than the wind.\n", "In 1969, Mark Bauer—a wind tunnel engineer for the Douglas Aircraft Company—built and...
why is it okay for us to eat raw eggs but not raw chicken?	It is not okay to eat raw eggs in every part of the world. Some places have the same salmonella problems with eggs as they do with chicken. It is not universally safe to eat raw eggs in the US.	[ "Chicken eggs are widely used in many types of dishes, both sweet and savory, including many baked goods. Some of the most common preparation methods include scrambled, fried, poached, hard-boiled, soft-boiled, omelettes, and pickled. They also may be eaten raw, although this is not recommended for people who may b...
what does ping 127.0.0.1 do?	The network stack processes the packet, and goes "oh, that's for me! Better see what's inside. A ping request? Great, I'll send a ping response to the sender! Which is me." The packet is never physically transmitted over the wire. You can test this yourself by unplugging the Ethernet cable - ping 127.0.0.1 will still ...	[ "\"Ping\" refers to the network latency between a player's client and the game server as measured with the ping utility or equivalent. Ping is reported quantitatively as an average time in milliseconds (ms). The lower one's ping is, the lower the latency is and the less lag the player will experience. \"High ping\"...
How did Christians reconcile their hatred of sorcery with the stories of Merlin and the quest for the Holy Grail?	I have an answer to an earlier question along the same lines (one of my favorites!): * [If the use of magic was seen as heresy in the Catholic church, why was Merlin, a renowned wizard, seen as a good and admirable figure from the Arthurian legends?](_URL_0_) ~~ [1/2] Lancelot is the great tragic hero of the Middl...	[ "Finding Merlin: The Truth Behind The Legend is a 2007 book by Scottish advocate Adam Ardrey, in which he puts forward the theory that Merlin was a Scottish druid, politician and scholar. The book claims that Merlin was born in 540 CE in Cadzow (Hamilton), and died \"circa\" 618 in Drumelzier, near Dunipace. The bo...
In the Ancient times, how did they know what time it was, and if they had a meeting, like the senate in Rome, how did they know what time it was and was it normal that people was late because they had different views on time?	There is already a great answer by u/Celebreth here ( [_URL_1_](_URL_0_)) on Ancient Greece - I will try to do the same for Rome. In Ancient Rome, things were somewhat complicated. While everyone could more-or-less agree on what time it was right now, your idea of time shifted depending on where in the world and whe...	[ "Since local habits varied across the empire, local Roman habits also varied. In particular, whether the day started from sunrise, or later midnight (as Romans), or from sunset as Athenians and Jews. The Romans also divided the day into other periods, such as \"media noctis inclinatio\" \"midnight,\" \"gallicinium\...
which symptoms of the flu are caused by the virus itself and which are caused by our body trying to destroy the virus?	Symptoms of the flu are actually often caused by your body trying to rid itself of the virus; high fever is a way to try and kill the virus by essentially cooking it, but in the process destroys a lot of your own cells, which can make you feel tired and shitty. Increased mucus production is a way to try and expel the v...	[ "The American Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) agrees that the \"spread of novel H1N1 virus is thought to occur in the same way that seasonal flu spreads. Flu viruses are spread mainly from person to person through coughing or sneezing by people with influenza.\" The CDC also says that a person may b...
How did the nazi leadership, SS and death squads justify/rationalise the holocaust?	The Final Solution underwent many different forms and changes before we finally arrive at the terrible conclusion that takes the form of the death camps like Auschwitz and Treblinka, and much of what was done to exclude and expel the Jewish people (among others) from pre-war German life, like the 1935 Nuremberg Laws, ...	[ "In 1941, the Nazi leadership decided to implement a plan that they called the \"Final Solution\" which came to be known as the Holocaust. Under the plan, Jews and other \"lesser races\" along with political opponents from Germany as well as occupied countries were systematically murdered at murder sites, German co...
Why don't Britain, Israel & New Zealand have written constitutions?	I can't speak intelligently about Israel or New Zealand, but Britain does have a written consitution (for the most part). However, it is not a single document, but rather a large body of laws, court decisions, treaties, etc, with a large dash of custom thrown in for good measure. The main point to remember here is ...	[ "New Zealand is a unitary state and does not have a codified, entrenched constitution. Some have argued New Zealand is a \"de facto\" republic. New Zealand has made constitutional changes without difficulty in the past, such as the abolition of its upper house of parliament in 1951, the introduction of proportional...
The universe is expanding, and people would too if not for gravity, electromagnetism, and the nuclear forces. Where does the energy to resist the "expansion force" come from?	"Every point in the universe is "moving" away from every other point because space is expanding. This includes the space between the sun and earth, the space between me any you, and the space between my own atoms." I don't think your premise is correct. While it is true that galaxies are moving away from each other...	[ "The more matter there is in the Universe, the stronger the mutual gravitational pull of the matter. If the Universe were \"too\" dense then it would re-collapse into a gravitational singularity. However, if the Universe contained too \"little\" matter then the self-gravity would be too weak for astronomical struct...
Were Slavs a single people at one point? Or did they just share a single language?	The answer lies in your question already; in short: we share similarities because we were once a single people with single language and due to migrations that happened in the past the language differences were created. Slavs share common language root of Proto-Slavic language and "present" languages belongs to Balto-Sl...	[ "Throughout their history, Slavs came into contact with non-Slavic groups. In the postulated homeland region (present-day Ukraine), they had contacts with the Iranian Sarmatians and the Germanic Goths. After their subsequent spread, the Slavs began assimilating non-Slavic peoples. For example, in the Balkans, there...
Are some breeds of dogs, such as pitbulls, truly more aggressive than other breeds? Or is it a case of nurture where they tend to be raised by people who get them to be guard dogs, for example?	[Click here](_URL_0_) for an overview provided by the AVMA of the current status of scientific study into the role of breed in dog bite risk. The overview provides references to 53 analyses published in peer reviewed journals. Here is their conclusion: > Maulings by dogs can cause terrible injuries and death—and it ...	[ "They can easily learn to 'Respect and Protect' their owners and are therefore considered by many to be excellent guard dogs. Given that they are properly socialized from a young age, they are generally sociable toward familiar humans and can also be sociable with other dogs. However, Dobermanns do rank among the m...
