Split (2)

train · 226k rows

question stringlengths 3 301	answer stringlengths 9 26.1k	context list
Most smartphone chargers are rated at 5V, will it make a difference if I use a 10V charger with half the current, since the power output is the same?	When one device supplies power to another, then the maximum voltage that can be provided is determined by the device receiving power, and the maximum current that can be provided is determined by the device supplying power. If you exceed voltage tolerance of the device receiving power you will blow it up, unless it ha...	[ "This has become popular even in the cheapest UPSs because it takes advantage of components already included. The main 50/60 Hz transformer used to convert between line voltage and battery voltage needs to provide two slightly different turns ratios: One to convert the battery output voltage (typically a multiple o...
how many sentences can we form in the english language?	You can use the same word more than once. There are actually an infinite number of possible sentences. For example, you could say "My favorite number is one", "My favorite number is two", etc. There's an infinite amount of numbers, so you can build an infinite number of sentences by following that format.	[ "Any English sentence can be composed from a small vocabulary, such as the word set of Basic English. Also, although the human vocal tract can produce hundreds of different sounds, no existing human language normally makes use of more than a few dozen of them. In Speedtalk, each word from the Basic English set is a...
Are galaxies that are moving faster than light due to cosmic expansion going backwards in time?	I'm going to deduce that the spirit of the question is something like "does this qualify as FTL travel, and if so, doesn't that mean these galaxies can travel through time?" This is a good question! The restriction that things cannot travel faster than the speed of light is a local one. That is, locally (essentially...	[ "In models of the expanding universe, the farther galaxies are from each other, the faster they drift apart. This receding is not due to motion \"through\" space, but rather to the expansion of space itself. For example, galaxies far away from Earth appear to be moving away from the Earth with a speed proportional ...
how does water "climb up" certain materials, like paper?	Capillary attraction. Have you ever looked at the edge of water in a half full glass? Where it meets the glass the surface goes upwards a little. That's because the water "wets" the glass surface, it tries to have a very shallow angle of contact. In a narrow tube, that wetting and the attraction that water molecules ha...	[ "Papermaking, regardless of the scale on which it is done, involves making a dilute suspension of fibres in water, called \"furnish\", and forcing this suspension to drain through a screen, to produce a mat of interwoven fibres. Water is removed from this mat of fibres using a press.\n", "On a constructed stream,...
why are super-rich, non european people world buying european football teams?	Usually ego and fame. There's only a limited number of clubs, which sets a pretty high barrier to entry. Sure it's costly, but it's a toy for them, and one that can bring them media coverage and fame by hoisting the trophy.	[ "Teams have also benefited from this by being able to find a wider support base outside their traditional local areas. They can also scout for talent from a wider area. However, some European clubs have been accused of exploitation for doing this, as some African youngsters they have recruited for football teams ha...
The void of Australian 20th century history?	This is a good question and one I am happy to make a recommendation for. Stuart MacIntyre's A Concise History of Australia is the best starting point to be honest. It's not just 20th century history, it alos covers pre-European contact, the establishment of the penal colonies, transition to colonies and the road to ...	[ "\"Australia 1901–2001: A Narrative History\", Tink's fourth book was published in November 2014 by NewSouth Publishing. It tells the story of Australia in the 20th century, from Federation to the Sydney 2000 Olympics. It was a century marked by the trauma of war and the despair of the Depression, but balanced by e...
how/why does an object's mass change due to velocity?	When the laws of special relativity were discovered, one of the predictions that the theory made was that objects would get more and more difficult to accelerate as the velocity increased. Newton's 2nd law says that F= mass * acceleration. So, in the early days after special relativity was discovered, people said that...	[ "As the speed of an object increases, so does the drag force acting on it, which also depends on the substance it is passing through (for example air or water). At some speed, the drag or force of resistance will equal the gravitational pull on the object (buoyancy is considered below). At this point the object cea...
why aren't mercenaries protected equally under the geneva convention?	Because they will fight for either side, whomever pays them the most.	[ "The United Nations Mercenary Convention, officially the International Convention against the Recruitment, Use, Financing and Training of Mercenaries, is a 2001 United Nations treaty that prohibits the recruitment, training, use, and financing of mercenaries. At the 72nd plenary meeting on 4 December 1989, the Unit...
Did England have an elective monarchy in the 18th century?	Terminology note: England on its own didn't have a monarchy after the Treaty of Union with Scotland in 1707. It was the Kingdom of Great Britain. I believe the usual definition of "elective monarchy" is that, for each vacancy, some body votes and elects a successor. In that sense, no, Great Britain did not have an e...	[ "In late 17th and early 18th century England, the Parliament effectively asserted that Monarchy in England was elective – at least as between various contenders with some dynastic claim for the throne. During the Exclusion Crisis, King Charles II strongly opposed any such idea – but following the Glorious Revolutio...
as for countries like n. korea who's citizens are dying from famine, why can't we just send them food? is it because it wouldn't ever actually get to the hungry civilians?	Plenty of NGOs and larger countries do send quite a bit of food, but you're right in that not much of it actually gets to the people that need it	[ "BULLET::::3. The \"stricken peoples will not be able to pay for all their needed food imports. Therefore the hunger in these regions can be alleviated only through the charity of other nations\" (p. 205)\n", "This has resulted in less food available for human consumption, especially in developing and least devel...
in lawsuits and other court cases that involve money, why do courts bother ordering people to pay massive sums of money that the defendants obviously don’t have and that the plaintiff will most likely never see?	Yarr! Yer not alone in askin', and kind strangers have explained: 1. [ELI5: When someone sues someone for a large sum of money (let's say 5 million dollars), and the person being sued doesn't have that money, who pays out the claim? ](_URL_1_) ^(_19 comments_) 1. [ELI5: how do non wealthy people who get sued for milli...	[ "Lawsuits are expensive and may progress slowly, over a period of many months or years. During that time, many plaintiffs may feel considerable financial pressure, and may need money to pay the costs of litigation, as well as the costs of supporting themselves. When obtained during the course of tort litigation, le...
the physical difference between cd, dvd and blueray. how can they look identical but their capacities vary vastly?	The markings that lasers read on CDs and DVDs are kind of like text printed on a page. Blu-ray discs just have smaller markings - just how you can fit more text on a page if you use a smaller font.	[ "HD DVD competed primarily with Blu-ray Disc. Both formats were designed as successors to DVD, capable of higher quality video and audio playback, and of greater capacity when used to store video, audio, and computer data. Blu-ray Disc and HD DVD share most of the same methods of encoding media onto discs with each...
why does water make things slippery, but licking my finger helps me pull out a cigarette or turn a page?	Water also has a trait called adhesion, which makes it clingy. This is why you can shake your hands really hard after washing them and they'll still be wet. Water sticks to paper and to your finger, voilà! cigarette.	[ "Nonetheless, licking does play a role for humans. Even though humans cannot effectively drink water by licking, the human tongue is quite sufficient for licking more viscous fluids. Some foods are sold in a form intended to be consumed mainly by licking, e.g. ice cream cones and lollipops.\n", "As with most form...
