Split (2)

train · 226k rows

question stringlengths 3 301	answer stringlengths 9 26.1k	context list
why aren't 1 and 0 assigned letters of the alphabet on a telephone?	Because they have or had special significance for the telephone system. Zero was used to dial the operator, and 1 was the long-distance call code. You couldn't use them at the beginning of a dial sequence as pressing 0 would ring the operator and 1 would cause it to be a long-distance number.	[ "In the most areas of North America, telephone numbers in metropolitan communities consisted of a combination of digits and letters, starting in the 1920s until the 1960s. Letters were translated to dialed digits, a mapping that was displayed directly on the telephone dial. Each of the digits 2 to 9, and sometimes ...
how do i work out the valency of a chemical formula?	Before we get started, that's Magnesium, rather than Manganese, which would be Mn. Okay, so the first thing to notice is that in this particular formula, there are several sub-parts - the Mg3Al2 part and the SiO4 parts. These are two ions which are stuck together by electrostatic attraction, and they are neutral toget...	[ "In chemistry, the empirical formula of a chemical compound is the simplest positive integer ratio of atoms present in a compound. A simple example of this concept is that the empirical formula of sulphur monoxide, or SO, would simply be SO, as is the empirical formula of disulphur dioxide, SO. This means that sulp...
why do i need noise cancellation headphones, when i can use any decent headphones and turn on the volume to avoid outside noise?	Noise cancellation do what they say, cancel outside noise. So, you don't need to raise your volume so much that it could damage your ears. Look up: Ear damage from earphones.	[ "Active noise-cancelling headphones use a microphone, amplifier, and speaker to pick up, amplify, and play ambient noise in phase-reversed form; this to some extent cancels out unwanted noise from the environment without affecting the desired sound source, which is not picked up and reversed by the microphone. They...
What is the 'corn' Caesar refers to in his Commentaries on the Gallic War?	Caesar is likely using the Latin word "frumento" or perhaps its plural, "frumenti," to refer to wheat or another grain crop. If you're reading a British translation of Caesar, they're most likely using "corn" in the British sense for a staple crop or grain crop, often wheat but not always. Using "corn" to refer to maiz...	[ "The \"De Bello Gallico\" is Caesar's account of the Gallic Wars. As the Wars were raging on, Caesar fell victim to a great deal of criticisms from Rome. \"De Bello Gallico\" is a response to these criticisms, and a way for Caesar to justify these wars. His argument is that the Gallic Wars were both just and pious,...
What benefits does resting without sleep have?	Actually, naps are incredibly beneficial. The body has a sleep cycle which goes through 3 stages (previously 4) called Non-REM Sleep + REM sleep (when you're dreaming). The first two stages are really light sleep - in fact if you're woken up from Stage 1 you're likely to think you weren't sleeping at all. If you make...	[ "Energy conservation could as well have been accomplished by resting quiescent without shutting off the organism from the environment, potentially a dangerous situation. A sedentary nonsleeping animal is more likely to survive predators, while still preserving energy. Sleep, therefore, seems to serve another purpos...
How was France able to afford an army conquer Europe during the french revolution if it was so poor?	Several reasons: 1) France wasn't necessarily poor: the French government was because it had problems generating revenue since that required them to increase taxation on the nobility, who had a large degree of immunity from taxes as part of their privileges. The Revolution did away with those privileges, and in the ...	[ "France had to fight on multiple battlefronts against the other European powers. A nationwide conscription was voted to reinforce the old royal army made of noble officers and professional soldiers. With this new kind of army, Napoleon was able to beat the European allies and dominate Europe. The revolutionary idea...
How much do we now know about the Kingdom of Zimbabwe? Is this an active area of study?	Rather than try to tell the story of Great Zimbabwe and its kingdom (or confederacy, or whatever we should consider it), I'll deal with the "active area of study" primarily. Short answer: it's small (miniscule really when compared to archaeology of the same period in, say, Europe) but active. Innocent Pikirayi a...	[ "Although the Kingdom of Zimbabwe was formally established during the medieval period, archaeological excavations in the region suggest that state formation here was considerably more ancient. In the early 11th century, people from the Kingdom of Mapungubwe in Southern Africa are believed to have settled on the Zim...
Members of the German Royal Houses who served in WWII	Wasn't "Wehrmacht", the general name of the german military under the 3rd Reich? Meaning that if the members of the royal houses were barred from joining the Wehrmacht after the 1940 law, it effectively meant they couldn't join the army (Heer), air force (Luftwaffe) and navy (Kriegsmarine)?	[ "Christoph Ernst August of Hesse (14 May 1901 – 7 October 1943) was a nephew of Kaiser Wilhelm II. He was a German SS officer and was killed on active duty in a plane crash during World War II. His brother-in-law, Prince Philip of Greece and Denmark, fought on the British side and married the future Queen Elizabeth...
Is it possible for a planet to have mountainous terrain that extends past the troposphere?	From a [related question](_URL_1_) about the tallest possible mountain three years ago by /u/cuddlebadger: > The tallest possible mountain on Earth is probably around the size of Mount Everest. The reason for this is that higher mountains cause the crust to depress/collapse under them due to sheer mass (the Grenville...	[ "Pico da Bandeira is also remarkable for being the Brazilian mountain with the greatest topographic isolation: 2,344 km (1,457 miles). This means that at less than that distance, there is no other point on the surface of the Earth at equal or greater elevation. In the Americas, only Aconcagua, Denali, Pico de Oriza...
Why do the noble gases change the way our voices sound?	Any gas that is less dense or more dense than the atmosphere will cause sound waves in your mouth to move faster or slower (respectively), making your voice higher or lower pitched (respectively). Noble gasses are just the safest to do this with because they don't (easily) react with anything else so the only danger ...	[ "As with all gases, the density of affects the resonance frequencies of the vocal tract, thus changing drastically the vocal sound qualities, or timbre, of those who inhale it. It does not affect the vibrations of the vocal folds. The density of sulfur hexafluoride is relatively high at room temperature and pressur...
why fast food outlets like mcdonalds and subway have to display nutritional information but my local burger/sandwhich place doesn't.	The law requiring calorie counts to be posted states that it only applies to restaurants with at least 20 locations. Other laws related to nutrition have their own conditions that apply specifically to chain restaurants. As a result, any restaurant that just operates in a single location is not affected by some of th...	[ "In the United States and Canada, fast food items are often available, with stores offering such food either under its owner banner or in partnership with a fast-food chain maintaining a counter in the store. Often, to save space, food is not prepared in the store. Instead these counters offer a limited menu of ite...
