question stringlengths 3 301 | answer stringlengths 9 26.1k | context list |
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why can't we see satellites from the iss? | The orbital path of satellites is a sphere significantly larger than *the entire Earth*. While there are thousands up there, most of them are the size of a car basically. You aren't going to just randomly see *anything* in space. It's SO huge, if you're not trying *really really hard* to find something, you never wil... | [
"The National Lab also has unique remote sensing capabilities. The orbital path of the ISS travels over the regions of Earth that contain more than 90 percent of the Earth's population, giving scientists a unique view of our planet. In addition to the view, the ISS also provides better spatial resolution and variab... |
tax returns | I can explain tax returns like you're 5, but I can't explain to a 5 year old how to file taxes. So, "taxes are a small part of your earnings that government takes in order to run itself. That's how we pay for roads, school, police, firefighters, armed forces and a lot more. Every month the government makes a guess abou... | [
"In the United Kingdom, a tax return is a document that must be filed with the HM Revenue & Customs declaring liability for taxation. Different bodies must file different returns with respect to various forms of taxation. The main returns currently in use are:\n",
"A tax return is defined as “a return, declaratio... |
why can't jerusalem be made into an independant city-state, similar to the holy see & vatican city? | The long and the short of it is that that is not what anyone wants. Both sides want the city for themselves and are working to that end. Giving the city up would be perceived as a loss, and so far no one has offered any convincing reason why it wouldn't be.
As for the Vatican, it made its deal with Italy in exchange ... | [
"The United Kingdom position on Jerusalem states that \"Jerusalem was supposed to be a ‘corpus separatum’, or international city administered by the UN. But this was never set up: immediately after the UNGA resolution partitioning Palestine, Israel occupied West Jerusalem and Jordan occupied East Jerusalem (includi... |
why is a rainbow's colors the way they are now? | rainbows are caused by refracting light (bending) in water drops, the different colors bend by different amounts causing them to spread out in a predictable order based on their frequency (their energy) from a low of red to the higher frequencies of the blues and violets. | [
"The colour pattern of a rainbow is different from a spectrum, and the colours are less saturated. There is spectral smearing in a rainbow owing to the fact that for any particular wavelength, there is a distribution of exit angles, rather than a single unvarying angle. In addition, a rainbow is a blurred version o... |
Why Does Smoking Cause Erectile Dysfunction? | Smoking tobacco can cause impotence through a number of means: it can impact the nervous system, your endocrine system (hormones) and of course, your cardiovascular system. ^[1](_URL_3_) These are not the only ways smoking impacts the body, but the list of reasons not to smoke from a medical prospective is quite long.T... | [
"The incidence of impotence (difficulty achieving and maintaining penile erection) is approximately 85 percent higher in male smokers compared to non-smokers. Smoking is a key cause of erectile dysfunction (ED). It causes impotence because it promotes arterial narrowing and damages cells lining the inside of the ar... |
Did any Amish get drafted during the Vietnam War? | [Here](_URL_0_) is an answer to a similar question | [
"Decades before the Hmong Veterans' Naturalization Act came into existence, a U.S.-backed clandestine and covert military operation took place in Laos for some 14 years during the Vietnam War. The United States' Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) recruited and guided indigenous Hmong and ethnic Laotian peoples to fi... |
"millenials" | What u/homeboi808 said for the literal definition. There's also several underlying characteristics that people are usually referring to when talking about millenials (at least in the US) such as:
- tech-savvy
- socially liberal, but not necessarily registered Democrats or very politically active
- urban non-homeowne... | [
"Pickaninny (also picaninny, piccaninny or pickinniny) is a North American historical racial slur which refers to a dark-skinned child of African descent. It is a pidgin word form, which may be derived from the Portuguese \"pequenino\" (a diminutive version of the word \"pequeno\", \"little\"). In modern sensibilit... |
how does stuff from in the ground become oil in sunflowers and other plants? | Oils are made of big molecules that contain three atoms: carbon (C), oxygen (O) and hydrogen (H). These atoms are present all around us in the form of smaller molecules. Two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen can make a water molecule (H2O). Water is present in the ground where the plant grows. One carbon and two oxygen ato... | [
"Vegetable oil is a liquid derived from plants. These are triglyceride-based, and includes cooking oils like sunflower oil, solid oils like cocoa butter, oils used in paint like linseed oil and oils for industrial purposes, including as biofuels. \n",
"\"Infused oils\" are a combination of a carrier oil and plant... |
Why does it sting when you sterilize a wound? | It doesn't necessarily, anti bacterial agents don't sting for instance. But more simple sterilizing agents like alcoholic or peroxide sting because they are toxic and and the area around the wound is hyper sensitive to any toxic substances so that you don't stick your hand in paint thinner while you have a paper cut or... | [
"One of the active chemicals that are injected into the victim of a S. \"surinama\" sting is 5-hydroxytryptamine, which is commonly known as the neurotransmitter serotonin. When injected, serotonin acts as a vasoconstrictor, which could potentially be lethal to small animals. Since vasoconstrictor chemicals are oft... |
why do shoes with no support hurt my feet, but walking barefoot doesn’t? | Shoes can be at a weird angle or position that your foot doesn’t like. Being barefoot always puts you in a natural and healthy position | [
"This leaves humans more vulnerable to medical problems that are caused by poor leg and foot alignments. Also, the wearing of shoes, sneakers and boots can impede proper alignment and movement within the ankle and foot. For example, High-heeled footwear are known to throw off the natural weight balance (this can al... |
If the charge of electrons plays an important role in the shape of their orbitals and how strongly they push against one another, how do protons end up so closely packed together I the nucleus? | Protons and neutrons are held together by the strong nuclear force (or a residual form of it, sort of the equivalent of van der Waals forces for nucleons), which in stable nuclei is much stronger than the electrostatic repulsion between protons. If a nucleus has too few neutrons then the repulsion will break it up. | [
"On the most basic level, electronegativity is determined by factors like the nuclear charge (the more protons an atom has, the more \"pull\" it will have on electrons) and the number/location of other electrons present in the atomic shells (the more electrons an atom has, the farther from the nucleus the valence e... |
why do some people die days or even weeks after their injury happened? | Could be a whole host of things but the common culprits I see are
-ARDS: And inflammatory condition that a major insult to the body can cause which makes the lungs stiff and basically at least partially unusable
-Sepsis: Another inflammatory response but this time to an infection. People who are that injured have mor... | [
"Recovery may begin between 7 and 14 days after first symptoms. Death, if it occurs, follows typically 6 to 16 days from first symptoms and is often due to low blood pressure from fluid loss. In general, bleeding often indicates a worse outcome, and blood loss may result in death. People are often in a coma near th... |
why is the super bowl played on sunday night rather than saturday night? | NFL Spokesman Brian McCarthy:
"The concept of playing the Super Bowl on a Sunday has worked well for 44 years and we don't anticipate moving away from this tradition. Fans expect to see the Super Bowl on a Sunday, the day on which 89.2 percent of NFL games are played." | [
"The day on which the Super Bowl is played, now considered by some as an unofficial American national holiday, is called \"Super Bowl Sunday\". It is the second-largest day for U.S. food consumption, after Thanksgiving Day. In addition, the Super Bowl has frequently been the most-watched American television broadca... |
What is the functional reason as to why some leaves are serrated or have different types of margins? | Leaf shape genetics is a pretty complex topic. See here for a review: _URL_1_
In the case of the margin, I found a study on the model organism *A. thaliana* which shows that the serration is due to a self-organizing pattern of the hormone auxin. See here: _URL_0_
> Here, we use a combination of developmental genetic... | [
"The tips of leaves are usually more or less notched (as in \"A. firma\"), but sometimes rounded or dull (as in \"A. concolor\", \"A. magnifica\") or sharp and prickly (as in \"A. bracteata\", \"A. cephalonica\", \"A. holophylla\"). The leaves of young plants are usually sharper.\n",
"Leaf margins (edges) are fre... |
how come acts like killing civilians and war prisoners, using flamethrowers, biological weapons, etc are considered a war crime, but the act of starting a war in of itself is not considered a crime? | The idea of war being some sort of abhorrent thing to be avoided is a relatively new way of thinking. Historically, war has considered to have been a normal tool for used by nations for a variety of things. It is pretty much a concession that sovereign nations retain the option to go to war. However, there are acts so ... | [
"A war crime is an act that constitutes a serious violation of the laws of war that gives rise to individual criminal responsibility. Examples of war crimes include intentionally killing civilians or prisoners, torturing, destroying civilian property, taking hostages, performing a perfidy, raping, using child soldi... |
what are the differences in computer programming languages like html, css, javascript, etc. how do people know the different commands and syntax, is there a list of all possible commands and syntaxes somewhere? why not just have one universal language? | First point: HTML and CSS aren't programming languages. HTML is a markup language to describe content, and CSS is a language to describe the styling of HTML. Neither has any meaningful programming constructs.