Are we actually living within 10 dimensions?	That video that you're referring to is utter hogwash, but there are some beyond-standard-physics theories that require ten spatial dimensions. A lot of research goes into reconciling that with the fact that only three are apparent. As for experimental evidence, there are models that predict different results depending ...	[ "The understanding of three-dimensional space in humans is thought to be learned during infancy using unconscious inference, and is closely related to hand-eye coordination. The visual ability to perceive the world in three dimensions is called depth perception.\n", "Geometers and \"schooled\" people speak of len...
how are the location and depth of an earthquake's epicenter calculated?	You can calculate the location by comparing what time seismographs in different places recorded the earthquake. Since the vibrations take time to travel through the ground, if you know when they reached various places you can use that information to triangulate where they started. I don't know about depth, though.	[ "The location of an earthquake (its epicenter and depth) needs to be known rapidly for estimating losses. It is calculated from the times at which the waves it generates arrive at seismographs surrounding the source. A computer moves the epicenter estimate close to those stations which record the waves first and fa...
How did Latin mottos as a feature on coats of arms get started?	Mottos are thought to have started as war cries. The knight, when leading his people to defend their village or castle would rally them with a war cry, which might be the family name or a battle command ("forward!" or "hold hard!" etc). Later, as tournaments became popular, these war cries would be used as cheers by ...	[ "The official use of Latin in previous eras has survived at a symbolic level in many mottos that are still being used and even coined in Latin to this day. Old mottos like , found in 1776 on the Seal of the United States, along with and , and adopted by an Act of Congress in 1782, are still in use. Similarly, curre...
Historians, what is the best way for a non-professional with limited resources to conserve/handle old pictures and documents?	You can try /r/Archivists, or me, for I am here as well. 1. How old are the documents? 2. How many are there? (Roughly) 3. How much money are you willing to spend?	[ "Although most archive repositories welcome researchers, and have professional staff tasked with assisting them, the large quantity of records means that finding aids may be of only limited usefulness: the researcher will need to hunt through large quantities of documents in search of material relevant to his or he...
Apparently chess was popular in the soviet union. was it ever "altered" to be less of a symbol of feudalism and hierarchy?	The short answer is the game was not changed, but the players were. The popularity of chess in the Russian Empire surged with Mikhail Chigorin (1850-1908), who challenged ~~Emanuel Lasker~~ William Steinitz for the World Championship in 1889 and 1892, losing both matches. During this time, there was really only match...	[ "The Soviet Union regarded chess as a symbol of Communist superiority, and hence the Soviet chess world was extremely politicized. As Botvinnik was the first world-class player produced by the Soviet Union, everything he said or did (or did not say or do) had political repercussions, and there were rumors that Sovi...
is it really only calories in, calories out (caloric deficit/surplus) that determines weight gain/loss? or hormones can overpower this?	No amount of hormones can break the law of conservation of energy. If you are using more calories than you are eating you will lose weight. End of story. What hormones can do is mess with your appetite so you are abnormally hungry or it might slow down your metabolism. Or the opposite, as you mentioned.	[ "A commonly asserted \"rule\" for weight gain or loss is based on the assumption that one pound of human fat tissue contains about 3,500 kilocalories (often simply called \"calories\" in the field of nutrition). Thus, eating 500 fewer calories than one needs per day should result in a loss of about a pound per week...
if bottled water is really just tap water, how can companies get away with marketing it as coming from mountain springs or glaciers or whatever?	They can't, that's false advertising. If it's filtered tap water it usually says so on the bottle. If it is spring water, it will say it is spring water. Not to say exceptions don't exist.	[ "In addition to the supply of tap water, many local water resources are also being acquired by private companies, most notably Nestlé Waters with its numerous brands, in order to provide commodity for the bottled water industry. This industry, which often bottles common ground water and sells it as spring water, co...
why can’t you bring meat across international borders?	It's to stop certain diseases/parasites/insects/etc from being carried into regions where they typically aren't found. Different countries have different requirements for proving the food is safe, and it's simplest for them to just ban the transport across borders.	[ "In 2009, the Canadian government launched a challenge to mCOOL at the World Trade Organization (WTO). The Canadian federal government argued before the WTO that American \"country of origin\" labelling rules (COOL) actually worked to the detriment of the meat industry on both sides of the border by increasing cost...
Does street light affect plant growth?	I did a similar experiment in the 6th grade. We planted several plants in pots and left them in different locations. The four groups were: - Sunlight only - Artificial light only - Sunlight + artificial (your streetlight scenario) - no light The sunlight + artificial light grew the same as the sunlight o...	[ "It has been noted that there is considerable misunderstanding over the effect of light quality on plant growth. Many manufacturers claim significantly increased plant growth due to light quality (high YPF). The YPF curve indicates that orange and red photons between 600 and 630 nm can result in 20 to 30% more phot...
Why did the Tokugawa persecute the Christian population in Japan?	It had to do in part with the [Treaty of Tordesillas](_URL_0_) and the threat the foreign governments posed to the emerging stability of the Japanese state. I'm headed off or I would give you a more detailed answer, but we did have a similar discussion [here](_URL_1_) that will be relevant for you. There are also som...	[ "Tokugawa Ieyasu assumed control over Japan in 1600. Like Toyotomi Hideyoshi, he disliked Christian activities in Japan. The Tokugawa shogunate finally decided to ban Catholicism, in 1614 and in the mid-17th century it demanded the expulsion of all European missionaries and the execution of all converts. This marke...
how casinos can refuse to pay a jackpot, claiming the machine is broken, but not pay back everyone who played and lost?	Software developer here, I wrote software for these one-armed bandits for ~5 years. Detecting a fault in the machine isn't too hard, I suppose, though I never had to do it. If the machine is a "participation" game, then some of the winnings of each game are paid out to the manufacturer, because just making and selling...	[ "Malfunctioning electronic slot machines are capable of indicating jackpot winnings far in excess of those advertised. Two such cases occurred in casinos in Colorado in 2010, where software errors led to indicated jackpots of $11 million and $42 million. Analysis of machine records by the state Gaming Commission re...
Do we have any clue what body system came about first?	That's sort of a complicated question, since many different types of tissues that fulfill these individual roles have evolved separately in the course of natural history. Like do you mean a muscular system like our's or just any system that makes an organism move? Broadly though, I would say that digestive systems ...	[ "In the 14th century, the Persian language medical work \"Tashrih al-badan\" (\"Anatomy of the body\"), by Mansur ibn Ilyas (c. 1390), contained comprehensive diagrams of the body's structural, nervous and circulatory systems.\n", "Since early 20th century, sociologists and philosophers had discovered the signifi...
