question stringlengths 3 301 | answer stringlengths 9 26.1k | context list |
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why is alcohol the only calorically dense compound that is also a drug? | Because alcohol is a fuel.
Calories are just a form of measurement.
1 calorie can raise 1ml of water 1 degree centigrade.
Alcohol is a highly combustible material and therefore it is no surprise when it contains a large amount of potential energy. | [
"This alcohol is important because it, not MG, traverses cell membranes. Once inside the cell, it is metabolized into LMG. Only the cation MG is deeply colored, whereas the leuco and alcohol derivatives are not. This difference arises because only the cationic form has extended pi-delocalization, which allows the m... |
what's the difference between a point and a vector? | ~~A vector has more than three values to define it. In 3d space, it would require three to define its location, and at least two more to determine its direction and magnitude (length). It could also be defined by three values for its initial point and three more for its terminal point.~~
Say if you had a point in 3D s... | [
"A vector itself is a geometrical quantity, in principle, independent (invariant) of the chosen basis. A vector v is given, say, in components \"v\" on a chosen basis e. On another basis, say e′, the same vector v has different components \"v\"′ and\n",
"A Euclidean vector, is thus an entity endowed with a magnit... |
when i call a 10-digit number, and get the "it is not necessary to dial a 1 and area code...please try again" message, why can't the phone company just go ahead and complete the call? doesn't it have enough info? | When you dial 1 you're accessing your CO's long distance trunks, thus making a local call over the LD circuits will incur LD charges so they do not route the call. Some new telco systems will recognize a local call and re-route that call to the proper trunks. | [
"In the United States and Canada, ten-digit dialing is the practice of including the area code of a telephone number when dialing to initiate a telephone call. When necessary, a ten-digit number may be prefixed with the trunk code \"1\", which is often referred to as \"11-digit dialing\" or \"national format\".\n",... |
If the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere was instantly cut in half, (we don't want to kill the plants) how immediately would the effects on global warming been noticed? | It could actually take a very long time for temperatures to drop to pre-industrial levels, and this is the most worrisome part of global warming. The reason is that the temperature rise driven by increased CO*_2_* levels is not just limited to the stronger retention of thermal radiation by the greenhouse effect. Indeed... | [
"The report says that for limiting warming to below 1.5C \"global net human-caused emissions of CO2 would need to fall by about 45% from 2010 levels by 2030, reaching \"net zero\" around 2050.\" Even just for limiting global warming to below 2°C, CO2 emissions should decline by 25% by 2030 and by 100% by 2070.\n",
... |
I just read over a thread from about 6 months ago regarding Howard Zinn and I had a question | Here's how I judge whether or not I will use a source in a paper:
First, I look at the publisher. Academic and university publishers, such as Yale or Cambridge University Press, rarely publish tripe. If something is from a source like that, you can probably relatively sure of its accuracy. The same goes for articles ... | [
"Rizvi was born in Lahore, Pakistan in 1975 into a \"moderate to liberal Muslim family.\" He spent his early childhood in Libya, later moving to Saudi Arabia where he attended the American International School in Riyadh which he describes as a school exclusively for the children of ex-pat families living in Riyadh,... |
What was the experience of lower-class and PoC women/LGBT people in Weimar Berlin? | If I might ask a follow up, was there any sort of LGBT community like we see in modern cities? If so, was there a greater acceptance of people of color within those communities or was there similar discrimination as (I assume) there was within mainstream society? | [
"Life in the Weimar Republic was marked by massive hyperinflation, crippling poverty, and political upheaval. The massive number of orphans and widows without a means of feeding themselves resulted in prostitution on a scale not seen before in Germany. Additionally, the repeal and relaxation of laws forbidding pros... |
Would European knights have tossed away their shield in favor of wielding a sword two-handed? | There's a technological development in place in Medieval Western Europe. People moved from chainmail to coat of plates reinforced by chainmail with added gauntlets, banded armour for legs and arms and so on. By the late 14th century, gothic plate armour had developed, and was of such high quality that the shield became... | [
"Use of the two-handed Great Sword or \"Schlachtschwert\" by infantry (as opposed to their use as a weapon of mounted and fully armoured knights) seems to have originated with the Swiss in the 14th century.\n",
"Many knights during Medieval battles fought on foot. Attacks would be carried out on horseback only un... |
I've heard of westerners such as Matteo Ricci going to China very early on. Were there ever any Chinese or other East Asians like him who traveled West? | Zheng Weixin (1633-1673) was the first Chinese Jesuit priest and possibly the earliest Chinese person to visit Europe. His father was a Christian convert, so he was baptized at birth under the name Emmanuel de Siqueira. He departed from Macau for Europe in 1645. Zheng received a Jesuit education at the Collegio Romano,... | [
"Foreign travelers to Eastern-Han China include Buddhist monks who translated works into Chinese, such as An Shigao from Parthia, and Lokaksema from Kushan-era Gandhara, India. In addition to tributary relations with the Kushans, the Han Empire received gifts from the Parthian Empire, from a king in modern Burma, f... |
Historically, were philosophers valued while they lived? | Some philosophers were most definitely valued in their life. Aristotle is a good example of this as he was a tutor Alexander the Great and was well-known in his time. Here's a link to his Wikipedia page: _URL_0_ | [
"The earliest surviving philosophy from ancient Greece dates back to the 6th century BC, when according to Aristotle Thales of Miletus was considered to have been the first Greek philosopher. Other influential pre-Socratic philosophers include Pythagoras and Heraclitus. The most famous and significant figures in cl... |
Is recent weather activity due to a change in global temperatures? | Yes and no. Certainly an increase of average global temperature (which has been clearly demonstrated) allows for more extremes to occur in local weather. But asking something like "is today's weather affected by global warming" is similar to asking "will eating this cheeseburger affect the length of my life". You si... | [
"In the scientific literature, there is an overwhelming consensus that global surface temperatures have increased in recent decades and that the trend is caused mainly by human-induced emissions of greenhouse gases. No scientific body of national or international standing disagrees with this view. Scientific discus... |
Of all the countries that the U.S. promoted democracy in, which ones actual had long term stability and legitimacy? | I can only answer the second part of your question, the answer is no except for Japan where I am not sure.
The French revolution can be seen as being some what accelerated due to French participation in the American Revolution, but it was already well on the way and their involvement was not the crucial factor.
Italy... | [
"Being the world's oldest democracy, the promotion of democracy around the world is one of the most important foreign policy objective of the United States. India —as the largest democracy of the world— can hardly be overlooked by the United States. This is the reason, co-operation in promotion of democracy in the ... |
how can we "look back in time" through telescopes to galaxies that are millions of years old? | Any time you are looking at something you are looking "back in time" because light has a maximum speed, it isn't instantaneous. If you look up at the sun, you aren't seeing the sun as it is now, you are seeing the sun as it was 8 minutes ago.