> How are they different
The use different paradigms, different implementation details and focus on differen... | [
"Programming languages tend to have their own, oftentimes multiple, programming styles and naming conventions. Enumerations frequently follow either a PascalCase or uppercase convention, while lowercase and others are seen less frequently.\n",
"The description of a programming language is usually split into the t... |
Why isn't French more of a Germannic language? | /u/cchiu23 's links to previous answers cover the main question pretty well,but I just wanted to add a note on nomenclature here. When they say a language is Germanic (or Romance, or Slavic and so on) they're talking about which language family the language stems from. It's not some form of quantitative statement about... | [
"Although French is mainly from Latin (which accounts for about 60% of English vocabulary either directly or via a Romance language), it also includes words from Gaulish and Germanic languages (especially Old Frankish). Since English is of Germanic origin, words that have entered English from the Germanic elements ... |
why does peta use extreme marketing tactics that make them look like they're crazy? | Because PETA is crazy. They've got nothing to do with anything they pretend to stand for. They're just crazy and kind of money hungry. | [
"PETA has also produced various Flash games showcasing its campaigns, including parodies of \"Cooking Mama\", \"Super Mario Bros.\", \"Super Meat Boy\", and \"Pokémon\", in order to spread its message on animal welfare, vegetarianism and veganism.\n",
"PETA is an animal rights organization and, as such, it reject... |
why did soldiers in the past conduct war in 'marching band' manner? | It has to do with the military weapons that were in use at the time and its effectiveness.
The musket replaced the matchstick firearms that were used previously, which meant that infantry could fire much faster (albeit still relatively slow compared to today) but the firearms were only effective to a certain range.
T... | [
"The tradition of formed lines of soldiers marching into battle with music playing ended soon after the American Civil War in the mid 19th century; military bands continued to perform marches during ceremonial events, which spawned a new tradition of playing marches as a source of entertainment.\n",
"From at leas... |
How does caffeine physiologically increase your heart rate and blood pressure? | A few different ways, but mostly through the inhibition of adenosine receptors. Adenosine is a purine nucleoside found in many important biomolecules (e.g., ATP, cAMP, etc.) In the brain, adenosine acts largely as an inhibitory neurotransmitter, and in the heart much the same way. In fact, sometimes when patients have ... | [
"Caffeine can increase blood pressure and cause vasoconstriction. Coffee and caffeine can affect gastrointestinal motility and gastric acid secretion. Caffeine in low doses may cause weak bronchodilation for up to four hours in asthmatics. In postmenopausal women, high caffeine consumption can accelerate bone loss.... |
Is there any evidence of or study about scarcity in American men after World War 2 leading to American women having to more compliant to potential partners? | In America, no, not really. US death rates compared to the population of military-aged men were not very extreme.
The USSR, on the other hand, had drastically heavy casualties, especially among young men. The casualty figures are sometimes disputed, but it is safe to say that the Soviets lost more men than all the o... | [
"The rise in unemployment during the Great Depression which started in the 1920s hit women first, and when the men also lost their jobs there was further strain on families. Many women served in the armed forces during World War II, when around 300,000 American women served in the navy and army, performing jobs suc... |
how a group like lizard squad could take down such a large money filled network | They didn't hack it. They DDosed it. A 5 year old can DDos. | [
"On September 3, 2014, Lizard Squad seemingly announced that it had disbanded only to return later on, claiming responsibility for a variety of attacks on prominent websites. The organization at one point participated in the Darkode hacking forums and shared hosting with them.\n",
"BULLET::::- In the Super NES an... |
How did chile get away with being basically nothing but coast? | As far as Argentina goes, you have to look at the geography of the region. Historically, the heart of Chile has been the region in what's now Central Chile around the capital, Santiago. This region of Chile is bounded by the Andes mountains on the east which provide a fairly difficult to penetrate border due to the ver... | [
"Although Chile did not fulfill all of its territorial ambitions, its relative success attracted the attention of the Western Hemisphere's other major expansionist polity, the United States, and cemented Chile's status as a regional power in Latin America. Chile's territorial expansion also left a legacy of distrus... |
it seems like the sun and moon dont move too much in the sky day to day. why arent there several days of slightly different eclipses in a row? | The moon's orbit is roughly 1.5 million miles around. (C = 244000 x 2 x pi) So it's moving almost 56000 miles a day. So it takes about an hour to move the distance of its own diameter. | [
"It might be expected that once every month, when the Moon passes between Earth and the Sun during a new moon, its shadow would fall on Earth causing a solar eclipse, but this does not happen every month. Nor is it true that during every full moon, the Earth's shadow falls on the Moon, causing a lunar eclipse. Sola... |
what is smooth motion capture on tv? | Footage that were shot for TV are usually 30 FPS (not sure, but I think it is?) and movies are usually 24 fps. It will look slightly stuttered to human eyes but we will still perceive it as motion. Modern smart TVs has a feature that analyze the input and put extra frames in between those real frames to smooth it out s... | [
"Motion capture (sometimes referred as mo-cap or mocap, for short) is the process of recording the movement of objects or people. It is used in military, entertainment, sports, medical applications, and for validation of computer vision and robotics. In filmmaking and video game development, it refers to recording ... |
what an api-key is and how to use it | API key is a key (just like a key to your front door) that identifies you.