Put a phone in a cup; you get amplification, why? Isn't it just as likely that the redirected/reflected sound will be out of phase?	It’s because you’re directing the sound better. Your phone kind of just throws waves out in all directions. By directing the sound waves you’re increasing the intensity of them. If you stand directly behind the cup instead it will sound super quiet	[ "The effect reverses in a reverberation room, which echoes real life more so than the typical quiet rooms used for experimentation. This allows for echoes of the spoken phonemes to act as the replacement noise for the missing phonemes. The additional produced white noise that replaces the phoneme adds its own echo ...
the 5th ammendment. as a non-american, i don't understand how pleading the 5th doesn't directly translate to "i'm guilty".	Protection against self-incrimination is inherent in our notion of due process. What good is a jury trial if you can just compel people to confess? Sure, you could always lie under oath, but we don't want people's only recourse against self-incrimination to be the commission of another crime (perjury). The 5th Amendm...	[ "BULLET::::- \"The Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution grants American citizens the right to refuse to answer any question in a court of law that would engender incriminating themselves.\" \"Pleading the Fifth\" is a phrase commonly used in American colloquial speak, and even in such popular media as ...
what does a camera do differently when taking a panoramic picture?	Depends on the camera, but mostly nothing except stitch together the photos. Some cameras have ways to assist with making a better panorama	[ "The camera had other features not specifically related to action photography. The small optical viewfinder could be rotated 90 degrees to permit pictures to be taken in one direction while the photographer was facing in another. When the viewfinder was rotated, the scene was viewed through a deep purple filter sim...
why is anarchy and communism treated both as extreme left ideas?	The Left wants to create a "Fairer and more equal" world. Most people on the left want to use the government to do this while Anarchists believe that a government creates a group of people that are more powerful than others and so is counter to the goals of the left.	[ "The term left anarchism is sometimes used synonymously with libertarian socialism, left-libertarianism, or social anarchism. More traditional anarchists typically discourage the concept of left-wing theories of anarchism on grounds of redundancy and that it lends legitimacy to the notion that anarchism is compatib...
the u.s. yield curve just inverted.	There’s a link within an article to another one explaining what yield curves are and why the flattening is important: The Yield Curve Is Flatter! Remind Me Why I Care _URL_0_	[ "Campbell R. Harvey's 1986 dissertation showed that an inverted yield curve accurately forecasts U.S. recessions. An inverted curve has indicated a worsening economic situation in the future 7 times since 1970. The New York Federal Reserve regards it as a valuable forecasting tool in predicting recessions two to si...
how do railroads work? are they just like freeways for trains? could i buy a train and drive it anywhere i want?	Nope. Either you own the tracks, or you negotiate the right to use it with the owner ("trackage rights.") Most railroads in the U.S. are privately owned by companies like Norfolk Southern or Union Pacific. Amtrak is a peculiar case: It's a for-profit corporation, but partially government funded. Outside of the Boston...	[ "In the United States, railroad tracks are largely used for freight with at-grade crossings. Passenger trains in many corridors run on shared tracks with freight trains. Most trains are limited to top speeds of unless they are equipped with an automatic cab signal, automatic train stop, automatic train control or p...
How much did Egyptian scholars contribute to modern Egyptology	The degree to which a country should carry out its own historical research is an issue that a lot of Middle Eastern countries have grappled with, and the situation varies from one to the next. Turkey, for example, requires all foreign excavations to have a Turkish co-director. To begin with a historical perspective, ...	[ "During the late nineteenth century, Egypt experienced a reawakening of interest in the history of ancient Egypt. Egyptian intellectuals worked to integrate European sciences with the study of ancient Egyptian history. They hoped that by using science to explain ancient Egyptian civilization a sense of pride and po...
What was the "Net Worth" of Roman Emperors?	This is going to be a very broad generalization, sorry I can't give any more specific info at the moment. Also this is more on the early empire as i'm not really sure in regards to the later empire. Roman Emperors (or their family) weren't seen to "own" the empire the same way medieval monarchs did. A Roman Emperor was...	[ "As of 2017, Akihito, the previous Emperor, has an estimated net worth of US$40 million. The exact wealth and expenditures of the Emperor and the imperial family have remained a subject of speculation, and were largely withheld from the public until 2003, when Mori Yohei, a former royal correspondent for the \"Main...
why do we have an almost irresistable urge to place our hands on our hips when we are extremely winded?	The actual urge is to sit down, elbows on thighs and bent forward. It's called tripoding and assists with respiration by decreasing effort by providing a mechanical advantage. Hands on hips achieve a lesser but similarly enticing advantage.	[ "The skin of the arms, and specifically the softer skin of the inner arms and across the creased mid-arm bend covering the ventral side of the elbow, are highly sensitive to manual or oral stimulation. Caressing with fingers or tongue, more vigorous kneading, and butterfly kissing can initiate arousal and, in some ...
Did Martin Luther only become rabidly antisemitic later in life? If so, what prompted it?	Martin Luther the writer was popular. Super popular. From 1520-26 alone, Hans-Joachim Köhler has estimated that "conservatively" there were 6.6 million copies of pamphlets and longer texts by Luther avalanching off German printing presses. Luther's words, in short, were everywhere. And these words included, in...	[ "Martin Luther has been accused of antisemitism, primarily in relation to his statements about Jews in his book \"On the Jews and their Lies\", which describes the Jews in extremely harsh terms, excoriating them, and providing detailed recommendation for a pogrom against them and their permanent oppression and/or e...
moore's law suggests that technology will continue to improve itself exponentially, on and on into the singularity. peak oil theory suggests that we will run out of gas fairly shortly. the endpoints of both trajectories are slated to occur within our lifetimes. how is this going to play out?	Moore's law doesn't say technology will improve exponentially, it states that the number of transistors on the same size silicon wafer will double every 18 months or so which has more or less held true since the 60s. And it has an upper limit that no one has proven to break yet. Doesn't apply directly to medical scienc...	[ "Hubbert’s original peak theory predicts that natural gas will experience three equally spaced events: first, the rate of discoveries will peak, then X years later reserves will peak, and finally X years after peak reserves, gas production will peak at the same rate as the previous peak of discoveries. For the Unit...
What happens, psychologically, when we look at ourselves in the mirror? (x-post from askreddit, no answer there)	That's a good question and there are far too many variables to give a clear answer. Humans are programmed to recognise faces, with the eyes intrinsically being the centre of attention. Psychology has traditionally learnt the most about our brain functions by studying malfunctions. For evidence of this, look up 'Pareido...	[ "A woman stops in front of a mirror, she questions herself, inquires into the traces that her eyes have become, and what she sees paralyzes her. The reflex on the crystal tells her of a story full of dreams, full of promises, children and prosperity, but empty of passion. It's the Story of Maria Ines, a woman in he...
which point would lightning most likely strike: the taller point or the more favorable material?	It takes the path of least resistance, always. Being closer reduces resistance. Being made out of a better material reduces resistance. If you look at a [very slowed-down movie of a lightning strike](_URL_0_), you'll see it "probes" out with a bunch of feelers before it selects the "final" path. Whichever one hits fi...	[ "Considerable material is used to make up lightning protection systems, so it is prudent to consider carefully where an air terminal will provide the greatest protection. Historical understanding of lightning, from statements made by Ben Franklin, assumed that each \"lightning rod\" protected a cone of 45 degrees. ...
why is it so hard to capture rain on camera?	Because water is translucent, rain is small, and the camera is not focused on it so it is this diffuse, small, translucent stuff that the camera doesn't have the definition to pick up. FYI: Akira Kurosawa, who primarily shot in black and white, usually dyed water with black dye in order to make it visible on screen. Wh...	[ "Jacobs noted some interesting challenges during the shooting of video with seagulls flying in and out of the building for shelter due to the heavy rain on the day of the shoot. Sharon Corr once said that in some shots, you can, in fact, see the birds landing in the galleries.\n", "Approximately 80% of the scenes...