So, the further something is from us, the longer it takes light to get to us... | [
"Astronomers from all over the world regularly use this telescope to observe many different astronomical objects such as HII regions, galaxies, pulsars, supernovae, and Sun and solar winds. In August 2018, the most distant galaxy ever known, located at a distance of 12 billion light years, was discovered by GMRT.\n... |
why do hip-hop/rap artists collaborate on albums more often than other genres? | It has a lot to do with production process, and just differences between genres. In hip hop, the people writing the music and making the beats are generally not the same people spitting the verses. So if a producer makes a beat, he'll get 3 or 4 different MCs on it to give it more variation or reach a larger audience.
... | [
"Throughout hip hop's history, new musical styles and genres have developed that contain rapping. Entire genres, such as rap rock and its derivatives rapcore and rap metal (rock/metal/punk with rapped vocals), or hip house have resulted from the fusion of rap and other styles. Many popular music genres with a focus... |
if a lot of decommissioned satellites are just left in orbit, wouldn't it be increasingly harder for spacecraft to avoid hitting space debris? | We [keep track](_URL_1_) of the junk, for the most part.
The space around our planet also has the advantage of being a very large volume, so you can fit quite a lot of stuff in there. That being said, collisions can happen.
Some satellites are boosted to what is called a ['graveyard orbit'](_URL_0_), others are deor... | [
"Because of the increasing number of objects in space, NASA has adopted guidelines and assessment procedures to reduce the number of non-operational spacecraft and spent rocket upper stages orbiting the Earth. One method of postmission disposal is to allow reentry of these spacecraft, either from orbital decay (unc... |
a small emergency. eli5 an international wire transfer | First of all, I think we'd need to know which country you are in.
Anway, take a look at IBAN: _URL_0_
You need to get an account you can access from where you are. Probably that means you need a local bank account. | [
"The experience convinced both sides of the need for better communications. On June 20, 1963, the two countries agreed to set up a continuous connection over a secure transatlantic cable, as a \"hot line\" for use in times of emergency.\n",
"Wire provides end-to-end encryption for its instant messages. Wire's ins... |
why do coupons have expiration dates? | Coupons are a form of advertising. They are often meant to push certain products for a specified length of time. | [
"Most coupons have an expiration date after which they will not be honored. For example, Christmas coupons are valid only throughout the Christmas week. American military commissaries overseas honor manufacturers coupons for up to six months past the expiration date.\n",
"Arbitrary expiration dates are also commo... |
How much was academia boosted during the Vietnam war by people trying to avoid the draft? | There’s two components to this question. First, in comparison to other periods, did the number of doctorates dramatically rise during the Vietnam War era? Second, if so, what caused it?
**Did PhDs rise?**
Looking at the statistics, there is a clear rise in PhDs granted. The number of awarded doctorates in all fields ... | [
"Consequently, there was some opposition to the draft even before the major U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War began. The large cohort of Baby Boomers who became eligible for military service during the Vietnam War was responsible for a steep increase in the number of exemptions and deferments, especially for coll... |
why are negative g-forces harder to take in than positive ones ? | Gravity exerts an effect on the blood in your vessels.
In positive G-force, the excess gravitational pull tends to cause your blood to stagnate in your calves, in the compliant and easily distensible veins. Pilots are able to withstand this by muscular training and by virtue of their G-suits, which inflate around the ... | [
"Negative G-force (pressure of the blood towards the head) is much more beneficial to the body than positive G-force (the blood runs toward the feet). Negative G-forces can be reached during bungee jumps during approximately a second when the jump is over a hundred meters high. These are less severe strains than th... |
Is time a human construct or is it a property of our universe? | General relativity says that even if time has nothing to do with humans, its relative passage will depend on various factors like mass and velocity, i.e., it will pass at different rates in different parts of the universe. Whether anything is just a human construct or an innate property of our universe calls for a much... | [
"Time is a fundamental feature of the physical universe and it is intimately connected with any life process. The passage of time has been of concern to all great religions and philosophies, and has found an infinite variety of expressions in the arts. No other single aspect of reality relates more directly to basi... |
Was the narrowing of the rich poor divide and the rise of the social state in in Europe and elsewhere consciously promoted by the governments to lessen the appeal of socialist ideas? | Yes, to some extent. There was a conscious effort to come to a compromise whereby workers rights were protected and the capitalist class as well. This was done by centrist parties aiming to undercut the appeal of the far-left. This happened in the US as well, by the way. It's not really that people were looking to the ... | [
"Consequently, this has led to the social market economy, which has been widely influential across much of continental Europe. The social market is a largely free market economy based on a free price system and private property, but is supportive of government activity to promote competitive markets with a comprehe... |
How accurate is this video about The Korean War by Knowledge Hub? | I can't give you much on American public opinion, but I can address your third point.
In the few years of division before war (1945-50), North Korea implemented a lot of *really popular policies*. This included land reform that parceled out property to the common people; empowering women to work outside the home; scho... | [
"On 10 June, Hughes emailed colleagues discussing CI teaching materials a link to an animated video, in Chinese with English subtitles, on the official Confucius Institute Online website. It was titled \"The War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea\" (which is the Chinese official name \"Kangmeiyuanchao zhanzheng\... |
why do children hate going to sleep so much? it feels so good! | I think it has more to do with them having to go to bed while others, adults and older kids, are allowed to stay up. Why would you want to be told to go to sleep when other people are up still having fun and doing things? That's why kids think bedtime sucks. That, combined with the fact that adults work all day and are... | [
"\"Whatever the cause, it is definitely the case that, when faced with a kid who refuses to go to sleep, we get annoyed, like all parents before us, but, rather than just abandoning the child to the dark and telling it that it can go to sleep or stay awake as it likes but it is staying in the bed until morning (rem... |
why some people believe there is a correlation between guns and freedom. | This is a somewhat loaded question, and the answer is somewhat subjective, but the basic premise is that in our constitution, which is the document upon which our *entire country* is based, it explicitly states that the people shall be allowed to have guns. Not all countries have that, so in that sense, it's a freedom ... | [
"Philosophy professor Michael Huemer argues that gun control may be morally wrong, even if its outcomes would be positive, because individuals have a prima facie right to own a gun for self-defence and recreation.\n",
"Gun control proponents often cite the relatively high number of homicides committed with firear... |
When something is orbiting another object in space is it really just free falling toward that object but keeps missing? | According to Newtonian phyisics, this is exactly right. See [Newton's cannonball.](_URL_0_) I am no expert on the relativivstic stuff, so I'll let a physicist fix this if necessary. | [
"It can be said that two objects in space orbiting each other in the absence of other forces are in free fall around each other, e.g. that the Moon or an artificial satellite \"falls around\" the Earth, or a planet \"falls around\" the Sun. Assuming spherical objects means that the equation of motion is governed by... |
why is florida the only state where alligators and crocodiles live side by side? | Alligators are more tolerant of colder water and weather, and thus are found not only in Florida but in Georgia, Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi, Texas, Arkansas, North Carolina and South Carolina.
