question stringlengths 3 301 | answer stringlengths 9 26.1k | context list |
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what happens if someone is bit by a coral snake in the united states? | There hasn't been production of any coral snake antivenin for over ten years, and supplies are dwindling. I think the standard procedure is to use what little remains in inventory.
What happens after those run out is anybody's guess. | [
"Texas coral snake venom is a powerful neurotoxin, causing neuromuscular dysfunction. Until 2006, no deaths from coral snake bites had been reported since the 1970s in the United States. However, rare, fatal bites have occurred according to several scientific journals in the '80s and '90s.\n",
"The national avera... |
is there any way to test a nuclear weapon without without being detected? | Not that is publicly known of. Underground explosions create seismic waves, explosions in air create light flashes and blast waves and release radioactivity, explosions in space create light flashes. All those can be detected.
If any state has a way to do an undetectable nuclear test, which is very unlikely, they've k... | [
"All nuclear testing, of any level, was forbidden under the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) (which has not entered into force), but there is controversy over whether the preparatory commission for the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO) or the Treaty Organization itself will be able to d... |
when light passes through a transparent object, do the photos simply pass between the atoms or are they absorbed by the atoms and re-emitted? | So, it's sorta pretty weird. We have to remember that light is also a wave, and the way it travels through matter is wave-like more than it is particle light.
If you aren't familiar, waves obey the property of superposition - that is that the height of two interacting waves at any given point in space is literally the... | [
"If the object is transparent, then the light waves are passed on to neighboring atoms through the bulk of the material and re-emitted on the opposite side of the object. Such frequencies of light waves are said to be transmitted.\n",
"BULLET::::- Objects that [[Transparency and translucency|transmit light]] are ... |
Can brain damage alter what a person sees? | Yes.
Most often this will be "negative" phenomena—a loss of some aspect of perception. This can be loss of depth information (*astereoscopy*), loss of color (*achromatopsia*), loss of movement continuity (*akinetopsia*), loss of recognition of objects (*visual agnosia*, of which *prosopagnasia* for faceblindness is on... | [
"Frontal lobe disorders may be recognized through a sudden and dramatic change in a person's personality, for example with loss of social awareness, disinhibition, emotional instability, irritability or impulsiveness. Alternatively the disorder may become apparent because of mood changes such as depression, anxiety... |
Why were old ads so verbose? | Having briefly been a PR practitioner I might be able to point to a few things, some of which might challenge the basis of your question, some of which will help answer it.
1. Were we just bad at advertising back then?
A little bit. Yes. Or at the very least it was less sophisticated. The first person to really go ou... | [
"Advertisers were at first reluctant to buy ads, even as the circulation grew, but by 1928, many major companies placed ads, which copied the style of \"short words and shorter sentences\" and also imitated the sensational style. \"Because I Confessed. . . I found the Way To Happiness\" titled an Eagle Brand Conden... |
why do some transactions process in half a second, and others take 3 days? | How banks work. What's easier. Bank A: Send me $2.37 for Joes purchase. Bank B: send me $3.5 for Bibs purchase. Thousands of times a second.
Or
End of day: Bank A: Your clients owe me 3 billion. Bank B: your clients owe me 2 billion, so I'll just give you 1 billion | [
"The minimum transaction amount is ₹1, and the maximum number of transactions per day is 10. If the 10-transactions-per-day limit has been reached, the user needs to wait for 24 hours from the last transaction before making another transaction.\n",
"Transaction time records the time period during which a database... |
Are we certain that no humans lived in North America prior to crossing the Bering Strait? | Not to discourage you from posting here, but you may find more people ready to comment on this question by crossposting to r/AskAnthropology | [
"This implies that people may not have come to America from North Asia through a land-bridge which is now underwater as previously thought, as many scientists believe that the first peoples of America arrived by land and by sea in coast hugging canoes from Northern Asia across what is now the Bering Strait.\n",
"... |
Do astronauts have to wear sun cream in space i.e Like on the ISS? | They're not really any closer to the sun: the ISS is in a low earth orbit, only 400km above sea level. That's on the order of one thousandth of the distance to the moon, or one millionth of the distance to the sun.
It's true that they're outside of the atmosphere, so there's a lot more UV as none of it gets absorbed b... | [
" Special protection is required for space travel because the sunlight is far more intense and harmful than on Earth, where it is always filtered through the atmosphere. Sun protection is needed against much higher UV radiation and even against harmful infrared radiation, both within and outside the spacecraft. Wit... |
why does earth have no ring even after exterior body colliding with earth and launching all the debris in space? | rings around a planet are really unstable, stuff too close could probably burn up and stuff too far would clump together and make something bigger. The earth probably had a ring when something crashed into it. The 4 gas giants have rings but those are mostly made of ice and ice would melt if it was in orbit around eart... | [
"A simple unsupported hoop about a planet is unstable: it would crash into the Earth if left unattended. The orbital ring concept requires cables to the surface to stabilize it, with the outward centrifugal force providing tension on the cables, and the tethers stabilizing the ring.\n",
"\"Space debris\" usually ... |
can someone explains what happens to meteors and meterorites? | Small ones that survive the trip slow down enough that they land like any rock. They may shatter, or plunk down in one piece if they're sturdy enough.
Bigger ones don't lose much speed and carve out craters if they hit land. Most of them fall in the oceans, where they sink to the bottom.
They're really not that hot... | [
"When a meteor strikes earth's atmosphere, a cylindrical region of free electrons is formed at the height of the E layer. This slender, ionized column is relatively long, and when first formed is sufficiently dense to reflect and scatter television and radio signals, generally observable from 25 MHz upwards through... |
Is it true that the effect of fanning yourself (as in with your hands) is actually a net INCREASE in body temperature? | He was bsing.
Moving your hand generates a small amount of heat. Fanning yourself removes a reasonably large amount of heat. I suspect the net effect is normally cooling since you don't use much energy moving your arm, but it would depend on lots of factors like humidity, sweating, arm weight, temperature etc.
What h... | [
"On human skin, the airflow from handfans increases evaporation which has a cooling effect due to the latent heat of evaporation of water. It also increases heat convection by displacing the warmer air produced by body heat that surrounds the skin. Fans are convenient to carry around, especially folding fans.\n",
... |
How did the invention of hangul affect the spread of the moveable type in Korea? | Hangul is the alphabet created by King Sejong.
& #x200B;
Q. What is the purpose of making Hangul?
Major. For the people.
Minor. Hangul is easy to learn Chinese characters.
Minor. It was a useful tool for the middle class in real administration(strengthening the system).