Do Godel's Incompleteness theorems currently have use whatsoever in Physics? If not, might they some day?	Generally they do not. Theoretical physics isn't at the point where it can be axiomatized the way pure mathematics can be. There was a [paper last year](_URL_0_) about how a certain problem in quantum mechanics is undecidable, which you may find interesting. I should add though that some of the deeper mathematical fou...	[ "Gödel's incompleteness theorems are two fundamental theorems of mathematical logic which state inherent limitations of sufficiently powerful axiomatic systems for mathematics. The theorems were proven by Kurt Gödel in 1931, and are important in the philosophy of mathematics. Roughly speaking, in proving the first ...
modern, postmodern and all that other art that i really don't get.	In terms of paintings. One thousand years ago: People hire artists to make pictures of themselves looking handsome and wise, and to make their enemies look evil. Or to record facts and stories. Artists are craftsmen. Six hundred years ago (Renaissance): People decide that good artists can be more than craftsmen. No...	[ "There are several characteristics which lend art to being postmodern; these include bricolage, the use of text prominently as the central artistic element, collage, simplification, appropriation, performance art, the recycling of past styles and themes in a modern-day context, as well as the break-up of the barrie...
How do nocturnal animals produce vitimin D without sunlight?	Some nocturnal animals sleep in areas that have sun exposure, like sloths. Others, like bats, apparently are [deficient](_URL_0_) in vitamin D, but it doesn't seem to impair their metabolism or serum mineral concentration. [Cows](_URL_1_), while not nocturnal, can synthesize it even through fur coverage. But most anima...	[ "Crepuscular animals are those that are active primarily during twilight (that is, the periods of dawn and dusk). This is distinguished from diurnal and nocturnal behavior, where an animal is active during the hours of daylight or the hours of darkness, respectively. The term is not precise, however, as some crepus...
why are some perfumes and colognes so expensive?	They're luxury goods and status symbols. The same goes for designer clothes and jewelry. You're paying for the name and the prestige. They do generally use better quality ingredients, but they definitely make a big profit. On the flip side, there's not a very big market of people who'll pay, so it evens out.	[ "In the 20th century, the term took on a second meaning. Fragrance companies began to offer lighter, less concentrated interpretations of their existing perfumes, making their products available to a wider range of customers. Guerlain, for example, offered an Eau de Cologne version of its flagship perfume \"Shalima...
the difference between curies, roentgen, rad, rem, sieverts, grays...	Curie measures the radioactivity or radioactive decay of a material and is outdated as a unit (modern unit is the becquerel). Roentgen (named after the German physicist who identified xrays) is another outdated unit used to measure radiation exposure levels in air or other material. The modern unit is coulombs per kil...	[ "Bleu d'Auvergne () is a French blue cheese, named for its place of origin in the Auvergne region of south-central France. It is made from cow's milk, and is one of the cheeses granted the Appellation d'origine contrôlée from the French government.\n", "Dictionaries sometimes translate it as curd cheese, cottage ...
Why is the German Panther tank (49.4 short tons) classified as a medium tank while Allied tanks with the same weight, such as the M26 Pershing (46 short tons) and IS-2 (51 short tons) classified as heavy tanks?	It had a lot to do with the function of the tank. A Medium Tank, at this time, was meant to function in most roles, primarily in combined arms, being able to take out enemy tanks while at the same time being fast, armored, and versatile enough to perform its shock operations. In comparison, light tanks were used as inf...	[ "A panzer division was a combined arms formation, having both tanks (German \"Panzerkampfwagen\", 'armored fighting vehicle', usually shortened to \"\"Panzer\"\"), mechanized and motorized infantry, along with artillery, anti-aircraft and other integrated support elements. At the start of the war, panzer divisions ...
when to adjust iso versus shutter speed versus aperture?	It depends on what you want the image to look like. If you know what they do independently, you should be able to figure out what you're prioritizing. It depends what you're taking pictures of and how you want it to look. If you want to do long exposure / star trail stuff, do a long shutter speed. If you want to do so...	[ "Focal-plane shutters are usually implemented as a pair of light-tight cloth, metal, or plastic curtains. For shutter speeds slower than a certain point (known as the X-sync speed of the shutter), which depends on the camera, one curtain of the shutter opens, and the other closes after the correct exposure time. At...
Interpretations of Quantum Mechanics	The Copenhagen interpretation is widely the most accepted. To be honest, there may not be any scientifically distinguishable differences between the various interpretations. Frankly, I find the Copenhagen interpretation unsatisfying because it just says that the wave-function collapses without really mathematically de...	[ "Quantum mechanics is a mathematical model that can provide some extremely accurate numerical predictions. Richard Feynman called quantum electrodynamics, based on the quantum mechanics formalism, \"the jewel of physics\" for its extremely accurate predictions of quantities like the anomalous magnetic moment of the...
Why is gold used on connector ends, like on usb-connectors for gaming mice, when copper has lower electrical resistivity?	Gold doesn't tarnish as easily.	[ "Electrodes in connectors are usually made of copper alloys, due to their good conductivity and malleability. Alternatives include brass, phosphor bronze, and beryllium copper. The base electrode metal is often coated with another inert metal such as gold, nickel, or tin. This increases the electrical conductivity ...
If you freeze soda water, will it still be carbonated when you unfreeze it?	It depends. If you freeze a carbonated beverage in a sealed container, and the container remains sealed and doesn't leak, then yes the CO2 will re-enter the beverage once it is a liquid again. This is because the contents will still be under pressure, and the pressure forces the CO2 into the beverage. If you freeze ...	[ "A frozen carbonated drink or frozen carbonated beverage (FCB) is a mixture of flavored sugar syrup, carbon dioxide, and water that is frozen by a custom machine creating a drink comprising a fine slush of suspended ice crystals, with liquid. The final ice crystal concentration changes from 10% to 50%. It dispenses...
if we have telescopes that can see galaxies light years away, what's the reason we focus them on nearby planets to take a look at their surfaces?	Galaxies are unimaginably huge, and produce their own light. It's like asking how you could use a pair of binoculars to see a cluster of billions of candles on a hilltop ten miles away (a galaxy full of billions of stars light years away), but couldn't use the same binoculars to see details on the surface of a gra...	[ "Planets are usually observed with the aid of a telescope or binoculars. Venus is likely the easiest planet to observe without the aid of any instruments, as it is very bright, and can even be seen in daylight. However, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn can also be seen without the aid of telescopes or binoculars.\n", "T...