Crocodiles are much more susceptible to cold and for that reason they are only found in Florida, and only in south Florid... | [
"Reptiles such as alligators and crocodiles are common in wetlands of some regions. Alligators occur in fresh water along with the fresh water species of the crocodile.The Florida Everglades is the only place in the world where both crocodiles and alligators coexist. The saltwater crocodile inhabits estuaries and m... |
What was the historical significance of Beowulf on literacy? | Beowulf survives in a manuscript that was probably written in the early 11th century, and there's a lot of debate about when exactly the poem itself was originally written; you see dates between the 7th century and 11th, but it was probably the 9th or 10th. This means it was almost certainly not one of the first vernac... | [
"Frederick Klaeber, among others, argued for a connection between \"Beowulf\" and Virgil near the start of the 20th century, claiming that the very act of writing a secular epic in a Germanic world represents Virgilian influence. Virgil was seen as the pinnacle of Latin literature, and Latin was the dominant litera... |
- how my dog knows it's me coming to the door, before he can even see me. he barks at everyone but me, but he has no line of sight on me. | Not sure if you arrive home in a car or not but my dog probably identifies me by the following sounds:
* Distinctive engine noise of your car
* Sound of your car door closing
* Sound of keys entering the lock
A dog can easily tell the difference when someone else's car drives by versus yours and similarly the resulti... | [
"Meanwhile, Sen Dog is sitting at home drinking a beer on the couch. As he goes to the fridge to get another, someone suddenly knocks at the door. As he exits the house he sees many people moshing on his front lawn before he joins in himself. His family exits the house to find that he is actually by himself, lookin... |
How does vegetation survive in radiation-heavy zones like Chernobyl while humans cannot? | Humans could live in Chernobyl, but one would risk encountering a hot piece of equipment or material could be dangerous. [This site](_URL_0_) gives a few helpful tables on current radiation levels around Chernobyl. For reference, 1uSv/h continuous exposure is 8.8mSv/year, which is triple the average natural background ... | [
"Some plants and animals were able to adapt to the increased radiation levels present in and around Chernobyl. Arabidopsis, a plant native to Chernobyl, was able to resist high concentrations of ionizing radiation and resist forming mutations. This species of plant has been able to develop mechanisms to tolerate ch... |
how does a meteorologist detect lighting? | Lightning detection takes advantage of the radio frequency pulse that lightning causes. Several antennas collect the signals and the timing gives the direction. | [
"BULLET::::- MIS: The Meteorology Instrument System had a temperature sensor, a pressure sensor, a relative humidity sensor, an optical depth sensor (ODS) to compare the intensity of direct and scattered sunlight, and an ion anemometer used to detect ion current and atmosphere ionization.\n",
"Meteorologists use ... |
Before the wide spread of coffee and tea, what were other popular stimulants or pick me ups in European culture? | In Sweden, *ölsupa*, a thin gruel made with wine or beer (or in rare cases mead) as a base was a popular hot drink before the introduction of coffee and tea.
*Ölsupa* is made with wine or beer (rarely mead) as a base. If you were affluent, you would use Rhenian wine or German beer (which could be 4-6%), if you were le... | [
"The history of European interactions with tea dates back to the mid-16th century. The earliest mention of tea in European literature was by Giambattista Ramusio, a Venetian explorer, as Chai Catai or \"Tea of China\" in 1559. Tea was mentioned several more times in various European countries afterwards, but Jan Hu... |
what is the deal with al jazeera and why is there such a stigma against them in the us? | I think the stigma comes from two main sources:
* After 9/11, they broadcasted the Taliban's/Al Qaeda's videos, which, a lot of people felt like gave those groups credence, recognition, and some would argue, favor.
* Speculation but... (personal bias here) a lot of Americans are (unfortunately) horribly ignorant, s... | [
"Since 9/11 U.S. officials have claimed an anti-American bias to Al Jazeera's news coverage. The station first gained widespread attention in the West following the September 11, 2001 attacks, when it broadcast videos in which Osama bin Laden and Sulaiman Abu Ghaith defended and justified the attacks. This led to s... |
During the D-day invasion did the allies use smoke grenades and smoke mortars to cover their advance on the beaches? I don’t think I’ve seen any examples of that in movies. | Smoke directly on the beaches during landings was as much of a hindrance as a help. On Omaha beach smoke and dust from naval bombardment and resultant fires caused navigational difficulties for the landing craft, compounded by a strong current, and many landed east of their planned area. This in turn caused issues for ... | [
"In 1944 with the US Navy's mounting of a 5-inch/38 gun and rocket launchers on the LSM its mission to landing troop fire support out to 4,000 yards beyond the beach, they were to be used during the planned Invasion of Japan to be used for illumination, harassment and high trajectory fire to destroy reverse slope t... |
Why do some birds hop while some of them walk? | A few moment's searching found this RSPB (Royal Society for the Protection of Birds) page: _URL_0_
> Most small garden birds, like tits and finches, hop rather than run. This is because the majority of them spend most of their time in trees. Hopping is a useful way of getting quickly from branch to branch. There are... | [
"Birds have erect limbs and rigid bodies, and therefore do not flex sideways when moving. In addition many of them have a mechanism which pumps both lungs simultaneously when the birds rock their hips.\n",
"Australian ravens generally walk when moving around on the ground, though do hop when hurrying. They preen ... |
gaussian distrubition - what it is, and how it works | The Gaussian distribution is the formal name for the statistic that it will be more probable to have a middle value than the max/min value.
Simple case: Get two dice. Each die has a side from 1-6. So two dice has a minimum of 2, and maximum of 12. But there is only one way to make 2 (1+1) and much more ways to make, ... | [
"Gaussian process is a powerful non-linear interpolation tool. Many popular interpolation tools are actually equivalent to particular Gaussian processes. Gaussian processes can be used not only for fitting an interpolant that passes exactly through the given data points but also for regression, i.e., for fitting a ... |
What do historians today make of the 1952 "Stalin note" that offered a demilitarized and unified Germany? | From an [earlier answer of mine](_URL_0_)
The Stalin Note (or correctly, note*s*) was an event in the Cold War that elicited a great deal of controversy in both Germany and in the West when Stalin first broached the topic. The debate at the time swung around two poles among both policymakers and intellectuals. The fir... | [
"The Stalin Note, also known as the March Note, was a document delivered to the representatives of the Western allied powers (the United Kingdom, France, and the United States) from the Soviet Occupation in Germany on March 10, 1952. Soviet leader Joseph Stalin put forth a proposal for a reunification and neutraliz... |
why does most graffiti look similar? | It looks similar to you because you haven't learned how to distinguish styles or quality. If you had, you'd be able to pick out good from bad. | [
"Graffiti are not integral decoration of the structures where they are found; rather, they are additions to pre-existing features, and lack formal organisation. Usually they bear no obvious relationship to any neighbouring graffiti, and they can be found randomly scattered on walls, floors, and benches. Some exampl... |
Is human DNA 'hashable' or does it change too much over time? | No. But not because human DNA would change. But because accuracy of our sequencing hardware is not good enough. The thing with hashing is that even single bit difference results in completely different hash. Modern sequencing equipment is only [precise to 99.9%](_URL_0_) and that is for slow/expensive techniques. And w... | [
"Hashlife is a memoized algorithm for computing the long-term fate of a given starting configuration in Conway's Game of Life and related cellular automata, much more quickly than would be possible using alternative algorithms that simulate each time step of each cell of the automaton. The algorithm was first descr... |
How come there is no cure for lupus? Is anyone working towards one? | The diagnosis of Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is a diagnosis of exclusion. You need to rule out many other diseases before you can just diagnose SLE in most cases.