Basis: When creating Han-gul, the way inte... | [
"A potential solution to the linguistic and cultural bottleneck that held back movable type in Korea for 200 years appeared in the early 15th century—a generation before Gutenberg would begin working on his own movable-type invention in Europe—when Sejong the Great devised a simplified alphabet of 24 characters (ha... |
Given the theory of space-time in general relativity, does time act differently where there is more or less gravitational effect? | Time slows down for an observer under the effect of gravity. The stronger the gravitational field, the slower time passes. | [
"Some of the differences between the familiar Newtonian equation of gravity and the predictions of general relativity flow from the fact that gravity in general relativity bends both time and space, not just space. In normal circumstances, gravity bends time so slightly that the differences between Newtonian gravit... |
why do high school and college football teams have marching bands, but nfl and other sports don't? | The Ravens still have a band, but its not common. It's a tradition for Baltimore, after the Colts left the band stayed behind and represented the cities passion for the football team. When the Ravens came they kept up the tradition. | [
"Three National Football League teams designate an official marching band: the Washington Redskins, Buffalo Bills and Baltimore Ravens. Marching bands were once common fare during Super Bowl halftime shows during its earlier years but were later replaced by short stadium rock concerts from high-profile recording ar... |
What kind of beer, if any did pirates drink? | Only recently has beer been able to travel well. IPA , India Pale Ale, was the first beer that could survive the trip from England to India. I believe that the XXX mark designated a beer that could travel. That is where Double Diamond got their Logo. Beer is also very bulky and has a low alcohol content. Overproof rum... | [
"Pirate Life Brewing is a brewery located in Adelaide, South Australia, that produces craft beer. Established in 2014 by Jack Cameron, Michael Cameron and Jared Proudfoot, the company officially launched in 2015 after the three founders relocated from West Australia to open the brewery. In 2016 Pirate Life set up a... |
Why are horizontal and vertical motion (of particles) independent? | We define the geometry of our coordinate system such that this is true. In the Cartesian coordinate system the x (horizontal) and y (vertical) directions are orthogonal (at right angles to each other). This means any force pointing along x or y (gravity points only along negative y) will only affect motion in that di... | [
"The terms on the left side are identical to those of a particle with coordinate (location) formula_1, with mass proportional to the capacitance formula_11, and with friction inversely proportional to the resistance formula_12. The particle moves in a conservative force field given by the term on the right, which c... |
why do large airports all seem to have news station branded convenience stores, and why do these types of stores seem limited to airports? | Some years ago, Hudson News became a chain if newsstands in airports selling magazines, newspapers, and the like. They expanded to become convenience stores.
So their top competitor decided to copy the "news" theme and made a deal with CNBC.
_URL_0_ | [
"Most major airports provide commercial outlets for products and services. Most of these companies, many of which are internationally known brands, are located within the departure areas. These include clothing boutiques and restaurants and in the US amounted to $4.2 billion in 2015. Prices charged for items sold a... |
why is it common for american houses to have issues with carbon monoxide? | I do not think that carbon monoxide issues are all that common in America. although, on occasion you will hear about an unintentional poisoning and subsequent death(s). The problem with carbon monoxide is that it is odorless and will put a person to sleep and then effectively suffocate them. Yes, you can shut your self... | [
"Carbon monoxide is a temporary atmospheric pollutant in some urban areas, chiefly from the exhaust of internal combustion engines (including vehicles, portable and back-up generators, lawn mowers, power washers, etc.), but also from incomplete combustion of various other fuels (including wood, coal, charcoal, oil,... |
why don't they enclose prisoner cells within a faraday cage? | Some prisons have been known to use jammers to prevent cell-phone use, and that's a huge amount cheaper and easier than is faraday caging the whole area.
| [
"Faraday cages cannot block stable or slowly varying magnetic fields, such as the Earth's magnetic field (a compass will still work inside). To a large degree, though, they shield the interior from external electromagnetic radiation if the conductor is thick enough and any holes are significantly smaller than the w... |
How come the wind keeps putting out my lighter, but does nothing to the cigarette once it's lit? | For a few reasons.
1. Solid verse gaseous/liquid fuel. The fuel from your lighter is easily blown and dispersed, which greatly affects its ability to burn. Your cigarette is a solid fuel, and isn't blown away .
2. Flame verse ember. Flames are sensitive to wind, they're easily extinguished. A match is harder to ... | [
"Some people associate the use of the Clipper lighter with roll-your-own cigarettes. This is due to its flint system which is often used by smokers to pack tobacco in roll-your-own cigarettes. It is also often used in the smoking of marijuana because the flint system doubles as a tamper or \"poke\" and because its ... |
why do stadiums cost much more to build today than they did ten years ago? | Partially inflation and partially they just get bigger and fancier and it's kind of a competition to have the most kick ass stadium that they spend more and more money.
Edit: taking a shot at the repair remark, you didn't mention what kind of repairs. You might be thinking that some seats maybe some wall stuff but wha... | [
"Twenty-seven of the 30 stadiums built between 1953 and 1970 received more than $450 million in total public funding for construction. During this period, publicly funding a stadium grew in popularity as an effective incentive to attract professional sports teams to up and coming cities. Famous examples include the... |
I am swimming in a pool of water on the moon. How will the lower gravity affect the way I can swim? | pool story, bro. | [
"Swimming relies on the nearly neutral buoyancy of the human body. On average, the body has a relative density of 0.98 compared to water, which causes the body to float. However, buoyancy varies on the basis of body composition, lung inflation, and the salinity of the water. Higher levels of body fat and saltier wa... |
Any WWII historians out there, can you identify this medal? It was given to a civilian who worked in an evasion line in Belgium that helped Allied airmen escape the occupying German forces. | That's the Belgian War Cross. It was given to soldiers and civilians for showing bravery in actions against the enemy.
On second sight: some things are off. The cross is not exactly the same (_URL_0_) and the middle figure should be a rampant lion or the Kings sigil (two stylised L's with a roman numeral 3). So it's l... | [
"The Resistance Medal 1940–1945 (, ) was a Belgian war medal established by royal decree of the Regent on 16 February 1946 and awarded to all members of the Belgian armed resistance during the Second World War and to members of the intelligence service who operated in occupied territories and participated in combat... |
why does good food taste bad and bad food taste good? (bonus for asking it like a 5 year old?) | Food with lots of energy that are easy to digest (carbohydrates like table sugar, and fat) were the best food sources when food is scarce. Animals evolved to like these food sources: animals that thought these foods tasted good ate more of it, had more energy to outlive famine and able to produce more babies, thus they... | [
"As taste senses both harmful and beneficial things, all basic tastes are classified as either aversive or appetitive, depending upon the effect the things they sense have on our bodies. Sweetness helps to identify energy-rich foods, while bitterness serves as a warning sign of poisons.\n",
"As taste senses both ... |
why do all trucks' wheel assemblies stick out on front tires, but don't on rear tires? | It's so they can use the same size lugs on the front and back.
The ones on the back need to be long enough to accommodate two sets of wheels. The front only has one set, so they stick out | [
"As trucks travel across bumps and dips, they bounce vertically on their suspension resulting in dynamic loading on the roadway. The increased load due to dynamic impact results in higher stresses in the pavement materials and consequently lower road life. By providing an extremely smooth surface, diamond grinding ... |
If the sun converts hydrogen to helium where does it get the neutrons to do so? | Two atoms of hydrogen are combined to create helium-4 and energy in several steps:
1. Two protons combine to form a deuterium atom (hydrogen atom with one neutron and one proton), a positron (similar to electron, but with a positive charge) and a neutrino.