An thoughts on an article published in the J. Org. Sys. titled, "A long-term toxicology study on pigs fed a combined genetically modified (GM) soy and GM maize diet."?	Complete bollocks. Published in a questionable journal with horrible statistics and a clear anti-GMO agenda. Here are some good, in-depth, debunkings of the 'study': * _URL_2_ * _URL_1_ * _URL_0_	[ "In 2006, the Pew Initiative on Food and Biotechnology made public a review of U.S. survey results between 2001 and 2006. The review showed that Americans' knowledge of GM foods and animals was low throughout the period. Protests during this period against Calgene's Flavr Savr GM tomato mistakenly described it as c...
what's supercharge, turbo, cold air intake, ect.	All different Supercharger - A (normally belt powered) air compressor in the intake of an internal combustion engine. Allows for a richer air/fuel mix in the combustion chamber to produce more power Turbo - similar to a supercharger, but power by exhaust gasses. Generally produces more power (because it is not robb...	[ "Kompressor (stylized as KOMPRESSOR) is the German name used for compressor meaning to compress or to cool air (specifically oxygen or O2) prior to the intake of air into the intake manifold. Compressed or condensed air is more dense and cooler giving the engine more air to internally compress causing additional an...
How did the French become such a rival to the point of a qasr-war with Americans when they where allies only a few years earlier during the revolution?	The biggest change that occurred in this time was the French Revolution. France became the ally of the US in 1778 (shortly after the battle of Saratoga) and the quasi-war took place during the Adams administration (1797-1801) while the French Revolution began in 1789, and the French monarchy fell in 1793. The French al...	[ "The Franco-American alliance was the 1778 alliance between the Kingdom of France and the United States during the American Revolutionary War. Formalized in the 1778 Treaty of Alliance, it was a military pact in which the French provided many supplies for the Americans. The Netherlands and Spain later joined as all...
how is a "massless" particle possible?	Mass is no different from any other fundamental property. Just like there are particles with zero charge such as neutrons or zero spin such as the Higgs boson (maybe), there can be particles with zero mass.	[ "A so-called \"massless\" particle (such as a photon, or a theoretical graviton) moves at the speed of light in every frame of reference. In this case there is no transformation that will bring the particle to rest. The total energy of such particles becomes smaller and smaller in frames which move faster and faste...
How is a particle's spin measured?	One way is to pass them through a region with a non-uniform magnetic field. The magnetic dipole moment due to the spin will interact with this field and deflect the particle. This is what Stern and Gerlach did originally to experiment with spin. See the [Stern-Gerlach experiment](_URL_0_).	[ "According to ordinary quantum theory, it is not possible to measure the spin or polarization of a particle directly; instead, the component in one direction is measured; the outcome from a single particle may be 1, meaning that the particle is aligned with the measuring apparatus, or −1, meaning that it is aligned...
What was the strategic value of North Africa in WW2? Was it just about controlling access to Italy?	North Africa had a great amount of value in terms of naval strategy. Axis control of the North African coast, combined with Italy (and especially Sicily), denied the Allies the quickest path for shipping from Europe to India and the eastern Pacific. Allied control of Egypt, meanwhile, allowed them to contest Axis contr...	[ "Africa was a large continent whose geography gave it strategic importance during the war. North Africa was the scene of major campaigns against Italy and Germany; East Africa was the scene of a major campaign against Italy. The vast geography provided major transportation routes linking the United States to the Mi...
how the laws of supply and demand work when the supply is effectively infinite (eg. digital content bought online)?	I think you misunderstand the law of supply and demand. The law of supply and demand applies to goods or services sold in a free marketplace. The price of a good tends to equate to the price of what the market will bear. What does this mean? Well, there are two sides in a market. Buyers and sellers. There is d...	[ "The digital supply chain is a new media term which encompasses the process of the delivery of digital media, be it music or video, by electronic means, from the point of origin (content provider) to destination (consumer). In much the same manner a physical medium must go through a “supply chain” process in order ...
how can the un work if countries like the us and russia can just veto any proposal that does not serve their own interests?	It depends on what you think the UN "working" is. It's not designed to be a single world government. The UN isn't in charge; in fact, General Assembly resolutions (which are the resolutions all UN members have a vote on, and which can't be vetoed) are not binding. Rather, the UN's main job is to help countries cooper...	[ "If the League of Nations is to create any future organizations, the United States is not bound to join so no matter as to how the League of Nations wishes concerning their involvement. Instead, Congress has the right to make the decision as to whether or not the United States chooses to be involved and the terms o...
If dark matter does not interact with normal matter at all, but does interact with gravity, does that mean there are "blobs" of dark matter at the center of stars and planets?	Probably not. For dark matter to be sitting in a clump at the center of a plaent or a star not only would it need to fall in, but it would then have to slow down. Gravity is nearly perfectly restorative, meaning that all the gravitational potential energy is converted to kinetic energy. This means the dark matter ...	[ "If dark matter is composed of weakly-interacting particles, an obvious question is whether it can form objects equivalent to planets, stars, or black holes. Historically, the answer has been it cannot,ref name=\"siegel\"\n", "Although both dark matter and ordinary matter are matter, they do not behave in the sam...
why does the game show jeopardy require the answer in the form of a question when the game show is clearly concerned about the factual knowledge?	It's just a gimmick. When Jeopardy first started, trivia/quiz game shows were extremely popular, and you needed a cool gimmick to set your show apart from the rest of the pack. Remembering to answer in the form of a question is part of the challenge.	[ "\"Jeopardy!\"s answer-and-question format has become widely entrenched: Fleming observed that other game shows would have contestants phrasing their answers in question form, leading hosts to remind them that they are not competing on \"Jeopardy!\"\n", "\"Jeopardy!\" is an American television quiz show created b...
How likely is the story of the 'Lost Cosmonauts'?	The Smithsonian Air and Space Museum has an interesting [article](_URL_0_) on the subject. The long and short of it is: it's not that likely. The Soviet Space program used "Ivan Ivanovich" dummies before sending live cosmonauts into space, and the recovery of these dummies after reentry is most likely the ultimate so...	[ "The Lost Cosmonauts or Phantom Cosmonauts are subjects of a conspiracy theory alleging that Soviet cosmonauts went to outer space before Yuri Gagarin, but their existence has never been publicly acknowledged by either the Soviet or Russian space authorities. Proponents of the Lost Cosmonauts theory argue that the ...
