Split (2)

train · 226k rows

question stringlengths 3 301	answer stringlengths 9 26.1k	context list
Do we track all activity in space? Would we notice if alien life puts a satellite between our satellites?	Everything in low earth orbit above 5cm in diameter is tracked. Further out, at the distance of a geostationary orbit, all things above a meter are tracked. We are also tracking smaller objects than these. It is possible for a satellite to be hidden if it were made similar to stealth jets in the way that they reflect m...	[ "There are some assumptions that underlie the SETI programs that may cause searchers to miss signals that are present. Extraterrestrials might, for example, transmit signals that have a very high or low data rate, or employ unconventional (in our terms) frequencies, which would make them hard to distinguish from ba...
when and why did natural things that everyone does like peeing become a private thing?	I am not sure your premise is true. The smell of pee is offensive to us. So even in hunter gatherer times people probably didn't pee in the same spot they lived. Moreover when peeing or shitting most animals are vulnerable and they prefer some sort of privacy. I would imagine the same sort of instinct works in human...	[ "\"Pee\" is the thirteenth season finale of the American animated television series \"South Park\". The 195th overall episode of the series, it originally aired on Comedy Central in the United States on November 18, 2009. In the episode, the boys visit Pi Pi's Splashtown, the local waterpark, where so many people u...
How did World War II impact the experiences of African Americans?	It impacted the lives of African Americans on multiple levels. Most historians put the emphasis on the military involvement of the black population: overture in officialdom, acceptance of A-A in the Air Corps, change of rules in the selective service, ability to showcase A-A's value in combat, etc. Ultimately, WWII lea...	[ "For African Americans, World War I highlighted the widening gap between U.S. rhetoric regarding \"the war to make the world safe for democracy\" and the reality of disenfranchised and exploited black farmers in the South or the poor and alienated residents of the Northern slums. African-American soldiers faced dis...
what happens when they say Einstein equations "break down"?	The [Einstein Field Equation](_URL_0_) takes a description of energy (including mass) and tells you how to describe the curvature of spacetime around that energy. *But*, when we want to put in the description of energy for a quantum particle, we can't find an appropriate way to do it. You can approximately imagine ...	[ "Writing down the equations of General Relativity was no doubt the result of Einstein's brilliant physical intuition, based from the mathematical point of view on the work of Gregorio Ricci Curbastro and Tullio Levi Civita of the University of Padua and the University of Rome \"La Sapienza\". Essential to this work...
How common were misspellings or grammatical errors in old (Greek, Roman, Midieval Europe, etc) texts?	I have been learning how to do paleographical work on Latin Medieval manuscripts since August. If we are taking Ciceronian Latin as the standard, every Medieval manuscript I have looked at so far has diverged from that standard in spelling and grammar. In many cases, the scribe seems simply to have made mistakes. In ...	[ "This was a process which around the middle of the 8th century many times had to lead to poor translations, for example lapsing into other parts of speech. Nevertheless, the Abrogans offers tremendous material for linguistics, which still today is not yet completely analyzed. So there are about 700 words that other...
how does does drum sheet music work with all the different types of percussion in a drum kit?	There are some standard conventions, like in a 5-line staff, the lowest space is the bass drum, two spaces above that is the snare, and cymbals are written above the staff with an 'x' instead of a circle. Here's a blog that explains those basics: _URL_0_ However, there are many exceptions to this, and also there are...	[ "All of these are classified as non-pitched percussion, allowing the music to be scored using percussion notation, for which a loose semi-standardized form exists for both the drum kit and electronic drums. The drum kit is usually played while seated on a stool known as a throne. While many instruments like the gui...
why do mobile devices perform better when wifi takes over cellular but not the other way around?	The trigger when you go from wifi to cell is because the wifi signal is so bad. The trigger from going cell to WiFi is because wifi exists, assuming it's always better. One is intentional. The other is a failure to connect. So of course it's bad when you have to fail over.	[ "As more mobile devices need connections to the data network, and bandwidths required and deliverable in wired or fibre-optic systems grow, it becomes steadily less sensible to use wireless broadcast as a way of communicating with static installations. At some point the switch takes place, as the limited radio band...
why foods general taste better cooked on low heat and slowly rather than high heat and quickly	[Alton Brown explains it pretty well in this episode](_URL_0_).	[ "The low temperature of slow-cooking makes it almost impossible to burn even food that has been cooked too long. However, some meats and most vegetables become nearly tasteless or \"raggy\" if over-cooked.\n", "Some items gain very intense flavours during the drying/preservation/oxidation process and some foods a...
Vaccine conspiracy theories and hard science.	I will need evidence on you telling that they are "evidence based" people, because none of your four point tenets will ever find any evidence from any decently qualified scientist in that field. > 1. Vaccines are unnecessary with a healthy immune system I'd rather not swear but I wish I could. This is not true. Vacc...	[ "A popular conspiracy theory states that the pharmaceutical industry has mounted a cover-up of a causal link between vaccines and autism. The theory took hold with the publication in 1998 of a fraudulent paper by discredited former doctor Andrew Wakefield. The resulting anti-vaccine movement has been promoted by a ...
when trying to delete a file, why can't your pc tell you what programs it's open in?	Because nobody designed the file management interface to do that. Seriously; it should be dead simple to do. When you attempt to delete a file, the OS checks to see if the locked bit is set. However, the OS also keeps track of what files each open application has file handles for; it just doesn't take the time to wa...	[ "The delete function in most operating systems simply marks the space occupied by the file as reusable (removes the pointer to the file) without immediately removing any of its contents. At this point the file can be fairly easily recovered by numerous recovery applications. However, once the space is overwritten w...
If up quarks and down quarks create protons and neutrons, which make atoms, which make elements, what do other quarks end up making?	[Here](_URL_1_) and [here](_URL_0_) are lists of baryons and mesons, which are particles made out of 3 and 2 quarks, respectively. Only protons and neutrons are stable (and neutrons are only stable inside atoms), the rest decay. They are discovered in particle accelerators; they are produced when particles collide at h...	[ "Neither the proton nor neutron is an elementary particle, meaning each is composed of smaller parts, namely three quarks each. A proton is composed of two up quarks and one down quark, while the neutron has one up quark and two down quarks. Quarks are held together by the strong force, or equivalently, by gluons, ...
Can sound be trapped?	Actually this happens, down in the ocean. There's a band of ocean about 500 meters below the surface, extending another 500 or so meters. In this channel, sound of low enough frequency will be bent up and down as it propagates, trapped in this band of ocean. Energy dissipates very slowly, so in some cases, sound can ev...	[ "Each time a potential intruder tries enter into a house, she or he tests whether it is closed and locked, uses tools on openings, or/and applies pressure, and therefore he or she creates low-frequency sound vibrations. Such actions are immediately detected by the infrasound detector before the intruder breaks in.\...