Our current knowledge states SLE involves your own body recognizing itself as a foreign substance. It makes antibodies against itself which promote... | [
"Treatment consists primarily of immunosuppressive drugs (e.g., hydroxychloroquine and corticosteroids). An interesting second line drug is methotrexate in its low-dose schedule. In 2011, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the first new drug for lupus in more than 50 years to be used in the US, be... |
Is Magma the Same? | No. The chemical compositions of your two hypothetical melts would be different and thus the physical properties would be different.
This is more easily discussed in terms of more realistic magma/lava types that we see regularly. In considering types of magma, we usually think of them in terms of what types of rocks t... | [
"Magma (from Ancient Greek μάγμα (\"mágma\") meaning \"thick unguent\") is the molten or semi-molten natural material from which all igneous rocks are formed. Magma is found beneath the surface of the Earth, and evidence of magmatism has also been discovered on other terrestrial planets and some natural satellites.... |
why do they remake classic/awesome movies and ruin them? why don't they take lousy movies and remake them into something good? | It's considered too risky. If a production company has a choice between remaking a classic movie that did well or remaking a crappy movie that did poorly, they're going to go with the classic movie because it comes with guaranteed brand recognition. They don't care whether or not the movie turns out to be good, they on... | [
"Justin Chang of \"Variety\" positively described the film as \"the rare Hollywood remake that, by daring to reinterpret its source material within a fresh political context, actually has a reason to exist\". Manohla Dargis of the \"New York Times\" commented that \"... the film never settles into a groove, zigging... |
How does reflection work in an atomic level? | Dimpl3s explanation here isn't really correct. A photon striking an atom can be absorbed and re-emitted, but this isn't what causes reflection. While a ball bouncing off a wall isn't a good model, classical physics does a pretty good job of explaining reflection and refraction. In these contexts, quantum mechanics can ... | [
"The condition for a reflection to occur as the atom experiences the attractive potential can be given by the presence of regions of space where the WKB approximation to the atomic wave-function breaks down. If, in accordance with this approximation we write the wavelength of the gross motion of the atom system tow... |
how does denuvo drm work? | You can grab the key from RAM and use it to decrypt the executable. No DRM system can prevent someone from copying the program if it's running on their system, because the code must get decrypted at some point in order to execute. All DRM and obfuscation can do is make it more difficult to crack - you cannot make it im... | [
"Denemo helps prepare notation for publishing and lets a user rapidly enter notation, simultaneously typesetting via the LilyPond music engraver. Music can be typed in using a PC keyboard, taken from MIDI input, or played into a microphone plugged into a soundcard. The program plays back via an internal sampler and... |
What would it have been like to be a spectator at the games in a Roman coliseum? | I can certainly comment on the availability of food a drink, and the attendance in Israel.
Typically local salesmen would be allowed to enter the stands to sell produce. Though this was unregulated, typically they avoided local cuisine and instead sold Roman delicacies, such as larks' tongues, wrens' livers, chaffinc... | [
"Different types of outdoor and indoor entertainment, free of cost, were available in ancient Rome. Depending on the nature of the events, they were scheduled during daytime, afternoons, evenings, or late nights. Huge crowds gathered at the Colosseum to watch events such as events involving gladiators, combats betw... |
if time is infinite, won't everything exist again in the future? | Just because something is infinite doesn't mean it contains all permutations.
There is an infinite amount of numbers between 2 and 3, but none of them are 4. | [
"In \"Did the World Have a Beginning?\" he argues that the temporal world cannot always have existed. An actual infinity is impossible, he reasons, because infinity is a potential value that cannot be reached. A line, for example, may be extended infinitely—that is, without a limit—but at no point will the actual m... |
why do people have such a difficult time admitting their ignorance of something? | If there's one person you **have to** be able to depend on, it's yourself. You may have friends and family members you rely on and such, but the *ultimate* person responsible for your safety and survival is yourself.
So regardless of how intelligent you are or aren't, looking at evidence that you're wrong or you scre... | [
"Ignorance can have a negative effects on individuals and societies, but can also benefit them by creating within them the desire to know more. For example, ignorance within science opens the opportunity to seek knowledge and make discoveries by asking new questions. This though can only take place if the individua... |
What causes such a drastic difference between H2O and H2O2? | The oxygen oxygen single bond is quite weak in peroxide H-O-O-H. While there are lots of factors determining reactivity, one way to look at it is how easy the bonds in the molecule are to break. Things with weak bonds tend to be reactive and things with strong bonds tend to be un-reactive. Oxygen forms strong bonds wit... | [
"Because all six \"a\" hydrogens, both \"c\" hydrogens, and the three \"d\" hydrogens are chemically equivalent with the others in their three classifications (i.e., any \"a\" hydrogen is equivalent with any other \"a\" hydrogen), these rates accurately reflect where a single chlorination may take place for 2-methy... |
Where chirality is present, are both enantiomers of the given molecule formed in equal amounts? | No, in certain systems it will not be 50%. Obviously biological systems such as amino acids that are D chirality as these are essentially all made that way by enzymes. There is no L amino acids, they are all made with D chirality.
There are also small differences in the stability of say R vs S isomers or intermediate... | [
"Chirality in supramolecular chemistry implies the non-symmetric arrangement of molecular components in a non-covalent assembly. Chirality may arise in a supramolecular system if one of its component is chiral or if achiral components arrange in a non symmetrical way to produce a supermolecule that is chiral.\n",
... |
Are some nerves on different body parts connected somehow? | All nerves are connected at some point. They all return to the spinal cord lt the Brain. However, not in the manner you described. It is more than likely referred pain. | [
"There are 43 segments of nerves in the human body. With each segment, there is a pair of sensory and motor nerves. In the body, 31 segments of nerves are in the spinal cord and 12 are in the brain stem. \n",
"The nerves divide into branches and the branches from different nerves join with one another, some of th... |
when the us "sends aid" to foreign countries such as israel, what is actually exchanged? | Basically, they get money, but they are required to spend most of it with US corporations. In that sense, it's as much a subsidy to US defense contractors as it is foreign aid.
_URL_0_
| [
"United States foreign aid is aid given by the United States government to other governments. It does not include money from private charitable organizations based in the United States, or remittances sent between family members. There are two broad categories: military aid and economic assistance. The Congressiona... |
veganism. the what can be used from animals? what cant? | Anything that comes from animals, vegans do not have anything to do with it. Milk, eggs, some soaps, leather, feathers, if it has to do with an animal, its a no-go.