Idea on Black holes and origin of the Universe.	Black holes do [evaporate](_URL_0_). Additionally, while there are some sensationalized reports on other theories, there's no indication a black hole could itself contain a universe. Current, substantiated theories cannot explain the singularity in the black hole and so can make no predication about what's inside it, u...	[ "Black holes have a role in natural selection. In fecund theory a collapsing black hole causes the emergence of a new universe on the \"other side\", whose fundamental constant parameters (masses of elementary particles, Planck constant, elementary charge, and so forth) may differ slightly from those of the univers...
why some games absolutely hate being alt+tabbed out (tf2, civ v, skyrim, etc.) while other games don't seem to be bothered by it (wow, diablo 3, dishonored, etc.)	> When running in full screen mode, most of the time the game has exclusive rights to the video card and all its resources (most importantly, video memory). As soon as you alt-tab to another application, that's lost so when you come back the game is never sure what assets are still valid and what have been overwritte...	[ "Non-cosmetic modifications to a game, console, or controller are not allowed. Glitches that are triggered by interfering with the normal operation of the hardware or game media while the game is running, such as the crooked cartridge trick are not permitted. In-game glitches or exploits may be permissible, conting...
why time theoretically stops at the speed of light	what you need to understand is that "time" and "space" are not separate things. They exist in one 4 dimensional space called "spacetime" in spacetime, everything is always moving at "the speed of light" through the 4 dimensional space. Usually, this is almost fully expressed in the "time" dimension. As your speed inc...	[ "It is generally assumed that fundamental constants such as \"c\" have the same value throughout spacetime, meaning that they do not depend on location and do not vary with time. However, it has been suggested in various theories that the speed of light may have changed over time. No conclusive evidence for such ch...
Why doesn't the body break down drugs like caffeine during digestion before they reach the blood stream?	Two reasons: * the absorption rate/location of the drug * the metabolism rate/location of the drug. - I'll use caffeine as the example, per your request. Caffeine is absorbed into the blood stream from your mouth, throat, stomach, and intestines. This absorption happens rapidly as you drink a cup of coffee for examp...	[ "Many drugs that are absorbed through the GI tract are substantially metabolized by the liver before reaching general circulation. This is known as the first pass effect. As a consequence, certain drugs can only be taken via certain routes. For example, nitroglycerin cannot be swallowed because the liver would deac...
if there is a laser razor, then aren't we not that far off from laser hand held weaponry?	Lasers have a number of problems with battlefield application. For instance, there tends to be less dust and debris or other problems like fog and rain between your face and your razor (unless I guess you're a really adventurous shaver). These can provide difficulties for a beam of light that a regular old bullet can i...	[ "It is prohibited to employ laser weapons specifically designed, as their sole combat function or as one of their combat functions, to cause permanent blindness to unenhanced vision, that is to the naked eye or to the eye with corrective eyesight devices. The High Contracting Parties shall not transfer such weapons...
how does a director have any impact on the story itself, since he doesn't write the screenplay?	The writer writes the dialogues, scene setting and some actions. The director directs the actors how the actors are to deliver the dialogues, where they're to stand on the scene, where they're to look and the expressions they're to have, where they're to move in the scene and how they're going to interact with the othe...	[ "The directors normally wrote all their own material. But they were contacted by Michael Eisner of Paramount who \"said he had a script that we wouldn't be able to turn down and he was right,\" said David Zucker. \"It was too good. It was very well written with great characters. And hey we wouldn't have to leave to...
why do states have different regulations for "open" vs "concealed" carry?	Many generations ago, open carry was culturally seen as less threatening (people considered those who carried arms openly as not posing a threat, and those who carried arms secretly as up to nefarious purposes). In that era, laws and regulations were passed that favored open carry of arms. Think of most westerns wher...	[ "A no-issue jurisdiction is one that – with very limited exceptions – does not allow any private citizen to carry a concealed handgun in public. The term refers to the fact that no concealed carry permits will be issued (or recognized). Since July 2013, with the legalization of concealed carry in Illinois, there ar...
"Melting metal with magnets." What exactly is happening in this gif?	This has been asked many times since that .gif was on the front page.	[ "\"Magnet and Steel\" is a hit single written and performed by Walter Egan, released in May 1978. It was the first and greatest hit on Egan's second solo LP, \"Not Shy\". It reached number eight on the U.S. \"Billboard\" Hot 100 and number nine in Canada. It spent 22 weeks on the American charts. \n", "The steel ...
why, after so many years of living near and around plants, does hay fever still exist	Hay fever, particularly mild hay fever, doesn't have a substantial impact on the survival or odds of procreation for over the whole of the human population. Additionally, the prevalence and severity of allergies is dependent on many factors, some of which (like more severe allergies developing in people who grow up ...	[ "The time of year at which hay fever symptoms manifest themselves varies greatly depending on the types of pollen to which an allergic reaction is produced. The pollen count, in general, is highest from mid-spring to early summer. As most pollens are produced at fixed periods in the year, a long-term hay fever suff...
Let me get this straight: Is space infinite? If yes, then is there infinite matter? If no, does that mean that there is finite matter expanding into infinite space? Does that mean the size of the universe is infinite but the size of the observable is finite?	> Is space infinite? The data we have suggests that this is the case, but it's not conclusive. See [here](_URL_1_) and [here](_URL_0_) for more details. > If yes, then is there infinite matter? That is a likely consequence. > the size of the observable is finite? The observable universe is definitely finite in ...	[ "Aristotle (384–322 BC) provided the classic escape from the logical problem posed by Parmenides by distinguishing things that are \"matter\" and things that are \"space\". In this scenario, space is not \"nothing\" but, rather, a receptacle in which objects of matter can be placed. The true void (as \"nothing\") i...
why are metal slivers so much more painful than wood slivers?	Moist wood is somewhat flexible. It also isn't really very sharp. Metal is inflexible and can be made to be and stay very sharp.	[ "Wood's metal is toxic because it contains lead and cadmium, and contamination of bare skin is considered harmful. Vapour from cadmium-containing alloys is also known to pose a danger to humans. Cadmium poisoning carries the risk of cancer, anosmia (loss of sense of smell), and damage to the liver, kidneys, nerves,...
Why were the various tribes in the Philippines not drastically affected by the Bubonic Plague and Smallpox upon Magellan's (and subsequent Spanish landings) unlike many Indians, and Meso-American societies?	The answer is pretty straightforward: the Philippines were never isolated from the landmass of continental Asia, unlike the Americas. Therefore, diseases could spread from Asia to the Philippines with relative ease, from contacts with China, India and the Islamic World (as both Chinese and Islamic traders had establish...	[ "Disease killed the entire native (Guanches) population of the Canary Islands in the 16th century. Half the native population of Hispaniola in 1518 was killed by smallpox. Smallpox also ravaged Mexico in the 1520s, killing 150,000 in Tenochtitlan alone, including the emperor, and Peru in the 1530s, aiding the Europ...
Is painting on tree trunks okay for tree health?	The bark on trees isn't especially useful for gas exchange, or photosynthesis since it is dead on the outermost layers. The harm will be minimal, but only so much better than carving your name in it.	[ "The tree grows well in urban areas, and is very good for \"sidewalk holes\" along busy roads with a lot of traffic where most trees will not grow well. It can provide shade to counter the heat island effect of mainly-concrete areas, as well as habitat for urban animals such as lizards and birds.\n", "Used for in...