When I turn in a flashlight, am I creating photons, or turning 'on' photons that are all around me, or something else entirely?	Photons are just tiny packets of energy that take the form of light waves. When you wrap your head around that part, you can start to understand where they come from. Down to the atomic scale now: We don't need to go into detail on the atomic model, all we need to know is that electrons move in orbital paths (loose t...	[ "When light is shining, an electron will occasionally move right by absorbing a photon and going from A to B to C. However, it will almost never move in the reverse direction, C to B to A, because the transition from C to B cannot be excited by photons, but instead requires an improbably large thermal fluctuation. ...
what exactly is going on in my digestive system to make beer shits so awful?	Just talked about this yesterday. They are terrible but my God are they satisfying.	[ "Several species of the benign bacteria in the intestine use fermentation as a form of anaerobic metabolism. This metabolic reaction produces ethanol as a waste product. Thus, human bodies contain some quantity of alcohol endogenously produced by these bacteria. In rare cases, this can be sufficient to cause \"auto...
how do dogs and cats easily determine each other's sex?	A lot of it would be smell and pheromones wouldn't it? That's why male dogs go nuts when female dogs are in heat - they can smell the pheromones they're giving off (from some distance away I might add).	[ "Dogs (\"Canis lupus familaris\") and cats (\"Felis catus\") that coexist in close quarters are two unrelated species that often display companionship towards each other. Many coexisting dogs and cats exhibit friendly relationships involving behaviours such as playing and sleeping together, grooming each other and ...
What is flux?	You can just compare it to the flux of a liquid. Let's say you want a number, that describes how much of a liquid flows through some cross section of a pipe in a given time. You would need to know two things: - the velocity of the liquid - the area of the pipe If you multiply them, you get the volume of liquid per ...	[ "Flux is the net movement of particles across a specified area in a specified period of time. The particles may be ions or molecules, or they may be larger, like insects, muskrats or cars. The units of time can be anything from milliseconds to millennia. Flux is not the same as velocity or speed nor is it the same ...
If I sat in a computer chair with a freely rotating seat on the north or south pole, after 12 hours would I be looking the exact oppsite direction as I started?	At the moment you put the chair there, you are already rotating (because you stand steadfastly on the rotating earth) and thus the chair in your hands is already rotating. Similarly, when you sit down your body is already rotating and the chair's seat plane is already rotating. So even if the is no further friction bet...	[ "Given significant distance from the magnetic poles, one can figure which hand is which using a magnetic compass and the sun. Facing the sun, before noon, the north pointer of the compass points to the \"left\" hand. After noon, it points to the \"right\".\n", "Mark R. Showalter had speculated that, \"Nix can fli...
why are netflix original sitcoms not exactly 30 mintues?	Netflix doesn't have their own studios. They finance and greenlight these new series, and as a result, they get the exclusive rights for a period of time to them -- pretty much the exact same way a traditional television network works. But after that time, the studio can sell the show to others, and most of their cust...	[ "British sitcoms are often seen on the Public Broadcasting Service, usually thanks to the effort of WGBH and increasingly on cable television, including BBC America and Comedy Central. \"Are You Being Served?\", \"Keeping up Appearances\" and \"As Time Goes By\" became sleeper hits when they aired on the Public Bro...
How do you STRUCTURE a historical essay?	If I may recommend a book that greatly helped me through my undergrad - Mary Lynn Rampolla's A Pocket Guide To Writing in History. There are plenty of different ways you could write an historical essay but, on the most basic level, what you want to do is craft an argument. Historical facts and their relevancy hinge...	[ "The essay tradition is not a prescriptive one of writing in a certain mold, but a capacious one defined mainly by a strategy for maintaining effective ties among writing form, the material being discussed, and the intended audience. Essays in the main tradition tend to have a definable perspective, even on occasio...
What lead to the end of hangings in the USA?	While you're waiting for an answer, you can start with this recent [post](_URL_0_) regarding the State of Michigan. Edit: Ok, so a robot politely told me to leave this here too: /u/PartyMoses	[ "Starting in the early 1830s, public hangings were considered by many to be cruel. Many others considered them a major community event and still others took to them as an opportunity to become unruly as with modern sporting events: \"Sometimes tens of thousands of eager viewers would show up to view hangings; local...
if the universe is infinite why are there estimated to be only 100 billion galaxies? surely the number of galaxies would also be infinite?	Are you sure that you're not just confusing the fact that the universe is infinite, but there are only 100 billion galaxies in the observable/known universe?	[ "If the universe is finite but unbounded, it is also possible that the universe is \"smaller\" than the observable universe. In this case, what we take to be very distant galaxies may actually be duplicate images of nearby galaxies, formed by light that has circumnavigated the universe. It is difficult to test this...
What was the Supermarine Spitfire's role during the Battle of Britain?	That question is very vague and general, do you have something specific in mind? The Spitfire was a fighter aircraft, and thus was tasked with shooting down enemy aircraft. Of the two principal fighter types available to the RAF during the battle, the other being the Hawker Hurricane, the Spitfire was the more modern, ...	[ "During the Battle of Britain, from July to October 1940, the public perceived the Spitfire to be the main RAF fighter, though the more numerous Hurricane shouldered a greater proportion of the burden against Nazi Germany's air force, the Luftwaffe. However, Spitfire units had a lower attrition rate and a higher vi...