Source: my mom used to be a vegan. | [
"Veganism is the practice of abstaining from the use of all animal products, particularly in diet. Vegetarianism is the practice of abstaining from the consumption of meat (red meat, poultry, seafood, insects and the flesh of any other animal and may also include abstention from by-products of animal slaughter). Ve... |
Why is it that when you have a cold, one of your nostrils is blocked, and when it finally clears, the other one blocks? | Because your nostrils split their workload. Throughout the day, they each take breaks in a process of alternating congestion and decongestion called the nasal cycle. At a given moment, if you're breathing through your nose, the lion’s share of the air is going in and out of one nostril, with a much smaller amount passi... | [
"It is possible that the nasal cycle may exacerbate the nasal congestion caused by the common cold, as the lack of motility of the cilia in one half of the nose may lead to an uncomfortable sensation of not being able to shift mucus by blowing the nose.\n",
"The upwards wiping of the nose and nostrils allows for ... |
Can we "fix" our genome so that we can synthesize Vitamin C? | i guess we *could* implement the biochemical pathway, but a much more important issue is the regulation of that pathway. it isn't just being able to, it is about making enough and not too much. also, there are dozens of other biochemical pathways that can be impacted if we introduce this new ability into people (assumi... | [
"Humans and other species that do not synthesize vitamin C carry a mutated and ineffective form of the enzyme L-gulonolactone oxidase, the fourth and last step in the ascorbate-producing machinery. In the anthropoids lineage, this mutation likely occurred 40 to 25 million years ago. The three surviving enzymes cont... |
Is "now" the same for everyone and everything in the galaxy? | No. A famous thought experiment illustrates this:
Imagine person A is on a moving train. He sends out two light signal from the middle of the train, one backwards and one forwards. Since the distances to the front and the back are equal, and light moves at a constant speed, the light pulses reach the front and back of... | [
"\"This galaxy is undergoing a major baby boom, producing most of its stars all at once,\" said Peter Capak of NASA's Spitzer Science Center. \"If our human population was produced in a similar boom, then almost all of the people alive today would be the same age.\"\n",
"At the end of a May 2012 talk to a group o... |
i've never seen a fat bird. is that because flying is vital for them to survive so natural selection kills them or because birds simply don't get fat? | People commenting here don't know what they're talking about. Birds do get fat the closer you get to the cold extremes (arctic, mountain peaks). You've never seen one because, I assume, you haven't been to these types of places. Furthermore, you wouldn't know how fat the bird is until you kill and butcher it, but I pro... | [
"Keeping birds who through natural adaptation or selective breeding have lost the ability to fly removes the need for pinioning; for example, keeping Indian runner ducks as opposed to wild-type mallard ducks.\n",
"The birds are noted for their fast, non-stop flying capabilities over huge distances. They can fly u... |
How did the Vandals managed to invade North Africa? | By the time Vandals invaded North Africa, they were situated in Spain for over a decade, so passing into Africa was a next logical step.
It is worth mentioning that, like with most successful "barbarian" invasions, it was really a civil war between Romans that created the opportunity. The governor of Africa, count Bon... | [
"In 429, the Vandals, estimated to number 80,000 people, had crossed by boat from Spain to North Africa. They advanced eastward conquering the coastal regions of 21st century Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia. In 435, the Roman Empire, then ruling in North Africa, allowed the Vandals to settle in the provinces of Numidi... |
Monday Mysteries | Notable Disappearances | Lord Lucan's always been interesting one. A playboy aristocrat goes through a very acrimonious separation, losing his three children. Racked by alcoholism and accruing massive gambling debt, he tries to get his children back. One night, in 1974, he bludgeons the childrens' nanny to death, and attacks his estranged wife... | [
"Gilbert Wynter (c. 1961 – disappeared 1998) was a 37 year old jeweller who vanished without a trace in Tottenham, London, England, United Kingdom in March 1998. He is widely believed either to have been murdered or to be in hiding in the Caribbean.\n",
"The story starts in 1911 with the mysterious disappearance ... |
It is well-known that there is an increase of antibiotic resistant bacteria due to overuse in oral antibiotics. Can overuse of over the counter (OTC) topical antibiotics contribute to this problem? | Yes, topical antibiotics do produce resistance and this is well beyond the skin. See _URL_0_. If you have a skin infection,by all means use them. This also applies to antimicrobial soaps, and triclosan should be avoided: _URL_1_. | [
"Though antibiotics are required to treat severe bacterial infections, misuse has contributed to a rise in bacterial resistance. The overuse of fluoroquinolone and other antibiotics fuels antibiotic resistance in bacteria, which can inhibit the treatment of antibiotic-resistant infections. Their excessive use in ch... |
why don't/can't 100% electric cars like tesla recharge themselves while in use like a standard car battery through its alternator? | You mean, why isn't an electric car a perpetual motion machine? Because thermodynamics.
If you added a generator, it would take additional power to rotate that generator. The power you would get back would be less than the power used to rotate it, again because thermodynamics.
TANSTAAFL. | [
"Tesla Motors designed its Model S to allow fast battery swapping. In June 2013, Tesla announced their goal to deploy a battery swapping station in each of its supercharging stations. At a demonstration event Tesla showed that a battery swap operation with the Model S takes just over 90 seconds, about half the time... |
Do general antibiotics also kill off gut bacteria? Could this indirectly cause a lessened effectivity of nutrient absorption in the intestines? | Some of the gut bacteria that are killed by antibiotics are involved in the degradation of food and molecules in the food into smaller units (smaller molecules) that are able to be absorbed in the gut. Therefore, killing those microbes does affect absorption.
Another indirect mechanism is that alterations in gut flor... | [
"In addition to surviving within the gut of an organism, \"L.Brevis\" can also act to inhibit the pathogenic effects of certain gut pathogens and can also proliferate in the presence of additional bacteria. Some strains are resistant to certain antibiotics, specifically erythromycin and clindamycin. This antibiotic... |
What is the smallest size an object in space could be to have a moon orbit it? | There is no lower size limit. Two specs of dust could orbit each other; there is nothing in the laws of nature to prohibit it. Of course, in the inner Solar System the pressure of light and solar wind might be more significant than gravity. | [
"An intense search conducted by \"New Horizons\" confirmed that no moons larger than 4.5 km in diameter exist at the distances up to 180,000 km from Pluto (for smaller distances, this threshold is still smaller).\n",
" has one moon, S/2005 () 1. This moon was discovered by the Hubble Space Telescope on 5 October ... |
What are some of the most cleverly designed experiments in scientific history? | Eratosthenes of Cyrene calculated the circumference of the Earth very accurately in third century BC.