If we could poll US Colonials in 1776 what percent would have been in favor of the Declaration of Independence?	I have seen numbers as Pro-independence, 40-45%, Loyalists, 10-15% and the rest undecided, dithering, and trying to keep out of it. About 200,000 soldiers served in the Continental army, out of a total population of 2.5 million. Once you drop women, elderly , African Americans ( who were usually not free ) and Loyalist...	[ "After Britain's King George III refused to seriously consider colonial grievances raised at the first Continental Congress, some colonists took up arms. Leaders of a new pro-independence movement were influenced by Enlightenment ideals and hoped to bring an ideal nation into existence. On 4 July 1776, the colonies...
Can you distinguish between the effect antidepressants have on people suffering from depression and other people?	Distinguish how? Behaviorally? I'm not sure what you mean. Anti-depressants are prescribed for a host of things other than depression (e.g., headache, sexual disorders, etc). Btw, there is no evidence of a "chemical imbalance" as the cause of depression. That is an old theory that is out of favor.	[ "There is controversy around the benefit-versus-harm of antidepressants. In young persons, some antidepressants, such as SSRIs, appear to increase the risk of suicidality from 25 per 1000 to 40 per 1000. In older persons, however, they might decrease the risk. Lithium appears effective at lowering the risk in those...
how do places legally get schedule 1 drugs for clinical trials?	If the trial have been approved by the FDA, NIH and the DEA (a very expensive and time consuming process). The researchers are entitled to purchase the otherwise illegal drugs from regulated chemical suppliers (e.g. Sigma-Aldrich--pro, your drug is guaranteed pure; con, cocaine costs $10 000 per gram). Although most of...	[ "As a Schedule I drug in the U.S., clinical research on cannabis must be approved by the Food and Drug Administration, and a license (also referred to as a \"registration\") must be obtained from the Drug Enforcement Administration specific to conducting research on Schedule I drugs. The petition to the FDA is subm...
why don't boats/submarines/planes have gearboxes?	Boats do have gearboxes. Mainly they have reduction gears that step down the high RPM's of the engine to the lower RPM's that are manageable by the prop in the water.	[ "The propellers have a characteristic RPM band in which no cavitation noise arises. Since this rotation speed is usually relatively low, the first electric submarines had special \"silent running\" engines designed for optimum performance at reduced speed. These required less active cooling (further reducing noise)...
is there anyway to "clean" a body of still water	sounds like a good use for a bubbler/aerator.	[ "Greywater recycling without treatment is used in certain dwellings for applications where potable water is not required (e.g., garden and land irrigation, toilet flushing). It may also be used in dwellings when the greywater (e.g., from rainwater) is already fairly clean to begin with and/or has not been polluted ...
Is aerobraking feasible?	Absolutely. Every entry vehicle that has ever made it to the surface of a planet that has an atmosphere has used aerobraking. That's obviously not what you mean, though. Even some planetary orbiters have used aerobraking to get into orbit. See, for instance, the [Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter](_URL_0_), which used aerob...	[ "Aerobraking is a spaceflight maneuver that reduces the high point of an elliptical orbit (apoapsis) by flying the vehicle through the atmosphere at the low point of the orbit (periapsis). The resulting drag slows the spacecraft. Aerobraking is used when a spacecraft requires a low orbit after arriving at a body wi...
how can alcoholic drinks claim to have only 3 carbs at 170 calories per serving but zero grams of fat or protein?	12 calories is from the carbs. The other 158 is from the alcohol, which has 7 cal per gram iirc.	[ "Fats and ethanol have the greatest amount of food energy per gram, 37 and 29 kJ/g (8.8 and 6.9 kcal/g), respectively. Proteins and most carbohydrates both have about . The differing energy density of foods (fat, alcohols, carbohydrates and proteins) lies mainly in their varying proportions of carbon, hydrogen, and...
Why do we use RGB displays instead of RGY?	Displays use additive color schemes while pigments use subtractive color. The cone cells in the eye are sensitive to colored light and the three cones peak in sensitivity around R, G and B wavelengths. Thus it makes sense for a display to use RGB to produce the range of colors. [CIE colorspace](_URL_0_) is used to see ...	[ "RGB (Red, Green, Blue) describes what kind of \"light\" needs to be \"emitted\" to produce a given color. Light is added together to create form from darkness. RGB stores individual values for red, green and blue. RGB is not a color space, it is a color model. There are many different RGB color spaces derived from...
why can one not text or export a slow motion video from an iphone 5/6, and have it stay in slow motion?	The iPhone saves the video as a normal video with a separate file telling the device which part of it should be slowed-down (because you can still change the slowing down or remove it, it's not fixed in the video itself). For some reason, when exporting the video to other devices, Apple hasn't made it so that it conver...	[ "It can record slow motion videos at the same resolution as the Samsung Galaxy Note 2 does, 720×480 pixels at 120 frames per second. One can also use the optical zoom while recording. While recording video, at any available resolution and frame rate, the optical zoom is slowed, to avoid recording the sound of the Z...
why is queen elizabeth also the queen of many independent sovereign nations (former colonies) ?	Because those countries have so far not decided to become republics. They are known as the Commonwealth Realms (note that is different from simply being a member of the Commonwealth of Nations). Many of Britain's colonies did not violently break away from the British Empire. It was a gradual transfer of power until th...	[ "The number of states headed by Queen Elizabeth II has varied during her years on the throne, altogether seeing her as sovereign of a total of 32 independent countries during this period. In her capacity as Queen of the United Kingdom (including the British overseas territories), she is also monarch of three Crown ...
Did the German peasants truly have theological reasons for their revolt? Did Luther support the Princes for theological or political reasons?	/u/sunagainstgold needs to GET IN on this question.	[ "Luther pitched in very firmly on the side of the princes; he made a tour of southern Saxony – Stolberg, Nordhausen, and the Mansfeld district – in an attempt to dissuade the rebels from action, although in some of these places he was roundly heckled. He followed this up with his pamphlet \"Against the Robbing and ...
Why do some people experience clinical depression when other people don't? (plus more questions inside)	Depression is heavily intertwined with stress, specifically your stress "resilience". How people deal with stress is part biological and part learned coping skills. Stress is damaging, some consider it to cause a micro-inflammatory event in the brain (more specifically, the hippocampus) if it turns into chronic stres...	[ "Risk for developing clinical depression significantly increases after experiencing social stress; depressed individuals often experience interpersonal loss before becoming depressed. One study found that depressed individuals who had been rejected by others had developed depression about three times more quickly t...
why do airlines have ashtrays in the toilets when you can’t smoke ?	Quoting this fantastic comment posted by /u/pixel_of_moral_decay in [this thread a few weeks ago](_URL_0_) > The ashtray is actually one of my favorite engineering bits on an airplane. > The design parameters for aviation all center around one thing: redundancy. If something fails, you don't want it to cause a pro...	[ "The presence of an ashtray is sometimes commented upon, given that smoking has been long banned on flights in many parts of the world. However it is a requirement of the Federal Aviation Administration that ashtrays continue to be fitted to the doors of aircraft toilets, due to the fire risk caused by the possible...