Hummingbird inside a car	As the car accelerates, it will move back relative to the car, but as it reaches a constant velocity it will move with the car.	[ "The device is bigger and heavier than a typical real hummingbird, but is smaller and lighter than the largest hummingbird varieties. It could be deployed to perform reconnaissance and surveillance in urban environments or on battlefields, and might perch on windowsills or power lines, or enter buildings to observe...
batteries have two poles, negative and positive. they can be explained by being a pole with excessive electrons and another one lacking electrons. but what about magnets? we have the north and the south pole? what are them? excess of something, lack of something? what?	Though the poles of a battery are sort of able to be explained by one having more electrons than the other (this is a better analogy for capacitors than it is for batteries), the poles are actually defined by the behavior of the electric field generated. Charged particles produce an electric field, which we represent...	[ "It points in the direction from South to North pole. The analogy with electric dipoles should not be taken too far because magnetic dipoles are associated with angular momentum (see Relation to angular momentum). Nevertheless, magnetic poles are very useful for magnetostatic calculations, particularly in applicati...
why humans come down with minor illnesses all the time but when a pet gets sick it's typically a more serious problem.	Typically one of the key ways that you tell a human has a minor ailment is they complain about it. Generally it is only serious medical conditions where you can walk into a room and instantly identify that a person is sick by sight alone. (source: EMT, and I walk into a lot of rooms with sick people in, and it nearly a...	[ "On pet overpopulation: it's \"a myth.\" \"Based on the number of existing households with pets who have a pet die or run away, more homes potentially become available each year for cats than the number of cats who enter shelters, while more than twice as many homes potentially become available each year for dogs t...
is it possible to improve your memory to a point where you can memorise a full page of numbers?how?	It's possible to memorize that page using various mnemonic devices such as turning them into a song, or a story, or by breaking them into manageable chunks. But it's not like your "memory is improving". You're just using a trick to convert the information into a form that your memory can handle.	[ "It is important to deduce beforehand whether the user would be able to repeat the vital information throughout time \"t\", as this has a negative impact on the working memory if they cannot. For example, if a user is reading lines of text and is presented with an important phone number in that text, they may not b...
Why is the chicxulub crater still intact?	Hello! 1. Have a solid "basement rock" floor. 2. Build a stable carbonate platform on top. 3. Smash it with a bolide. 4. Bury the resulting crater in tonnes of sediment. 5. Do this over a relatively geologically fast timeframe. 6. Do this in a passive rather than active margin. While the Chixculub crater is undoubt...	[ "The rim of Anuchin remains relatively sharply defined, although it has been subject to wear due to subsequent impacts. The satellite crater Anuchin L lies astride the southern rim, but the otherwise the outer wall is not significantly incised. The interior floor is nearly featureless, with no central peak at the m...
Interested in Military History	The Thompson wasn't usually issued to officers per se, but they could scrounge for them. Thompsons were usually issued to drivers and the crews of armored vehicles; officers carried M1 carbines or M1911 pistols. Submachine guns evidently found their way into rifle squads at an early time, before the Tables of Organ...	[ "The modern organization of the army's historical efforts dates from the creation of the General Staff historical branch in July 1943 and the subsequent gathering of a team of historians, translators, editors, and cartographers to record the official history of World War II. They began publication of the \"United S...
why do health inspectors give warnings to restaurants before inspections? wouldn't it make more sense to surprise restaurant owners?	I don't think they need to warn the restaurants. When they inspect, they typically will give them a certain amount of time in which they need to fix violations before returning.	[ "The Food and Environmental Hygiene Department only has 200 inspectors who are responsible for inspecting the restaurants. Without receiving any complaints, it is difficult to uncover unlicensed cafés located in different buildings and different district. Without licenses, a lot of safety problems may arise.\n", ...
why does the same logic not apply to music and other "pirating?"	The key difference is that Google isn't publishing copies of the books that they scan. If they were letting anyone download the full books, that would almost certainly lead to a different court decision. Google is sharing small samples of the books when they're relevant to search results, just like they do with websit...	[ "The term is derived from the Greek word , \"strophē\", meaning \"turn\". It is the simplest and most durable of musical forms, extending a piece of music by repetition of a single formal section. This may be analyzed as \"A A A...\". This additive method is the musical analogue of repeated stanzas in poetry or lyr...
how to calculate how many valence electrons there are in a element/atom	Valence electrons are defined as the electrons important for chemical bonding, not necessarily the number of electrons in certain orbitals. Periods 4, 5 and 6 have the typical families (alkali, alkaline, etc...) and the transition metals. The typical families have the typical number of valence electrons: alkali=1, al...	[ "The number of valence electrons of an element can be determined by the periodic table group (vertical column) in which the element is categorized. With the exception of groups 3–12 (the transition metals), the units digit of the group number identifies how many valence electrons are associated with a neutral atom ...
Can stars/sky in a photograph give us the location from where the photograph was taken? If so, how does it work?	Generally speaking, it's not possible to do that from just a photograph of the sky, though I might be misunderstanding the question. (Maybe link the /r/space discussion?) The issue here is that astronomical objects are really far away, so everyone on Earth is essentially seeing them from the same angle relative to each...	[ "The photographs produced were time exposures in which a satellite's track appeared as a long, usually slightly curved, line seen against a background of stars. If the camera were stationary, the tracks of the much more slowly moving stars appeared as much shorter lines, which were portions of arcs about the pole. ...
what causes comment threads in eli5 to be deleted or locked?	We delete comments that violate the rules. So rude comments directed at other redditors, or top level comments that are irrelevant to the question (jokes, etc), and that sort of thing. Threads get locked mostly because they have been adequately answered already but are attracting large numbers of comments that break th...	[ "Offending content is usually deleted. Sometimes if the topic is considered the source of the problem, it is \"locked\"; often a poster may request a topic expected to draw problems to be locked as well, although the moderators decide whether to grant it. In a \"locked thread\", members cannot post anymore. In case...
Have there ever been any groups of people whose soldiers would hold their funerals BEFORE going into battle/dying?	Didn't the Kamikase hold ceremonies prior to them taking off? I'm not sure if you'd call it a funeral, but they were very much openly acknowledging they would not be returning.	[ "The televised funeral ceremony of the soldiers who died was held in Peshawar and was attended by several high-level military and political figures, including the Chief of Army Staff. Afterwards, their bodies were dispatched to their native towns for burial. The soldiers hailed from various regions, including three...
is it really possible to hear the difference between an uncompressed .wav and 320kbit .mp3?	Many people think or like to think that they can, but they will fail in blind tests. The same kind of people who will praise cheap wine if they're seeing it poured from an expensive wine's bottle. A computer can tell the difference of course because it can mathematically discern the difference. MP3 also cuts off extra...	[ "Audio is stored on the disc in Linear PCM format, which is either uncompressed or losslessly compressed with MLP (Meridian Lossless Packing). The maximum permissible total bit rate is 9.6 Megabits per second. Channel/resolution combinations that would exceed this need to be compressed. In uncompressed modes, it is...