without API key, the system will either not respond or not give you full access to its capabilities.
just like if you didn't have the key to the apt building, you can still get in the first front door, but not into any apt. | [
"An application programming interface key (API key) is a unique string of alphanumeric characters transmitted as part of an API request that authenticate the source of the API request. API keys can be of two types: Public API key and Private API key. \n",
"A product key, also known as a software key, is a specifi... |
How well off were Kulaks in pre-Soviet Russia? | Kulak, which derives from a term for fists or closed fist, had no real firm definition in the pre-revolutionary peasant milieu. The word was a derogatory term applied by other peasants to those members of the peasantry who had somehow gotten rich at other's expenses. Generally speaking, Kulaks were peasants in the post... | [
"The kulaks (; , plural кулаки́, \"fist\", by extension \"tight-fisted\"; \"kurkuli\" in Ukraine, but also used in Russian texts in Ukrainian contexts), or golchomags (, plural ) were a category of affluent peasants in the later Russian Empire and early Soviet Union, particularly Soviet Russia and Azerbaijan. They ... |
Does Hurricane Harvey affect the weather for the rest of the United States? If so, how, and how far? | Second this, down here in San Diego we had a strong bout of heat followed by a odd couple of days of light rain. Humidity off the charts. Even with mountain ranges in between I gotta think that kind of weather system is going to super charge the atmosphere. Either with energy, moisture, most likely both | [
"In August 2017, Hurricane Harvey became the first major hurricane to make landfall in the United States since Hurricane Wilma in 2005. It devastated Houston, Texas, causing extreme flooding, 83 confirmed deaths, and an estimated $70 billion to $200 billion in damage. Harvey's highest winds hit 130 mph.\n",
"Hurr... |
why do our mouths tolerate temperature (hot or cold) much more than our skin. | I believe your premise is false. The same temperature of soup that would burn your skin, would burn your mouth. And you can hold about the same amount of ice in either your hands or your mouth.
However, your mouth has glands that put out saliva at body temperature, which dilutes any hot or cold thing you put in your m... | [
"Oral temperatures are influenced by drinking, chewing, smoking, and breathing with the mouth open. Mouth breathing, cold drinks or food reduce oral temperatures; hot drinks, hot food, chewing, and smoking raise oral temperatures.\n",
"Compared to most other mammals, licking has a minor role for humans. The human... |
what makes a substance nutritious? | A subtstance is nutricious when we can extract energy from it. That substance can be carbohydrates (sugars), fats, and amino acids from proteins. The body modifies these substances into one of the products that can be used in the so-called Krebs cycle. The Krebs cycle is a series of chemical reactions that releases sto... | [
"Crude drugs are vegetable or animal drugs that contain natural substances that have undergone only the processes of collection and drying. The term natural substances refers to those substances found in nature that have not had man-made changes made in their molecular structure. They are used as medicine for human... |
how do people sing in tonal languages? if the melody is falling but the tone of the word is rising, how does that work? | At least in Chinese the tone of the word is ignored. You just follow the melody. The context will take care of identifying the correct meaning of the word. Also, most of the time the text is displayed in subtitles (on TV, DVD etc.). | [
"Because when we sing a nenano melody, we don’t end on the tone, from which we started, but if you look at it closer, you will find that we come down to a somewhat lower pitch. The reason for this is the nenano interval; for it seems to be in some way halved, even if we are not aware of it; in other words, we perfo... |
does our digestive system digest stuff in the order we eat? eg, will caffeine work slower if it is taken after food? | It’s more that everything gets thrown together into a big pot in whatever order you eat it, but once it’s in there it dissolves fairly simultaneously.
You might get a small change if you take it simultaneously with a big meal or other drinks, because that dilutes it down and means it takes longer for everything to be ... | [
"Caffeine from coffee or other beverages is absorbed by the small intestine within 45 minutes of ingestion and distributed throughout all bodily tissues. Peak blood concentration is reached within 1–2 hours. It is eliminated by first-order kinetics. Caffeine can also be absorbed rectally, evidenced by suppositories... |
Quantum tunnelling examples often state that a person could "walk through a wall" by (an extremely low) chance. Is this a specific scenario or is literally anything 'possible'? | I think there is a misconception on your part here.
Tunnelling does NOT break the laws of physics. Actually physics predicts it, so it is literally in obedience of the laws of nature. Just because it does not behave like one would expect from everyday life, does not mean it is breaking the laws of physics. It much ra... | [
"Quantum tunnelling falls under the domain of quantum mechanics: the study of what happens at the quantum scale. This process cannot be directly perceived, but much of its understanding is shaped by the microscopic world, which classical mechanics cannot adequately explain. To understand the phenomenon, particles a... |
how do ac thermostats work - how do they know what the temp is in the whole room? | They simply do not know. They only measure the temperature at the exact location of the thermostat, which has a little sensor inside. | [
"A pneumatic thermostat is a thermostat that controls a heating or cooling system via a series of air-filled control tubes. This \"control air\" system responds to the pressure changes (due to temperature) in the control tube to activate heating or cooling when required. The control air typically is maintained on \... |
Why did resistance groups in the Third Reich fail? | If you're looking for a one-size-fits-all answer, you're going to be disappointed, because there really isn't one.
* The July 20 plot, also known as Operation Valkyrie, failed because of pure dumb luck. Hitler escaped with a singed pant leg and a perforated eardrum, and though the plotters had amongst themselves relat... | [
"The Resistance members were motivated by such factors as the mistreatment of Jews, harassment of the churches, and the harsh actions of Himmler and the Gestapo. In his history of the German Resistance, Peter Hoffmann wrote that \"National Socialism was not simply a party like any other; with its total acceptance o... |
Exactly how accurate are the majority of our recorded dates in history once we look past a few hundred years, such as: "April 16th 1457 BC"? | > How do we know exactly on what day significant events occurred in ancient history?
hi! you may be interested in these previous related questions
* [How do we know what years certain pre-gregorian historical events happened in?](_URL_12_)
* [Can we be certain that the dates of events that happened 2000+ years ago... | [
"The system of the table below covers from around 13,000 BC to the modern day. Dates, given in years BC, are best viewed as being based on uncalibrated C-14 dates, which, when calibrated, would result in much earlier BC dates. For example, an Older Dryas start date of 10,000 BC translates roughly into an uncalibrat... |
if you spin in an office chair, why do you spin faster if you move your legs in? similar to how figurine skaters hold themselves together. | If you throw a ball, doesn't a lighter ball move faster than a heavier ball if you use the same amount of force?
There's a similar concept to mass in the angular world, angular momentum. But angular momentum is a big more complicated--distance away from the axis of rotation increases it.