why are american pro sports championship parades held on weekdays instead of weekends?	A few reasons: it keeps crowds down some, it means mass transit is running on full schedule, and it means not paying special overtime pay for city workers, police, etc. Chicago was only considering Friday or Monday for Cubs' parade -- no talk of a weekend parade.	[ "The official Carnival parades take place just before the start of Lent. They are held for four consecutive nights, during which schools parade one after another from 8pm until the morning. The \"A Series\" samba schools are hosted on Friday and Saturday, and the elite \"Special Group\" marches on Sunday and Monday...
why do planes have different seatbelts to e.g. cars?	Aircraft seatbelts are designed to hold you down in the seat as turbulence is the biggest danger as the aircraft can drop suddenly. Car seatbelts are designed to hold you back into the seat with your upper body as the biggest danger is a frontal impact (to which a car is predominantly designed for, and which an aircraf...	[ "In the United States, the Legacy was introduced with automatic seat belts due to United States National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) regulations stating that all cars produced from April 1, 1989 were to be equipped with a passive front passenger restraint system that would protect front occupants ...
from my mother: eli5 what the difference is between downloading and installing.	Downloading a program is like buying groceries. Installing it is like cooking them. Running it is like eating the meal (except you can eat this meal over and over again, so the analogy falls on its face a bit there!)	[ "Drive-by downloads may happen when visiting a website, opening an e-mail attachment or clicking a link, or clicking on a deceptive pop-up window: by clicking on the window in the mistaken belief that, for example, an error report from the computer's operating system itself is being acknowledged or a seemingly inno...
How does the body know to form a callus?	Not a doctor or anything, but a biology senior here. Skin cells differentiate into cells that produce keratin (keratinocytes), the protein that makes up hair, nails, and calluses, upon receiving pressure. This is the reason for your palms being more rough (more keratinized) than the tops of your hands etc.	[ "Calling behavior is characterized by the gaster being held rigidly away from the thorax, thus exposing the sternal glands. The exposure of these chemical releasing glands has led to the hypothesis that this calling behavior releases airborne pheromones that signal to swarm members, so they know to begin the migrat...
[Physics] If you drop a ball from 100 feet in the air, and throw a second ball up 100 feet...will they travel down at the same speed?	The two balls will behave exactly identically, and if you were to blind an experimenter who could take perfect measurements until the moment they started falling, the experimenter would not be able to differentiate them in any way.	[ "A: No. A falling ball exerts a force on the hand greater than its own weight. Rather, a \"thrown\" ball exerts greater force than a \"held\" one. That is, the additional force equal and opposite to that imparted to a flung ball, in addition to the juggler's mass, would exceed the bridge's tolerance (the bridge can...
the california deficit, why is the state in such a deep hole???	Well, from what I understand, there are two major operators that have driven California into the ground more quickly than other states. 1) They make it easy for everyone in California vote on things directly, rather than letting the people in the capital do it. This is fine for lots of things, but when it comes to mo...	[ "California faced a $26.3 billion budget deficit for the 2009–2010 budget year. While the legislative bodies appeared to address the problem in 2008 with the three-month delayed passage of a budget they in fact only postponed the deficit to 2009 and due to the late 2008 decline in the economy and the credit crisis ...
Why do humans and most other animals have a soft "underbelly?" Why doesn't our rib cage protect our digestive organs as well?	The rib cage isn't just for protection. The rib cage's most important purpose is to inflate and deflate the lungs. The muscles between the ribs help them to expand and retract which brings air into and pushes the air out of the lungs. The diaphragm, which attaches to the inferior border of the rib cage, also helps t...	[ "\"Australopithecus afarensis\" seems to have had the same conical rib-cage found in today's non-human great apes (like the chimpanzee and gorilla), which allows room for a large stomach below and indicates the longer intestine needed for digesting voluminous plant matter. Fully 60% of the blood supply of non-human...
how do internet browsers (ie, firefox, chrome, netscape :p) make money/profit?	They don't, at least not directly in most cases. Internet Explorer and Safari are "part" of their respective operating systems, there's no reason for them to be monetized. Safari is available for Windows freely as part of Apple's "halo effect" strategy - i.e. see how cool and easy to use this is, now go buy a Mac. I...	[ "In 2006, the Mozilla Corporation generated $66.8 million in revenue and $19.8 million in expenses, with 85% of that revenue coming from Google for \"assigning [Google] as the browser's default search engine, and for click-throughs on ads placed on the ensuing search results pages.\"\n", "In March 2006, Jason Cal...
no child left behind and race to the top	NCLB was a Bush43 era law enacted to improve the educational system. The idea was that the education system wasn't doing very well (pretty accurate) and we needed to do something about it (good idea) and we needed some way to measure our success (good idea but easy to go off the rails as you will see). There were a ...	[ "As the children explain to a new friend in \"We Daren't Go A'Hunting\", \"Stay with us and you won't be bored. You may be seasick or ship-wrecked or drowned or lost or burned or killed by falling over a cliff, but you won't be bored.\" The third in the series, \"Run Away Home\", is a darker story of an orphan, Cat...
What kind of battle tactics did the Huns use against the Romans during their wars?	Hey there, not necessarily my area of expertise, but I'll take a shot at it (no pun intended). One of the key problems with studying the Huns style of warfare is that it's not very well recorded. All our records of the Huns, as far as I know, come almost exclusively from their enemies, such as Jordanes and Marcellinus,...	[ "According to the Strategikon, the Huns did not form a battle line in the method that the Romans and Persians used, but in irregularly sized divisions in a single line, and keep a separate force nearby for ambushes and as a reserve. The Strategikon also states the Huns used deep formations with a dense and even fro...
how were brochures, posters, magazines and ads edited before inexpensive pc's, digital photography and photoshop?	[Here you go.](_URL_1_) [And here is a picture of some classified advertising being pasted-up to produce a page.](_URL_0_)	[ "In much of the 20th century, such articles were photographed for printing into proceedings and journals, and this stage was known as \"camera-ready\" copy. With modern digital submission in formats such as PDF, this photographing step is no longer necessary, though the term is still sometimes used.\n", "At many ...
how do things you ingest (pills, specific foods like fish, etc) make their way up to the brain?	Your stomach acid breaks down the food you eat. The broken down food next goes to the intestines. The intestines absorb nutrients from broken down food. The microscopic nutrients pass through microscopic channels in the intestines to enter the blood stream. The blood carries the nutrients all through the body. Some of ...	[ "Besides nutritional items, other substances which may be ingested include medication (where ingestion is termed oral administration), recreational drugs, and substances considered inedible such as foreign bodies or excrement. Ingestion is a common route taken by pathogenic organisms and poisons entering the body.\...