What would the lifespan of someone born in the past two decades be?	Here are the [actuarial tables](_URL_0_) the US Social Secuirty administration uses. A 21 year old male can expect to live to be 76, a female 81.	[ "Life expectancy is increasing as child mortality continues to decline. A baby born in 2016, for example, can on average (globally) expect to live 72 years—26 years longer than the global average of someone born in 1950. Ten million Britons (16% of the population of the United Kingdom) are expected to live to 100 o...
how is veto power fair?	If you mean in the US government, it ensures (in theory) that no one branch of the government is all-powerful. It's part of the system of checks and balances.	[ "A veto (Latin for \"I forbid\") is the power (used by an officer of the state, for example) to unilaterally stop an official action, especially the enactment of legislation. A veto can be absolute, as for instance in the United Nations Security Council, whose permanent members (China, France, Russia, the United Ki...
Where can I get a tl;dr/simple rundown of Greek mythology, specifically the gods and titans	The book you want is [Bullfinch's Mythology](_URL_0_)	[ "The Theoi Project (also known as Theoi Greek Mythology) is a digital library website about Greek mythology and its representation in classical literature and ancient Greek art. It serves as a free reference to the gods (\"theoi\"), spirits (\"daimones\"), mythological creatures (\"theres\") and heroes of ancient G...
Is Sanskrit the oldest written language? If not; what is?	No, not by far. The oldest writing systems used for Sanskrit, Brahmi and Kharoshti Script, developed in the 3rd century BC. By that time, there were a number of other writing systems around already (both scripts are actually theorized to be derived from the Phoenician Alphabet, which is as well the origin of the Latin ...	[ "The pre-Classical form of Sanskrit is known as Vedic Sanskrit. The earliest attested Sanskrit text is the Rigveda, a Hindu scripture, from the mid-to-late second millennium BCE. No written records from such an early period survive if they ever existed. However, scholars are confident that the oral transmission of ...
Did fear of Communism play a significant role in the granting of civil rights to American blacks?	Wow, it's almost like I planted this question myself, it's so right up my alley! I hope I can help! First, let's talk African American communists. In 1928, the Sixth Congress of the Communist International in Moscow passed “The Resolution to the Negro Problem.” The resolution held that African Americans in the South c...	[ "The Communist Party USA, ideologically committed to foster a socialist revolution in the United States, played a significant role in defending the civil rights of African Americans during its most influential years of the 1930s and 1940s. In that period, the African-American population was still concentrated in th...
why is it that when a bottle of coke is shaken the bottle might explode because of the gas built up ? it's not like the co2 isn't there before it was shaken.	Actually, that's exactly what it's like. The CO2 is bound up in carbonic acid inside the drink itself, and isn't in gaseous form. Shaking it actually produces CO2. So you're right - the gas actually _isn't_ there before it's shaken.	[ "The solid residue remaining from refinement of petroleum by the \"cracking\" process is also a form of coke. Petroleum coke has many uses besides being a fuel, such as the manufacture of dry cells and of electrolytic and welding electrodes.\n", "When the coke is very hot, solid pieces of metal are charged into t...
Did Nazi Germany or the Nazi Party ever acknowledge the fact that Hitler wasn't blonde haired and blue eyed?	The idea that blonde hair and blue eyes were the epitome of Aryan purity is actually a major oversimplification of Nazi propaganda. It's true that the blonde haired blue eyed type was often featured in propaganda posters (although even then, not exclusively), but it was not promoted as literally the most perfect physi...	[ "Both in his works and direct overtures to the press, Friedrich Christian gave detailed accounts of his time in the Nazi party. In 1963 for instance, he claimed that Hitler refused to shave his famous mustache because people would think he was \"sick\". He said his wife Alexandra commented to Hitler that \"his hair...
investment bankers on wall street are known for working insanely hard (100+ hour weeks). what exactly are they doing that requires them to work so long?	Trading is a very time-critical activity. Global markets never shut down completely. Every second that you are not on the job can mean a missed opportunity. Good opportunities are rare and it's hard to predict when they arise. That leads some traders to chase big wins, almost like gambling addicts. Also, some Wall-St...	[ "The New York State Comptroller's Office has said that in 2006, Wall Street executives took home bonuses totaling $23.9 billion. \"Wall Street traders were thinking of the bonus at the end of the year, not the long-term health of their firm. The whole system—from mortgage brokers to Wall Street risk managers—seemed...
How is it possible that 100,000,000 people died in the Taiping Rebellion?	Just want to point out, the [wikipedia article](_URL_0_) says: > Total dead: 20-30 million dead (best estimate)^[7] > Highest estimate: 100,000,000 The source cited for [7] is Stephen R. Platt. Autumn in the Heavenly Kingdom: China, the West, and the Epic Story of the Taiping Civil War. (New York: Knopf, 2012...	[ "The Taiping Rebellion (1850–1864) was one of the deadliest wars in history. About 20 million people died, many due to disease and famine. It followed the secession of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom from the Qing Empire. Almost every citizen of the Heavenly Kingdom was given military training and conscripted into the...
Why do certain sounds sound appealing and others don't?	Three incomplete explanations: 1. A sound can be appealing because it is associated with a pleasant experience. If you grew up near the ocean, for example, a distant foghorn might be a pleasant sound. 2. As for the quality of sound, it might be that we are born appreciating certain sounds that are associated with wel...	[ "According to Sevdaliza, \"I think my sound would mostly be described as pure and raw. I'm not necessarily drawn to a genre, but to a process, or towards a certain mood like melancholy. The interesting thing is that the music my music gets compared to is not necessarily music I've listened to, which makes it super ...
why does curling up into the fetal position help stomach/period cramps?	I believe it minimize the use of those muscles and allows them to relax, therefore hurt less.	[ "The shape of the rib cage could be altered by tightly laced corsets. Also, tightly laced corsets can irritate skin, reduce lung capacity, and weaken muscles that support the back and the chest. Some of the long-term effects that are thought to be caused by tight-corset wearing include reduced pelvis size, constipa...
chemistry bonds	In a covalent bond, the electrons are being shared by the the atoms. In an ionic bond, one atom had completely taken done electrons from the other. In this case, bbot atoms become oppisitely ccharged, and the electrical aattraction between their charges keeps them together.	[ "A chemical bond is a lasting attraction between atoms, ions or molecules that enables the formation of chemical compounds. The bond may result from the electrostatic force of attraction between oppositely charged ions as in ionic bonds or through the sharing of electrons as in covalent bonds. The strength of chemi...
Physics - Nuclear Fusion	> where do the matter destroyed by the fusion go? What destroyed matter? You start with a Deuterium atom (p + n) and a Tritium atom (p + 2n) and end with an alpha particle (2p + 2n) and a free neutron (n): two protons and three neutrons go in; two protons and three neutrons come out. > Wikipedia says that the Neutr...	[ "In nuclear chemistry, nuclear fusion is a reaction in which two or more atomic nuclei are combined to form one or more different atomic nuclei and subatomic particles (neutrons or protons). The difference in mass between the reactants and products is manifested as either the release or absorption of energy. This d...