If the sun shines where I am for 14 hours, does that mean it will only shine for 10 hours on the other side of the planet?	If it shines for 14 hours where you are, it shines for 14 hours everywhere else at the same latitude, in the same hemisphere. I.e., if you go exactly East, or exactly West, you'll encounter places where it shines the same amount of hours. However, in the other hemisphere (Southern, if you're in the Northern one), anyw...	[ "Dr. Research explains that the Sun is 93 million miles away and its light takes 8 minutes to reach the earth. Light from the next closest star, Alpha Centauri, takes more than 4 years to get to us at a speed greater than 186,000 miles per second. The sun weighs the same as 330,000 earths and is 95% hydrogen and he...
when having trouble sleeping, is there any benefit to laying in bed with your eyes closed or you might as well get up?	If your mind is fighting you: get up and do something relaxing. Have some tea, read something, or listen to relaxing music. What you should NOT do is watch TV, play with your phone, or get on your computer. The light tells your brain to wake up. (There's more to that, but, I'll keep it brief). Don't shower either. It ...	[ "Another study has indicated that sleeping with the light on may protect the eyes of diabetics from retinopathy, a condition that can lead to blindness. However, the initial study is still inconclusive.\n", "Sleeping in the supine position is believed to make the sleeper more vulnerable to episodes of sleep paral...
At what point in history did battlefield tactics transition from those during Napoleon's time to those of WWI?	_URL_0_ Tons of info here.	[ "In the 19th century, a new tactic was devised by the French during the French Revolutionary Wars. This was the colonne d'attaque, or attack column, consisting of one regiment up to two brigades of infantry. Instead of advancing slowly all across the battlefield in line formations, the French infantry were brought ...
How many black people have been hung/lynched in the United States?	Whilst this doesn't account for all of US history, a [study](_URL_0_) by the Tuskegee Institute asserted that 3446 black people were lynched from 1882 to 1968. It's important to note that not all lynchings were recorded, and many deaths may well have gone unnoticed. edit: in response to the edit, it's really quite ha...	[ "In addition, Haynes reported that between January 1 and September 14, 1919, white mobs lynched at least forty-three African Americans, with sixteen hanged and others shot; while another eight men were burned at the stake. The states appeared powerless or unwilling to interfere or prosecute such mob murders.\n", ...
I am living in the 10th century. I have been injured in battle in Ireland,Scandinavia and England, what treatment will I receive in each of these countries?	Scandinavia is out of my scope, but I can comment on Ireland and England. There are very few medical sources for 10th century England and Ireland. This is partially because medical schools are not around quite yet. In both places, though, your best bet for medical care would most likely be a convent or monastery, es...	[ "King Frotho of Denmark tried to mediate, but had to decide that the matter be settled in a holmgang. During the combat Hithinus was seriously wounded, and started losing blood. Höginus decided to have mercy on Hithinus, because among the old Scandinavians it was considered shameful to kill someone who was weaker, ...
England, Great Britain, the UK....which one can I use?	If you're focusing on the American Revolutionary period, the proper name is the "[Kingdom of Great Britain](_URL_0_)". This was its name between the Acts of Union 1707 (when the Kingdom of England merged with the Kingdom of Scotland) and the Acts of Union 1800 when it merged with Ireland and became the United Kingdom o...	[ "The United Kingdom (UK) comprises four countries: England, Scotland, and Wales (which collectively make up Great Britain) and Northern Ireland (which is variously described as a country, province or region).\n", "BULLET::::- England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are the four countries of the United Kingd...
In a theorized multiverse, how are "universes" separated from one other and can they influence each other?	Which 'multiverse' are you talking about? One view of the multiverse is that the big bang was a point origin of our universe, but there may be other point origins far removed from ours. This is the Ergodic multiverse. These universes are separated from each other by immense distances. They can never influence e...	[ "The multiverse, also known as an omniverse or meta-universe, is a hypothetical group of multiple universes. Together, these universes comprise everything that exists: the entirety of space, time, matter, energy, and the physical laws and constants that describe them. The different universes within the multiverse a...
why can our pupils dilate or shrink within less than a second, but we have to squint to get used to the light after a long period of darkness?	There are two types of receptors within your pupil that process light- rods and cones. Rods process low level light as black and white. Cones process bright light or color. When there is a lot of light, your rods are "bleached" and therefore take time to readjust and begin processing low light levels again. You c...	[ "The retina has a static contrast ratio of around 100:1 (about 6.5 f-stops). As soon as the eye moves rapidly to acquire a target (saccades), it re-adjusts its exposure by adjusting the iris, which adjusts the size of the pupil. Initial dark adaptation takes place in approximately four seconds of profound, uninterr...
how can we not yet replicate the composition of expensive aged drinks like old whiskey and cognac	Which would you rather have? An autographed original rookie babe Ruth baseball card? Or a replica? Which would you rather pay more for? Could some whiskey be made in sped up fashion to replicate an aged 100 year old product? Maybe. Do the type of trees used still exist? Do the types of crops, growing conditions and di...	[ "While aging in wooden casks, especially American oak and French oak casks, whisky undergoes six processes that contribute to its final flavor: extraction, evaporation, oxidation, concentration, filtration, and colouration. Extraction in particular results in whisky acquiring a number of compounds, including aldehy...
I just saw the BBC documentary, "1945: The Savage Peace". Historiographically, why was the post-war deaths of 12 million ethnic Germans largely ignored in school history texts?	Are you sure 12 million were killed? Do you have any other sources or a link to the documentary? I think you might be confusing the number of German speakers expelled from the east with the number who died.	[ "In January 1979, the American mini-series \"Holocaust\" aired in West Germany. The series, which was watched by 20 million people or 50% of West Germans, first brought the matter of the genocide in World War II to widespread public attention in a way that it had never been before. After each part of \"Holocaust\" ...
why are the lanthanides and actinides so weird?	The Lanthanides and Actinides are not located outside the table because they're weird; they're put there to make the table easier to read. They properly belong between groups 3 and 4, but that makes the table really wide and narrow; [have a look.](_URL_0_)	[ "Although the rarity of many of these elements means that experimental results are not very extensive, their periodic and group trends are less well defined than other periods. Whilst francium and radium do show typical properties of their respective groups, actinides display a much greater variety of behaviour and...
How was ancient Grecian pottery made? Can it be made today?	With access to a pottery studio, it would be fairly easy to make something that looks like that; however, it might take some effort to find the exact pigments the Greeks used, and it would probably be a hassle to build a pottery wheel like the ones used in ancient Greece. If you want to be authentic without spending ...	[ "Ancient pottery differs from modern in the fundamental prevalence of utilitarian intent. Where a potter or glass-blower today would spend time creating ceramics or glassware that are individual works of art, or a small class of elite decorative ware, which have no other purpose than display as art, and serving as ...
what had caused the interest rates to go up and the housing prices to go down at the burst of the housing bubble? what was the trigger?	Banks were giving out lots of lots of subprime mortgages to people who couldn't realistically pay for them. Then, the banks just packaged those mortgages into securities which were sold to investors, so the banks didn't even have to deal with any of the risk. It was a total perverse incentive because the banks were mak...	[ "In the wake of the dot-com crash and the subsequent 2001–2002 recession the Federal Reserve dramatically lowered interest rates to historically low levels, from about 6.5% to just 1%. This spurred easy credit for banks to make loans. By 2006 the rates had moved up to 5.25% which lowered the demand and increased th...