2. A proton and a deuterium atom combine to form a heliu... | [
"Hydrogen is fused into helium through several different interactions in the Sun. The vast majority of neutrinos are produced through the pp chain, a process in which four protons are combined to produce two protons, two neutrons, two positrons, and two electron neutrinos. Neutrinos are also produced by the CNO cyc... |
why do i keep hearing that obama doesn't follow the constitution? what exactly is he doing that is unconstitutional? | You keep hearing about it because it's an inflammatory type of thing that gets voters outraged, in a climate where most people get their news from sources that rely on inflammatory content for ratings.
Obama has issued a number of executive orders, and the argument is that some of these executive orders violate the Co... | [
"During the address, Obama condemned the \"Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission\" ruling, stating, \"Last week, the Supreme Court reversed a century of law that I believe will open the floodgates for special interests – including foreign corporations – to spend without limit in our elections.\" Justice Sa... |
why was scurvy more likely to occur at sea (vs land)? | Scurvy was brought on by a lack of Vitamin C. And while fruits and other foods containing it were common parts of people's diets on land, such foods are difficult to preserve over a long sea voyage. | [
"A combination of a high spring tide and a severe European windstorm over the North Sea caused a storm tide; the combination of wind, high tide, and low pressure led to a water level of more than above mean sea level in some locations. The flood and waves overwhelmed sea defences and caused extensive flooding. The ... |
How scientific is the idea that communicating is 80% body language, 15% tone and 5% actual words (or whatever the numbers may be, I've seen them a couple of different ways)? | First of all, I have no real knowledge on the matter, but since you havn't gotten an answer, ill give you my thinking.
To me its completely nonsense, as you can easily think of a case of 100% body language (sign language) and 0% body language (two blind people talking)
By that logic you can find everything between, le... | [
"Human communication is complex, and context is an essential part of it. Communication consists of the words said, tone of voice, and body language. It also includes how these relate to what has been said in the past; what is not said, but is implied; how these are modified by other nonverbal cues, such as the envi... |
Why did the flintlock pistol/bayonet combo replace pikes and matchlocks? | Soldiers armed with flintlock muskets and bayonets were what replaced infantry armed with matchlocks and pikemen. The short answer would be, of course, that they replaced them because troops with them tended to win the battles.
The advantages of muskets and bayonets was pretty obvious: Before, there was one soldier ... | [
"The use of the bayonet in starting in the 17th century allowed soldiers to use muskets as pikes in close combat. The flintlock, invented slightly earlier, made firearms more reliable. Cartridges were also invented around this time, and made existing firearms easier to load.\n",
"Bayonets were used in conjunction... |
how do motorcycles differ when they have the same kw (hp) but different ccm? | The smaller engine will rev higher to produce the same power as the larger one. Acceleration will be better on the larger engine because it produces more torque, which is the force that gets you moving (this is a generalized statement as gearing would affect this.) It will also work less hard, potentially saving wear a... | [
"With power typically being the product of force and speed, a motorcycle's power and torque ratings will be highly indicative of its performance. Reported numbers for power and torque may however vary from one source to another due to inconsistencies in how testing equipment is calibrated, the method of using that ... |
What factors come into play with the abundance of elements in the universe? | Theoretically, helium and hydrogen were the first to form and formed the most because of their simple structure. This was just caused by quarks combining slowly after billions of years. Nuclear fusion breaks down this process and with the death of a star comes the highly compact neutron star containing the higher densi... | [
"Loose correlations have been observed between estimated elemental abundances in the universe and the nuclear binding energy curve. Roughly speaking, the relative stability of various atomic nuclides has exerted a strong influence on the relative abundance of elements formed in the Big Bang, and during the developm... |
how do you play "street" craps? | The most common form of street craps is [Cee-lo](_URL_0_). There are many variations of the rules, but according to Wikipedia, the base rules are as follows:
"*The constants include the number of dice used, which is always three. All rules describe certain winning combinations that can be rolled, and 4-5-6 is always ... | [
"Craps is a dice game in which the players make wagers on the outcome of the roll, or a series of rolls, of a pair of dice. Players may wager money against each other (playing \"street craps\") or a bank (playing \"casino craps\", also known as \"table craps\", or often just \"craps\"). Because it requires little e... |
why is it meaningless to say if it is 20 degrees oc, that it is twice as hot as if it was 10 degrees oc? | Convert Celsius to any other temperature measurement unit and you'll see why it is meaningless.
10 degrees Celsius = 50 degrees Fahrenheit
20 degrees Celsius = 68 degrees Fahrenheit
I hope it makes it a bit clearer to you now. | [
"Because of the divergence, people may come to the incorrect conclusion that it is impossible to have temperatures above the Hagedorn temperature, which would make it the absolute hot temperature, because it would require an infinite amount of energy. In equations:\n",
"BULLET::::- The latest global analysis of t... |
What really happened in North America immediately before Columbus arrived? | The introduction of bubonic plague into Europe can't really be compared to the introduction of smallpox -- and every other Eurasian/African disease -- into the Americas. Europeans were not an entirely *Y. pestis* naive population. The Plague of Justinian, for example, is thought to have been the result of *Y. pestis*. ... | [
"By the time Columbus discovered America in 1492 (during the reign of Atotarho XIII), the Five Nations were driving the Keatahkiehroneah and Erian tribes out of their country. For a short time, peace prevailed.\n",
"After being becalmed for several days in the doldrums of the mid-Atlantic, Columbus's fleet regain... |
what's going on with /r/thebutton | It hit 0 without anyone pushing the button. It's over, the subreddit is now closed (archived).
This time, for real. No server crashes, it's really, really over. | [
"r/The_Schulz is a semi-serious subreddit created for the German politician Martin Schulz, the former president of the European Parliament and a member of the SPD. According to Spiegel Online, r/The_Schulz was created as a satire against r/The_Donald. Like r/The_Donald, the subreddit frequently uses slang terms, mo... |
how long does it take muscle to form after exercise? | When you lift weights, microscopic "tears" form in the fascia of your muscle tissue. This is why you are sore the next day. The way muscles grow is through "muscle recovery": the tears fill up with new muscle cells, and the muscle is larger as a result. Think of it like scar tissue.
So the answer would then be that mu... | [
"Stretching of the tight structures (piriformis, hip abductor, and hip flexor muscle) may alleviate the symptoms. The involved muscle is stretched (for 30 seconds), repeated three times separated by 30 second to 1 minute rest periods, in sets performed two times daily for six to eight weeks. This should allow one t... |
Why aren't we mining asteroids? | The costs are still way more than the profits. Plus there's a serious risk involved, so getting investors to fund an asteroid mining mission would be tricky anyway, since there's a good chance you'd get no profit at all. | [
"It has been suggested that asteroids might be used as a source of materials that may be rare or exhausted on Earth (asteroid mining), or materials for constructing space habitats \"(see Colonization of the asteroids)\". Materials that are heavy and expensive to launch from Earth may someday be mined from asteroids... |
why are there riots in ferguson, missouri? is this only because of the teen shot dead by police or are there any other causes? | There was a peaceful vigil for the teenager who was shot. Somehow the vigil got violent and a riot broke out.