Can insects eventually evolve into higher, more intelligent lifeforms?	Sure, why not. Why they haven't? They've got it pretty good already, survival wise. Insects are already some of the most "highly evolved" things out there, with some extremely sophisticated strategies in play. Evolution doesn't go "forward" to "more intelligent" species. Evolution goes towards what is immediately use...	[ "A study published in 2017 suggests that due to how complexity evolved in species on Earth, the level of predictability for alien evolution elsewhere would make them look similar to life on our planet. One of the study authors, Sam Levin, notes \"Like humans, we predict that they are made-up of a hierarchy of entit...
how a rubik's cube can be solved using a set pattern each and every time.	They aren't. What professional solvers have are set patterns to 'fix' particular parts of the cube, and then they fix the cube piece by piece.	[ "Like solutions of the Rubik's Cube, the solutions of Square-1 depend on the use of algorithms discovered either by trial and error, or by using computer searches. However, while solutions of Rubik's Cube rely on these algorithms more towards the end, they are heavily used throughout the course of solving the Squar...
Did Hitler ever have any plans to build a colosseum esque building?	In terms of fights to the death? No. You seem to have the idea that the Nazis wanted to make a spectacle out of the murder of the Jews. They certainly wanted to make a spectacle out of their opposition to the "Jewish conspiracy" - for example, the widely publicised boycott of Jewish-owned businesses - but the idea of h...	[ "Speer presented Hitler with a scale model of the gigantic triumphal arch planned for the rebuilding of Berlin, and Hitler's pilot, Hans Baur, gave him a model of the \"Führer plane\", a four-engined Focke-Wulf Fw 200 Condor which was to go into service later that year as Hitler's official airplane.\n", "Werner M...
why did the greece government all the sudden vote for austerity measures? didn't the people vote no? does their vote not count? how does this work?	The referendum in Greece to which Greek voters voted "no" was a symbolic gesture that Alexis Tsipras (the prime minister) thought would give him leverage in negotiations with creditors. To be blunt, it did not. Greece ultimately needs the bailout money and the EU more than they need to avoid austerity. It is rumored th...	[ "Massive demonstrations were organized throughout Greece, intended to pressure members of parliament into voting against the package. The second set of austerity measures was approved on 29 June 2011, with 155 out of 300 members of parliament voting in favor. However, one United Nations official warned that the sec...
why is the kkk still allowed to exist?	Freedom of speech prevents the government from discriminating against people who hold different - even objectionable - beliefs. Threats are where the line is drawn. People are free to hate other people as long as they do not threaten.	[ "The modern KKK is not one organization; rather it is composed of small independent chapters across the United States. According to a 1999 ADL report, the KKK's estimated size then was \"No more than a few thousand, organized into slightly more than 100 units\". In 2017, the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), whic...
Gavrilo Princep lived untill 1917, did he ever voice his opinion on the war?	Gavrilo Princip wrote a poem in his prison cell. There is a [link in Serbian](_URL_1_). Below is my impromptu translation of the poem Sarajevo 1914 Slowly the time is dragging And there is nothing new Today is same as yesterday Tomorrow will be too. And instead in war While battle trumpets are crying Here...	[ "In 1916, Petrescu was drafted and sent to the battlefields of then raging World War I, where he was wounded and taken prisoner by the Austro-Hungarians. Freed in 1918, he depicted his war experiences in his 1930 novel \"Ultima noapte de dragoste, întâia noapte de război\" (\"The Last Night of Love, the First Night...
why do companies still put the "as seen on tv" log on their merchandise? doesn't the logo represent "cheap" in american culture?	Not to that product's target demographic. That demographic thinks, "Hey, that is that awesome vegetable peeler I saw on TV! It worked great; I should buy it!"	[ "Brand names and logos are regularly blurred or covered with tape or a \"MythBusters\" sticker. Brand names are shown when integral to a myth, such as in the Diet Coke and Mentos experiment or Pop Rocks in the very first pilot episode of \"MythBusters\".\n", "Television programs made in Canada for the Canadian ma...
why is menthol "cold"?	The people saying it's because of evaporative cooling are wrong. Menthol's boiling point is 212 Celsius, much warmer than your body. Menthol isn't really cold, it just tricks your body into thinking it is. There's a type of nerve cell that responds to things like temperature, pressure, pH, etc. Some of these cell...	[ "Menthol is an organic compound made synthetically or obtained from the oils of corn mint, peppermint, or other mints. It is a waxy, crystalline substance, clear or white in color, which is solid at room temperature and melts slightly above.\n", "Menthone is a monoterpene with a minty flavor that occurs naturally...
where do our eyes focus when sleeping?	Your eye focus is determined by the activity of the [ciliary muscle](_URL_0_). When it contracts, this warps your lens and makes it longer than it is wide, and you can see things up close. When it relaxes, the lens warps and becomes thinner, and you can see things at a distance. Just like all the other muscles in you...	[ "Nocturnal Lagophthalmos (where one’s eyelids don’t close enough to cover the eye completely during sleep) may be an exacerbating factor, in which case using surgical tape to keep the eye closed at night can help.\n", "When a tapetum lucidum is present, its location on the eyeball varies with the placement of the...
How common was filming from aircrafts during WWII?	it was not extremely common but not usual for some planes to have a [gun camera](_URL_0_). The camera is triggered to start recording when the pilot pulls the trigger and fires planes guns and stays recording for a short period of time. This footage is used to review the missions and to help train new pilots and or hel...	[ "The book \"BBC VFX\" (Mat Irvine and Mike Tucker) states that few First World War aircraft were still airworthy at the time of production so the majority of flying shots were achieved with 1/6 scale radio-controlled models under the guidance of long-time model aircraft expert David Boddington alongside Derek Piggo...
why don't laptops use simcards?	The simcard doesn't work by itself, it requires a cellular radio chip and an antenna. These add significant cost to the product. Since most laptop users don't want it, it's not worth building in. A good option instead is to use your mobile phone, either as a mobile hotspot or (using less power) tethered to your USB ...	[ "Such devices became especially popular for use with laptop computers due to the added portability they bestow. Consequently, some computer manufacturers started to embed the mobile data function directly into the laptop so a dongle or MiFi wasn't needed. Instead, the SIM card could be inserted directly into the de...
We found several more SARS related coronaviruses in bats. Could we create vaccines for them now using these strains that would be effective if they ever transferred to humans?	Making a vaccine against a virus that hasn’t actually infected any people isn’t realistic or practical. The last and most important phase in testing a vaccine is to give it to a lot of people, to see if it prevents them from catching the disease the vaccine is supposed to protect against. You can’t do this if there’s...	[ "ABLV is one of four zoonotic viruses discovered in pteropid bats since 1994, the others being Hendra virus, Nipah virus, and Menangle virus. Of these, ABLV is the only virus known to be transmissible to humans directly from bats without an intermediate host.\n", "Some orthopoxviruses, including the monkeypox, co...