Has any nation ever overcome/reformed its own corrupt government through peaceful means?	This submission has been removed because it involves current events. To keep from discussion of politics, we have a [20-year rule](_URL_2_) here. You may want to try /r/ask_politics or another current-events focused sub. For further explanation of this rule, feel free to consult [this Rules Roundtable](_URL_1_). Sor...	[ "Many other countries have practiced a centralized approach, while some (like the Philippines) resorted to clientelism and favoritism. This is not to say that corruption has been entirely absent, with car manufacturing companies being involved in the Suvarnabhumi scandal, for instance. Several political families ar...
why does putting a mug of water in the microwave keep bread from getting soggy when heated?	The water acts as a 'dummy load' when you have it in the microwave with bread. So it reduces the amount of energy going to the bread. Think of it in terms of cranking down an energy knob. The higher the energy the faster it heats up which means it gets soggy. If you have less energy and cook it slowly and evenly it won...	[ "BULLET::::- When using a microwave oven to cook food, the micro wave travels through the food, causing the water molecules vibrate in the same frequency, which is similar to resonance, so that the food as a whole, gets hot fast.\n", "Due to this phenomenon, microwave ovens set at too-high power levels may even s...
Why do multiples of 9, always come back to 9 when their digits are added together?	To see why this works, we first have to start with how a number, when written down, is constructed. Take the number 123. This notation means: 1 * 100 + 2 * 10 + 3 * 1. To deconstruct a number in this way, you take a digit and multiply it by the power of 10 appropriate for the position of that digit within the number. ...	[ "When represented as a digit, the number \"10\" is used to encode the number zero. Because there are only six letters in the Letters(+30) group (letters 30–35, or U–Z), the other four positions in this group (36–39) are used to represent three symbols (dash, period, space) as well as the start/stop character.\n", ...
if genders are equal than why are women's live valued over men's lives in disasters?	Its not that they value them more, it comes from an old instinctual code. It's been that way for centuries in almost every culture. What some researchers believe is the idea of progression of the species. Children propagate the species. Women propagate the species. If you have only one man, he can impregnate up to 14 w...	[ "Gender and age are the two most important determinants of the impacts of conflict and natural disasters on individuals. Women are more likely to be displaced, the task of females in catching firewood has contributed to rape and equal access to food aid after crisis can be undermined by corruption, local militias o...
How do cold blooded animals like fish live in the Arctic/Antarctic?	In biological nature, there are always several solutions to the same problem. As /u/iamaxd already pointed out, some organisms have certain enzymes that can work at low temperatures. I would like to enrich the answer. First, remember that the water on the poles isn't as cold as the surface. This is due to the high sal...	[ "Five species of krill, small free-swimming crustaceans, have been found in the Southern Ocean. The Antarctic krill (\"Euphausia superba\") is one of the most abundant animal species on earth, with a biomass of around 500 million tonnes. Each individual is long and weighs over . The swarms that form can stretch for...
how does nasa prevent asteroids from hitting the earth?	They don't. Currently we have no systems to stop something that's big enough to be a threat, and everything else doesn't really matter or can't be spotted in time.	[ "Scientists estimate 25,000 large asteroids lurk in the Solar System, though to date, surveys have detected about 8,000, therefore NASA officials think it is imperative to develop an effective plan should a near-Earth object threaten Earth. \"DART\" is an impactor that hosts no scientific payload other than a Sun s...
How difficult is it to damage or kill microorganisms mechanically? If I strike an anvil with a hammer, do I leave a briefly sterile surface behind?	Simply put, no. Basically surfaces are not smooth enough to physically crush bacteria. In fact, bacteria can actually squeeze themselves into spaces that are only a fraction of their normal width. [Here](_URL_0_) is a video taken at a Harvard lab that was growing E. coli under the microscope in time lapse. The bacter...	[ "The hammer's ability to transform its user also purges the user of any toxins or radiations in their systems; however, this works against its current wielder, Jane Foster, as she is currently suffering from cancer, with the result that her transformations purge her of the radiation used in her chemotherapy while l...
Did the Western Allies in WW2 pre-D-Day ever consider sending troops directly to the Eastern Front? If not, why?	You're correct in that Stalin did desire a more direct involvement from the Western Allies prior to the D-Day landings, but the involvement he sought (aside from material support) from the Western Allies wasn't troops to be deployed alongside Soviet forces in the east, but the creation of a second front in Europe again...	[ "During the war, both sides disagreed on military strategy, especially the question of the opening of a second front against Germany in Western Europe. As early as July 1941, Stalin asked Britain to invade northern France, but Britain was in no position to carry out such a request. Stalin had also requested that th...
when i lay down and stare at my wall sometimes and everything in the room seems to look very far away until i look around again, what's happening?	your not the only one i know what your saying but i lack proper explanation. To me it happens often if i'm either concentrating on a single object or on solely myself and my guess is the shaped focus stops me from focusing on the spatial reasoning of my surroundings and since they aren't right next to me they are just ...	[ "\" When you were upstairs, you couldn't hear anything at all, but you could see EN clicking away on laptops (and Blixa screaming in a microphone). The REAL thing was downstairs. You can see the small room on the photos - maybe 20 people could be there at the same time. Because of ear-protection headsets (or your f...
Are mammals also reptiles?	The classic perception of a "reptile" is neither taxonomically nor evolutionarily valid (ideally these would be the same thing!). Reptiles were basically defined by what they're not: they were animals that lay hard-shelled eggs that [aren't mammals or birds](_URL_2_). The term "reptile" was generally used to classi...	[ "Reptiles are tetrapod animals in the class Reptilia, comprising today's turtles, crocodilians, snakes, amphisbaenians, lizards, tuatara, and their extinct relatives. The study of these traditional reptile orders, historically combined with that of modern amphibians, is called herpetology.\n", "Reptiles are tetra...
what would happen if we genetically engineered/modified humans?	There are only ethical reasons for us to get over. It will not be long until we can perfect the technology. But, we will need to test and breed humans to verify the results. For some reason, this is considered wrong. (not sarcasm)	[ "The creation of genetically modified humans may have been performed in the mid-1990s, in which a 1997 study published in The Lancet claimed, “the first case of human germ-line genetic modification resulting in normal healthy children.”. In November 2018, researcher Jiankui He claimed that he had created the first ...
How do modern historians judge how accurate ancient histories are?	This is a very difficult question to answer, but I will do my best to keep it succinct. There are a few ways in which modern historians test the veracity of their ancient sources: 1. Comparing one source to another. While, as you astutely mentioned, there are not always correspondences between sources. However, if the...	[ "Historians consider pre-modern narrative sources to be highly unreliable on the subject of numbers, so that it is not possible to make use of them in a pair to administrative sources. Comparatives between modern and pre-modern periods are thus very difficult.\n", "Historians consider knowledge of dates and event...