The rioters were *not* upset about the teenager who was shot. They saw an opportunity to raise hell throughout the area, and they took it.
Teenagers robbed a gas station of beer & candy and then burned it t... | [
"The Ferguson Unrest (sometimes called the Ferguson Uprising, Ferguson Riots, Ferguson Rebellion, or simply Ferguson) involved protests and riots that began the day after the fatal shooting of Michael Brown by police officer Darren Wilson on August 9, 2014, in Ferguson, Missouri. The unrest sparked a vigorous debat... |
Where did Michelangelo and the old Greek and Roman sculptors get their models? Did your average Joe look like a bodybuilder 500-2000 years ago? | No. These were idealized concepts of male beauty and strength. So while the statues themselves are impressive (and IMHO beautiful), they are not meant to be physical representations. For example, the pose of the Riace Bronze men. These two bronze cast statues were made by the artist to amplify every naturally occurring... | [
"Additionally, some scholars suggest that Michelangelo was inspired by the famous Greco-Roman group of \"Laocoön and His Sons\", excavated in 1506 in Rome, an event at which Michelangelo is believed to have been present . The pose of the nude figure in the background immediately behind Saint Joseph, to our right, a... |
the difference in gravity between a star, and that same star becoming a black hole. | Your explanation isn't wrong.
The problem is we tend to consider objects with a specific mass as if they have no volume and ALL their mass is at one point. If you think of a black hole and a star like this, there's no real difference between them.
But they aren't like this. A star has it's mass spread out over a hu... | [
"The star must be one and a half times the mass of the Sun or larger to turn into a black hole. This number is called the \"Chandrasekhar limit\". If the mass of a star is less than the Chandrasekhar limit, it will not turn into a black hole; instead, it will turn into a different, smaller type of star. The boundar... |
what’s the difference if any between working class and middle class? | For most intents and purposes, the working class is loosely defined as those who hold jobs with lower barriers to entry, that are usually defined by the work they entail. This does not strictly refer to wage, but more towards the type of job they hold. This means that, with proper saving, the working class can be middl... | [
"A common alternative, is to define class by income levels. When this approach is used, the working class can be contrasted with a so-called \"middle class \"on the basis of differential terms of access to economic resources, education, cultural interests, and other goods and services. The cut-off between working c... |
when high-level world leaders (like obama and putin) talk to each other on the phone, do they speak in the same language or do they need a translator? and if they need a translator, isn't that a serious security concern that someone knows everything they're saying? | The translator only has to be trusted by the party that hires him. Usually Obama brings a Russian translator, and Putin brings and English translator. The translators work together and check each other to verify what the other is saying is accurate.
A Presidential translator has passed the requisite security clearance... | [
"BULLET::::- Many former East Germans have a good command of the Russian language and considerable knowledge about Russia. The German language is in a firm second place (behind English) at Russian schools. President Putin speaks German at a near-native level, Chancellor Merkel speaks Russian fluently and both leade... |
Did the Nazis negotiate with any official party abroad for the deportation of the jews prior to 1939? | Sort of. They wanted it, and drew up plans for mass deporation to Madagascar. But the logistics would've been nightmarish, and IIRC would've required the ships of the Royal Navy, so it only would've worked after Britain being defeated. It wasn't much more than a pipe dream of getting rid of the Jews.
They also enco... | [
"In November 1943, Jews were declared 'enemy aliens' in accordance with the manifesto of the Italian Social Republic, to be arrested and their property seized. Although some Jews managed to escape to neutral Switzerland or Allied-occupied southern Italy, over two hundred were rounded up, most between 5 December 194... |
why do humans sometimes cant seem to remember whether they did something or not? | Isn’t it simply because we don’t pay attention? If you put down your keys absentmindedly it’s like overlooking something obvious: You’ll remember neither because you didn’t pay attention. | [
"It is obvious that, to a large extent, people remember what they want to remember. If a person considers a task to be insignificant, they will be less motivated to remember the intention; and ultimately pay less attention to available time-cues. Thus, forgetting of the memory for the intended action is more likely... |
What are the differences of a Sherman tank and a Tiger tank? | This question comes up quite a bit. You might try [this link](_URL_0_) and [this link](_URL_1_) for your answer. | [
"BULLET::::- Sherman lent his name to the Sherman tank. Formally named the Medium Tank, M4, it acquired the name \"Sherman\" from the British Army, who received M4 tanks under the Lend-Lease Act. The combined name \"M4 Sherman\" or just \"Sherman\" spread to American personnel and it has since become common to refe... |
Why can't we synthesize the top shelf, super expensive, 40 years old scotch in the lab? Is there anything about the scotch only achievable by aging it more? | You could theoretically replicate expensive liquors in the lab, but we’re talking about a large amount of molecules you would need to add in a particular ratio to get the same result. This would be crazy expensive and in most cases you will end up with a different to slightly different product.
Also keep in mind that ... | [
"An obvious drawback of reported syntheses of TAPs is a need for harsh conditions of condensation or aromatization steps, which are poorly compatible with the emerging huge and fragile TAP system. This results in low yields and poor quality of the obtained materials and limits opportunities of introducing functiona... |
Why has (almost?) every currency lost so much value in the last century / last few decades? | A history of monetary policy is necessarily very complex, and any account of it you receive here will be gross simplification and one that is very susceptible to a political bias. You'll probably have to read a variety of sources very critically to form a fair picture.
That being said, here's a take that would be fai... | [
"A fiat-money currency greatly loses its value should the issuing government or central bank either lose the ability to, or refuse to, further guarantee its value. The usual consequence is hyperinflation. Some examples where this has occurred are the Zimbabwean dollar, China in 1945 and the mark in the Weimar Repub... |
What chemical property makes a drug 'addictive' | The following is horribly oversimplified. I wrote this several times, and this is the only version that's less than 60 lines in notepad.
There is no chemical structure common to all drugs that makes them addictive.
An analogy: Ever ripped a CD that was recorded too loud or too soft? When those songs come up on shuff... | [
"Psychoactive drugs are often associated with addiction or drug dependence. Dependence can be divided into two types: psychological dependence, by which a user experiences negative psychological or emotional withdrawal symptoms (e.g., depression) and physical dependence, by which a user must use a drug to avoid phy... |
Could a planet made entirely of metal achieve a stable orbit around a magnetar? | See [this past thread](_URL_1_).