How many plants would I need to have in a sealed room with me to never run out of oxygen?	tl:dr - answer: 17.5 trees - madmaxola One of the things you have to be concerned about is that the room itself, depending on its material, will absorb a large amount of potential oxygen unless the surfaces have been cured. I know I've seen some research done on this... [I found this on Yahoo Answers](_URL_1_) w...	[ "Plants grown using aeroponics spend 99.98% of their time in air and 0.02% in direct contact with hydro-atomized nutrient solution. The time spent without water allows the roots to capture oxygen more efficiently. Furthermore, the hydro-atomized mist also significantly contributes to the effective oxygenation of th...
why do we drive on a side of the car? wouldn't it make more sense to drive from the center?	Early cars did this. It wasn't until later that it was shifted to the side. Ultimately it was moved to the side, with early inconsistency. The logic was probably greatly influenced by increased passenger comfort/space, but was argued as either aiding you in avoiding oncoming traffic, or aiding you in not falling int...	[ "Cars drive on the left hand side of the road, but nearly all the automobiles on the island have left side steering columns. This has proven difficult for new residents and visitors from right-hand traffic locales such as the mainland United States, the French and Dutch West Indies, the Dominican Republic, and Puer...
How common were prison escapes in the middle ages? What are some notable escapes and attempts?	Duke Kestutis, pagan Duke of Trakai, brother and close ally to Grand Duke Algirdas of Lithuania escaped from Marienburg, where he was held by the Teutonic Order 1361. Being an important nobleman and someone the Teutonic Order hoped to convert to christianity, Kestutis was kept in relative comfort and not in cell far d...	[ "The first prison escape (from behind the walls) occurred on January 19, 1914. Three inmates stole a gun and killed three prison employees and retired federal judge John Robert Thomas during the escape attempt. The convicts were later killed behind a rock ledge located on a ridge overlooking a wagon road.\n", "By...
why don't civilian police stop truckers?	I'm Californian so my answer may be different than the reality in your state: In California, local police officers can pull over any vehicle that is breaking the law. Truckers, however, are rarely pulled over by local police for two reasons: 1) Truckers usually are on the highways which local police rarely get onto b...	[ "Truckers argue for the need for idling to keep their cabins comfortable overnight at truck stops. Further complaints have come from the lack of concurrence among state and local idling laws. This disparity in laws requires truckers travelling across the country to be aware of the local idling laws in every place t...
Stone age Europeans reaching the Americas?	There's always room for discussion, but perhaps these previous topics found through the search function will answer your inquiry. * [Who are the Solutreans and did they migrate to America?](_URL_1_) by /u/Reedstilt * [ What evidence is there that Caucasians inhabited the New World, prior to the arrival of Columbus an...	[ "In 1502, on another coast of present-day Colombia, near the Gulf of Urabá, Spanish explorers led by Vasco Núñez de Balboa explored and conquered the area near the Atrato River. There they founded Santa María la Antigua del Darién (c. 1509) and the now-vanished town of San Sebastian de Urabá (c. 1508-1510), the fir...
Do anthropologists agree with Steven Pinker that the average rates of violence in hunter/gatherer societies are higher than peak rates in World War 2?	Here's an article about an anthropologist that went to study an uncontacted tribe in Venezuela in 1964: _URL_0_ > Chagnon’s observations led him into dangerous intellectual areas. From his initial contacts with the Yanomamo, he’d noticed how prevalent violence was in their culture. He determined that as many as 3...	[ "Anthropologist Rahul Oka has suggested that the apparent reduction in violence is just a scaling issue. Wars can be expected to kill larger percentages of smaller populations. As the population grows, fewer warriors are needed, proportionally.\n", "Organized, large-scale, militaristic, or regular human-on-human ...
the possibility of a world war 3	It's doubtful that a war between super powers would happen. Mainly because of the sheer destruction super power countries are capable of. Way too much damage would be inflicted by each side to make it worth it. Nuclear weapons really have changed the world more than people realize. The risk of entire cities being level...	[ "With the advent of the Cold War in 1945 and with the spread of nuclear weapons technology to the Soviet Union, the possibility of a third global conflict became more plausible. During the Cold War years, the possibility of a Third World War was anticipated and planned for by military and civil authorities in many ...
how can freezing have a "burning" effect?	From a feeling point of view, they both set off nerves and can be intense enough to not be able to tell the difference. From a damage point of view they both damage cells and can cause similar looking injuries even though the cause is different. Under a microscope burnt and frozen cells look different but at the s...	[ "Freezing is almost always an exothermic process, meaning that as liquid changes into solid, heat and pressure are released. This is often seen as counter-intuitive, since the temperature of the material does not rise during freezing, except if the liquid were supercooled. But this can be understood since heat must...
How much would you have to compress a single atom for it to turn into a black hole?	If you're using a hydrogen atom (i.e., a proton), the Schwarzschild Radius is [2.5 x 10^-54 meters](_URL_0_). A black hole's event horizon is 3 kilometers per solar mass.	[ "Imagine specifically trying to violate the censorship conjecture. This could be done by somehow imparting an angular momentum upon the black hole, making it exceed the critical value (assume it starts infinitesimally below it). This could be done by sending a particle of angular momentum formula_9. Because this pa...
If chewing is the first step in digestion, would you get more energy from a food if you swallowed it before chewing it?	The purpose behind chewing our food is to reduce its size and introduce some initial enzymes (in our spit) that start the digestive process going. If the food isn't chewed enough, the lumps of food are larger and the surface area is smaller, which makes digestion of the food more difficult. That would mean that you'd b...	[ "In most vertebrates, digestion is a four-stage process involving the main structures of the digestive tract, starting with ingestion, placing food into the mouth, and concluding with the excretion of undigested material through the anus. From the mouth, the food moves to the stomach, where as bolus it is broken do...
how autotune works	Well this is really hard to explain like you're five years old because of the advanced nature of the science and technology involved. I should first say that I don't really KNOW this for sure, I'm not as familiar with the technology but I do work in sound design so I still have a little background and knowledge and th...	[ "HearFones is a patented instrument that enables a person speaking or singing to hear the actual sound of the voice they are producing. HearFones fit over the head and redirect sound binaurally from the mouth to the ears using ellipsoidal reflectors, one focus of which is at the user's mouth and the other focus at ...
Does the sun's parent star have a name?	I'm only a major in astrophysics, so I don't yet have super advanced knowledge, but it's my understanding that only a portion of the cloud formed our solar system, meaning there are other bodies from the same cloud. It does not still exist, though it is entirely possible that a star created from it made another cloud a...	[ "The primary star of the system (catalogued as Gliese 777A) is a yellow subgiant, a Sun-like star that is ceasing fusing hydrogen in its core. The star is much older than the Sun, about 6.7 billion years old. It is 4% less massive than the Sun. It is also rather metal-rich, having about 70% more \"metals\" (element...