If my car was struck by lightning while I was driving, would I/my passengers be grounded by the rubber tires?	No, the rubber insulating you is a common misconception. The lightning has already gone through the entire swath of air between you and the car, and a little rubber is a much smaller deterrent. What actually happens is the [skin effect](_URL_0_) in which the current goes around the outside of the car to the ground, in...	[ "In August 2010, the Wall St. Journal reported that experts at the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration had examined the \"black boxes\" of 58 vehicles involved in sudden-acceleration reports. The study found that in 35 of the cases, the brakes weren't applied at the time of the crash. In nine other cases...
what's stopping me from succesfully starting up an internet company that offers better services at cheaper prices than what is currently available?	There's a gigantic entry cost to providing Internet service. You must have agreements in place to let your users send and receive data from literally every other computer on the Internet; you can't start an ISP that only lets people connect to servers in Texas, and then expand outwards from that. So there's no real w...	[ "Clemons suggests alternative methods for earning money through the Internet, namely selling content and selling access to virtual communities. However, one might argue that this would not be effective in current society; since content and access has been available for free for as long as the Internet has been arou...
why/how do actors choose their "stage names"?	Many reasons! Some pick their own, some are given one. * Avoiding confusion with someone else, sometimes per Screen Actors Guild rules. There was already a Diane Hall, so Diane Hall became Diane Keaton. * Hiding national/ethnic background, especially in the past. Margarita Cansino didn't want to be stuck with "exoti...	[ "Another consideration in choosing a stage name is ease of use. The Actors' Equity Association (AEA) advises performers to select a name that is easy for others to pronounce, spell, and remember. Some performers, while paying great attention to their skills and abilities, give little thought to the difference that ...
what causes, or, what IS, that centre chest pain associated with guilt/being hurtful?	I've found a possible theory on the cause of psychological chest pain: (_URL_0_) > According to a 2009 study from the University of Arizona and the University of Maryland, activity in a brain region that regulates emotional reactions called the anterior cingulate cortex helps to explain how an emotional insult can t...	[ "In adults the most common causes of chest pain include: gastrointestinal (42%), coronary artery disease (31%), musculoskeletal (28%), pericarditis (4%) and pulmonary embolism (2%). Other less common causes include: pneumonia, lung cancer, and aortic aneurysms. Psychogenic causes of chest pain can include panic att...
How did the nursing/lactating relationship evolve?	A bit old, but quite worth a read, [this paper](_URL_0_). Their proposed mechanism is: > * 1 Evolution of egg-incubation behaviour in a mammal-like reptile, following development of hair, endothermy, and cutaneous glands. > * 2 Evolution of a well-vascularized incubation patch on the ventral abdomen. > * 3 ...	[ "Erotic lactation between partners or an adult nursing relationship may develop from natural breastfeeding of a baby. During the lactation period the partner starts to suckle on the female breast, and continues after the baby is weaned off. Milk production is continually stimulated and the milk flow continues. Acco...
why tv ads are so important in american politics	A thirty second commercial is a lot easier for someone to remember and internalize than a paragraph from a speech or an op-ed. It's not entirely attributable to national culture, it's just that we're visual creatures and good at remembering visual things. However, a campaign's expenditures aren't just TV ads. A lot ...	[ "Covering the media campaigns of America's first presidents to Bill Clinton's 1992 campaign, Jamieson looks at the importance of political advertising. In her book, she writes that, \"If political advertising did not exist, we would have to invent it.\" She argues that, although campaigns can be somewhat sleazy and...
I have always been told that we dont know how people were able to construct the ancient pyramids. I have never thought about it from a critical perspective until today. Do we know how the pyramids were built?	I studied it briefly in my history class last term. There was a huge labour force available to the Egyptian govt at the time. Scientists today replicated a small scale pyramid with the same size blocks in a NOVA pyramid experiment. There are limestone quarries near by, it is believed that they used rollers possibly log...	[ "The Egyptians, known for building pyramids centuries before the creation of modern tools, invented and used many simple machines, such as the ramp to aid construction processes. Historians and archaeologists have found evidence that the pyramids were built using three of what is called the Six Simple Machines, fro...
What caused the social revolution of the 1960s, with the resultant movement towards more liberal attitudes regarding race, women and sexuality? If it was WW2, why didn't similar things happen after previous major wars?	No revolution, social or otherwise starts overnight. For most social revolutions in 60s, the spark was long in place before WWII came, but found itself greatly assisted by the war and the post war period. For race relations in America, the [Double V campaign](_URL_0_) was a real eye opener for Americans. Blacks, just...	[ "As the 1960s progressed, increasing numbers of young people began to revolt against the social norms and conservatism from the 1950s and early 1960s as well as the escalation of the Vietnam War and Cold War. A social revolution swept through the country to create a more liberated society. As the Civil Rights Movem...
how do those who engage in illicit trafficking via tor know the entire network isn't an elaborate trap set up by the state department?	Basically, it's for the same reason that we trust encryption technologies like AES. Even though such technologies are developed by the government initially, they are effectively open standards for anyone to use and implement into their own programs. Basically anybody can peer into and inspect the code and algorithms ...	[ "These networks were accused of supporting illegal activity. They can be used for the illicit trade of drugs, guns and pornography. However, Tor executive director Roger Dingledine claimed that the \"hidden services\" represent only 2 percent of total traffic on Tor's network. This fact suggests that the large majo...
How did ancient cities like Jerusalem expand with massive walls?	A common misconception about walled cities is that dense constructions were built right up against the walls. Although the city centers were almost always dense and crowded, it was common for there to be open spaces like gardens and orchards between the city walls and the inhabited center. I wrote about [population d...	[ "The expansion of Jerusalem in the 19th century, also referred to as the departure from the walls, was the process of building new residences outside of the Old City walls, and shifting the city center to the new neighborhoods. The process started in the mid-19th century and by the early 20th century had entirely t...
what is the point of the 'press any key' screen in games?	The game just wants to make sure you are actually there. Usually the stuff that happens after a press any key screen is something that the game doesn't want you to miss because you'd have a bad experience otherwise. So, next time you see a press any key screen, maybe watch what happens after you press the key, then thi...	[ "Some computer games require multiple keys (other than the usual modifier keys) to be held down while others are pressed and released, in order to perform actions simultaneously; a common scenario would be the holding down of two Arrow keys in order to move the player in a diagonal direction. Other scenarios might ...
how is it that illiteracy still exists in the united states?	Illiteracy still exists because: Some kids actively refuse to learn to read, and they manage to fake it well enough that they fall through the cracks of the schooling system. Others are severely dyslexic and so are really only partially illiterate, or they have severe mental handicaps preventing them learning to read. ...	[ "Before the 20th century white illiteracy was not uncommon and many of the slave states made it illegal to teach slaves to read. By 1900 the situation had improved somewhat, but 44% of black people remained illiterate. There were significant improvements for African American and other races in the early 20th centur...
why do medicine bottles say you shouldn't crush or dissolve the pills?	Medicine is designed to release at a steady rate over time, if you break or dissolve the capsules you can skrew with that release schedule	[ "Commercially available capsules should be stored at 15 - 30°C. It should be kept in a tight container so that it is kept away from moisture. Therefore, it is advised that users should keep the pills in the manufacturer-provided bottle and do not remove the desiccant.\n", "In general, drug companies try to avoid ...
