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how do some very healthy people have such adverse physical reactions to cigarette smoke, while unhealthy people smoke all the time and don't have the same reactions?	Perhaps it is the same reason non-celiac gluten-intolerant have adverse reactions to wheat after eating it their whole lives.	[ "Like other physically addictive drugs, nicotine addiction causes a down-regulation of the production of dopamine and other stimulatory neurotransmitters as the brain attempts to compensate for the artificial stimulation caused by smoking. Therefore, when people stop smoking, depressive symptoms such as suicidal te...
Will successive plastic surgeries across generations make future generations more beautiful ?	Nope. These changes do not affect the persons genotype, and are not heritable. A plastic surgery patient's child will still get their ugly genes. The scenario you're asking about is called Lamarckian inheritance, and it was disproved a long time ago. For example, if your dad has a scar he got when he was young, do you ...	[ "The history of cosmetic surgery can be linked back to that of plastic surgery, as the debate persists, around the blurred lines of the two. Plastic surgery originated in 600 BC when Hindu surgeons performed rhinoplasty with the use of segments of cheek tissue.\n", "The American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS)...
Why do chewing gums that have their main ingredient as sugar/corn syrup still include Aspartame in their recipe?	Here's a quotation from Wrigley on the subject: The Wrigley Company utilises the high intensity sweetener, Aspartame, in a number of its products - as the primary sweetener in some of our sugarfree brands and as a flavour enhancer in some of our sugar-sweetened brands. As an ingredient, Aspartame has the added benefi...	[ "The sugar-free chewing gum, introduced in 2003, was made in the United States. Flavours include peppermint, cinnamon, spearmint, wintergreen and two sour flavours, cherry and apple. The gum has not been seen in stock in US stores since January 2010 and has been discontinued.\n", "The actual flavorings used in Do...
why does cleaning or organizing make a person feel better if they're upset?	It's about control. Most of what upsets us makes us feel that way because we have no control over it... or at least we feel like we have no control over it. So we take control of something else instead. Some people run or workout, some people clean and organize, some people write diaries. These are all acts that mak...	[ "During an interview, Aslett states that \"This is not a cleaning museum, it's the museum of clean.\" He believes that not being clean leads to depression, while removing clutter from ones' life means letting go of junk and a lifestyle of excess. He says, \"nothing will change your life faster than when you throw a...
How are precious stones like diamonds and sapphires lab grown?	Saphire is typically made directly from molten Alumina, from which one can grow large crystals in a variety of ways, The saphires are given their color by adding small amounts of transition metal salts to the melt. Most synthetic diamonds are made via the High pressure, high temperature process. In this process a smal...	[ "The gems are synthesized in a furnace. It uses an US $85,000 heat resistant iridium crucible heated by surrounding electric coils. Temperatures range from . A crystal-producing mix is put into this furnace and melted. Then a slowly-spinning rod, the \"seed\", is lowered into the crucible, circulating the molten mi...
if the pigment of a plant is a color other than green, then is a different spectrum of light required for it to grow correctly?	Plants are green mainly because chlorophyll reflects more green light than red or blue. The plant is absorbing red and blue light and turning it into energy, whereas they're reflecting relatively more green light, which is why our eye see it as green. If a plant were another color, say purple, it would be reflecting re...	[ "Plants absorb light primarily using the pigment chlorophyll. The green part of the light spectrum is not absorbed but is reflected which is the reason that most plants have a green color. Besides chlorophyll, plants also use pigments such as carotenes and xanthophylls. Algae also use chlorophyll, but various other...
how can car dealerships claim to sell something below cost? wouldn't that be false advertising?	Not if they're actually selling it below cost. Taking a small hit on a car which just won't sell is often better than letting it sit around and take up inventory space forever.	[ "BULLET::::- Car dealerships and auto-brokers have also been known to use various forms of bait and switch or similar tactics. Including, advertising vehicles online at what seems like a bargain price, only for the customer to discover that the specific vehicle is no longer available, as well as adding on a plethor...
Has the idea of a united Caribbean (as a country) existed?	(1/2) Well, the answer to this question - at least from the perspective of the context with which I'm most familiar, which is the British Caribbean - is a little complex and involves getting into a lot of regional political history, so brace yourself for a long answer! It's also a little late here, so please excuse an...	[ "A formal association existed under the Associated Statehood Act 1967 between the United Kingdom and the six West Indies Associated States. These were former British colonies in the Caribbean: Antigua (1967–1981), Dominica (1967–1978), Grenada (1967–1974), Saint Christopher-Nevis-Anguilla (1967–1983), Saint Lucia (...
When do horses first appear in written records?	It's close; beginning of the 4th millennium steppes for the domestication of the horse (spread over large areas during the 3rd millennium) with the invention of writing in the Near East in the later 4th millennium, with established practice over large areas of the region by the middle of the 3rd. The issue here is not ...	[ "Evidence for the earlier horses was uncovered in the 1960s by local historians K. A. Carrdus and G. W. Miller using a combination of aerial and other photographs, historical research, fieldwork and soil resistivity surveys; some of their findings were published as \"The Red Horse of Tysoe\" in 1965. In particular,...
Were medieval soldiers given uniforms?	I'd also be interested to know if they were given uniforms, and what role family or place of origin played in how they dressed for the battlefield? Which was more important?	[ "The tunic continued to be the basic garment of the Byzantine Romans of both sexes throughout the medieval period. The upper classes wore other garments atop the basic tunic, such as the \"dalmatica\", a heavier and shorter type of tunic, again, worn by both sexes, or the \"scaramangion\", a riding-coat of Persian ...
why does the left-wing of us politics tend to still be very right-wing and conservative in comparison to european political parties (including the uk even tho it's not a part of the eu)	Communism. No, seriously. Remember that Communism started in Europe. Marx and Engels were European. They wrote for a European audience. Communism took root very strongly in Europe, much more strongly than it ever did in the United States. In Russia, it led to a revolution. In the rest of Europe, governments pulled fa...	[ "It is quite difficult to define it in the left-right spectrum because it is variously conservative, centrist and left-wing with regard to different issues. For example, the party supports both liberal ideas such as deregulation and social democratic positions such as the defense of workers' wages and pensions. Thi...