There can be no stable orbit in your configuration - see [Bertrand's theorem](_URL_0_). | [
"Finally, a larger planet is likely to have a large iron core. This allows for a magnetic field to protect the planet from stellar wind and cosmic radiation, which otherwise would tend to strip away planetary atmosphere and to bombard living things with ionized particles. Mass is not the only criterion for producin... |
Was there any connection between Mesoamerica and the Caribbean? | I've heard some talk about it, but I haven't been able to find much. It seems they had extensive coastal trade routes and used some coastal islands as trading outposts, but they were hesitant to travel farther out than Guanaja or cross over from Cancún to Cuba.
It might be a little dated, but here are some excerpts f... | [
"The Caribbean islands and early Spanish explorations around the circum-Caribbean region had not been of major political, strategic, or financial importance until the conquest of the Aztec Empire in 1521. However, important precedents of exploration, conquest, and settlement and crown rule had been initially worked... |
Why do guns have such bizarre calibers? | I asked this question a while ago, the best answer I got was:
I think originally the reason for these odd sizes is because bullets were ball shaped and were measured not by caliber but by the pound. Early muskets and flintlocks used spherical lead balls, which were measured by how many equal sized balls you could make... | [
"Gun calibers have standardized around a few common sizes, especially in the larger range, mainly due to the uniformity required for efficient military logistics. Shells of 105 and 155 mm for artillery and 105mm and 120 mm for tank guns in NATO. Artillery shells of 122, 130 and 152 mm, and tank gun ammunition of 10... |
why do bagels and donuts have holes? | They have holes so that they will cook evenly. Without the holes, there would be a doughy center that you wouldn't find appealing. | [
"Doughnut holes are small, bite-sized doughnuts that were traditionally made from the dough taken from the center of ring doughnuts. Before long, doughnut sellers saw the opportunity to market \"holes\" as a novelty and many chains offer their own variety, some with their own brand names such as \"Munchkins\" from ... |
What is the biological reasoning behind the frustration that you can feel in the middle of your chest? |
Stress releases epinephrine increasing heart rate and constricting blood vessels, norepinephrine activating the amygdala and increasing heart rate, and cortisol which will increases stomach acid and blood pressure. It is likely you feel it most in the chest because the heart and esophagus are under increased load and ... | [
"Emotional pain activates the same regions of the brain as physical pain, so emotional stress can be a significantly intolerable state for some people. Some of this is environmental and some of this is due to physiological differences in responding. The autonomic nervous system is composed of two components: the sy... |
what happens if someone from an uncontacted tribe wants to join society? are they citizens of the country they live in? | Aye. Every country I know of grants citizenship automatically to people born on their soil from ancestors also born on their soil (unless, an exception in some countries, those ancestors were explicitly guest immigrants). | [
"They [the Indian tribes] may without doubt, like the subjects of any foreign government, be naturalized by the authority of Congress and become citizens of a state and of the United States, and if an individual should leave his nation or tribe, and take up his abode among the white population, he would be entitled... |
why do video players always require user action after they start buffering? almost every application, youtube, ifunny, reddit, needs me to press pause and play after loading instead of just starting the video again. why? | Be careful what you wish for.
The current behaviour, as I understand it, was in response to large numbers of users **complaining** about auto-play; people **wanted** to control when videos started, and not have three of them playing simultaneously.
| [
"Programmers may be unaware that they are constantly passing video streams into functions, since convention suggests that the video is not explicitly passed. If no video is passed into a function, it simply takes the last video used.\n",
"If the framebuffer of the graphics controller is not updated, the picture o... |
Is there any evidence to the idea that Muhammad established the Hajj as a Pillar of Islam in order to gain support from the powerful merchants that 'ran' the city? | The Ka'aba was an extremely important part of pre-Islamic Mecca. It was a focal point for pagan religious pilgrimages then in the same way that it is now for Islam. At the time there were idols for all sorts of gods there. This religious significance is more or less the only reason Mecca, which is in the middle of a de... | [
"Muhammad had preached the religion of Islam in Mecca from 613 to 622. He had attracted a small community of followers, but also drew staunch opposition from the rest of the Quraysh, the tribe that ruled Mecca and to which he belonged. The Muslims fled Mecca in 622 after years of persecution and established themsel... |
why does holding the little wire antenna on a clock radio in your hand increase the quality of reception? | Because then your body becomes part of the antenna. So, instead of a few inches of antenna, there's now five to six feet worth of antenna. | [
"This was significant, because a lapel-worn radio negated the need for a remote speaker microphone, thus lowering the overall cost per user, but also reduced costs by removing a sizeable weight from the user's belt – a factor which was thought to contribute to lumbar strain and a significant number of absences from... |
what's the healthiest kind of milk and why? | Human breast milk. It's nutritionally complete, but is formulated for babies which grow extremely quickly in their first year or so. Chances are if you drank enough to sustain you there'd be more fat than an adult would require. Therefore I restate my original suggestion as "low fat human breast milk". | [
"Milk is an excellent medium for microbial growth, and when it is stored at ambient temperature bacteria and other pathogens soon proliferate. The US Centers for Disease Control (CDC) says improperly handled raw milk is responsible for nearly three times more hospitalizations than any other food-borne disease sourc... |
What makes a 'supercomputer' special as compared to a networked server farm? | It's largely additional investment in high speed connections between machines.
Supercomputers use something like [Infiniband](_URL_3_) for extremely fast low latency communication between the machines. For example, say you want two 8-core machines to work together on a problem. If it takes a long time (milliseconds) ... | [
"Supercomputers in particular often have highly unique architectures that differ significantly from the basic stored-program architecture and from general purpose computers. They often feature thousands of CPUs, customized high-speed interconnects, and specialized computing hardware. Such designs tend to be useful ... |
How do you measure the velocity of a galaxy? | Hubble measured the velocities using the Doppler effect for light. Various atoms and molecules emit light at known characteristic wavelengths. If something is move away from us or towards us, we'll see those wavelengths shifted. There's a nice description [here](_URL_0_) | [
"However the observed velocity dispersion of galaxies within a galaxy cluster does not depend on the mass of the galaxies. The explanation is that a galaxy cluster relaxes by violent relaxation, which sets the velocity dispersion to a value independent of the galaxy's mass.\n",
"Spectroscopic studies have provide... |
Was the arab world in Nassers time like a single nation of brothers? | Not at all. There was lip service paid to Pan-Arabism and unity, but Arab states still routinely conspired against one another. Nasser's brief union with Syria was a disaster, the Syrians and Egyptians spent its entirety politically squabbling and trying to usurp the other. The attempted union between Jordan and Iraq h... | [
"It was not until the Nasser era – more than a decade later – that Arab nationalism, and by extension Arab socialism, became a state policy imposed on the Egyptians by the new dictatorship. Under Nasser, Egypt united with Syria to form the United Arab Republic in 1958, then became known as the \"Arab\" Republic of ... |
Why do Italian cities change their names in English, but other countries like Spain and France retain the native name for their city? | First of all, this is not true exclusively of Italian cities. Other citiies like Copenhagen, Prague, Moscow, and Belfast also have names significantly different in their source languages (København, Praha, Moskva, Béal Feirste).