So when you tuck in your leg... | [
"This is almost a cross of a rotation and a shove it. One spins the board under his/her feet and jumps up at the same time thus the board spins under them and the person either spins the same way as the board or in the reverse direction if they want to be fancy.\n",
"The board revolves around its longitudinal axi... |
What gives "Science" its legitimacy? | Falsifiability (it *can* be proven wrong), peer review, universal truth (anyone can do the experiment and get the same result) off the top of my head.
This question might better be suited to r/philosophy since it's more about the philosophy of science? | [
"Science plays a vital role in the livelihood of Human Life on Planet Earth. It provides us a simplified, stronger, structured and safer life. It helps in showing the way of life in the times to come and providing the necessary changes for the same period of time.\n",
"\"We recognize science as a legitimate inter... |
Did Union citizens who bought their way out of the draft during the Civil War suffer social stigma, later? | Just wrote a paper relating to this!
There was both a social stigma and even some physical danger in buying your way out of the draft (either through commutation or by hiring a substitute). For example, there was a popular tune of the time called "We Are Coming, Father Abraham" (a parody of an earlier recruiting song ... | [
"The Union Army relied on the labor of newly freed people, and did not always treat them fairly. Thomas W. Knox wrote: \"The difference between working for nothing as a slave, and working for the same wages under the Yankees, was not always perceptible.\" At the same time, military officials resisted local attempts... |
If the air was made up of different gases, would things sound different? | Yes, composition of gases do change how sounds are perceived but it's mostly from different density gases affecting the power of individual frequencies rather than changing them due to different speeds of sound. For example, if you inhale helium, your voice sounds squeakier. The same frequencies are present, but sinc... | [
"In a non-dispersive medium, the speed of sound is independent of sound frequency, so the speeds of energy transport and sound propagation are the same for all frequencies. Air, a mixture of oxygen and nitrogen, constitutes a non-dispersive medium. However, air does contain a small amount of CO which \"is\" a dispe... |
why is silence awkward? | It isn't actually necessarily awkward. Many folks are too worried about what others may be thinking, though, and so it creates anxiety. It needn't be that way. Sometimes silence simply means nothing need be said right then. | [
"BULLET::::3. Space filler to avoid silence: in many cultures, silences between two people are usually considered uncomfortable and/or awkward. Tension can be reduced by starting phatic talk until a more substantial subject arises. Generally, humans find prolonged silence uncomfortable, and sometimes unbearable. Th... |
Why is it possible to freeze semen and then have it function properly when thawed? | Before I offer my insight I would point out: sperm are not organisms. They are differentiated cells of an organism.
Bacteria in laboratory settings are frozen at -80°C on a regular basis. I haven't been in the lab for long, but I'm yet to encounter any stored for under two years that have not grown when thawed. My und... | [
"Semen extender is a liquid diluent which is added to semen to preserve its fertilizing ability. It acts as a buffer to protect the sperm cells from their own toxic byproducts, and it protects the sperm cells from cold shock and osmotic shock during the chilling and shipping process (the sperm is chilled to reduce ... |
Where did an alchemist get their metals? | Hi, I do the History of Alchemy Podcast.
Alchemists got their raw materials like everyone else: the market, or from the smelters themselves.
There was actually a whole industry around alchemy like there is for chemicals today.
Some labs specialized in arsenic and sulfur compounds used by other alchemists for more ad... | [
"One main goal of the alchemists was to produce gold from other substances, such as lead — presumably by the interaction with a mythical substance called the philosopher's stone. Although they never succeeded in this attempt, the alchemists did promote an interest in systematically finding out what can be done with... |
what does it mean when a company is said to be worth x amount? | quantity of shares outstanding, multiplied by the market price per share. meaning if you bought every share, to own 100% of the company, this is how much you would need to spend. | [
"The company: Company X has 100 million outstanding shares. The share price currently quoted on the stock exchanges is $400 thus the market capitalization of the stock would be $40 billion (outstanding shares times share price).\n",
"For example, if the stock price for two companies is $25 per share and one compa... |
What is the earliest example we have of a republic? | I believe Rome is the earliest form that we have. Early cultures (China, Mesopotamia, India) were monarchies. Greece was split between democracy and monarchies. Rome was a republic in between the times of kings and emperors. Tarquin was the last king of Rome in 509 b.c. Augustus Caesar was the first emperor of Rom... | [
"In 1792, the Rauracian Republic, a revolutionary French client republic, was created, lasting for a few months into the following year before being partitioned between a restored canton of Basel, later within the Helvetic Republic, and the First French Republic.\n",
"A republic was briefly established from 1924 ... |
centuries ago, how did they find the other planets in the solar system? also, is there a possibility that there are other planets in our solar system that we have not yet found? | Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn are visible to the naked eye and have been known about and studied since ancient times. Early astronomers noticed that these "stars" appeared to change position compared to other stars and so they started to track thier motion across the sky. The word planet actually means "wand... | [
"BULLET::::- 2nd millennium BC – Babylonian astronomers identify the inner planets Mercury and Venus and the outer planets Mars, Jupiter and Saturn, which would remain the only known planets until the invention of the telescope in early modern times.\n",
"In 1992, Aleksander Wolszczan and Dale Frail used this met... |
How did the Munich Massacre effect the world's view of the Palestine/Israel conflict? | I have a question for you. Do you want the version that is super, super long and includes a write-up on what actually went down at Munich, and the subsequent responses back and forth? Or do you want the shorter version that only talks about media coverage of the incident and how it changed things? | [
"According to historians, whether deliberate or otherwise, the massacres did have a strong impact on the exodus of the Palestinian Arab population. For example, the Deir Yassin massacre is considered to have generated more panic among the Arab population than all other previous operations together and to have cause... |
i’m 35 years old and still don’t understand fractions. | The bottom number is the number of pieces of pie that are cut.
The top number is the number of pieces of pie that are left.