Why do nails stick in car tires instead of being shot out due to tire pressure?	There is a lot of friction between the tire tread and the sides of the nail. There is only a very small surface area (the end of the nail) for the pressure to act on, so the net push outwards is very small, not enough to overcome the friction against the sides of the nail.	[ "It is common amongst drivers of off-road vehicles to decrease the air pressure in their tires. This makes the tread of the tire spread out, creating more surface area for the tire's tread to grip the terrain. If the pressure is too low, there may not be enough pressure to keep the bead on the wheel, thus causing t...
how fast can a quasar star spin?	The fastest millisecond pulsars are in the 1.5 milisecond (670 Hz) range. Assuming they're of typical size (~20 km in diameter) that gives you an equatorial speed around 43 million m/s. Pretty fast, but light is 300 million m/s. So how do you spin up a neutron star even faster? Pile more rotating mass! These mil...	[ "Quasars that have a recessional velocity greater than the speed of light (c) are very common. Any quasar with z1 is going away from us in excess of \"c\". Early attempts to explain superlumic quasars resulted in convoluted explanations with a limit of z = 2.326, or in the extreme z2.4. z = 1 means a redshift indic...
how did the different english accents come about? when did american english begin to change and when did the australian accent differ from england's english.	Language evolves all the time: you almost certainly don't speak exactly the same way your grandparents did when they were your age. Language changes in different ways in different areas -- even today, when we have the mass media and increased mobility. But in former times it was much more obvious: people couldn't hear...	[ "Australian English began to diverge from British English after the First Settlers, who set up the Colony of New South Wales, arrived in 1788. By 1820, their speech was recognised as being different from British English. Australian English arose from the intermingling of early settlers, who were from a great variet...
What is the advantage of creating bipedal walking robots?	A bipedal might go most of the places a person could, and do most of the things in a world built for people. A quadruped might have difficulty reaching beyond legs. Wheels might not negotiate obstacles so well. Drones might not lift as much and be less energy-efficient.	[ "Walking is a difficult and dynamic problem to solve. Several robots have been made which can walk reliably on two legs, however, none have yet been made which are as robust as a human. There has been much study on human inspired walking, such as AMBER lab which was established in 2008 by the Mechanical Engineering...
How Fast Are Calories Absorbed?	Yes. There is an intricate system of enzymes and metabolic pathways that are arranged to make sure that the current energy needs are met, and that we only store energy when we have excess amounts of it. Fatty tissue in our body serves as an energy reserve, and fatty acid synthesis will only occur when you have more ene...	[ "The total energy radiated in one day is about 8 MJ, or 2000 kcal (food calories). Basal metabolic rate for a 40-year-old male is about 35 kcal/(m·h), which is equivalent to 1700 kcal per day, assuming the same 2 m area. However, the mean metabolic rate of sedentary adults is about 50% to 70% greater than their bas...
why does one get heavy sweating before getting healed from a fever?	A fever isn't actually the illness, it is the response. When you are feeling sick, your body will commit more energy towards immune response, and one symptom is a fever. What your body is doing is basically ramping up your body temperature in order to kill off whatever pathogen is ailing you. The danger of a fever is...	[ "A sweat allergy is the exacerbation of atopic dermatitis associated with an elevated body temperature and resulting increases in the production of sweat. It appears as small reddish wheals that become visible in response to increased temperature and resulting production of sweat. It can affect all ages. Sweating c...
Why does the amount of oxygen in our atmosphere remain stable?	> 5% less would affect our breathing > So it seems we have a good balance of the stuff It's not that we got lucky and our atmosphere has the correct balance of oxygen for us to live. Organisms that are alive today have been optimized through evolution specifically for our current oxygen blend. In prehistoric times...	[ "The stability of the atmosphere in Earth is not a consequence of chemical equilibrium. Oxygen is a reactive compound, and should eventually combine with gases and minerals of the Earth's atmosphere and crust. Oxygen only began to persist in the atmosphere in small quantities about 50 million years before the start...
Why were there so many soldiers in WW1 battleships?	Battleships and battlecruisers had large crews because they needed that many men to operate them. A large par of this was because the ship required manning around the clock. The majority of the crew were divided into two watches, named port and starboard. These were further subdivided into two quarters, as only a quart...	[ "Their service records added to their fame, ranging from their work as carrier escorts in World War II to their shore bombardment duties in North Korea, North Vietnam, and the Middle East, as well as their service in the Cold War against the expanded Soviet Navy. Their reputation combined with the stories told conc...
Since horses are not native to the North American continent, how did they become available to Native Americans before Europeans came over?	Horses went extinct in North America at the end of the Pleistocene (about 12,000 years ago). They didn't return to the Americas until Europeans arrived. While small numbers of horses escaped or were targeted specifically for capture in conflicts between various European and Native nations throughout the colonial period...	[ "Indigenous populations of South America soon learned to use horses. In Chile, the Mapuche began using cavalry in the Arauco War in 1586. They drove the Spanish out of Araucanía at the beginning of the 17th century. Later, the Mapuche conducted mounted raids known as Malónes, first on Spanish, then on Chilean and A...