Eratosthenes calculated the circumference of the Earth without leaving Egypt. Eratosthenes knew that at local noon on the summer solstice in the Ancient Egyptian city of Swenet (known in ancient Greek as Syene, and no... | [
"Correctly designed experiments advance knowledge in the natural and social sciences and engineering. Other applications include marketing and policy making. The study of the design of experiments is an important topic in metascience.\n",
"The science of Design of Experiments (DOE) has been around for over a cent... |
why meals ready to eat (mres) take so long to leave the body or just cause incontinence? | They are purposely low in fiber because they are made to be used where there aren't toilets and/or you need to carry your poop with you so you don't get discovered, so constipation is a feature, not a bug. | [
"While the number and severity of symptoms varies among individuals, repetitive regurgitation of undigested food (known as rumination) after the start of a meal is always present. In some individuals, the regurgitation is small, occurring over a long period of time following ingestion, and can be rechewed and swall... |
If atoms only emit light with specific (discrete) values for wavelengths, why do bodies emit a continuous spectrum of radiation? | A black body is an idealized model, like a perfect vacuum or a frictionless surface. It is an approximation which holds up well in many cases, but actual things deviate from the black-body model.
The hypothetical black body is a substance that absorbs all light perfectly, and emits light in a well-defined spectrum dep... | [
"All atoms and molecules are capable of absorbing and releasing energy in the form of photons, accompanied by a change of quantum state. The amount of energy absorbed or released is the difference between the energies of the two quantum states. There are various types of quantum state, including, for example, the r... |
Found what I assume to be old pottery, any archeologists who can ID this for me? (album in description) | I'm not a belgian pottery expert, but I do have a smattering of typological knowledge for most of north western europe.
If you ever find red glazed stuff that's samain ware, which is a dead ringer for Roman. But this could also be Greyware, which you'll never guess... Is Grey, and was their cheaper stuff. Although, ha... | [
"Scholars have long referred to sherds of ancient Greek pottery as . They have studied fragments of ancient Greek pottery in institutional collections, and have attributed many such pieces to the artists who made them. In a number of instances, they have been able to identify fragments now in different collections ... |
What would happen everyone on a full passenger jet ran to the front or the back of the jet? Would it cause the plane to lose stability? | Yes, the pilot needs to compensate, there are trim options to change the zero point (so the pilot doesn't have to activity do anything). Big commercial planes just have a scale in the wheels, and calculate the trim before takeoff, on smaller planes you'll actually see the flight attendants go through the plan and mark ... | [
"One of the problems the investigators thought may have been the reason of the supposed crash was that the aircraft was carrying a spare engine. Therefore, there would have been more weight on one side. This reason was ruled out as the flight recorders relayed information of the rudder position which assists in the... |
why english shows like the office, skins and being human are remade for the us. | It depends on the show. For period shows or sci-fi shows, they generally aren't remade. Something like Downton Abbey or Doctor Who are very successful in the US.
For more conventional shows, there are a number of reasons. Perhaps foremost, script changes are often needed for cultural references. Then, shows like sitc... | [
"The popularity of pay TV has allowed people to view several series in their original language rather than dubbed. Dubbing has been criticized for the use of TV or movie stars as voice actors (such as Ricky Martin in Disney's \"Hercules\", or Eugenio Derbez in DreamWorks' \"Shrek\"), or for the incorrect use of loc... |
how does proactiv get huge celebrities to endorse their product? | Money. Definitely money. It's a quick gig that takes no more than a few hours, and makes them more money than anyone deserves for that amount of time. | [
"In 2012 the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) in the UK banned some of Proactiv's advertising as misleading. A viewer complained that the celebrities were likely to have used the US version of Proactiv, which differs from the UK version. According to the ASA, the celebrities had signed statements saying they h... |
How do fiber optic cables work? | The data is usually encoded using intensity modulation...making the light brighter/dimmer, very rapidly. A light source, such as an LED, is rapidly modulated between bright and dim; the light travels down the fiber until it reaches its destination (or a repeater); a detector turns the light back into an electrical sig... | [
"An optical fiber cable, also known as a fiber optic cable, is an assembly similar to an electrical cable, but containing one or more optical fibers that are used to carry light. The optical fiber elements are typically individually coated with plastic layers and contained in a protective tube suitable for the envi... |
How do animals know which animal to fear and which to not? | The basic mechanism at work here is that prey species need certain fears in order to react appropriately to predators. If they don't have these fears, they die and don't get a chance to reproduce. As such, there's selective pressure on prey species to react to certain stimuli with fear--smells, shapes, sounds, etc. So,... | [
" The fear of animals most often occurs in the third year of life. In some cases, the fear has logical origins such as a traumatic experience with a large seemly furious dog. In others however, the fear is less rational. When a child fears small seemingly harmless animals like bunny rabbits and kittens, it is often... |
how does the tap work | Reservoirs and pumping stations. | [
"Tapping may either be achieved by a hand tapping by using a set of taps (first tap, second tap & final (finish) tap) or using a machine to do the tapping, such as a lathe, radial drilling machine, bench type drill machine, pillar type drill machine, vertical milling machines, HMCs, VMCs. Machine tapping is faster,... |
What happens if you microwave mercury? | Regardless of the answer to this question **do not attempt to microwave mercury to find out.** | [
"Another hazard is the resonance of the magnetron tube itself. If the microwave is run without an object to absorb the radiation, a standing wave will form. The energy is reflected back and forth between the tube and the cooking chamber. This may cause the tube to overload and burn out. High reflected power may als... |
how does dynamic cruise control and accident prevention braking work? | I believe these systems constantly monitor the field of view in front of the car.
Imagine a camera with a green zone amber, and red.
If it's in the green zone, the car cruises along as normal, when you get too close to the car it prepares its systems giving you chance to brake yourself based on it's recommended dista... | [
"The Adaptive Cruise Control function senses the speed and pace of vehicles ahead of the vehicle, and can automatically adjust the cruise control accordingly. Pre-Collision Braking uses the cameras to monitor the activity of the vehicles in front of the vehicle, and alerts the driver visually and audibly. It can al... |
A mirror spinning at the speed of light. | So.... rotational speed is measured in revolutions per [time unit], or angular distance per [time unit].
Speed of light is measured in distance per [time unit]. They're not really the same.
If you're trying to rotate it so the outside edge of the mirror meets the speed of light, you can't, due to relativistic effe... | [
"In 1850 and in 1862, Léon Foucault made improved determinations of the speed of light substituting a rotating mirror for Fizeau's toothed wheel. (Figure 2) The apparatus involves light from slit \"S\" reflecting off a rotating mirror \"R\", forming an image of the slit on the distant stationary mirror \"M\", which... |
Is organic food better for you than non-organic food? | Others have rightly pointed out that the [evidence of benefits are slim at best](_URL_1_).
I'd like to instead answer your question from the viewpoint of **nutritional economics**. My book covers this topic in more detail, but very briefly:
* [In many cases frozen foods are MORE healthy for you than fresh organic fo... | [
"Demand for organic foods is primarily driven by consumer concerns for personal health and the environment. From the perspective of science and consumers, there is insufficient evidence in the scientific and medical literature to support claims that organic food is either safer or healthier to eat than conventional... |
how do bytes take up "space"? | Your hard drive is a round plate, kind of like an old record. It's divided into thousands and thousands of "sectors", tiny little spots.
Each one of those tiny spots is a byte... When you save a byte on your hard drive, the drive head makes a change in the magnetic charge in that spot.