Why? Four reasons. The first is normal sound changes in English. All words in the lang... | [
"One reason for this is because foreign names can be perceived as more fashionable than native ones. Particularly in middle-class areas, names of Italian origin have been used because of this perception and many roads (e.g. \"Vico Road\" and \"Sorrento Road\" in Dalkey) and housing estates have obtained their names... |
how to find out foreign last names? | Just ask. No-one should be expected to know how names work in N+ different cultures.
Besides, if you meet "Jack Norton", and refer to him as Mr. Jack, They are most likely amused, before correcting you. Amusement is a good icebreaker, I've found. | [
"Countries are listed alphabetically by their current best-known name in English. Each English name is followed by its currently best-known equivalents in other languages, listed in English alphabetical order (ignoring accents) by name and by language. Historical and/or alternative versions, where included, are not... |
Why does music sound so much faster to me when I first wake up? | Your mind has a rhythmic expectation that affects how fast or slow it perceives reality. If you play a computer game, try this cool trick to observe a similar effect:
Watch a replay in that game at 2x speed for about 20 minutes and then play a game at normal speed. The game will feel like it is in slow-motion becaus... | [
"Musically, Sleep's sound has been characterized as stoner rock built upon slow, down-tuned bass playing alongside similarly low guitar riffs. Repetition is frequently employed, working to create a \"hypnotic state\" supplemented by Al Cisneros' vocals.\n",
"The song, light and uptempo, was a bit of a departure f... |
To what extent was Nazi Germany's economic development form 1933 onward "unsustainable"? And what effect did it have, if any, on their decision to go to war when they did? | Read Adam Tooze's *Wages of Destruction: The Making and Breaking of the Nazi Economy*. It's an excellent overview of all things having to do with the German economy before and during the war.
Tooze makes the claim that basically every aspect of German economic policy starting in 1933 was completely unsustainable. In a... | [
"During the Hitler era (1933–45), the economy developed a hothouse prosperity, supported with high government subsidies to those sectors that tended to give Germany military power and economic autarky, that is, economic independence from the global economy. During the war itself the German economy was sustained by ... |
A question about the Macedonian Phalanx | I think that any characterization of the phalanx as a defensive formation is wrong. It is clearly a formation designed to overpower an enemy line and force them to rout, which, as I'm sure you know, is where the real victory in a battle comes from (and certainly the **real** defeat). As compared to the light infantry f... | [
"The phalanx of the Ancient Macedonian kingdom and the later Hellenistic successor states was a development of the hoplite phalanx. The 'phalangites' were armed with a much longer spear, the sarissa, and less heavily armoured. The sarissa was the pike used by the ancient Macedonian army. Its actual length is unknow... |
Was the 94% marginal tax rate under FDR effective in its goal? Or did the wealthy simply wriggle through the loopholes? | Given the economic boom across the 1950s, I'd like to ask the same question about Eisenhower (91% top rate) | [
"Following World War II tax increases, top marginal individual tax rates stayed near or above 90%, and the effective tax rate at 70% for the highest incomes (few paid the top rate), until 1964 when the top marginal tax rate was lowered to 70%. Kennedy explicitly called for a top rate of 65 percent, but added that i... |
Has any person or group been successful in making (large scale) alterations to a language? | Sorry, we don't allow ["example seeking" questions](_URL_0_). It's not that your question was bad; it's that these kinds of questions tend to produce threads that are collections of disjointed, partial, inadequate responses. If you have a question about a specific historical event, period, or person, feel free to rewri... | [
"Languages targeted for language revitalization include those whose use and prominence is severely limited. Sometimes various tactics of language revitalization can even be used to try to revive extinct languages. Though the goals of language revitalization vary greatly from case to case, they typically involve att... |
Is it possible that there are distant stars moving away from Earth so fast that light from them would never reach the Earth? | Hi /u/nemodatass,
> The first is whether an object can have a relative velocity greater than the speed of light (taking into account the expansion of the universe).
If we consider the instantaneous rate of change in distance of the Milky Way relative to an object at a redshift z~2 (a comoving distance of ~17 billion... | [
"In 1910 Daniel Frost Comstock and in 1913 Willem de Sitter wrote that for the case of a double-star system seen edge-on, light from the approaching star might be expected to travel faster than light from its receding companion, and overtake it. If the distance was great enough for an approaching star's \"fast\" si... |
why does a bicycle get more stable when you move ? | There are a number of factors at play, both relating to the bicycle, and the person riding it.
Coincidentally, before I came across this post, I saw a video in which James May explains it all really nicely: _URL_0_ | [
"Bicycles and motorcycles are both single-track vehicles and so their motions have many fundamental attributes in common and are fundamentally different from and more difficult to study than other wheeled vehicles such as dicycles, tricycles, and quadracycles. As with unicycles, bikes lack lateral stability when st... |
why does the human brain like patterns so much? | When real patterns are detected, like cause & effect, they frequently offer the ability to predict likely or logical outcomes of actions or events, and that offers survival value. | [
"Mental Pattern Processing: A fundamental question in philosophy and neuroscience is why and how humans have greatly surpassed other species in their abilities to reason, communicate and engage in abstract thought. In 2014 Mattson published an article entitled “Superior Pattern Processing is the Essence of the Evol... |
what is to sing in tune. | You mean...what it is to sing in tune? As in, what it feels like/means to sing a song with the right pitch? | [
"Sing-along, also called community singing or group singing, is an event of singing together at gatherings or parties, less formally than choir singing. One can use a songbook. Common genres are folk songs, patriotic songs, hymns and drinking songs. Children across the world usually sing nursery rhymes together.\n"... |
Did the Romans only use people who'd been slaves their entire lives as house servants? If "no" how did they keep freshly captured barbarians with nothing to loose from killing their masters? | If i remember correctly they took very few adult male slaves for just that reason. Women and children were mainly the ones that were captured and sold. The male slaves would then have lived their whole life or most of it in slavery. The Romans would also separate boy slaves from their fathers so they would grow up weak... | [
"Civilians and soldiers captured by the Huns might also be ransomed back, or else sold to Roman slave dealers as slaves. The Huns themselves, Maenchen-Helfen argued, had little use for slaves due to their nomadic pastoralist lifestyle. More recent scholarship, however, has demonstrated that pastoral nomadists are a... |
will we ever have designer babies? are there laws now that prevent this? | The issue at hand isn't legal (yet anyway)... but rather technological and cost based.
We're getting close to a Gattica scenario... but we're not there yet. | [
"Standard Innovation has used legal means in an attempt to protect its intellectual property. In early 2012, the company filed a complaint with the United States International Trade Commission (USITC) against LELO and others for infringing on Standard Innovation's patent for the adult toys designed to be worn while... |
Is it possible to predict the next major mountain range? | Yes and no. You are correct that we con forward model the movement of plates to a certain extent (such predictions exist) so we can anticipate the location of collisional plate boundaries that favor the formation of mountain ranges. But the formation of mountain ranges also depends on rates of erosion that depend on c... | [
"In 2011 the \"Exploring the Alps\" project was carried out, a trilogy with the aim of climbing three new routes on the most important mountains in the valley which are also some of the highest in the Alps: Mont Blanc, Monte Rosa and the Matterhorn. These three new routes enabled Hervé to rediscover alpinism in the... |
can a bullet be reused at all? if not, why not? thanks | Reloader here.