What do the visual stages of a bruise represent internally and biochemically?	"...The striking colors of a bruise are caused by the phagocytosis and sequential degradation of hemoglobin to biliverdin to bilirubin to hemosiderin, with hemoglobin itself producing a red-blue color, biliverdin producing a green color, bilirubin producing a yellow color, and hemosiderin producing a golden-brown color...	[ "Bruise shapes may correspond directly to the instrument of injury or be modified by additional factors. Bruises often become more prominent as time lapses, resulting in additional size and swelling, and may grow to a large size over the course of the hours after the injury that caused the bruise was inflicted. As ...
why does a home loan at 4% end up taking 70% of my monthly mortgage payment?	That's 4% per year. So over a 30-year span, it adds up. The interest paid goes down as your principle goes down, but you'll usually still be spending a lot on interest. Edit: Note that this is how all finances dealing with interest rates work. Savings accounts, credit cards, car loans, student loans, etc all give an...	[ "With a fixed rate mortgage, the borrower agrees to pay off the loan completely at the end of the loan's term, so the amount owed at month \"N\" must be zero. For this to happen, the monthly payment \"c\" can be obtained from the previous equation to obtain:\n", "Even with a fixed interest rate, monthly mortgage ...
What information can be gathered from a properly constructed phylogeny (and what can't easily)?	There are actually a lot of ways to construct a phylogeny and some give more or less information. The most basic tree will give you information about divergence in lineages. [Here's an example.](_URL_0_) In that tree you can see a lot of information about the evolutionary relationships among the great ape...	[ "Genomic phylostratigraphy is a statistical approach for reconstruction of macroevolutionary trends based on the principle of founder gene formation and punctuated emergence of protein families. Phylostratigraphy, a novel statistical method, was developed by Tomislav Domazet-Lošo at the Ruđer Bošković Institute in ...
Why did the Islamic world persecute Zoroastrians so much, yet were influenced so much by Persian culture?	> Islam has always had negative views towards Zoroastrianism This is perhaps too general a statement that leaves no room for understanding the early Islamic period. I just completed the first quarter of an Islamic civ survey required for my MA. This course covered the origins and early Islamic period and I never got...	[ "In Persia, Islam was readily accepted by Zoroastrians who were employed in industrial and artisan positions because, according to Zoroastrian dogma, such occupations that involved defiling fire made them impure. Moreover, Muslim missionaries did not encounter difficulty in explaining Islamic tenets to Zoroastrians...
What caused the Great Vowel Shift?	Can someone explain better what the great vowel shift was?	[ "The Great Vowel Shift was a series of changes in the pronunciation of the English language that took place primarily between 1350 and the 1600s and 1700s, beginning in southern England and today having influenced effectively all dialects of English. Through this vowel shift, all Middle English long vowels changed ...
how do humans know that we've only discovered a fraction of the species on earth? and how is that possible given we're 8 billion strong?	There's an awful lot of species that are too small to really see, or live at the bottom of the ocean (which is a huge percentage of the surface of the Earth). We've documented the surface pretty well for things big enough to hold in our hand or larger (and even of those, new species pop up quite often), but when you ...	[ "BULLET::::- The natural world contains about 8.7 million species, according to a new estimate described by scientists as the most accurate ever. However, the vast majority of these species have not been identified – cataloguing them all could take more than 1,000 years. (BBC)\n", "Some estimates on the number of...
What profanities and euphanisms from modern times existed back in the early 1900s and even earlier?	I can't answer 2., but for 1. * "Dick" was, and is, a nickname for "Richard", and as Richard is a common name it was used to mean "fellow, lad, man" in the 16th century. The usage of "dick" as slang for "an unpleasant person" comes from this original meaning of "dick" as "fellow", and dates back to at least 1665 ("Dic...	[ "The most cited example is the social revolution and sexual revolution of the 1960s in Europe and America, giving rise to more liberal attitudes toward artistic freedom, homosexuality and drugs, which had its origins in blowback against repressive authoritarian regimes such as the Nazis, as described by the Bloomsb...
Can lack of one sense heighten another?	Yes, because the body needs to make up for the loss using the others, up to a certain limit, of course; it's like an increase in efficiency, and can occur in different sectors, if you stop using the hands, you could learn to write and manipulate objects with your foots.	[ "An acrophobic, however, continues to over-rely on visual signals whether because of inadequate vestibular function or incorrect strategy. Locomotion at a high elevation requires more than normal visual processing. The visual cortex becomes overloaded, resulting in confusion. Some proponents of the alternative view...
Why isn't there much interest about the "sound" of Mars?	There are several reasons. One is because the atmospheric pressure on Mars is about 0.03% of Earth; there really isn't very much stuff out there to listen to. But the main reason is that there was no good reason to carry such an instrument. What could they possibly listen to that would provide useful scientific data? ...	[ "On 7 December 2018 \"InSight\" recorded the sounds of Martian winds with SEIS, which is able to record vibrations within human hearing range, although rather low (aka subwoofer-type sounds), and these were sent back to Earth. This was the first time the sound of Mars wind was heard after two previous attempts.\n",...
how did japan overcome the radioactive fall out of two major nuclear bombs?	In comparison to what we recognize as nukes today... the ones dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were pretty tiny. Also the radioactivity of a bomb is miniscule compared to a reactor meltdown that just spews radiation into the air. [Hiroshima is the tiny one in the middle of the circle](_URL_0_)	[ "Alexander Werth, historian and BBC Eastern Front war correspondent, suggests that the nuclear bombing of Japan mainly served to demonstrate the new weapon in the most shocking way, virtually at the Soviet Union's doorstep, in order to prepare the political post-war field.\n", "Germany and Japan were burned out a...
how come ups and fedex can operate nationwide with huge profits, but usps hasnt profited in years?	Congress has mandated "retiree health benefit prefunding" specifically for the Post Office using a rule much more stringent than any one else in the US has to meet. If not for this requirement, the Post Office would be running a profit. > Operationally speaking, the **USPS nets profits every year. The financial pr...	[ "According to the Center for Responsive Politics, FedEx Corp is the 21st largest campaign contributor in the United States. The company has donated over $21 million since 1990, 45% of which went to Democrats and 55% to Republicans. Strong ties to the White House and members of Congress allow access to international...
What was the culture of pre-Sengoku Japan like?	Ok, this is going to be a bit of a long answer... The Heian period (794-1185) was the last of the 'classical' eras in Japan. There was no Shogun, only an Imperial court. It is well known for its arts and culture (unfortunately, only the noble class was written about. There is not a lot of information regarding the pea...	[ "The Sengoku period literally derives its name from the Japanese for \"warring states\". It was a militarily and politically turbulent period, with nearly constant military conflict which lasted roughly from the middle of the 15th century to the beginning of the 17th century, and which during which there were also ...