Example. 5/7 Cut the pie into seven equal pieces. Then take five of them. (Discarding or eating the other two). What you have is 5/7 of a pie. | [
"Fractions involving larger numbers tend to become hard to read. Especially in mathematics it is common to read fractions only using cardinal numbers and the words \"pe\" or \"supra\" (\"on\", \"over\"). For example, \"două treimi\" \"two thirds\" becomes \"doi pe trei\" or \"doi supra trei\".\n",
"BULLET::::- Fr... |
Why were Japanese cities and towns so heavily wood based before and during WWII? | Okay, I'll bite. First off, even though most of my answers here on /r/askhistorians have happened to be about Japan, I'm more of a military/aviation history sort of person. I wrote my undergraduate thesis on (roughly) the use of military power/force on civilian populations in the 20th century, but I did a TON of res... | [
"The logging industry of Japan can be divided into pre-World War II and post-WWII. Prior to the Second World War, Japan has a small timber industry that impacted a small area as most of the forests were preserved to prevent erosion and maintain the overall quality of the land. It was during World War II that the lo... |
why do sex dreams feel good? do you stimulate yourself while dreaming? | I don't think I stimulate mysel[F] in my sleep, but since coming into my mid 30s I frequently have sex dreams that result in orgasm and sometimes wake me up. I'd also like to know why this is, and why I can't seem to accomplish the same result simply by thinking about it while awake. | [
"It is hypothesized that dreaming might be a way of improving mood in non-clinical populations. The evidence for this phenomenon has been collected from home dream reports in psychotherapy and from laboratory dreams collected after waking a participant in a REM sleep phase. Adults often remember dreams which have a... |
why does the us army use 9mm instead of .40 or .45? | A 9mm round was chosen to be compatible with the rest of NATO. NATO has standardized a lot of their weapon system (All magazines need to work in all guns) in order to simplify the logistics of war. | [
"The FBI report made it clear that the more consistent accuracy of 9mm in the hands of their less experienced shooters was a factor in their returning to 9mm as their standard handgun caliber. It was also made clear that the almost same effectiveness of 9mm compared to .40 S&W and .45 ACP was due to the high qualit... |
In the way that some people can hear higher or lower pitches than normal, can some people see a bit into ultraviolet or infrared light? | [This exact question was asked a month ago.](_URL_0_)
And many similar like it have been asked fairly recently. Please try searching before posting a question. | [
"Humans retain a relatively strong auditory image for details in pitch, which can be improved with musical training. The development of cultivating an auditory image with absolute pitch, which is being able to determine a note upon hearing a sound, however, is dependent on childhood musical training and genetic fac... |
why do i get super excited for something good leading up to it happening, but my excitement fades just before the event? | There's no one real answer to your question, so I'll give you the best answer I know. You seem to have trained yourself to be disappointed. The idea of something good happening might excite you, but as the event nears and shifts from idea to reality, your doubts begin to outweigh your excitement because you've been dis... | [
"Individuals in society predict that something will give them a certain desired outcome or feeling. Indulging in what one might have thought would've made them happy or excited might only cause a temporary thrill, or it might result in the opposite of what was expected. Events and experiences are done and relived t... |
why musicians on youtube need to wear headphones while they record but live musicians don't | Live musicians use stage or in-ear monitors which do basically the same thing - allow them to hear themselves. | [
"The music video for \"Headphones\" was directed by Bullion Collective, and premiered on 6 June 2012, on Little Boots's YouTube channel. Hesketh described the content of the video as people going to a peep show booth, but they wear headphones and listen to music: \"The idea is that everyday characters enter a booth... |
What civilizations existed in sub-saharan Africa during the Roman Era. 200 B.C.E - 200 C.E | Two come to mind off the top of my head: The [Nok Culture](_URL_0_) and the [Nubian kingdom of Meroë](_URL_1_). We know the most about Meroe, because it was a direct trading partner of Egypt; the Romans kept this up, although they occasionally sparred as well. But most Roman-era knowledge we can confirm involves acc... | [
"Following the conquest of North Africa's Mediterranean coastline by the Roman Empire, the area was integrated economically and culturally into the Roman system. Roman settlement occurred in modern Tunisia and elsewhere along the coast. The first Roman emperor native to North Africa was Septimius Severus, born in L... |
why do people cling to false information that has been widely and thoroughly debunked? | We have faith in our caregivers: Caregivers are looking out for our best interests
We have faith in our senses: Seeing is believing
We have faith in our memories: "I remember when it happened"
And Faith is a virtue.
When suddenly confronted with irrefutable evidence it is easier to reject the new information tha... | [
"Misinformation can affect all aspects of life. When eavesdropping on conversations, one can gather facts that may not always be true, or the receiver may hear the message incorrectly and spread the information to others. On the Internet, one can read content that is stated to be factual but that that may not have ... |
why are rupert's drops so strong? | Due to the way they're made, the heads of the drops have a surface compressive stress thats equal to nearly 7000 times atmospheric pressure. This gives the head of the drop an extremely high fracture point, making it difficult to break, even by a bullet.
& #x200B;
Source if you want to read more: [_URL_0_](_URL_0_) | [
"Prince Rupert's drops are produced by dropping molten glass drops into cold water. The water rapidly cools and solidifies the glass from the outside inward. This thermal quenching may be described using a simplified model of a rapidly cooled sphere. Prince Rupert's drops have remained a scientific curiosity for ne... |
since life has existed longer in the oceans than on dry land, why has nothing close to the equivalent to human intelligence ever evolved under water? | It seems the big problem is failing to make the distinction between intelligence and dexterous utilization of it. There are water bound creatures with who it is not immediately clear just how far their cognition is from a human. The primary issues seems to be that aqueous environments require fins for mobility, or othe... | [
"BULLET::::- The oceans may have become more hospitable to life over the last 500 million years and less vulnerable to mass extinctions: dissolved oxygen became more widespread and penetrated to greater depths; the development of life on land reduced the run-off of nutrients and hence the risk of eutrophication and... |
why does revenge feel so good? | Some interesting Buddhist-style imprecations on here, but I'll offer my own thinking that revenge is an adaptive behaviour.
& #x200B;
Many intelligent animals have a sense of justice, it's been shown time and again that animals including chimps, ravens, dolphins, and your humble *H. sapiens* have a sense of fairnes... | [
"Revenge is defined as the act of commiting a harmful action against a person or group in response to a grievance, be it real or perceived (as opposed to turning the other cheek). It is used to punish a wrong by going outside the law. Francis Bacon described revenge as a kind of \"wild justice\" that \"does... offe... |
Why can't we 're-start' dead cells? | I'm guessing it's something to do with apoptosis, 'Programmed cell death'. By the time a cell has been compromised somewhat, it will kill itself; I'm guessing that there'd be no point in attempting to resurrect cells in a being where the cells most affected by the cause of death have already destroyed themselves totall... | [
"Permanent cells are cells that are incapable of regeneration. These cells are considered to be terminally differentiated and non proliferative in postnatal life. This includes brain cells, neurons, heart cells, skeletal muscle cells, and red blood cells. Although these cells are considered permanent in that they n... |
In the times of Ancient Greece and Rome, how would the state make sure those who had been exiled would not come back? | Well the thing to remember is that exile is a punishment for the elites. You need money/wealth to be able to just pick up and go live in another state/city. And if you're one of the elites, you're well known because you were politically active. For Athens, ostracism was (in theory) to remove any politician who became *... | [
"There are various recorded cases in ancient history where people who had been deported or uprooted from their city or homeland were allowed (or encouraged) to return, typically when the balance of military and political forces which caused their exile had changed. However, in these cases the exiled populations wer... |
How does drinking distilled water differ from tap water in regards to the health of a person who suffers from gout? | Probably not at all. Gout is unrelated to the salts (calcium, magnesium, etc.) found in trace amounts in tap water; instead, it results from uric acid that precipitates in joints and tendons. It is generally thought that this uric acid (which is comprised solely of [hydrogen, carbon, and nitrogen](_URL_1_)) came from p... | [
"Additives used to clean drinking water may cause themselves harm. Chlorine, widely used in Canadian drinking water, is a prominent example. Through drinking water treated by chlorine over a long period of time, the risk of certain cancers, such as bladder and colon, increase. Additionally, pregnant women who drink... |
why does everything feel so soft when you've just woken up? | Can you elaborate, OP? I've been waking up for years and have never noticed a difference in how things feel immediately after waking up. Whether it's my bed, the floor, my clothing, my breakfast, or whatever, it doesn't feel any different than it does later on in the day. | [
"The body is the first element to break out of this stage, responding by big appetites of eating and wanting more sleeping. Only after the partial replenishing of the body is the mind finally able to respond, as \"feeling suddenly broke through the strange fetters which had restrained it\" (111).\n",
"\"And then ... |
Given they formed in relative proximity to one another, why are some of the moons of Jupiter (Io and Europa) so vastly different in composition? | Here's the thing about the moons of the outer planets: we don't know a lot about their interior composition. There's certainly a lot of evidence to suggest the presence or absence of particular structures, such as the liquid water oceans on Europa, but until we get missions out there to study each of these moons, we c... | [
"Jupiter and Saturn have several large moons, such as Io, Europa, Ganymede and Titan, which may have originated from discs around each giant planet in much the same way that the planets formed from the disc around the Sun. This origin is indicated by the large sizes of the moons and their proximity to the planet. T... |
Why does the annual Arctic sea ice minimum happen at around the autumn equinox? | It's like how the hottest part of the day isn't when the sun is at it's peak. There's a thermal lag due to the atmosphere needing to heat up and still receiving enough heat to offset how much it's trying to cool.