Byzantine Army in the 15th Century	One of the only good books on this subject is Mark C. Bartusis 'The Late Byzantine Army: Arms and Society, 1204-1453'. Even though the 15th century is more recent to us compared to the rest of Byzantine history, evidence of what their armies were actually like during this period is fairly fragmentary. However, from w...	[ "The Middle Byzantine army (641–1081 AD) was the army of the Byzantine state in its classical form (i.e. after the permanent loss of its Near Eastern and North African territories to the Arab conquests after 641 AD). This army was largely composed of semi-professional troops (soldier-farmers) based on the themata m...
What kind of interactions happened between the underground hip-hop and punk scenes in 1970s NYC?	Just commenting to say I'm super interested in this question! I was pretty involved with the DIY punk and hardcore scene in my early 20s and I often thought that there were a lot of similarities between punk and hip-hop. Would love to explore this!	[ "The New York City punk rock scene arose from a subcultural underground promoted by artists, reporters, musicians and a wide variety of non-mainstream enthusiasts. The Velvet Underground's harsh and experimental yet often melodic sound in the mid to late-1960s, much of it relating to transgressive media work by vis...
Was there a concept of racial supremacy before the 1500s?	Yes, very much so. We can see the beginning of a proto-racist culture (as opposed to jingoism say between Sparta and Athens) in classical antiquity. The idea of superior and inferior peoples is explored especially well by [this book](_URL_0_) by Benjamin Isaac. Check the first chapter out, most of it is available ther...	[ "The systems of hierarchies posited by Quijano are systems based on racial classification and difference. Quijano writes that the creation of race was a calculated creation by European and American colonialists. In this racial structure inferiority and superiority was ascribed based on phenotypes and skin colors, w...
why don't the swiss speak a single language?	They are remnants of the many, many independent states in that region of Europe in the middle ages, that were able to maintain their independence in the age of state-building because alpine warfare is no joke.	[ "The second most commonly spoken language in Switzerland is French which is also a gendered language. The French language raises similar concerns to that of the German language. This is because many nouns (especially those of professions) are gendered. To address these concerns, the Swiss government has created a g...
why can bodies last 8+ hours without peeing during the night, but that would be a huge challenge during the day?	It's not a huge challange when you're busy. I don't know how exactly, but human body can tell when it's not the right time to go to the restroom. During work, for example, or during sleep. I have no urge to pee when I work 12 hour shifts, so it's possible when you're busy enough.	[ "In healthy humans (and many other animals) the process of urination is under voluntary control. In infants, some elderly individuals, and those with neurological injury, urination may occur as a reflex. It is normal for adult humans to urinate up to seven times during the day.\n", "After urination, the female ur...
Can astronomers see further back in time than Hubble eXtreme Deep Field?	Yes. We can see back to the cosmic microwave background. That's about 380.000 years after the beginning of the big bang. There's an argument that you could look back even further by looking at the neutrinos from the early universe, but that's far beyond our technology	[ "A unique window on the Universe enabled by Hubble are the Hubble Deep Field, Hubble Ultra-Deep Field, and Hubble Extreme Deep Field images, which used Hubble's unmatched sensitivity at visible wavelengths to create images of small patches of sky that are the deepest ever obtained at optical wavelengths. The images...
What is the considered the most accurate drawing of Achilles' shield?	There can be no question of accuracy, because it's a purely fictional object. That said, the description of the shield in the Iliad does adapt various late artistic motifs that started to come in ca. 700 BC or a bit later, so it's possible to at least visualize bits of it. It has a lot in common with the shield in the ...	[ "The shield of Achilles is described by Homer in a famous example of ekphrastic poetry, used to depict events that have occurred in the past and events that will occur in the future. The shield contains images representative of the Cosmos and the inevitable fate of the city of Troy. The shield of Achilles features ...
how does a quartz clock work? what the heck does a crystal have to do with keeping time? thanks in advance.	[Here you go](_URL_0_)	[ "The quartz crystal that serves as the timekeeping element in modern quartz clocks and watches is in the form of a tiny tuning fork. It usually vibrates at a frequency of 32,768 Hz in the ultrasonic range (above the range of human hearing). It is made to vibrate by small oscillating voltages applied to metal electr...
when, where and why did the no-vax movement appear?	In 1998 a British Doctor, Andrew Wakefield, published a medical paper linking the MMR vaccine to Autism. He did so because he wanted to make money selling the individual vaccines. This was eventually found out and all the "research" he did was discredited but unfortunately it was out there and so the information spread...	[ "The name \"VAX\" originated as an acronym for \"virtual address extension\", both because the VAX was seen as a 32-bit extension of the older 16-bit PDP-11 and because it was (after Prime Computer) an early adopter of virtual memory to manage this larger address space.\n", "The goal of the CIX was to be an indep...
what is an analog computer (like the antikythera mechanism), and how does it work?	Analog computers perform some (usually specialised) mathematical operations using wheels, cogs, levers, or slides. Some examples, in addition to the antikythera: [The Slide Rule](_URL_2_), used for finding approximations for certain mathematical operations; [The Curta Calculator](_URL_1_), capable of performing addit...	[ "Analog computers often have a complicated framework, but they have, at their core, a set of key components which perform the calculations, which the operator manipulates through the computer's framework.\n", "An analog computer or analogue computer is a type of computer that uses the continuously changeable aspe...
What are the advantages of being "cold-blooded"?	It is far less energy-use intensive. the animal's metabolism is substantially more economical because they don't have to continually burn energy just to maintain homeostasis. If these animals exist in a region where temperatures stay at a fairly constant range, they don't have to waste energy maintaining that range the...	[ "Further studies on animals that were traditionally assumed to be cold-blooded have shown that most creatures incorporate different variations of the three terms defined above, along with their counterparts (ectothermy, poikilothermy, and bradymetabolism), thus creating a broad spectrum of body temperature types. S...
my 10 year old nephew wants to know, where does sound go? does it just disappear?	It eventually dissipates into the environment as a tiny amount of heat.	[ "Upon arriving, the Smalls find that Mr. Pluto has already arranged their furniture for them. Thomas meets a boy (Mac Darrow) and his adopted sister (\"Pesty\"), who regard him as an outsider and don't warn him about the drop into a hidden passage under the house. Thomas gets lost inside it and hears strange sounds...
Was Nebuchadnezzar psychologically confused/schizophrenic?	To my knowledge, the only source for this legend of Nebuchadnezzar as having a mental illness is the Bible, specifically [the book of Daniel, Chapter 5.](_URL_0_) I am not sure what modern historians think about using the Bible as a historical document, but I know I wouldn't use it to support claims made about a charac...	[ "Kurzweil saw a writer's response to the \"void\" of modern existence as his most fundamental characteristic. He believed S.Y. Agnon and Uri Zvi Grinberg were the greatest modern Hebrew writers. A confrontational polemicist, Kurzweil famously wrote against Ahad Haam and Gershom Scholem, who he saw as attempting to ...