What do we know about the motivations of Empress Dowager Cixi during the late 19th century and the Hundred Days of reforms?	I had quite an interesting debate with another poster [about this very topic](_URL_0_) a few weeks ago. Hopefully it may answer some of your questions.	[ "Following the death of the Xianfeng Emperor in 1861, Sushun, his elder brother Duanhua, and Zaiyuan, along with five other prominent people in the Qing imperial court, were appointed regents to oversee administrative affairs during the young Tongzhi Emperor's minority. However, without obtaining the seals of the t...
why long stays in low gravity impairs vision	I believe it has something to do with the lack of or lesser gravity effecting the pressure of fluids in the eye. Because the human eye evolved at earths gravity, it is used to that pressure. But when you let the gravity pressure off, fluids in your eye can sorta float around more and cause damage.	[ "Over the last decade, flight surgeons and scientists at NASA have seen a pattern of vision problems in astronauts on long-duration space missions. The syndrome, known as visual impairment intracranial pressure (VIIP), has been reported in nearly two-thirds of space explorers after long periods spent aboard the Int...
why does taking a small amount of melatonin work better than taking a large amount?	Taking melatonin works by replicating the natural release of melatonin in your system at sunset. You could get the same response by dimming all your lights and switching to redder light an hour before bed, but who wants to do that? If you take a small dose, you trick the brain into thinking that the sun has set, and ...	[ "Melatonin has been found to be effective as a premedication in both adults and children due to its pharmacological properties of hypnotic, antinociceptive and anticonvulsant which produce effective anxiolosis and sedation. Unlike midazolam melatonin does not impair psychomotor skills or adversely affect the qualit...
why are serial killers so difficult to catch?	Most murderers kill people they know. If one spouse dies it was more like than not the other spouse that did it. It's just a matter of finding proof. Serial killers are known for being quite anonymous in their killings. So even if you find evidence like dna or fingerprints you still have to find who they belong t...	[ "Serial killers are also portrayed in fictional media, oftentimes as having substantial intelligence and looking for difficult targets, despite the contradiction with the psychological profile of serial killers.\n", "The recurring characteristic serial killers share, Morrison contends, is the emotional age of an ...
Why is stagnant water unsafe while flowing water is considered safer? What causes the microbes to flourish in stagnant ponds?	Similar to above, the water stagnating doesn't allow for microbes to move away from that place when they multiply so the concentration of harmful bacteria grows exponentially. However, when the water is flowing the microbes are moved away from the area you are getting the water from, so the probability of getting a hug...	[ "Stagnant water can be dangerous for drinking because it provides a better incubator than running water for many kinds of bacteria and parasites. Stagnant water is often contaminated with human and animal feces, particularly in deserts or other areas of low rain.\n", "Based on its high water solubility (0.5-0.6 g...
how can any country or coalition expect to challenge the united states and its allies in total war?	> With people talking about a Syrian strike being a catalyst for World War 3 The only people talking about a world war coming from the current kerfuffle in Syria are those with no real grounding in politics or history.	[ "The table below lists the five wars in which the United States has formally declared war against eleven foreign nations. The only country against which the United States has declared war more than once is Germany, against which the United States has declared war twice (though a case could be made for Hungary as a ...
why do ladders have one or two steps towards the top that you are not supposed to climb?	1. They still provide structural integrity in holding the ladder together; 2. When those steps are flat (as with folding ladders) you can rest tools and materials there. 3. They still provide support in the sense you can lean forward a bit and have something you can rest your legs, knees, or shins against. 4. If you go...	[ "A ladder standoff, or stay, is a device fitted to the top of a ladder to hold it away from the wall. This enables the ladder to clear overhanging obstacles, such as the eaves of a roof, and increases the safe working height for a given length of ladder because of the increased separation distance of the two contac...
what is the strategy of nascar driving? how important is the team? the driver? game plans for specific races?	I'll try to answer this to my best ability. As for strategies, it's really what you plan to do to get to first. Whether you sit in the back and move yourself forward towards the end of the race (Jimmie Johnson) or perhaps, you are a driver who enjoys getting up-front and staying there. Either way, a lot of wrecks occur...	[ "The goal of \"NASCAR Race Day\" is identical to that of an actual NASCAR race; \"go fast, turn left, don't crash.\" Players construct cars by popping out small pieces of styrene and assembling them into the likeness of NASCAR racing machines. The game is packaged so that a person may play the game with only one ga...
what causes nuclear bombs to mushroom inside of itself, but not regular explosive bombs?	Conventional weapons - if powerful enough - do create mushroom clouds as well. They're also visible around natural events, like volcanic eruptions.	[ "There are two main considerations for the location of an explosion: height and surface composition. A nuclear weapon detonated in the air, called an air burst, produces less fallout than a comparable explosion near the ground. A nuclear explosion in which the fireball touches the ground pulls soil and other materi...
how to get the percentage between two numbers (exact question in text)	ELI5 isn't for math homework, try /r/homeworkhelp or /r/answers. Removing.	[ "In the first step both numbers were divided by 10, which is a factor common to both 120 and 90. In the second step, they were divided by 3. The final result, /, is an irreducible fraction because 4 and 3 have no common factors other than 1.\n", "Next, subtract one of the two variables from 100. Then subtract the...
How did Portugal shape the eventual Trans-Atlantic slave trade?	One of the most important sources for understanding the Trans-Atlantic slave trade is the Slave Trade Database: _URL_0_ A look at the statistics for Portugal/Brazil show that during the slave trade, a full 3,897,000 slave embarked from Africa on ships with a Portugal/Brazilian flag. Over 3,483,000 slave disembarked....	[ "The Atlantic slave trade developed after trade contacts were established between the \"Old World\" (Afro-Eurasia) and the \"New World\" (the Americas). For centuries, tidal currents had made ocean travel particularly difficult and risky for the ships that were then available, and as such there had been very little...
Is the incidence of genetically-related disease lower in those who would be considered 'two or more races' as compared to those who would be considered one race?	1) Race is rather arbitrary, irrelevant, and somewhat silly. There are no hard lines between human "races" everything very much exists along a continuum. With some populations (which again will have muddled borders) with higher levels of homogeny (people are more genetically similar) you may see elevated levels of some...	[ "There are many single gene genetic disorders that differ in frequency between different populations due to the region and ancestry. While some assume this diseases to be solely based on race, other authors point out that race is not a useful markers as self-reported ancestry and racial identity or classification d...
differences between video file types (mp4, avi, mkv, etc)	They're basically all the same thing, just written differently. Think of it like books (sort of) in a different language. It's the same story about a bunny being buddies with a bear and all the crazy adventures they go on, but one version of the story is told in English, while another is told in French, and so on. T...	[ "BULLET::::- \"DV-AVI\" is Microsoft's implementation of DV video file, which is wrapped into an AVI container. Two variants of wrapping are available: with Type 1 the multiplexed audio and video is saved into the video section of a single AVI file, with Type 2 video and audio are saved as separate streams in an AV...
why is a photon (light) affected by gravitational fields?	Because gravity in its fundamental formulation is an effect related to energy, not to mass. Photons have no mass but they have energy, which we capture using solar panels for examples. However, mass is a form of energy ( E=mc^2 ) and the total energy of an object is E^total = mc^2 + kinetic energy. For most objec...	[ "Since photons contribute to the stress–energy tensor, they exert a gravitational attraction on other objects, according to the theory of general relativity. Conversely, photons are themselves affected by gravity; their normally straight trajectories may be bent by warped spacetime, as in gravitational lensing, and...