Did World War One trenches extend north to the sea/south to the mountains?	I remember seeing a photograph of the extreme northern end of the front which had wooden barricades with barbed wire extending out onto the beach. They probably would have only needed a single machine gun supported by a company of infantry to defend that particular section. I could have sworn I saw that picture somewhe...	[ "There were three trenches in a typical front line sector; the fire trench, the support trench and the reserve trench, all joined by communication trenches. The trenches varied in depth, but they were usually about four or five feet deep, or in areas with a high water table a wall of sandbags would be built to allo...
why was the transition of germany into a democracy in ww2 so smooth (for the most part) compared to the attempted transitions in middle eastern countries?	Several reasons: 1. The borders of modern middle eastern countries were not determined by the people who lived there. They were drawn by European and American powers who had little vested interest in stability (sometimes actively undermining it). As a result, a whole bunch of people who hate each other and have hated ...	[ "After World War II, various historians of Germany sought to re-examine the German past, in part to understand the immediate German past and the Holocaust, and in part to understand Germany's supposed democratic deficit: Theoretically, Germans were inexperienced with democracy and self-government because their expe...
what performance difference can we see between an athlete that warms up and one that doesnt before a race?	In short, warming up brings the body from its natural state of rest closer to its exercising state during training, performing etc. Essentially, it makes the transition from rest to exercise much more efficient as our heart rate is already substantially increased due to warming up. Our blood circulation is subsequentl...	[ "Temperature has a significant impact on the performance of athletes. High temperature can cause various heat illnesses such as heat cramps and heat stroke, while very low temperatures may lead to hypothermia.\n", "To prevent an injury, proper warm-up is extremely important, because it lets athletes increase thei...
Is there a limit to the amount of information that could theoretically be stored in the universe? Can you store more than one bit (piece) of information using a single particle?	Related to your question is [Landauer's principle](_URL_0_) which has to do with the minimum amount of energy needed to change a bit. Essentially, the laws of thermodynamics can be used to prove that changing a bit of information requires a certain minimum amount of energy to be used. Combining this idea with some of t...	[ "There has recently been proposed a limit on the computational power of the universe, i.e. the ability of Laplace's demon to process an infinite amount of information. The limit is based on the maximum entropy of the universe, the speed of light, and the minimum amount of time taken to move information across the P...
what is the clunking noise that cars make in movies when they die?	The car is briefly "dieseling."	[ "While the car is idling, it emits a \"bassy rumble\" using speakers mounted in each of the car's four corners, and the sound adapts to the ambient noise it detects so it can always be heard. The group calls the idle noise the project's \"core\" sound.\n", "In the rear deadhead car, Hermann first heard \"a little...
Would a creating artificial gravity through a centrifuge impact something like a watch's time over a period of time?	The clock in the centrifuge would measure behind the other one. If you observe the system in the external frame, the time dilation observed for the centrifuge clock is equivalent to that predicted by special relativity. If you're in the centrifuge, the time dilation experienced would appear to be due to "gravitational...	[ "Even though this technology has potential to aid in counteracting the detrimental effects of prolonged spaceflight, there are difficulties in applying these artificial gravity systems in space. Rotating the whole spacecraft is expensive and introduces another layer of complexity to the design. A smaller centrifuge...
how does the mars rover curiosity transmit data over such uber long distance?	Rover tone transmit - > mars orbiter - > earth satellite - > JPL	[ "The \"Mars Relay\" antenna supported the Mars Exploration Rovers for data relay back to Earth in conjunction with the Mars Orbiter Camera's 12 MB memory buffer. In total, more than 7.6 gigabits of data were transferred this way.\n", "The \"Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter\" (MRO) is a multipurpose spacecraft launched...
if sugar, fat, and salt play to our dopamine levels, what do spices (like black pepper, cumin, cinnamon, tumeric, etc) do to our brain?	with pepper, and spicy things in general, they also release dopamine and other chemicals. I think it's your brains natural response to the pain.	[ "One 2003 study reported that dietary cinnamon lowered total cholesterol, LDL-cholesterol and triglycerides. A meta-analysis of 13 cinnamon supplementation trials with lipid measurements reported lower total cholesterol and triglycerides, but no significant changes in LDL-cholesterol or HDL-cholesterol.\n", "Suga...
what physics are behind this "stunt"?	It's an effect called Gyroscopic Precession. I apologize in advance, but I don't know if I can explain it to a 5 year old, and an 18 year old is a stretch, as it involves some fairly complicated vector mathematics/physics. Hopefully someone else can. Pictures help immensely so instead of doing much explaining I'm going...	[ "One of the main stunts in the film consisted of stunt driver \"Bumps\" Willard (as James Bond) driving an AMC Hornet leaping a broken bridge and spinning around 360 degrees in mid-air about the longitudinal axis, doing an \"aerial twist\"; Willard successfully completed the jump on the first take. The stunt was sh...
DAE think maybe Dark Matter is the new Luminiferous Aether?	If you look at a disc-type galaxy — one that's rotating in some overall way, like a spiral galaxy for instance — from some angle that's not directly along its axis of rotation, you'll find the stars on one side of the galaxy's core are moving toward you and the stars on the other side are moving away from you. You can ...	[ "Luminiferous aether or ether (\"luminiferous\", meaning \"light-bearing\"), was the postulated medium for the propagation of light. It was invoked to explain the ability of the apparently wave-based light to propagate through empty space, something that waves should not be able to do. The assumption of a spatial p...
why is it more pleasing to listen to my favourite songs when they randomly play on the radio rather than picking them myself in music streaming apps?	Because it's reassuring, pleasant, and/or exciting to feel that someone else shares your taste in music. You kinda feel vindicated, which doesn't happen when you're doing the choosing.	[ "By utilizing the records of users' listening habits, the website aims to be able to recommend music to users by analyzing their musical taste. However, this feature isn't fully developed yet. The site currently only offers basic suggestions if content a user has \"Loved\" (favorited), contains shared tags with con...
court stenographer machines can capture entire conversations in real time but no one uses them as computer keyboards? why? are they harder to use?	[A stenotype machine](_URL_0_) isn't just a quick way of typing, it's also a form of [shorthand](_URL_2_). It's not a 100% accurate way of recording things, it's just a really good way to capture things quickly. You have to do some work after the fact to make it readable. There are [chording keyboard](_URL_1_) layou...	[ "While extracting private information by watching somebody typing on a keyboard might seem to be an easy task, it becomes extremely challenging if it has to be automated. However, an automated tool is needed in the case of long-lasting surveillance procedures or long user activity, as a human being is able to recon...
why does taking precautionary antibiotics after something like surgery help pathogens to become drug-resistant?	Antibiotics help create drug resistant infection by exposing the infection to the drug. They then mutate to be able to work against the drug, and become drug resistant. Similar to how humans were once prey, and then evolved to be able to fight against our predators because the ones that were unable to fight back got ...	[ "Though effective, antibiotics are not recommended for prevention of TD in most situations because of the risk of allergy or adverse reactions to the antibiotics, and because intake of preventive antibiotics may decrease effectiveness of such drugs should a serious infection develop subsequently. Antibiotics can al...