What's the history of American Sign Language? How did come about and how was it standardised?	There are a lot of misconceptions about sign language in general. Let's clear some of the big ones up before we jump in. * Sign language is different all over the world. While there are families and relationships between sign languages, pretty much every country has its own sign language, and some have more than one. ...	[ "In 1973, American Sign Language was brought to Bolivia by Eleanor and Lloyd Powlison, missionaries from the United States. An indigenous sign language (or perhaps sign languages) existed before the introduction and adoption of American Sign Language, though it is unknown how widespread or unified it was.\n", "Un...
why does electricity appear blue?	It's actually excited molecules in the air. It's the color of excited nitrogen and oxygen. The wikipedia article is called [Ionized-air Glow](_URL_0_)	[ "The blue glow of a criticality accident can result from the fluorescence of the excited ions, atoms and molecules of air (mostly oxygen and nitrogen) falling back to unexcited states, which produces an abundance of blue light. This is also the reason electrical sparks in air, including lightning, appear electric b...
Why did Turkey not take all of Cyprus?	Here is a past post on the topic: * [Why did Turkey invade Cyprus?](_URL_0_) ^(24 Apr 2014 \| 3 comments) ^(/u/tayaravaknin gives a few reasons for Turkey taking only 1/3 of Cyprus, with a longer comment further up providing an overview of the broader Turkish invasion of Cyprus.)	[ "Turkey, only 75 km away, had repeatedly claimed, for decades before the invasion and frequently afterwards, that Cyprus was of vital strategic importance to it. Ankara has defied a host of UN resolutions demanding the withdrawal of its occupation troops from the island. About 142,000 Greek Cypriots living in the n...
why are there so many white men/asian women couples?	Pairings between Asian women and Caucasian men are twice as common as matches between Caucasian women and Asian men, a gap that has often been attributed to the hypersexualization of Asian women and the emasculation of Asian men in US pop culture. The nuances and repercussions of that discussion extend farther than the...	[ "For Asians, the gender pattern goes in the opposite direction: Asian women are much more likely than Asian men to marry someone of a different race. Among newlyweds in 2013, 37% of Asian women married someone who was not Asian, while 16% of Asian men married outside of their race. However, Asian women are more lik...
Is a cat's field of view the same as ours, or is it more ovular as opposed to circular because of their pupils?	There are important differences between the vision of cats and humans, however these are not due to the field of vision, which is fairly similar for us and cats, extending out to 180^(o) and 200^(o) respectively. Instead, the shape has more to do with how blurry objects look when you move out of focus either vertically...	[ "Cats have a visual field of view of 200° compared with 180° in humans, but a binocular field (overlap in the images from each eye) narrower than that of humans. As with most predators, their eyes face forward, affording depth perception at the expense of field of view. Field of view is largely dependent upon the p...
How do trees know when to shed their leaves in the fall, and begin re growing them in the spring? How does this process work?	The trees or any plants that lose leaves or petals are categorized as deciduous. Plants are living organisms, and like humans they have hormones, which in plants are referred to as, phytohormones. Hormones are technically chemical messengers, they transfer signals from one cell to another. Those signals have to do wit...	[ "When the growing season resumes, either with warm weather or the wet season, the plant will break bud by sending out new leaf or flower growth. This is accompanied by growth of new stems from buds on the previous season's wood. In colder climates, most stem growth occurs during spring and early summer. When the do...
Why did food become rarer and more expensive during world war 1 in Britain?	One major reason was that the German navy began to operate a campaign against shipping to Britain. This used both surface raiders, including converted merchant ships, and submarines. Cruisers operated in 1914, mainly in the Indian Ocean and Pacific. Three converted merchant ships, the Mowe, Seeadler and Wolf, ope...	[ "Before the war Britain imported 70% of its food. Home agricultural production increased 35% during the war. In terms of calories, domestic output nearly doubled. Together with imports and rationing, this meant the British were well fed—they ate less meat (down 36% by 1943) and more wheat (up 81%) and potatoes (up ...
What consumes more energy in the long run: A water heater set to very hot, or one set to a lower temperature?	My opinion (unfounded) would be that keeping the water heater itself hotter requires more energy, it would use less energy if it is kept cooler. I'm thinking of it this way: Running your air conditioner 24/7 at 60 degrees is more expensive than running it 24/7 at 75 degrees, proven every year in California. Even w...	[ "Heating is therefore only necessary later, since warm water can be taken from above for longer, as opposed to mixed storage. In addition, water can be drawn with almost the same temperature very quickly after filling with hot water, since not all of the storage tank has to be heated. This optimises energy efficien...
Do high O2 generating genetically modified (or not) trees exist?	Sort of. When you ask this question what you're really asking is can we increase the rate of photosynthesis. The answer is yes. There are transgenic tobacco plants that have had their productivity increased in such a way. Most research it seems currently is focused on modifying trees to sequester more carbon in root ...	[ "Evidence has been found that 10−20% of the total carbon fixed in the fruit can be produced by photosynthesis in the developing fruit of the normal U phenotype. The u genetic mutation encodes a factor that produces defective chloroplasts with lower density in developing fruit, resulting in a lighter green colour of...
what will happen many years down the road when inflation makes it so that buying small things like a pack of gum requires ridiculously high amounts of money?	First, we'll stop using cents. The dollar will be the smallest unit of currency. Then later on, we'll just re-denominate when things get ridiculous ("one New Dollar is worth 10/100/1000 Old Dollars")	[ "Governments will often try to disguise the true rate of inflation through a variety of techniques. None of these actions addresses the root causes of inflation; and if discovered, they tend to further undermine trust in the currency, causing further increases in inflation. Price controls will generally result in s...
did people in history "know" what year they were in?	The Julian calendar was introduced by it's namesake, Julius Caesar, in 46AD. The calendar had 12 months and added one day to February every four years, making the average year 365.25 days. Now, the tropical year is a few minutes shorter than that, meaning that the calendar gained a few days every four centuries. T...	[ "The history of the World Senior Citizen's Day dates back to 1988. It was officially founded by the former President of the United States of America, Ronald Reagan. He had signed on August 19, 1988, the promulgation of 5847, which appeared on 21 August as National Day of the Third Age. Ronald Reagan was the first t...
p and s waves in earthquakes	I think, this is best explained with an [image](_URL_0_). In that image, the blue arrow indicates the direction in which the wave is travelling. But to put it in words: P waves shake the ground on the axis on which they travel. So, if the P wave is moving north, then the ground is shaking to the North and South. ...	[ "P-wave refraction evaluates the compression wave generated by the seismic source located at a known distance from the array. The wave is generated by vertically striking a striker plate with a sledgehammer, shooting a seismic shotgun into the ground, or detonating an explosive charge in the ground. Since the compr...
What percentage of our total body volume is given over to the circulatory system?	circulatory system includes the heart. This question is more suited for asksciencediscussion as the answer depends on multiple factors. The volume of blood in adults will be like ~ 5 litres.	[ "In medicine, intravascular volume status refers to the volume of blood in a patient's circulatory system, and is essentially the blood plasma component of the overall volume status of the body, which otherwise includes both intracellular fluid and extracellular fluid. Still, the intravascular component is usually ...
how do cpap machines work? how exactly do they benefit you to get more sleep at night?	When you sleep, the muscles that keep your airway open relaxes, sometimes causing your airway to collapse. The machine has a sensor in it. The sensor monitors airflow when you exhale. If it's too low, it indicates some sort of blockage (such as your airway collapsing). The CPAP machine will then force air into your air...	[ "CPAP therapy utilizes machines specifically designed to deliver a constant flow of pressure. Some CPAP machines have other features as well, such as heated humidifiers. CPAP is the most effective treatment for obstructive sleep apnea, in which the mild pressure from the CPAP prevents the airway from collapsing or ...