4 parts to a cartridge:
Bullet (projectile)
Case
Powder
Primer
Powder and primer are spent. The cases, yes absolutely can be de-primed, cleaned, and reused. The projectiles are a bit trickier. If it's just lead then you can recast it. If it's jacketed you can still melt it down, but then you ha... | [
"BULLET::::- An element may be, or may have been reused in, or may have originated in, different buildings or monuments from different periods. To use it in one reconstruction obviates its use in others.\n",
"BULLET::::- Material saved – Material that was kept after examination and not discarded (if any). Informa... |
Does your blood type affect your health in any way (except in the case of transfusions and transplants) | Yes, there have been many diseases linked to differing outcomes based on your classic ABO blood type. Here are a few examples.
*Helicobacter pylori* establishment in patients with pancreatic cancer is greater for those with non-O blood type. [National Cancer Institute, 2009](_URL_1_)
Noroviruses use ABO antigens to a... | [
"Evidence from two large studies in 2017 showed that the transfusion of blood from younger donors to older people led to outcomes that were either no different from, or led to worse outcomes than, blood from older donors. Research on blood transfusion outcomes has been complicated by the lack of careful characteriz... |
Why are cases of dementia more common in North America and Europe compared to the rest of the world? | People live longer in developed countries compared to developing countries. They are also more likely to see a doctor on a regular basis which would allow them to diagnose such a thing. So the actual incidence may not be too different, just documented more.
A possible cause could be related to diet and life style. Dem... | [
"East Asia has the most people living with dementia (9.8 million) followed by Western Europe (7.5 million ), South Asia (5.1 million) and North America (4.8 million). In 2016, the prevalence of Alzheimer was 5.05% in Europe. Like in United States, it is more prevalent in women than in men. In the European Union, Fi... |
how does vacuum insulation (like in a thermos) work? why is it so good at keeping things hot or cold? | Heat travels in three ways, convection, conduction, and radiation.
Convection is from an air or fluid flowing over the object. Example: the steam coming off tea, or when you open a hot oven and feel a blast of heat on your face.
Conduction is from the two objects (one hot and one cold) physically touching each other ... | [
"A vacuum is the best insulator, but its use in clothing is impractical. Dry air is a practical insulator. Extreme cold weather clothing uses still dry air to insulate the body, layers of loose air trapping material are most effective. The inner layers should conduct moisture away from the body. Outer layers should... |
why is debating another person so appealing? | Debating forces you to examine your own thoughts more closely. It challenges your mind. It's like sports, only better because it's your brain, not your muscle that wins or loses. | [
"\"But in that debate we learnt a great deal because when you debate issues of that nature if you approach that debate with seriousness and earnesty. At the end of the debate you find yourself closer to your rivals than you were before that debate.\n",
"Points of information are an important part of any debate th... |
how do telescopes work? | For the kind of scope that use mirrors, think of them as light buckets. Now think about it raining in an ordinary bucket, the larger the diameter the bucket, the more rain enters the bucket at any given time. If you have a cup and bucket next to each other out in the rain for one hour, the cup will collect (for example... | [
"An optical telescope gathers and focuses light mainly from the visible part of the electromagnetic spectrum (although some work in the infrared and ultraviolet). Optical telescopes increase the apparent angular size of distant objects as well as their apparent brightness. In order for the image to be observed, pho... |
Why are some mushrooms and fungi flammable? | Because they contain a large amount of combustible material and not much water.
The reason most plant material (I know fungi aren't actually plants) does not burn easily is because it contains a large amount of water. For any substance to burn you need three things:
* Fuel
* Oxygen
* High temperature
While there is ... | [
"Many fungi produce biologically active compounds, several of which are toxic to animals or plants and are therefore called mycotoxins. Of particular relevance to humans are mycotoxins produced by molds causing food spoilage, and poisonous mushrooms (see above). Particularly infamous are the lethal amatoxins in som... |
what is model/view/controller? | Model holds the data, view shows it to the user, controller takes input and tells the model how to update the data.
If reddit is an MVC design (dunno if it is), then the database of links and comments is the model, HTML and CSS make the view, and the scripts that run when you click a button are the controller. | [
"A \"model\" represents the state of a particular aspect of the application. A \"controller\" handles interactions and updates the model to reflect a change in state of the application, and then passes information to the view. A \"view\" accepts necessary information from the controller and renders a user interface... |
what's the difference between chicken nuggets and boneless chicken wings? | Chicken nuggets are chicken meat that has been ground up and turned into little dinosaur-shaped reconstituted chicken food products coated in breading.
Boneless chicken wings are pieces of chicken breast coated in breading. | [
"The chicken nugget was invented in the 1950s by Robert C. Baker, a food science professor at Cornell University, and published as unpatented academic work. This bite sized piece of chicken, coated in batter and then deep fried was called the \"Chicken Crispie\" by Baker and his associates. Dr. Baker's innovations ... |
Is a study with a small sample size less meaningful than one with a big sample size? | Your definition of a P value is better than most scientists could give!
However, your next statement is not exactly correct, at least in my opinion (though very understandable). In fact, you could probably ask 10 statisticians this question and get 10 different answers.
The clearest, and least controversial case wher... | [
"Larger sample sizes generally lead to increased precision when estimating unknown parameters. For example, if we wish to know the proportion of a certain species of fish that is infected with a pathogen, we would generally have a more precise estimate of this proportion if we sampled and examined 200 rather than 1... |
Why is is the i root of i^i not i ? | The ith root of i^i is i. It is not the only root because the root function is multivalued over the complex numbers. If you are taking natural number roots, specifically the nth root you would have exactly n solutions. For general complex numbers you may actually have infinitely many solutions (as is the case here), b... | [
"The root symbol √ is traditionally prolongated by a bar (called vinculum) over the radicand (this allows avoiding parentheses for eliminating the radicand). Other functions use parentheses around the input to avoid ambiguity. The parentheses are sometimes omitted if the input is a monomial. Thus, , but , because i... |
why is flexibility attractive in women? | nope its all about the sex, for me its just the idea of what it means is on the table for us to be able to do. I may be able to try new positions with a more flexible partner. Is it a huge deal? no, but its enough to get a few thoughts rushing through my head. | [
"Furthermore, gender shapes the particular variety of flexibility demanded. In advantaged occupations, both men and women are able to acquire the flexibility they so desire. However, they choose to use the control that this affords them in different manners. Women cut back on paid work hours and take leaves to hand... |
night vision and shadows? | Night vision amplifies available light. A faint source of light that you can't see still casts a shadow, you just can't make out the difference. Night vision can. | [
"A night vision device (NVD) is an optical instrument that allows images to be produced in levels of light approaching total darkness. They are most often used by the military and law enforcement agencies, but are available to civilian users. Night vision devices were first used in World War II,\n",
"The Dark Wat... |
why is there no *grass roots* movement against saudi arabia like there was outrage over apartheid? | TL;DR Saudi Arabia has a lot of money that they use to swiftly squash all dissidents.