How did the sun get to be made primarily out of Hydrogen, while the planets are not?	Actually, to say that the planets are not mostly hydrogen is not entirely correct ([Jupiter](_URL_0_), [Saturn](_URL_1_), [Uranus](_URL_3_), and [Neptune](_URL_5_) are all mostly hydrogen.) All of the Jovian planets (planets past mars that are the 'Gas Giants') are mostly hydrogen. So I suppose the real question is: "...	[ "The Sun's original chemical composition was inherited from the interstellar medium out of which it formed. Originally it would have contained about 71.1% hydrogen, 27.4% helium, and 1.5% heavier elements. The hydrogen and most of the helium in the Sun would have been produced by Big Bang nucleosynthesis in the fir...
why does stress and sleep deprivation lower your libido?	Sex makes babies. Babies make stressed and lose sleep. If already tired and stressed, your body no want add babies.	[ "Sleep deprivation has been shown to have a detrimental effect on cognitive tasks, especially involving divergent functions or multitasking. It also has effects on mood and emotion, and there have been multiple reports of increased tendency for rage, fear or depression with sleep debt. However, some of the higher c...
how do geologists record historic and pre-historic tsunamis?	Tsunamis are huge waves, whose height can exceed tens of metres. The insane amount of energy in the wave lifts up boulders, carrying them all the way upshore. The heavy rocks are then dropped in a semi-neat line where the wave finally ran out of energy and changed directions. Geologists can identify the boulders as pa...	[ "The recognition and dating of tsunami deposits is an important part of paleoseismology. The extent of a particular deposit may help to judge the magnitude of a known historical earthquake or to act as evidence of a prehistoric event. In the case of the 869 Sanriku earthquake, the identification of tsunami deposits...
What are the common "old age" failure modes of computer microprocessors?	Not sure about lifespans. Even manufactures might have trouble quantifying that. Usually the biggest problem is accidental overheating, but they have automatic protection built in. And running it within it's designed specs and not overclocking makes that unlikely. Thermal shock is always bad but unlikely. For semic...	[ "A redundant computer system consist of identical two-compute nodes, which each fail with an intensity of formula_1. When failed, they are repaired one at the time by a single repairman with negative exponential distributed repair times with expectation formula_2.\n", "The fourth generation computers began with t...
how do gene editing techniques target the whole tissue/organ/organism?	There are multiple options for trying to genetically engineer tissues/organs/organisms. 1. Get them early -- if you can genetically modify them when they are a single cell (like you said, during development), then once they grow into the complete organism you should have modified the whole thing. 2. Use something that...	[ "Gene editing is the process by which specific changes are made to the sequence of a gene within the context of a host cell. By editing the code of a patient-derived cell to introduce or repair a genetic change believed to drive disease, a patient’s disease can be reproduced in a laboratory setting, letting researc...
why does the text in older movies always move?	Because the text was applied to each frame of the film separately. That is an imperfect process so ... with a little difference in location of the text from frame to frame you've got what essentially amounts to a little animation!	[ "During production of the prequel trilogy, Lucas insisted that written text throughout the films look as dissimilar from the English alphabet as possible and strongly opposed English-looking characters in screens and signage. In developing typefaces for use in , including Mandalorian and Geonosian scripts, graphic ...
Can an object teleport because of Quantum Mechanics?	In answer to your question, yes, but I wouldn't consider this to be teleportation. The "location" of an object is really only defined in any sense by the exact value of its wavefunction over space, and while its true it could have some probability amplitude very far away from where you'd think of its location as being ...	[ "In 1993, Bennett \"et al\" proposed that a quantum state of a particle could be teleported to another distant particle, but the two particles do not move at all. This is called state teleportation. There are a lot of following theoretical and experimental papers published. Researchers believe that quantum teleport...
Could the language i've spoke growing up influence on how my voice sound?	The answer to your question is mixed, and really depends on what you mean by "voice". When a speech-language pathologist (aka speech therapist) refers to voice, we generally view it as breaking down in three main aspects: vocal quality, intensity/loudness, and pitch. In turn, these aspects are controlled by three syste...	[ "Karl Wernicke also used postmortem studies to link specific areas of the brain with speech production. However his research focused more on patients who could speak, however their speech made little sense and/or had trouble understanding spoken words or sentences.\n", "Two key elements of speech development are ...
Does EM radiation create overtones?	Light can create overtones in specially engineered instances. In fact, if you own a green laser pointer, the green light is a overtone. In optics, this is called frequency doubling (or tripling, etc), and requires a crystal with very specific optical properties, called "nonlinear crystals" or "electro-optic crystals"...	[ "The effects of EMR upon chemical compounds and biological organisms depend both upon the radiation's power and its frequency. EMR of visible or lower frequencies (i.e., visible light, infrared, microwaves, and radio waves) is called \"non-ionizing radiation\", because its photons do not individually have enough en...
how is the production cost for each game of thrones episode $10m, when they have 5 actors who are each receiving $2m per episode this season?	Every episode has it's own budget based off the budget the studio gives those showmakers. Let's say, like Game of Thrones, you have an 8 episode season, but you just have these 5 characters. The studio would give you $120,000,000 for that season, $40 mil goes to paying the actors, and the other $80 mil is separated int...	[ "\"Game of Thrones\" has an ensemble cast estimated to be the largest on television; during its third season, 257 cast names were recorded. In 2014, several actor contracts were renegotiated to include a seventh-season option, with raises which reportedly made them among the highest-paid performers on cable televis...