What happened to bullets used by planes in dogfights in WWI/II? Are there any instances of falling bullets killing someone on the ground?	Not to discourage further discussion, but this has been answered before [here](_URL_0_) by /u/The_Alaskan and [many](_URL_1_) other times on this subreddit.	[ "During the Second World War, there is a recorded incident of a Lancaster of the Royal Air Force getting shot down by the Swiss anti-aircraft gunners and crashing into the mountain. The pilot of the aircraft was Horace Badge and all of the crew were lost.\n", "An early example of an aircraft shot down in a dogfig...
what is the difference between nitrites and nitrates in the nitrogen cycle?	fish breathe out and poo out ammonia NH3. NH3 in concentration prevents the fish gills from exchanging O2 and CO2. there's a bacteria that's literally EVERYWHERE that eats NH3 and expels out nitrites NO2. NO2 is slightly less dangerous to fish but still isn't healthy in concentration. there's another bacteri...	[ "The nitrogen cycle refers to the conversion of toxic ammonia to nitrite and finally nitrate. While fish waste (urine and feces) and decaying matter release ammonia, the majority of ammonia released (approximately 60%) in both marine and freshwater aquariums is excreted directly into the water from the fishes' gill...
why a lot of americans become so passionate/aggressive about whether they are democrats or republicans.	Lots of people in America are like that too. There's a reason that even our biggest elections have voter turnouts of about 50%. That said, especially at the national level, the two major political parties offer very different packages. While you do have a lot of people who are roughly in the middle, who pick and choo...	[ "In recent years, the United States has seen a rise in issue voting. This can be attributed to the increased polarization in the last century between the Democratic Party and the Republican Party. Both of these parties have become more extreme in their issue viewpoints. This has alienated moderates from their parti...
the difference between american and canadian football?	Their respective wikipedia articles are great. Biggest 3 I can think of? - 3 downs in CN, 4 in US - 110 yd fields - 12 man teams	[ "In Canada, \"football\" refers to association football or Canadian football. American football can be referred to as a full name., often differentiated as either \"CFL\" (from the governing Canadian Football League) or \"NFL\" (from the US National Football League). Because of the similarity between the games, man...
why do humans have temperature sensors in our stomach?	Human beings sense the temperature of food with their mouths, not with their stomachs. If you have a sensation of heat in your stomach, what you are sensing is acidity, not temperature. Excess stomach acidity causes a burning sensation.	[ "Humans and primates use the sudomotor response to cause thermoregulation, or control of their body temperature, mainly via the sympathetic nervous system with negligible influences from the parasympathetic nervous system. Heat sensitive receptors are present in the skin, viscera, and spinal cord where they receive...
Can we use radar to detect asteroids?	Radar wouldn't be much use in space, it will spread out and be very weak when it comes back since you are talking about such extreme distances. A standard USN radar array is the [AN/SPS-49](_URL_1_), its got a range of about 500km and an average power draw of 13 kW. Lets say you get 10x the range out of it since you ...	[ "Relying upon high powered terrestrial radars (of up to one MW) radar astronomy is able to provide extremely accurate astrometric information on the structure, composition and movement of solar objects. This aids in forming long-term predictions of asteroid-Earth impacts, as illustrated by the object 99942 Apophis....
the advantages and disadvantages of wep, wpa and wpa2	Basicly these are the locks you put on your wifi (wireless internet/network) WEP is the oldest lock, this has the advantage that everything knows how to make a key for it (if you know the password). In other words every computer or device that can use WIFI should be able to use WEP. The disadvantage is that its not as ...	[ "The recommended solution to WEP security problems is to switch to WPA2. WPA was an intermediate solution for hardware that could not support WPA2. Both WPA and WPA2 are much more secure than WEP. To add support for WPA or WPA2, some old Wi-Fi access points might need to be replaced or have their firmware upgraded....
how can certain breeds of animal have an inherent behavioural trait?	People tended to select dogs for breeding based on both physical and behavioral traits. A pit bull's perfectly powerful musculature isn't much use if it can't be taught to attack. (I think the way I phrased that should avoid the nature vs. nurture pit bull debate.) An overly aggressive dachshund won't be able to defen...	[ "For example, a Dog is a Mammal. Dogs inherit certain characteristics from Mammals, such as mammary glands and (through Mammal's parent, Vertebrate) a backbone. Dogs may have one of several distinct types of behavior; for example, a Dog may be a Pet, a Stray, or a Guide for the blind. However, these are simply sets...
What was the money collected by the Tea tax that sparked the Boston Tea Party supposed to be spent for?	The British Empire ran into a ton of debt after the Seven Years' War (about 130 million pounds, which was the most any country has ever been in debt for up to that time in history) and one of the ways to pay back some of the debt, the Parliament decided, was by fully enforcing taxes the Americans were allowed to not pa...	[ "In 2006, a libertarian political party called the \"Boston Tea Party\" was founded. In 2007, the Ron Paul \"Tea Party\" money bomb, held on the 234th anniversary of the Boston Tea Party, broke the one-day fund-raising record by raising $6.04 million in 24 hours. Subsequently, these fund-raising \"Tea parties\" gre...
I have heard recently that Ho Chi Minh was pro American and asked the US for support multiple times? Is there any veracity to these claims?	Ho Chi Minh did appeal to the United States for assistance (as did many others), but he was not pro-American any more than it served his goals. Ho was a Stalinist and a nationalist seeking support to prevent the return of France. He did try to see Woodrow Wilson and other world leaders at the Versailles peace confere...	[ "It was also about this time that a young Hồ Chí Minh arrived in the United States, where he apparently stayed for a few years. There was no doubt that he did menial work to support himself, while learning and absorbing the American English language and culture. He acquired an affinity with the blacks in New York; ...
how/when are flat roofs feasible when lots of snow is expected? i'm seeing them at a ski resort right now.	The roof is built to handle the weight of the (assumed) worst-case snow fall. Every roof is engineered assuming some kind of load, usually spelled out in building codes. These can include rain, wind, snow, people walking around, etc. As long as the engineers planned for the snow, and the builders what they were suppos...	[ "At almost 1,500m, Lukomir, with its unique stone homes with cherry-wood roof tiles, is also the highest and most isolated. Indeed, access to the village is impossible from the first snows in November until late April and sometimes even later, except by skis or on foot. A newly constructed lodge is now complete to ...