The computer turns these posit... | [
"The term \"byte\" initially meant 'the smallest addressable unit of memory'. In the past, 5-, 6-, 7-, 8-, and 9-bit bytes have all been used. There have also been computers that could address individual bits ('bit-addressed machine'), or that could only address 16- or 32-bit quantities ('word-addressed machine'). ... |
why submarines use nuclear power, but this isnt more commonly used on land? | Nuclear power is especially beneficial for submarines because it means they do not have to refuel or surface for air (for a very long time). This makes it much easier to operate in secret. No alternative to nuclear power offers this benefit. On land, that concern does not exist. | [
"Nuclear power is now used in all large submarines, but due to the high cost and large size of nuclear reactors, smaller submarines still use diesel-electric propulsion. The ratio of larger to smaller submarines depends on strategic needs. The US Navy, French Navy, and the British Royal Navy operate only nuclear su... |
Where does the yellow river get its water from? | I looked up the area of origin in an atlas I use for my study, and you are right there's only 25-50mm of precipitation per year. I think that you have to realise that the river isn't as big at the start as at the end. This applies to almost all rivers. Rivers don't get most of their water at their origin. They gain mo... | [
"The Yellow River flows from its source in the Sanjiangyuan National Nature Reserve on the Tibetan Plateau in a roughly eastern course before turning northwest after its confluence with the Bai He (\"White River\") in Maqu County, Gansu. After reversing course back towards the east, it begins the massive Ordos Loop... |
how does waterboarding not drown someone? | the victim is tiled back so the water just pools in the nasal cavity, with a towel over the face making it harder to breath. This gives the sensation of drowning without actually having water in the lungs.
I had a friend do this to me as i was curious about how back it would really be, it is fucking horrible. | [
"Waterboarding is a form of water torture in which water is poured over a cloth covering the face and breathing passages of an immobilized captive, causing the person to experience the sensation of drowning. Normally, water is poured intermittently to prevent death. However, if the water is poured uninterruptedly i... |
why is it a sports team's responsibility to punish players for their actions off-field? | The NFL, as an organization, has chosen to hold its players to a certain standard, and the players association has agreed to this. They feel that incidents like this harm the leagues image, and wealthy players often aren't motivated by strictly legal consequences.
That said, the punishments are often arbitrary, and a... | [
"Because football is a high-contact sport requiring a balance between offense and defense, many rules exist that regulate equality, safety, contact, and actions of players on each team. It is very difficult to always avoid violating these rules without giving up too much of an advantage. Thus, an elaborate system o... |
how does vlc remember where you were last watching? | The Mac version uses a dictionary called recentlyPlayedMedia in its preferences file. Each entry contains the file path (URI) and the time offset in seconds. | [
"Dave awakens, and the camera zooms in on his face, as he imagines saving his family by telling them to stay home. As the camera zooms out again, Dave is seen in a secure room at Boston Ridgegate Mental Facility.\n",
"As the users continue to reminisce they begin to recall more disturbing details about the show, ... |
How did slaves buy their own freedom? What stopped slave owners from simply confiscating any saved up money? | This is a pretty complicated question to answer generally as slavery varied quite a bit from urban to rural, Upper South to Lower South, etc. (I presume you're asking about American slavery). There are a few key things to remember when considering this question:
1. The slave experience and the quest for liberty heavi... | [
"Slaves sometimes gained their freedom by purchasing it, when allowed to save some portion of earnings if leased out or selling produce. The master determined if one had to pay market or reduced value. In other cases, relatives who were already free and earning money purchased the freedom of another. Sometimes mast... |
what is that feeling of vulnerability in the early morning about? | I don't know exactly what the feeling means, but I used to have it too... It goes away when you have a plan for that morning and immediately get up and start to do it | [
"According to one study, the first thing that 61% of people do after waking up in the morning is check their smartphones. Further, 77% of the teens reported anxiety when they are without mobile phones.\n",
"A study in 2008 examined the relationship between morningness and anxiety in adults aged 40–63. It found a ... |
How significant were the Mongols, in spreading the Black Death? | To answer your first question, let me give some background information. The Mongols opened up the Silk Road between China and Western Europe. They controlled most of the territory at some point or another and patrolled it. You must remember that not only did trade goods travel the Silk Road, but also disease. I'm ... | [
"The Mongol Empire established commercial and political connections between the Eastern and Western areas of the world, through the most mobile army ever seen. The armies, composed of the most rapidly moving travelers who had ever moved between the steppes of East Asia (where bubonic plague was and remains endemic ... |
Which U.S. Supreme Court case of the 19th century most bitterly divided the justices? | Obvious tip; as great as /r/AskHistorians is, if you want some breadth and unexpected answers to this question then also try /r/Law
| [
"In the Judiciary Act of 1869 Congress had established that the United States Supreme Court would consist of the Chief Justice and eight associate justices. During Roosevelt's first term the Supreme Court struck down several New Deal measures as being unconstitutional. Roosevelt sought to reverse this by changing t... |
Strange Blinking Light Phenomenon | Peripheral vision has more rod cells, which are more sensitive to light. They are better at detecting both dim and/or moving (or blinking, in your case) light sources.
This is presumably an evolutionary advantage where it is more advantageous to exchange ability to discern color and shape for ability to detect motion... | [
"The corneal reflex, also known as the blink reflex, is an involuntary blinking of the eyelids elicited by stimulation of the cornea (such as by touching or by a foreign body), though could result from any peripheral stimulus. Stimulation should elicit both a direct and consensual response (response of the opposite... |
why do cigarettes have so many chemicals in them, why not just tobacco? | Some of the chemicals are to ensure that the cigarettes stay lit once you light them. I know the first time I had a higher quality smoke after being used to "factory cigarettes" I was surprised that it went out when I left it unattended for a moment.