why is testifying under oath a big deal?	> I don't see how this oath thing is going to stop these politicians from lying again. Lying under oath is a criminal offense. If they are caught lying then they can be stripped of office and go to jail for a long time.	[ "BULLET::::- In relation to the oath, the testimony is \"thereby shown to be limited in amount, vague and indefinite in character, and utterly unreliable, because of the disreputable and untrustworthy character of the witnesses.\"\n", "In lieu of written evidence, oaths are traditionally accorded much greater wei...
why is the term "retarded" considered offensive?	Definitions of words aren't really important in deciding what people find offensive. F**got and homosexual both mean the same thing, but only one is considered offensive. We view words as offensive when people begin to use them as an insult. This is why "negro" was once considered the proper way to refer to black peo...	[ "Retard, when used as a verb is to refer to delay or hold back in terms of progress or development, or to be delayed. As a noun, it is considered a dated, offensive and pejorative term when used to refer to a person who has a mental disability. It was previously used as a genuine term in medical contexts, though ha...
the offside rule in football	When a defensive lineman moves before the center snaps the ball into play. If an offensive lineman moves before the ball is snapped, it is called a false start. It is possible for the person snapping the ball to be called for false start, somehow.	[ "Offside is a minor foul in gridiron football caused when a defender crosses the line of scrimmage ahead of the snap of the ball. The penalty associated with the infraction is the advancing of the ball five yards and a replay of the down.\n", "In gridiron football, offside is a foul in which a player is on the wr...
how do passports from foreign countries (not american) wotk?	Someone is misunderstanding something here. A Slovakian passport is definitely valid for entry to the US. What your friend may be thinking of is the Schengen Area. The Schengen Area is an agreement between 26 European countries to allow citizens to travel freely between those countries without having to pass through ...	[ "United States passports are issued by the U.S. Department of State. Applications for passports are most often filed at United States Postal Service offices or local county or municipal clerk's offices. For many years, passports were not required for U.S. citizens to re-enter from countries near the United States (...
how does p2p encryption work?	Whenever you send a message, the message is locked (encrypted) using a key . The key is unique in the sense that you and only the intended recipient has the key to that lock. Thus, only the recipient can unlock (decrypt) the message.	[ "PGP can be used to send messages confidentially. For this, PGP uses hybrid cryptosystem by combining symmetric-key encryption and public-key encryption. The message is encrypted using a symmetric encryption algorithm, which requires a symmetric key generated by the sender. The symmetric key is used only once and i...
How can black holes emit gamma and x-ray radiation if light can't escape from them?	It's not the black holes themselves that are emitting radiation - it's the matter falling into the black holes. Diffuse matter (gas and dust) in the presence of a compact massive object forms what's known as an [accretion disc](_URL_0_). Matter in the accretion disc falls into the black hole, it experiences a strong ...	[ "A black star with a radius slightly greater than the predicted event horizon for an equivalent-mass black hole will appear very dark, because almost all light produced will be drawn back to the star, and any escaping light will be severely gravitationally redshifted. It will appear almost exactly like a black hole...
What happens whith the excess of kinetic energy that isn't being acumulated when a rocket is flying at light speed and keeps thrusting in perfect vacum?	Well, a rocket can't fly at light speed so the question doesn't really make sense.	[ "At very high speeds the mechanical power imparted to the rocket can exceed the total power liberated in the combustion of the propellant; this may also seem to violate conservation of energy. But the propellants in a fast-moving rocket carry energy not only chemically, but also in their own kinetic energy, which a...
why have we (humans) advanced so much in the last 150 years or so compared to the thousands of years before?	If you have to spend all your time gathering food to feed yourself and your family you don't have time to advance human knowledge and technology. But as some tech gets invented and just a few less people have to work full time to get food other people can work full time with governance and science. This makes a positi...	[ "Although they are no longer technologically advanced, humans have made progress in 300 years. Theirs is a world in which technology is replaced by advances in human awareness and spiritual growth, where the organic replaces the mechanical, where they live in balance and harmony with all life on the planet in what ...
How did the inverted cross (Cross of St. Peter) come to be a symbol of anti-Christian imagery?	According to Origen of Alexandria (185-254 CE) and the apocryphal [Acts of Peter](_URL_2_) (200 CE), Peter asked to be crucified upside down as he believed himself unworthy of the same death of Jesus Christ. This is typically seen as an expression of his Christian humility. The Acts of Peter (which includes, wonderfull...	[ "An inverted (upside-down) cross (particularly the crucifix) has also been considered a symbol of both the Devil and the Antichrist, although in Catholic tradition a plain inverted cross (without the corpus or figure of Christ) is a symbol of Saint Peter. \"See\": Cross of St. Peter\n", "However, the cross symbol...
It is known that a massive supernova exploded in 1054 A.D. that was visible on Earth even during the day. Do any specialists know from there studies if any civilization recorded this phenomenon?	Seems the Crab Nebula supernova event (that's the 1054 event you are enquiring about, right?) was probably noted by the Arabs, the Chinese (on the Suzhou planisphere) and the Japanese. Ibn Butlan, a christian Baghdadi living in Cairo also reports it. See: George W. Collins, II, William P. Claspy, John C. Martin, 199...	[ "Supernova SN 1054 was another widely observed event, with Arab, Chinese, and Japanese astronomers recording the star's appearance in 1054 CE. It may also have been recorded by the Anasazi as a petroglyph. This explosion appeared in the constellation of Taurus, where it produced the Crab Nebula remnant. At its peak...
In big cities, before cars, where did people keep all those horses?	Horse ownership was nowhere near as ubiquitous as auto ownership today. The figures I have handy (from Clay McShane's book Down the Asphalt Path) are for big US cities, and they indicate about one horse for every 23 people. Nearly all of those were owned by businesses for delivery purposes, and those businesses did...	[ "Prior to the appearance of the automobile, horses, walking and streetcars were the major modes of transportation within cities. Horses require a large amount of care, and were therefore kept in public facilities that were usually far from residences. The wealthy could afford to keep horses for private use, hence t...

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