Why doesn't tape lose adhesion as it sits in open air?	There's no chemical reaction involved with tape, it is merely an physical attraction caused by [van der Waals forces](_URL_0_). The kinetic energy of gases can overcome these forces.	[ "Humidity can cause tapes to become unusable as they begin to deteriorate and become sticky. In this case, a heat treatment can be applied to fix this problem, by causing the oils and residues to either be reabsorbed into the tape or evaporate off the surface of the tape. However, this should only be done in order ...
What was the main cause of the Time War, and how did the doctor and so many of the Daleks survive?	You have to remember that cause often precedes effect in a time war, so it may not have a start point. It could have been started by an event caused by it's own effect, or an effect evented by it's own cause, or even a cause effected by it's own event. This makes Time Wars a near impossible event to study in terms of c...	[ "The Last Great Time War pitted the Time Lords of Gallifrey against the Daleks of Skaro. The specific incident that sparked the conflict remains unclear, but according to executive producer Russell T Davies, the origins dated back to conflicts between the Doctor and the Daleks. In \"Genesis of the Daleks\" (1975), ...
Why we cant make traditional vaccine for sars-covid 2 ?	We can. We are. We will. But “traditional” vaccines are among the slowest to make and test, so you’re hearing first about the more non-traditional ones that were specifically designed because of their faster development time.	[ "The MMRV vaccine, a combined measles, mumps, rubella and varicella (chickenpox) vaccine, has been proposed as a replacement for the MMR vaccine to simplify administration of the vaccines. Preliminary data indicate a rate of febrile seizures of 9 per 10,000 vaccinations with MMRV, as opposed to 4 per 10,000 for sep...
What causes viruses to effect certain parts of the body? (I.e what makes a virus a stomach virus vs a respiratory virus?)	It's a concept called tissue tropism. In order to affect the body, the virus has to enter the cells. Cells have structures on the outside that the virus can recognize and bind to in order to enter the cell. Cells in different organs have different structures. This allows viruses to only enter the types of cells that ...	[ "In addition to the effects on the lungs, many viruses affect other organs and can lead to illness affecting many different bodily functions. Some viruses also make the body more susceptible to bacterial infection; for this reason, bacterial pneumonia often complicates viral pneumonia.\n", "The Central Nervous Sy...
why are some laws passed as constitutional amendments and some only as plain, old laws?	Any normal law is invalid if the constitution does not allow it. Generally an amendment is needed either to make way for laws that currently are not constitutional, or to curtail laws that currently are constitutional. (eg: the 14th amendment was passed to prevent certain existing laws and policies being used to deny ...	[ "Amendments are often necessary because of the length of state constitutions, which are, on average, three times longer than the federal constitution, and because state constitutions typically contain extensive detail. In addition, state constitutions are often easier to amend than the federal constitution.\n", "...
Why don't the most massive stars create a Black Hole at the moment of their own formation, given they contain enough matter to produce one at their death?	There's internal outward radiative pressure due to fusion that counterbalances the inwards force due to gravity, this is called [Hydrostatic Equilibrium](_URL_0_). It is this outwards pressure that keeps the star from collapsing into a Black Hole. Once the fuel for fusion runs out then that force gets smaller, gravity ...	[ "It is thought that stars this massive can never lose enough mass to avoid a catastrophic end with the collapse of a large iron core. The result will be a supernova, hypernova, gamma-ray burst, or perhaps almost no visible explosion, and leaving behind a black hole. The exact details depend heavily on the timing an...
Can Neutrons decay into an anti-proton and a positron?	No. It would violate conservation of [baryon number.](_URL_0_) Protons and neutrons have a positive baryon number, while anti-protons and anti-neutrons have a negative baryon number. Beta decay, which allows a neutron to turn into a proton by spitting out an electron and an anti-neutrino does conserve baryon number a...	[ "The antiproton, , (pronounced \"p-bar\") is the antiparticle of the proton. Antiprotons are stable, but they are typically short-lived, since any collision with a proton will cause both particles to be annihilated in a burst of energy.\n", "Positron capture by neutrons in nuclei that contain an excess of neutron...
if garbage workers have a holiday off, how do they get all the garbage picked up?	My township collects our trash twice a week. So if the garbagemen are off on Memorial Day, which would have been a trash pickup day ... people will just hang onto their trash another three days until the Thursday pickup.	[ "Garbage is collected every Monday except when the date falls on a national holiday. Garbage will then be picked up on the next working day. Sanitation limit is two 30-gallon containers per household per week. Extra bag stickers can be purchased from the Municipal office.\n", "Garbage collection is provided by Mi...
please, can anyone explain to me what exactly /r/fifthworldproblems is/what it is based off of?	First "world levels": First world — the nations allied with the US during the Cold War; now usually taken to be synonymous with "developed". Second world — the nations allied with the Soviet Union during the Cold War; this term is largely no longer used, but the "problems" subreddit seems to think it should mean a co...	[ "Roundworld is the Discworld term for both planet Earth and the \"real\" universe itself. From the Discworld's point of view it exists in a glass sphere at Unseen University, where it is cared for by Rincewind. It was created by Hex as a completely magicless zone, a magical black hole, in order to consume the huge ...
Does the color of a material affect it's audio-reflective properties?	Light and sound waves are completely independent from one another. Light is an electromagnetic wave, which doesn't require any medium to travel, while sound is a compression wave, which does. If there is any difference in audio reflective properties due to different paint colors, it would be due to the physical pro...	[ " expresses temperature-dependent reflective properties. When heated from room temperature to 80 °C, the material's thermal radiation rises normally until 74 °C, before suddenly appearing to drop to around 20 °C. At room temperature is almost transparent to infrared light. As its temperature rises it gradually chan...
If eroded enough, could all of the landmass on earth be submerged under one super ocean?	1) The volume of the earth's ocean is currently estimated to be 1.3324 x 10^9 km^3 (Charette 2010). The ~~average elevation~~ total volume of land above sea level is currently estimated to be 1.26 x 10^8 km^3 (Coble et. al 1987 and McGraw Science & Technology Encyclopedia). Thus, if all tectonic activity ...	[ "There is also no conceivable event that could have \"destroyed\" a continent, since its huge mass of sial rocks would have to end up somewhere—and there is no trace of it at the bottom of the oceans. The Pacific Ocean islands are not part of a submerged landmass but rather the tips of isolated volcanoes.\n", "Th...
Why is it that we need social interaction so much that we get attached to inanimate objects in the absence of it?	Because normal humans are intensely social creatures. We originated from creatures a lot like [this](_URL_0_) and basically we're not a whole lot different today.	[ "Social interactions in everyday life favour personal, face-to-face encounters as the best scenarios where human beings can actually connect with each other through interactions. Humans perceive the other in these interactions as more real than they would themselves; we can place a person in everyday life by seeing...