EDIT: This comment has gotten a lot more attention than I expected. ... | [
"Tobacco smoke contains more than 70 chemicals that cause cancer. Tobacco also contains nicotine, which is a highly addictive psychoactive drug. When tobacco is smoked, nicotine causes physical and psychological dependency. Cigarettes sold in underdeveloped countries tend to have higher tar content, and are less li... |
do mosquitos know the risk they take when they land on us? | Mosquitoes in all likelihood don't even have a concept of death, so no. Their brains are incredibly simple so they can't even extrapolate that far into the future. | [
"The \"Aedes atlanticus\" mosquito is a demonstrated vector. The virus transmits transstadially through the different stages of the insect's life: A female mosquito may lay eggs carrying the virus, which hatch into infected larvae, eventually maturing into adults that can infect mammals while injecting their anti-c... |
why is it that someone with depression can't just choose to "cheer up"? | When some on is actually depressed there is a chemical imbalance in their brain that causes them to be sad. Medicarion can help but doesnt cure. So to answer your question, they cant choose to cheer up because their brain is literally not allowing it. | [
"One way depression increases the individual's focus on a problem is by inducing rumination. Depression activates the left ventrolateral prefrontal cortex, which increases attention control and maintains problem-related information in an \"active, accessible state\" referred to as \"working memory\", or WM. As a re... |
What did black American organized crime look like in the first half of the 20th century? | Also, what kind of weaponry did they use? How did they get their arsenals? | [
"In the 19th and early 20th centuries, African-American organized crime emerged following large-scale migrations of Caribbean and African Americans to major cities of the Northeast and Midwest. In many of these newly established communities and neighborhoods, criminal activities such as illegal gambling, speakeasie... |
if cold symptoms are signs of your body fighting off a virus, why aren't medicines that suppress these symptoms bad for you? | Not all symptoms are your body fighting. Done symptoms like sneezes and coughs are actually transmission vectors. In other words, you get those symptoms because illnesses that happen to make you do them get spread faster. Suppressing these does nothing to slow the fight, it just thrwarts some of the illness's plan a... | [
"Antibiotics have no effect against viral infections or against the viruses that cause the common cold. Due to their side effects, antibiotics cause overall harm but are still frequently prescribed. Some of the reasons that antibiotics are so commonly prescribed include people's expectations for them, physicians' d... |
How did armour change with the advent of the firearm? | Thanks to u/Bacarruda for linking the threads I was going to link! In addition to those two there is also [this one](_URL_0_). Those threads deal with the adaptations made to armour to make it bullet-resistant and the changing form of armour between 1500 and 1700, I'd like to talk about both the big picture and the sma... | [
"The influence of the Armoury began to wane as traditional weapons gave way increasingly to firearms in the field of war. In the 1620s, swords, lances and items of armour were still used in battle, but for the most part were being issued by the Office of Ordnance (which was becoming a sizeable department of State) ... |
- why does a newspaper print a variety of coloured dots in the corners? i understand they're magneta, cyan, black, yellow etc... but why print them? | Without researching, but knowing a few things about manufacturing practices, I can say with reasonable confidence those are quality assurance test marks. I'm assuming they regularly, but randomly, pick sheets out of the mill to test placement, overlay, color, saturation, whatever quality metrics they deem important to ... | [
"Black ink is the most common color used for printing books, newspapers and documents, as it provides the highest contrast with white paper and thus the easiest color to read. Similarly, black text on a white screen is the most common format used on computer screens. \n",
"Many collectors long thought the blue pl... |
How did sporting events attendance and relevance fair during years when the world was at war? | In addition to the major tennis championships (Australian Open, French Open, Wimbledon; the US Open wasn't suspended), the 1942 and 1946 World Cups were cancelled due to war. In golf, the Masters, the US Open, the British Open, and the PGA Championship were all suspended at least one season during WWI and WWII. The Tou... | [
"The impact of World War II was still being felt in 1948. The lack of financial resources and human energy made the organization of the Games challenging. Athletes were also affected by a lack of resources. Many competitors arrived with little or no equipment. In one notable case, Norwegian skiers had to borrow ski... |
why do low-quality audio files have a 'grainy' sound to them? | The sampling rate of an audio file is how often you're telling a speaker cone to move.
The bit depth is how many different positions that speaker cone can have.
But sound in the real world is continuous. (Analog)
We hear in analog but computers output digital.
Lookup a picture of a sine wave
A sine wave is a 2D repr... | [
"Consumer audio is most often compressed using lossy audio codecs as the smaller size is far more convenient for distribution. Lossless audio coding formats such as FLAC and Apple Lossless are sometimes available, though at the cost of larger files.\n",
"Core Audio Format is designed to overcome limitations of ol... |
what exactly is being “improved” when we see games graphically improving with time? | Generally speaking
- increases in texture resolution, Instead of using a 100x100 pixel texture you use one thats 500x500 now your model is less blurry, has more detail
- Increases in polygon count, more polygons allows more detailed features. go back to N64/PS1 and most characters didn't have distinct fingers due to ... | [
"\"Game Informer\"'s Matt Miller praised its playability and explained, \"the reimagining of how we perceive time in an action game is what makes it memorable.\" Critics have pointed out some mild flaws to its repetitive life-saving throughout the game's time-out layers was seen somewhat confusing and overwhelming,... |
Is the brain's pain center(s) capable of distinguishing between physical pain and emotional pain? | A recent paper published in *Molecular Psychiatry* showed that the brain has a similar physiological response to emotional pain (social rejection) than it does to physical pain. So while different receptors may be used to initiate that reaction (since there may not necessarily be a physical stimuli that causes emotiona... | [
"Research suggests that physical pain and psychological pain may share some underlying neurological mechanisms. Brain regions that were consistently found to be implicated in both types of pain are the anterior cingulate cortex and prefrontal cortex (some subregions more than others), and may extend to other region... |
Aside from Bede, what supports the idea that Anglo-Saxon tribes invaded Britain in the 5th century? | Bede is not the only source, although he is the best and fullest historical account. We can turn to Bede’s sources, the best of whom would be [Gildas]( _URL_1_). Although Gildas is not writing “history” in the way that Bede envisioned it, and thus includes no dates and fewer details than we would wish, he does discuss... | [
"In the Early Mediaeval period, which began in the 5th century following the collapse of Roman rule, Anglo-Saxon tribes from continental Europe migrated to southern Britain, where they may have come into conflict with the Britons already settled there. Aubrey Burl suggested the possibility that a small group of Bri... |
How were very tall people (6'5"/1.9m+) viewed in pre-modern Europe and Asia? Were they subject to ridicule or reverence, or not noticed at all? | One interesting example of this, dating to prehistoric Ireland in c.275 B.C., is the so-called Old Croghan Man. He was a young (20s) and exceptionally tall for the period (6 foot 5 inches-plus, calculated from the span of his arms) man, part of whose remains ([which look like this](_URL_1_)) were found in an Irish bog ... | [
"The people of the Great Plains have been found to be the tallest people in the world during the late 19th century, based on 21st century analysis of data (originally) collected by Franz Boas for the World Columbian Exposition. This information is significant to anthropometric historians, who usually equate the hei... |
why do we often find things we did or said when we were younger to be cringe-worthy despite the fact that they were funny at the time? what changed in our brain? | If you're talking physically or chemically, I can't help you. Now, if you're talking perceptually, that's a different story. As we age, our perception of what seems to be funny, what seems to be appropriate, as well as inappropriate, these things change. Now, if we're talking about "[skunky mexican](_URL_0_)", as an ex... | [
"BULLET::::- \"The truth is that certain purificationally destructive transformations of old things into new things seem to excite people -- otherwise polite, educated, law-abiding people -- and it's up to other normally polite people to try to stop them.\" (p. 54)\n",
"“Because in our view there has been steadil... |
why is it so easy to identify christian rock music (even when you haven't heard any lyrics)? | There's probably a few things, but one that I think gets left out is that a lot of rock and metal focuses on various minor keys, scales, and chords, as that gives a more punchy and aggressive tone to the music, in addition to the other tonal characteristics (distorted guitar, etc;).
A lot of Christian music is focused... | [
"Christian rock is a form of rock music that features lyrics focusing on matters of Christian faith, often with an emphasis on Jesus, typically performed by self-proclaimed Christian individuals. The extent to which their lyrics are explicitly Christian varies between bands. Many bands who perform Christian rock ha... |
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