Similarly, the coldest part of the day is right before sunrise because it's the longest stretch of coolin... | [
"European climatologists predicted in 2009 that by the end of the 21st century, the temperature of the Arctic region is expected to rise 3° Celsius on an average day. In that same article, \"National Geographic\" quoted the co-author of the study, Andreas Stohl, of the Norwegian Institute for Air Research, \"Previo... |
Was Attila really a great military leader? | I haven't used this subreddit so I don't know if my answer is correct, but I study medieval history in Montreal and I asked one of my teacher, Hungarian historian Piroska Nagy, a similar question.
She answered that, if we focus on the military aspect of the late Antiquity barbarians conquests, the advantage of the Hun... | [
"Jordanes' list for Attila's allies includes the Gepids under their king Ardaric, as well as an army of various Gothic groups led by the brothers Valamir, Theodemir (the father of the later Ostrogothic king Theodoric the Great) and Widimer, scions of the Amali Goths. Sidonius offers a more extensive list of allies:... |
How often were war pigs used in battle? We're they as effective against war elephants as we are led to believe? | The best-known instance of pigs being used against elephants was the battle of Maleventum where the Romans "drove them [Pyrrhus's elephants] off using pigs coated with grease and pitch, which they turned into live torches. Their [the pigs'] shrill, dying squeals made the huge pachyderms panic and put into flight"
So, ... | [
"BULLET::::- Pliny the Elder wrote about the use of war pigs against elephants. As he relates it, elephants became scared by the squeal of a pig and would panic, bringing disaster to any soldiers who stood in their path of flight.\n",
"Monkeys and war pigs were used as incendiaries around 1000 AD. More famously t... |
Why was there so little direct oceanic trade between Britain and the Mediterranean in the ancient period? | One reason may be that the journey through the straits and around Spain is a long and surprisingly difficult one. It's over 5000km, roughly ten times the overland distance. You're also on the Atlantic coast, which is considerably rougher than the Mediterranean (although I'm sure the more experienced seafarers could han... | [
"The development of oceanic shipping began to affect the entire Mediterranean. Once, most trade between Western Europe and the East had passed through the region, but after the 1490s the development of a sea route to the Indian Ocean allowed the importation of Asian spices and other goods through the Atlantic ports... |
what is the difference between a ba in a science and a b.s. in a science? | This is 100% dependent on the whims of a given school, and there is no general answer to it.
In my experience, if both are offered in a natural science, the BA takes a bit more superficial look at the subject, and may avoid research methods, labs, etc. The credit hours required *may* be less.
For something like psych... | [
"In general, in all four countries, the B.A. degree is the standard required for entry into a master's programme. In science, a BA hons degree is generally a prerequisite for entrance to a Ph.D program or a very-high-research-activity master's programme. As such, for example the UK awarded \"honours\" are designed ... |
What's the difference between an emulsifier, a solubilizer, and a surfactant? | Gosh it has been a while since I’ve seen these so bear with me.
Emulsifier reduces the polar/non polar interactions between substances like oil and water and allows them to mix well but nothing dissolved between them both are still the same chemically.
Solubilizer allows for greater dissociation. Like salt would diss... | [
"An emulsifier (also known as an \"emulgent\") is a substance that stabilizes an emulsion by increasing its kinetic stability. One class of emulsifiers is known as \"surface active agents\", or surfactants. Emulsifiers are compounds that typically have a polar or hydrophilic (i.e. water-soluble) part and a non-pola... |
the difference between technocracy and meritocracy | They're quite similar. All Technocracies are Meritocracies, but not all Meritocracies are Technocracies.
For an ELI5 explanation, a Technocracy occurs when the HIGHEST offices are held by unelected individuals with special skills. [Italy from 2011-2013 is a good example.](_URL_1_) A Meritocracy is more so having a hi... | [
"The term \"technocracy\" is derived from the Greek words τέχνη, \"tekhne\" meaning \"skill\" and κράτος, \"kratos\" meaning \"power\", as in \"governance\", or \"rule\". William Henry Smyth, a California engineer, is usually credited with inventing the word \"technocracy\" in 1919 to describe \"the rule of the peo... |
Where were Ibn Battuta's wives during his travels? | This isn't an answer but.. which translation of the Rihla did you read, and did you find it interesting? | [
"Ibn Jubayr (1 September 1145 –29 November 1217; ), also written Ibn Jubair, Ibn Jobair, and Ibn Djubayr, was an Arab geographer, traveller and poet from al-Andalus. His travel chronicle describes the pilgrimage he made to Mecca from 1183 to 1185, in the years preceding the Third Crusade. His chronicle describes Sa... |
why acid doesn't burn the test tube but it will burn other things? | The pyrex glass used in test tubes is extremely non-reactive | [
"Performic acid is non-toxic; it does irritate the skin, but less so than peracetic acid. Concentrated acid (above 50%) is highly reactive; it readily decomposes upon heating, and explodes upon rapid heating to 80–85 °C. It may ignite or explode at room temperature when combined with flammable substances, such as f... |
how do breast implants work? | It's still there. The implant simply pushes the organic tissue outward, making the breasts larger. | [
"A breast implant is a prosthesis used to change the size, shape, and contour of a person's breast. In reconstructive plastic surgery, breast implants can be placed to restore a natural looking breast mound for post–mastectomy breast reconstruction patients or to correct congenital defects and deformities of the ch... |
why do people read in a different voice than they would speak regularly? | Presentation.