Are there any famous historical figures who have died from extreme allergic reactions?	The Pharaoh Menes (2641 BCE). Reaction to a wasp sting. But since Anaphylaxis wasn't identified as such until the early 20th century, it's hard to be certain, and even that reference is questioned. This link should take you straight to a very brief historical discussion: _URL_0_	[ "Some signs and symptoms attributable to allergic diseases are mentioned in ancient sources. Particularly, three members of the Roman Julio-Claudian dynasty (Augustus, Claudius and Britannicus) are suspected to have a family history of atopy. The concept of \"allergy\" was originally introduced in 1906 by the Vienn...
why do keygens always have 8-bit music playing in the background?	_URL_0_ Since this sub will not let me just leave it at that, here's another sentence to fill up some space. And another one. Man it sure is hot out today.	[ "Minor keys are sometimes said to have a more interesting, possibly darker sound than plain major scales. The minor mode, with its variable sixth and seventh degrees, offers nine notes, in C: C-D-E-F-G-A-A-B-B, over the major mode's seven, in C: C-D-E-F-G-A-B.\n", "Despite the key rarely being used in orchestral ...
I've heard it said during 12th century, China was the most technologically advanced nation in the world. What happened?	This is a pretty broad and complex question. The best answer as a TL;DR might be "China was less concerned with affairs outside China than the rest of the world was concerned with affairs inside China, and there is a long standing observation that scientific advancement and outward focused trade/government often coinci...	[ "China was the world's most technologically advanced country for many centuries; however, China stagnated economically and technologically and was surpassed by Western Europe before the Age of Discovery, by which time China banned imports and denied entry to foreigners. China was also a totalitarian society. China ...
how can a mother be charged with child abuse for harming her unborn child (e.g. drug usage, alcohol consumption), but abortion does not fall under this category?	Because we say it doesn't. I'm not being a smartass, that's literally the reason. We make distinctions and exceptions to laws all the time, and this is no different.	[ "The charge of child destruction is rare. A woman who had an unsafe abortion while 7½ months pregnant was given a suspended sentence of 12 months in 2007; the Crown Prosecution Service was unaware of any similar conviction.\n", "Such laws overturn the common law legal principle that until physically born, a fetus...
why chubby women sing better/ have better voice (especially in opera)?	That's actually a false stereotype. Many of the great divas are quite petite.	[ "Puberphonia is most often diagnosed in adolescent or adult male patients. These patients often seek referral to a voice professional because of the social consequences of speaking in the falsetto register. Because a high-pitched voice is not pathologized in women, women are less likely to be referred to clinicians...
"Out of all pre-1700 societies, the Ming Dynasty was one of the closest to having their own industrial revolution." How true is this statement?	Completely false. Although Ming receives favorable treatment in some traditional histories of China, economic historians today have concluded its its economic policy was nothing short of completely destructive and that it was inferior to both Song and Yuan that preceded it and Qing that replaced it. More importantly, e...	[ "\"The commercialisation of Ming society within the context of expanding communications may be regarded as a distinguishing aspect of the history of this dynasty. In the matter of commodity production and circulation, the Ming marked a turning point in Chinese history, both in the scale at which goods were being pr...
Why do random thoughts occur?	Thoughts are related to neurons firing in the brain. There are a number of mechanisms that control how and when neurons fire. At a first level, neurons will fire when they are sufficiently stimulated to do so - when enough other neurons have signalled the current neuron. There are mechanisms that excite or inhibit neu...	[ "\"Random Thoughts\" is the 78th episode of the science fiction television series \"\", the tenth episode of . On a spaceship making its way back to planet Earth, they stop by an alien planet. However, they become entangled in a legal proceeding due to the actions of the crew, and they must resolve it before procee...
why is opening many restaurants in a short amount of time bad?	Most restaurants, and businesses generally, will fail within a couple years. You need to be prepared financially for the entire investment to disappear.	[ "While many restaurants closed because of low sales, the franchise stores increased considerably. The greatest success has been the coffee stores, selling their products under different brand names, according to a report written by the Argentine Franchise Association\n", "On December 26, 2016, the company abruptl...
How much ancient infrastructure (e.g. roads, walls, walkways) that you know of is still in use today?	From what I know there is a Roman bathhouse still is use in Algeria and some of the aqueducts are still being used, like the Aqua Virgo. It is no longer used for drinking water but is still used for fountains. But they have been worked on and maintains which is expected.	[ "The oldest known constructed roadways are the stone-paved streets of the city-state of Ur, dating to circa 4000 BCE and timber roads leading through the swamps of Glastonbury, England, dating to around the same time period. The first long-distance road, which came into use around 3500 BCE, spanned 1,500 miles from...
why do i get a lower singing register when sick but unable to access the register when well??	Mucus in your throat dampens the vocal cords, allowing them to vibrate slower. It's not trainable.	[ "If a singer holds any of these factors constant and interferes with their progressive state of change, his laryngeal function tends to become static and eventually breaks occur with obvious changes of tone quality. These breaks are often identified as register boundaries or as transition areas between registers. T...
Has any culture ever used sign language as oppose to verbal language as their primary mode of communication?	I can not speak for entire cultures that use sign language as opposed to verbal language, though I would doubt this to exist on a large scale considering how many "evolutionary resources" go into verbal language development in humans. Everything from our brains to our mouth, throat, tongue, lips, ears, and larynx is me...	[ "Prior to the birth of ASL, sign language had been used by various communities in the United States. In the United States, as elsewhere in the world, hearing families with deaf children have historically employed ad-hoc home sign, which often reaches much higher levels of sophistication than gestures used by hearin...
What happens when your body encounters a pathogen that it has no antibody for?	This happens routinely and is part of the normal immune defence to a pathogen you've never seen before. 1) Pathogen enters the body by whichever route you prefer - let's say you stand on a thorn or something. 2) The pathogen triggers the innate immune system which detects highly invariant molecules which are *never...	[ "Different antigens are able to escape through a variety of mechanisms. For example, the African trypanosome parasites are able to clear the host's antibodies, as well as resist lysis and inhibit parts of the innate immune response. Another bacteria, \"Bordetella pertussis\", is able to escape the immune response b...
How and why did nicknames for currencies (e.g. 'buck' for USD and 'quid' for GBP) develop?	"Buck" as slang for one dollar is of unknown origin though it dates to the mid-19th century. It's possible that it comes from the early to mid 18th century in America when buckskins were considered as legal tender in many parts of America. For example the trader Conrad Weiser kept a journal of his travels in 1748 as...	[ "The dollarpound is a fictional currency used in both the series and the novels. It is an obvious combination of the American dollar and the British pound sterling, suggesting that the two currencies have merged at some time in the future. The currency has entered the popular language of the fictional universe by i...
what is the difference between rest & soap web services?	A SOAP web service has a very structured request and response. Data types, required fields, etc., are all defined in a WSDL that you can consume with your application to automatically build the entire request structure. All of it goes over HTTP POST methods. The entire web service has a single endpoint that covers many...	[ "Unlike SOAP-based Web services, there is no \"official\" standard for RESTful Web APIs. This is because REST is an architectural style, while SOAP is a protocol. REST is not a standard in itself, but RESTful implementations make use of standards, such as HTTP, URI, JSON, and XML. Many developers also describe thei...

Subsets and Splits

No community queries yet

The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.