Why were Tommy Guns so prevalent in the Roaring 20s?	They were easy to get a hold of because this was prior to the [National Firearms Act](_URL_0_). As to availability, [Thompson sold it by mail order and in stores](_URL_3_). Price doesn't seem to have been the determining factor. Only the civilian models used the circular drum magazine. The military [M1A1](_URL_1_) ...	[ "In the interwar period the \"Tommy Gun\" or \"Chicago Typewriter\" became notorious in the U.S. as a gangster's weapon; the image of pinstripe-suited James Cagney types wielding drum-magazine Thompsons caused some military planners to shun the weapon. However, the FBI and other U.S. police forces themselves showed...
why did turkey not become a modern international power like france, germany, italy, england, japan, russia and china?	For many centuries, Ottoman Empire sat between Europe and Asia. This meant that trade between the two had to pass through them, and they were able to profit from that. European powers, wanting to cut out the middle-man, eventually found routes around Africa that didn't require them to go through the Ottomans. Later, th...	[ "Turkey was neutral during much of World War II, although in October 1939 Britain signed a treaty to protect Turkey should Germany attack it. Turkey maintained its neutrality by preventing German troops from crossing its borders into Syria or the USSR. During this time Turkey had lucrative trade relationships with ...
Family genealogy related question	I do a great deal of genealogy, but there is so much to unpack in this question. The main thing about family research is that you must research from the present back to the past and you must go only where the facts lead you and ignore apocryphal stories from family lore. Don’t let the family Bible be the end all and ...	[ "The terms \"genealogy\" and \"family history\" are often used synonymously, but some offer a slight difference in definition. The Society of Genealogists, while also using the terms interchangeably, describes genealogy as the \"establishment of a Pedigree by extracting evidence, from valid sources, of how one gene...
Regarding the Holocaust, why didn't Hitler just give the order for all prisoners to be shot immediately?	They were often put to work in the camps, its not like they just sat around. Making clothes or ammunition was common. Many Jews were essentially slave labor, but many of the elderly or those too weak to work were quickly killed.	[ "Historian Peter Longerich states that Hitler \"...avoided giving a clear written order to exterminate Jewish civilians.\" Wide protest was evoked when Hitler's authorisation of the T4 program became public knowledge in Germany, and he was forced to put a halt to it as a result (nonetheless it continued discreetly)...
the persistence of end-of-the-world claims.	Y2K was not "abruptly canceled". It was prevented, through an incredible amount of work. We saw it coming, and we fixed it, with millions of hours of coding and bug-fixing. The cost of all the work to prevent the problem is estimated at over $400 billion in today's money.	[ "5. That such claims will only be used in extremely rare circumstances (for example proven bad faith during negotiations), due to their capacity to upset the certainty of the international trading order.\n", "The agreement on asset recovery is considered a major breakthrough and many observers claim that it is on...
Phoenicians in Herodotus.	I think, based on your translation, that you're using the Perseus version of the text, which is Godley, 1920. So for simplicity's sake I'll use the greek from the same edition as available on Perseus if I need it. To understand the context of Herodotus' portrayal of the Phoenicians you'll need a bit of context around ...	[ "In both Phoenician and Greek mythologies, Cadmus is a Phoenician prince, the son of Agenor, the king of Tyre in South Lebanon. Herodotus credits Cadmus for bringing the Phoenician alphabet to Greece approximately sixteen hundred years before Herodotus' time, or around 2000 BC, as he attested:\n", "The Greek hist...
How/Why did Desert Storm Happen?	What exactly do you mean? Do you mean why Iraq invaded Kuwait? Or the US responded the way it did? Or why the air campaign caused such abject destruction among Iraqi forces? There have been entire books written on each of these subjects. We're going to need further clarification as to what exactly you want to know be...	[ "Operation Desert Storm began with an extensive aerial bombing campaign on 17 January 1991. When the ground attack commenced on 24 February, the 24th Infantry Division formed the east flank of the corps with the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment. It blocked the Euphrates River valley to cut off Iraqi forces in Kuwait an...
Where does all the rubber go?	It depends on the size of the rubber particulates coming off the tyre. But first we need to understand how the rubber separates from the main body in the first place. Synthetic rubber (which is what pretty much all tyres are made of nowadays) is made of polymers, which are long string-like molecules mostly comprising h...	[ "Natural rubber is an elastomer, also known as tree gum, India rubber, and \"caoutchouc,\" which comes from the rubber tree in tropical regions. Christopher Columbus was the one of the first Europeans to bring news of this odd substance back to Europe, but he was not the only one to report it. Around 1736, a French...
What evolutionary pressures led to the differences of morphology among different human races?	My guess is that most of these apparent athletic advantages have far more to do with culture than they do with race. If you observe a human behavior, and you cannot think of a reason why it's adaptive, that's oftentimes a good clue that it's not adaptive after all. Consider: track sports are a big cultural phenomenon ...	[ "An evolutionary perspective, based primarily on the evolutionary process of natural selection, has been proposed to explain variations in human personality and individuality. From this perspective, evolution introduced variations of the human mind and natural selection acted on these by choosing which were the mos...
Why are the air intakes of fighter jets so often on the bottom of the plane?	For fighters, having the intakes above the wings would create a visual obstruction for the pilots, a definite disadvantage in a dogfight. Generally, the top of the wing is more aerodynamically sensitive than the bottom and stalls are caused by flow separation between the air stream and the top of the wing, so you want ...	[ "The air intake can be designed to be part of the fuselage of the aircraft (Corsair A-7, Dassault Mirage III, General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon, nose located North American F-86 Sabre and Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-21) or part of the nacelle (Grumman F-14 Tomcat, McDonnell Douglas F-15 Eagle, Sukhoi Su-27, Sukhoi Su-...
why does just thinking about tequila make me want to throw up?	Because your brain and your body are deeply connected. Your body once threw up after drinking tequila, and told your brain, “we don’t care for that at all”. So your body is just reminding your brain of that.	[ "By leading the brain to overreact to present cues and disregard the implications of one’s actions, alcohol often provokes aggressive behavior. Alcohol consumption can result in a \"Jekyll and Hyde\" effect in individuals who are typically amiable when sober but are perhaps predisposed to aggressive behavior. Addit...

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