Most people reading out loud have an audience, and therefore try to make things more interesting to listen to. | [
"Often in both high and low vocalizers, the rate of speech is constantly regulated depending on intensity/volume of words (said to be affected by long delays between readings) and increasing the delay of speech and hearing ones' voice is an effect called “delayed auditory feedback”. Increasing the voice intensity w... |
out of all the money raised for cancer why does pediatric cancer get less then 5 percent. | I’m no expert on cancer funding, but keep in mind that less than 1% of new cancer diagnoses are in children. With this context, 5% of total funding (if that is the actual number) is already disproportionately high.
Source: _URL_0_ | [
"Childhood cancer and cancer in adolescents is rare (about 150 cases per million yearly in the US). Leukemia (usually acute lymphoblastic leukemia) is the most common cancer in children aged 1–14 in the U.S., followed by the central nervous system cancers, neuroblastoma, Wilms' tumor, and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. St... |
What protocol do human nerves use? | I'm pretty sure there's not a protocol. Frequency of action potentials encodes to intensity of stimulus, but that's not really a protocol in the sense that a different message will be sent by different codes. | [
"For the rest of the body, spinal nerves are responsible for somatosensory information. These arise from the spinal cord. Usually these arise as a web (\"plexus\") of interconnected nerves roots that arrange to form single nerves. These nerves control the functions of the rest of the body. In humans, there are 31 p... |
why doesn't youtube comments have a voting system like reddit where the downvotes actually count? wouldn't this solve their current problem of having incredibly vile and insulting comments staying on top? | Youtube's comment system does take into consideration down-votes, but it also considers the number of replies when ranking comments. The idea is that comments which are more insightful and encourage discussion will garner more replies, so comments with lots of replies are usually ranked near the top. This, however, mea... | [
"The site does not have a system that filters the correct answers from the incorrect answers. At one time, the community could vote for the best answer among the posted answers; but that option was disabled in March 2014. For most of the life of Yahoo! Answers, once the \"best answer\" was chosen, there was no way ... |
Why do my hands feel tingly after using power tools for a prolonged time? | Maybe I have more of a severe case. I hardly ever use powertools but the other weekend I went Kayaking and my hands we're tingling for 2+ hours after. Plus anytime I use a lawn mower or anything its the same. Maybe it's my gripping too hard because it happens if i'm playing fighting games too. Its uncomfortable and ann... | [
"High-power, extremely-low-frequency RF with electric field levels in the low kV/m range are known to induce perceivable currents within the human body that create an annoying tingling sensation. These currents will typically flow to ground through a body contact surface such as the feet, or arc to ground where the... |
how does one damage his/her eyesight when using electronics or reading small text? | Eyes are not damaged by reading small things. The worst you can do, really, is get eyestrain or a headache. | [
"Most speed reading courses claim that the peripheral vision can be used to read text. This has been suggested impossible because the text is blurred out through lack of visual resolution. At best the human brain can only \"guess\" at the content of text outside the macular region. There simply are not enough cone ... |
If sound travels at 340.29 m / s, then how come we can't feel it like wind? | Two reasons. First, the sound causes the air to move back and forth rapidly, anywhere between 20 and 20000 times per second. This is quite unlike wind, which is (more or less) moving in a steady direction.
Second, and more to the point that you're making, even for very loud sounds, the velocity of the *air itself* is ... | [
"Sound typically travels fastest and farthest through solids, then liquids, then gases such as the atmosphere. Sound is affected during fog conditions due to the small distances between water droplets, and air temperature differences.\n",
"When an inversion layer is present, if a sound or explosion occurs at grou... |
what effect will the proposed tax cuts have on the economy? | Short answer: We don't know.
Long answer: seriously, we don't know. The only information given is changing the tax rate to 15%. Even if you assume this means the effective tax rate (as the tax rate is already 15% for low earning businesses), we have no idea how this would be structured.
On top of that, most companies... | [
"The tax cuts are expected to increase deficits thereby stimulating the economy, increasing GDP and employment, relative to a forecast without those tax cuts. CBO reported on December 21, 2017: \"Overall, the combined effect of the change in net federal revenue and spending is to decrease deficits (primarily stemmi... |
if you stay in the air long enough will you see rotation of the earth? | No. Just being airborne doesn't change the fact that you are rotating with the earth. You'd need some other force to decelerate you.
However you can provide some of that force. If you were standing at the equator, rotating with the earth west to east at 1000 mph, and you leaped to the west at 2mph, your speed in the ... | [
"As the Earth turns around its axis, everything attached to it, including the atmosphere, turns with it (imperceptibly to our senses). An object that is moving without being dragged along with the surface rotation or atmosphere such as an object in ballistic flight or an independent air mass within the atmosphere, ... |
li5] what is a cytokine storm? | Say you have a swat team that needs to go kill a bad guy. They have signals that they use to talk to each other. Usually they are really calculated and in control when fighting bad guys. But say you go into a house expecting a basic drug raid, and it turns out there's a bunch of super powerful aliens everywhere. The al... | [
"A few days later, Storm 1 assists a Scout Team with monitoring the mothership, which has landed on the Japanese coast and appears dormant, damaged, and defenseless. Oddly, it is observed sucking in huge amounts of air and releasing carbon dioxide, implying that the ship is more than a synthetic machine, and may be... |
considering they are related to wolves. when a dog is playing fetch, what does it think it is doing? | It simulates hunting prey. That's why dogs like squeaky toys, they sound like injured animals. | [
"Wolf hunting with dogs is a method of wolf hunting which relies on the use of hunting dogs. While any dog, especially a hound used for hunting wolves may be loosely termed a \"wolfhound\", several dog breeds have been specifically bred for the purpose, some of which, such as the Irish Wolfhound, have the word in t... |
How did the apollo 11 mission protect against solar radiation? | This may not be the best answer but seeing as the only current response is the idiotic one by chubsthemagicwagon I'll give it brief overview. First of all we aren't great at it that is one of the major obstacles to going to mars. On earth we have atmosphere and earths magnetic field to protect us, in leo no atmosphere ... | [
"Without proper shielding, the crews of missions beyond low Earth orbit (LEO) might be at risk from high-energy protons emitted by solar flares and associated solar particle events (SPEs). Lawrence Townsend of the University of Tennessee and others have studied the overall most powerful solar storm ever recorded. T... |
what is bandwith? | Technically, it's the frequency width of a signal. On your radio for instance, you can tune into a radio station and still hear it slightly above and below the pinpoint frequency of the station. The full width of the signal is the bandwidth and is typically measured in Hertz.
Bandwidth has been colloquialized to mean... | [
"A bandplan or band plan is a plan for using a particular band of radio frequencies, that are a portion of the electromagnetic spectrum. Each bandplan defines the frequency range to be included, how channels are to be defined, and what will be carried on those channels. Typical definitions set forth in a bandplan a... |
how is jill stein allowed to force states to hand recount ballots? | She doesn't force the state. They just needed to raise enough money to pay for it. There's been multiple reports of faulty voting machines. As a result several computer scientists and lawyers recommended Jill Stein mount a recount. Originally the Clinton campaign and the White House weren't gonna ask for one. But at th... | [
"In Washington, a candidate may request one hand count or machine count, provided that they pay for the estimated cost of the recount up front. If a manual recount overturns the outcome of an election, the state will then refund the money to the candidate. On December 3, the Washington State Democratic Party gave a... |
before birth, do humans have a sense of direction, or is that not developed until birth? also, if all the blood rushes to our heads when we are upside down, how come this doesn't happen to a fetus when in the birthing position? | For a sense of direction I'm going to assume you mean knowing left from right, up from down, forward from backward.