What did the Han Dynasty know about Rome and Vice Versa?	Asking questions again is fine. Mentioning previous answers is not intended to discourage discussion. Further questions, data, or debate are welcome. Especially here, where the FAQ is more general, talking about diffusion along the Silk Road as well as direct knowledge. There's an FAQ section at _URL_0_ . In the a...	[ "The Han dynasty is considered to be one of the first great eras in Chinese history, as it made China the major regional power in East Asia and projected much of its influence on its neighbours while rivalling the Roman Empire in population size and geographical reach. The Han dynasty's prestige and prominence infl...
what is sensory overload?	Too much stuff for your senses to keep track of happening at once - a lot of stimulus can become disorienting.	[ "Sensory overload occurs when one or more of the body's senses experiences over-stimulation from the environment. There are many environmental elements that affect an individual. Examples of these elements are urbanization, crowding, noise, mass media, technology, and the explosive growth of information.\n", "Sen...
when you stop the flow of water at the end of the hose does it keep increasing in pressure or equal out?	If you stopped the flow of water but the pressure kept increasing, some failure point would eventually give and burst. Given every time you shut off the water at a hose/sink/faucet there isn't some leak/burst, the pressure must hit a maximum and then equalize.	[ "When water is supplied to the hose, it flows through the nozzle body to the opening, where it would normally flow straight forward in a stream. Just after leaving the opening it encounters the plug, which deflects the water sideways through an angle. After travelling a short distance the water encounters the outsi...
When did it become common for civilizations to assist others after catastrophic events?	It has ancient antecedents. A particularly famous example occurred in 226 BC, when the city of Rhodes was struck by a tremendous earthquake which wrecked havoc in the city and toppled the famous Colossus of Rhodes. The historian Polybius provides a list of the kings and potentates who offered aid to the (independent)...	[ "Polman's book \"War Games: The Story of Aid and War in Modern Times\" argued that humanitarian aid intervention often ended up fueling wars and making them worse. Her book cited the example of the Rwandan genocide, where humanitarian groups facilitated the flow of aid to Hutu militia who were involved with the kil...
why do they put punch holes in the side of kraft mac & cheese boxes?	The hole isn't for a spout, it's so you can more easily open the box. Insert thumb, then rip open top of box. _URL_0_	[ "Until recent years, Grape-Nuts packaging set it apart from other cereals, in that no sealed film bag was used. It was sold in the usual \"tombstone\" cardboard box; rather than featuring lightly glued flaps at the top which could be separated to open the top face completely, perforations could be broken to form a ...
why do some police units, like the "gang unit" i saw last night at a concert dress in casual clothes other than their vests?	Probably because they're undercover. Here in the UK that happens at concerts and shopping stores - they're more likely to catch people selling and using drugs if they aren't wearing a uniform.	[ "FITs were first formed in the early 1990s, as part of the Public Order Intelligence Unit (CO11), a section of the Public Order Branch of the Metropolitan Police. They initially targeted football fans, hunt saboteurs and political protesters (since at least 1996), using cameras, camcorders and audio recorders to co...
what does it mean when mathematicians "find" a big number, like graham's number?	It means they have proved that a particular number has some property. For example, it's no secret that the following number exists... 6353526374303929879127012501290127402919200192601923419028340912401927492180129801297012912012912261202912061 We don't need to go hunting for it. It's right there. However, is it prim...	[ "His 1977 paper considered a problem in Ramsey theory, and gave a large number as an upper bound for its solution. This number has since become well known as the largest number ever used in a mathematical proof (was listed as such in the \"Guinness Book of Records\"), and is now known as Graham's number, although i...
the difference between art deco and art nouveau.	They're related, and fairly similar, as art movements of the early 20th century and to a certain extent the difference is more gradual than anything else, but on the whole art nouveau is more on the decorative, ornamental side of things, where as art deco worked with cleaner, more stylized forms. That being said, I ten...	[ "Art Deco was not a single style, but a collection of different and sometimes contradictory styles. In architecture, Art Deco was the successor to and reaction against Art Nouveau, a style which flourished in Europe between 1895 and 1900, and also gradually replaced the Beaux-Arts and neoclassical that were predomi...
what happens to current debt during times of great inflation?	The value of that debt goes down. That's why lenders factor inflation risk into their risk premium.	[ "In the theory of debt-deflation, a key cause of economic crises is a high level of debt, and a key cause of recovery from crises is when this debt level has decreased. Other than repayment (paying down debt) and default (not paying it), a key mechanism of debt reduction is inflation – because debts are general in ...
Why does sublimation occur in some substances instead of melting?	The explanation is that solids can be in equilibrium with a gas just like liquids. In other words, atoms can (and do!) fly away from solid into a vapor and vice verse all the time. The atoms coming off from the solid create a finite [vapor pressure](_URL_0_) that depends on the specific material and its state. In some ...	[ "Sublimation is caused by the absorption of heat which provides enough energy for some molecules to overcome the attractive forces of their neighbors and escape into the vapor phase. Since the process requires additional energy, it is an endothermic change. The enthalpy of sublimation (also called heat of sublimati...
Are dental x-rays more dangerous than they're letting on? (Or Why is it that my vitals and reproductive organs need protection and my brain does not?)	> It makes me wonder if either the safety precautions are not really necessary or if they just decide that there's no good way to protect your brain when you need to x-ray teeth, so they just chalk it up to collateral damage. Both. There's no real way to shield your brain while passing xrays through your jaw, but t...	[ "BULLET::::- Dental Implants are a risk factor for developing ORN. Irradiated tissues are subjected to cellular and tissue damage. This creates an unfavourable host condition for implant placement, therefore implants are contraindicated in areas which have had radiation therapy.\n", "The dosage of X-ray radiation...
Why do humans see in the "visible" spectrum of light? Why not a higher, lower, larger or smaller spectrum?	You can see [here](_URL_0_[1].png) the peak optical intensity of sunlight occurs at ~400-700nm so if you are going to evolve to see really well during the day this is the range you want to be working with. Longer wave IR is hard to detect without the sensing organ being very sensitive to low energy photons, which in ...	[ "The human visual system is generally believed to be sensitive to visible light in the range of wavelengths between 370 and 730 nanometers (0.00000037 to 0.00000073 meters) of the electromagnetic spectrum. However, some research suggests that humans can perceive light in wavelengths down to 340 nanometers (UV-A), e...
what are the steps taken to ensure that mold doesn't grow in a bathroom?	It can depend a lot on your climate, and how often the bathroom is cleaned. If you clean it often, or had very good grout put in to start with, then that makes it harder for mould to grow. Ventilation is also a factor, if you have an extractor fan or leave a skylight open a bit (we do where I live), then that gets the...	[ "The first step in solving an indoor mold problem is to remove the moisture source; new mold will begin to grow on moist, porous surfaces within 24 to 48 hours. There are a number of ways to prevent mold growth. Some cleaning companies specialize in fabric restoration, removing mold (and mold spores) from clothing ...

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