Because of their oil, Saudi Arabia has resources beyond our comprehension. One thing they direct those resources towards is security--specifically internal security. There are definitely dissidents in Saudi Arabia. But they typica... | [
"Saudi Arabia's actions in Yemen have also attracted condemnation from the United Nations and other human rights groups. The United Nations placed Saudi Arabia on a suspicion of children's rights violations blacklist in 2016 as a result of the allegations against Saudi Arabia, especially with regards to the deaths ... |
"the greek political crisis in the middle of the fourth century B.C" | It seems like the original text hugely oversimplified the issue. It also relied on the outdated notion of a "fourth-century crisis". I will try to clear a few things up.
Athens is considered to have become a democracy through the reforms of Cleisthenes about 507 BC. Throughout the century that followed, the political ... | [
"On January 24, 2015, José reported from Athens on the internal causes of the Greek crisis, and pointed to four factors: big corruption (the example he gave was the luxury house of the Defense minister arrested over the submarines affair), petty corruption (the subsidies given to “many Greeks” who had bribed doctor... |
Prior to the Russia's conquest of the far east, what people/tribes/nations lived/occupied those lands? Did anyone lived in Chukotka for example? What were those people's traditions? | Numerous people lived in Siberia and the far east of Russia, far too numerous to list them all here. These people tend to be trappers, herders, hunters, and the like.
Genealogically, there is a strong relationship to the people who live(d) here as do in Alaska, including Inuits and Aleuts. Yakuts, Chukchi (who lived ... | [
"The Russian conquest of Siberia was accompanied by massacres due to indigenous resistance to colonization by the Russian Cossacks, who savagely crushed the natives. At the hands of people like Vasilii Poyarkov in 1645 and Yerofei Khabarov in 1650 some peoples like the Daur were slaughtered by the Russians to the e... |
how am i supposed to use public bathroom seat protectors? | You tear out that little center bit, it is probably already open at one end.
The reality is you don't need to use one at all from a disease stand point. If the seat is generally dirty then sure, go ahead, but if you are worried about germs then don't bother - it doesn't do anything about those. | [
"The International Association of Plumbing and Mechanical Officials' Uniform Plumbing Code, section 409.2.2, requires that \"all water closet seats, except those within dwelling units or for private use, shall be of the open front type\". There is an exception for toilets with an automatic toilet-seat cover dispens... |
how did the banana peel become synonymous with slipping and falling? | Bananas were common street food in the US during the early 1900s, people would throw the peels on the ground, not in the trash and people walking would slip on them. Hilarity ensuesd
Note: It wasn't the banana you are familiar with, it was a different and now rare vareity (it used to be common) called a [Gros Michel b... | [
"BULLET::::- Dutch comedian André van Duin released his version in 1972 called \"Het bananenlied\": the banana song. This song asks repetitively why bananas are bent. It reaches the conclusion that if the bananas weren't bent they wouldn't fit into their peels.\n",
"Banana peel is also part of the classic physica... |
pass, passed, and past, grammar explanation needed | "Pass" is a verb with lots of definitions. (it can also be a noun, but that isn't important to the context you're asking about here)
"Passed" is just the past tense of "pass."
"Past" can be a noun ("apartheid is a thing of the past"), an adjective ("past tense"), or a preposition ("we went past the store").
You've... | [
"The passé simple (, \"simple past\" or \"preterite\"), also called the passé défini (, \"definite past\"), is the literary equivalent of the \"passé composé\" in the French language, used predominantly in formal writing (including history and literature) and formal speech. As with other preterites, it is used when... |
How is my brain able to make the most beautiful scenery, full of details, in my dreams and when I try to do the same while being awake I have the hardest time. | Parts of your brain, which remain active while you sleep, interpret the "mess" the rest of your sleeping brain makes. That part of your brain is already in use by perceiving the real world around you while you are awake.
If you deprive yourself of outside stimuli, you will start to hallucinate (Ganzfeld effect).
Als... | [
"You can learn a lot about a person from his dreams. What we dream is a reflection of who we are. It is the measure of our aspirations and goals, and of those values we hold dear and place above all else.\n",
"Wimberley also indicates that dreaming is part of his photographic work. In particular, he uses the cont... |
what are the purple colour-schemed textures for in 3d video games? | Although I can't say I'm completely sure, this appears to be a relief map. When you are making 3D computer models, it costs way too much computing power to get the shape of an object right to the millimeter, because this involves putting a lot of polygons (little triangle shapes) in the model. Instead, a relief map is ... | [
"Although advertised as a 3D game, \"Iridion 3D\" uses solely 2D graphics for texture scrolling and sprites which depict explosions and enemies. The developers create the illusion of 3D by looping background textures—a graphically intensive technique for the Game Boy Advance. Graphical objects shrink or enlarge to ... |
Sun Protection Factor - SPF - is higher than 30 really required for "white adult Caucasians" - sorting out marketing from science | Sun protection factor is essentially a multiplier for your bodies natural resistance to burning.
If you take 20 minutes before you turn red in the sun and I take 10 and we both properly apply SPF 15 you would be resistant to burning for 300 minutes (20*15) and I would be resistant for 150 (10*15).
SPF 50 would give y... | [
"The sun protection factor (SPF rating, introduced in 1974) is a measure of the fraction of sunburn-producing UV rays that reach the skin. For example, \"SPF 15\" means that of the burning radiation will reach the skin, assuming sunscreen is applied evenly at a thick dosage of 2 milligrams per square centimeter (mg... |
is there a scientific, historical, or sociological explanation as to why women like getting flowers? | It isn't as simple as "women like getting flowers". Flowers have been used as symbols or given meaning for thousands of years; the Hebrew Bible contains references to henna blossoms as a symbol of affection. The giving of flowers is a method of symbolic communication, which is why they may be appreciated. | [
"Inglis's use of flowers in her work was primarily used to produce attractive manuscripts, which would create employment or reward opportunities. However, this may not have been the only reason Inglis decided to implement flowers. In many of her dedications, Inglis emphasized the fact that what she was doing was “a... |
Why did Hitler wait until the day before he killed himself to get married? | According to Otto Wagener (SA Chief of Staff from October 1929 through December 1930), Hitler declared to his party comrades that he was living in politics and rejecting his private life, and had never planned to marry at all. In a personal conversation with him, Hitler said: “I have another bride - Germany! I am marri... | [
"Hitler's letters provide evidence that he was fond of her, and worried when she participated in sports or was late returning for tea. His secretary Traudl Junge stated that during the war, Hitler telephoned Braun every day. He was concerned for her safety when she was staying in the Munich home he had bought her. ... |
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