This is called [relative direction] (_URL_0_ direction)
That wiki article has a section called "Cultures without relative direction" and highlights some societies which don't use this system.
This w... | [
"Humans are born with a very malleable fetal head which is not fully developed when the infant exits the womb. This soft spot on the crown of the infant allows for the head to be compressed in order to better fit through the birth canal without obstructing it. This allows for the head to develop more after birth an... |
When drug metabolites are passed into the water supply through urine, how long do they remain there? | There is certainly drugs in the fresh water downstream of sewage treatment plants. [Caffeine](_URL_0_) can be used as a marker for treated sewage, as it is not degraded in treatment plants, and is quite persistent in water. Hormones from birth control is also present, as is various benzodiazepins.
Whether this makes ... | [
"Pholcodine is slowly biotransformed in the body via oxidation and conjugation to a series of metabolites that are eliminated primarily in the urine. With an average half-life of approximately 2.3 days, steady-state in someone taking the drug chronically would not be reached for nearly 2 weeks. Nearly one-half of a... |
what are autoencoders and how do they work? | One thing NNs are good for are for finding a function that you don't already know, but have training data for. But there are other uses, too. It can also be interesting to ask it to find a function you *already* know, and then look at how it found it.
An autoencoder is a neural network that is trained to reconstruc... | [
"An \"autoencoder\" is a neural network that learns to copy its input to its output. It has an internal (\"hidden\") layer that describes a \"code\" used to represent the input, and it is constituted by two main parts: an encoder that maps the input into the code, and a decoder that maps the code to a reconstructio... |
In (early) medieval times, did people take heroic sagas and mythical tales at face value? Were people genuinely naive and believe in creatures like trolls or dragons? To what extent did stories recieve critical reception and how did they resonate with the (lower class/education) people? | Pre-industrial Europeans had a long-standing, vibrant belief system in a wide variety of supernatural entities. If by "mythic tales" you mean the stories of Greek and Roman gods - Christians of the early medieval period would have tended to see them as false gods and/or demons attempting to confuse and distract people ... | [
"The following magical and legendary creatures in French narratives of the Middle Ages have mythological roots. While many of the original myths were replaced by Christianity, these mythological creatures remained a part of the cultural folklore, legend, epics and fairy tales as part of deeply embedded spiritual al... |
Was there a age limit to watch the games in the Colosseum in rome? | This is a fascinating question that required me to do a little research.
First, remember that not all events at the Colosseum were gladiatorial combat events, or similar violence (animal hunts or naval battles, etc.). Sometimes, the events held were *sylvae,* which was a sort of large-scale terrarium piece in which ar... | [
"Another level, the \"maenianum secundum in legneis\", was added at the very top of the building during the reign of Domitian. This comprised a gallery for the common poor, slaves and women. It would have been either standing room only, or would have had very steep wooden benches. Some groups were banned altogether... |
Is there any documentation suggesting that the Allies would have prosecuted or treated Hitler, had he not committed suicide in Berlin, differently than the other Nazis at the Nuremberg trials? | To add to the question: I know that Hermann Goering made the decision to surrender to the Allied forces rather than the Soviets. Presumably Hitler would have been captured by the Soviets. Was there a significant difference in treatment of upper Nazi officials depending on who had captured them? Were all of those tried ... | [
"The film is a mockumentary which examines the possibility that Adolf Hitler did not commit suicide at the end of World War II in 1945. It centers around historian Skule Antonsen of Sweden (Jon Rekdal) who along with film director Idelfonso Elizalde of Spain (Julián Elizalde) investigates Adolf Munchenhauser (Dick ... |
Can mass be artificially generated? | Yes; in a particle accelerator you can perform processes in which the final sum of masses is different than the initial. A drastic example is a photon-photon collider where the original sum of masses is zero. | [
"Mass production is capital intensive and energy intensive, as it uses a high proportion of machinery and energy in relation to workers. It is also usually automated while total expenditure per unit of product is decreased. However, the machinery that is needed to set up a mass production line (such as robots and m... |
what exactly happens in the stock exchange scene at the end of trading places (1983) to cause the dukes to lose everything? | The Dukes have a forged report showing that the orange harvest will be poor, so they expect the price of orange juice to rise when that news becomes public. They buy all the orange juice they can get, expecting that they can immediately sell it for a profit when the price rises. Other traders notice that happening, ass... | [
"In 1982 the Royal Exchange was in disrepair – particularly the glass roof was in danger of collapse. The newly-formed London International Financial Futures Exchange (LIFFE) was the main tenant, using the courtyard for the trading floor, all done without touching the framework of the original building. Other tenan... |
why canada is the only other country to have an mlb team. | The only other country close enough to feasibly participate in the MLB would be Mexico. The problem is that Mexico is a much poorer country than the U.S., meaning that a hypothetical Mexican club wouldn't make enough money to compete. | [
"The only Canadian team in MLB-affiliated minor leagues is the Vancouver Canadians of the Northwest League (Short-Season A). There are a number of independent minor league teams, as well as semi-professional and collegiate baseball teams in Canada (see List of baseball teams in Canada). Great achievements in Canadi... |
how do we recognize songs playing that we can't consciously hear? | Your brain is recognizing the bass line from the song. At those lower frequencies, they'll be more likely to reach your brain at a distance, but you might not consciously tune in on it since you can't hear the melody, which are in higher frequency ranges. | [
"There is a lot of anecdotal evidence that reading musical notation can cause musicians to sense an auditory image of the notes they are reading which is a phenomenon called notational audiation. Present studies show that only some musicians who can read musical notation can hear an inner voice emulating the melody... |
why isn't television open and free like the internet is? | Once upon a time, television was only available 'over the air' they broadcast it from a station and you picked it up with an antenna. There was no way to charge you for receiving it, so it was entirely ad supported. However since there were only about three networks ad money wasn't really spread out that much as well... | [
"Public access television is a noncommercial form of television required by law to be offered to cable television consumers, in which members of the public are free to place their programming on the cable service. It is a subset of public, educational and government access. Most popular in the 1980s and early 1990s... |
why does heating a mirror stop it from steaming up while having a shower? | Because the "steaming up" is condensation of water vapour (water in it's gaseous state). Condensation is caused (or more specifically, vastly increased) because of changes in temperature. The water vapour cools quickly once it comes into contact with the cold surface of the mirror. Heating up the mirror diminishes this... | [
"This type of device is considered to be the \"gold standard\" when it comes to measuring the dew point of water in gaseous media. In this type of device, when gas flows across a reflective cooling surface, the eponymous chilled mirror, at the point that the surface is cold enough, the available moisture will start... |
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