Can an 'anti-star' exist?	Can it exist? Yes, nothing about antimatter expressly forbids it from forming into a star. However, there is no evidence that one does exist in our universe and the prevalence of matter makes it highly unlikely that it would be concentrated enough to form into a star let alone survive as one for any length of time.	[ "Evil Star was mentioned, seemingly in passing, by Sister Sercy of the Blue Lantern Corps as a menace to her homeworld. It is unknown if the Evil Star she refers to is a past version, or a previously unheard-of version of the villain.\n", "Evil Star is an alien villain who can manipulate red energy with his Starb...
Do galaxies spin like a vortex?	Since most of the visible matter in a galaxy is concentrated in the center, we would expect it to rotate like a vortex, with the velocity decreasing with radial distance. However, observations show that the variation of velocity with radial distance is fairly flat. In [this](_URL_0_) picture representative of a typical...	[ "Density wave theory is the preferred explanation for the well-defined structure of grand design spirals. According to this theory, the spiral arms are created inside density waves that turn around the galaxy at different speeds from the stars in the galaxy's disk. Stars and gas are clumped in these dense regions d...
how do stds spread so easily to younger generations?	Where is your cut-off for younger people? Anyone under 20? What if one of them has sex with a 21 year old? Anyone under 30? What if one of them has sex with a 31 year old? The problem with your question is that the population doesn't fall into nice discreet age groups. My ex-wife is 4 years older than me, and my ex-gi...	[ "Sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) remain a major public health challenge in the United States. CDC estimates that there are approximately 19 million new STD infections yearly. The two most commonly reported infectious diseases with 1.5 million total cases (2009) are chlamydia and gonorrhea. Adolescent girls (15...
Why didn't jews and others affected by ww2 escape away from Europe, before nazis even invaded their countries or before the war started?	The first part of the answer is that many did. A huge proportion of the pre-Nazi German-Jewish population emigrated before the war. I assume you're asking why they didn't all, though. For the most part, they didn't have much of anywhere to go. Palestine had British-imposed immigration quotas (a huge number of Germa...	[ "In response to Nazi determination and concerted action to remove Jews from Europe—by any means necessary—the non-Axis world closed many possibilities for emigration to other countries. For example, legal immigration to safety in Palestine—an area that had been assigned by the League of Nations as a Jewish Homeland...
How do we define what culture ancients belonged to?	I'm not an ethnic historian by any means, but working with questions of identification in the ancient world I hope I can share a thing or two that might be useful, as well as try to streamline my thoughts on the matter a bit. This is a very virulent matter in my line of work, and here the problem is compounded by the f...	[ "BULLET::::- Cultural divisions: cultural identifiers are tools of the modern scientist, and so should not be considered similar to divisions or any social relationships the ancient residents may have recognized. Modern cultures in this region, many of whom claim some of these ancient people as ancestors, display a...
Mohammed's view on Greek philosophy	Perhaps the show was referencing Muhammad Al-Ghazali? Not the 20th century scholar but the medieval theologian known more commonly by his kunya Abu Hamid al-Ghazali. There are not quotes from the Prophet Muhammad about Greek philosophy. The controversies about Greek philosophy arose centuries after his death. Further...	[ "Persian and Arabic scholars were heavily involved in translating, analyzing and synthesizing Greek texts and concepts. As the Muslim world expanded, Greek concepts were integrated with religious thought and over time, new ideas and concepts were developed. Arab texts from this period contain discussions of melanch...
when we say a food makes our body more alkaline, what does that mean exactly and why is it healthy?	It's pseudo-science. Your body very tightly regulates the pH of your blood in a narrow range through a variety of mechanisms. Your diet has little effect on your blood pH. Even if it did, the promoters of this fad diet make claims like lemons make your body more alkaline, despite being a very acidic fruit.	[ "Alkaline diet (also known as the alkaline ash diet, alkaline acid diet, acid ash diet, and acid alkaline diet) describes a group of loosely related diets based on the misconception that different types of food can have an effect on the pH balance of the body. It originated from the acid ash hypothesis, which prima...
[Physics] If matter can't move faster than light, how did the inflationary epoch of the big bang make the universe much bigger than one lightsecond in radius in one second?	Matter can't move through the coordinates of spacetime with a velocity of c, but that speed limit does not apply to the changing geometry of spacetime itself. Inflation is not the spreading of matter through space, rather it's the early expansion of spacetime itself.	[ "For a supermembrane moving at the speed of light, its world volume can be zero due to the metric (+++-). Thus the Big Bang can be thought of as a spherical membrane expanding at the speed of light. This has interesting interpretations in terms of the holographic principle.\n", "An important feature of the Big Ba...
is sarcasm universal?	Linguists differ on this. Some say it is universal and some say it's not. As someone who's been studying philosophy constantly for 4 years though, it's all a bunch of crap. The most discussed and referenced theories don't even delineate between sarcasm and irony. It's not that they looked at it and said, "hey, these ar...	[ "Cultural perspectives on sarcasm vary widely with more than a few cultures and linguistic groups finding it offensive to varying degrees. Thomas Carlyle despised it: \"Sarcasm I now see to be, in general, the language of the devil; for which reason I have long since as good as renounced it\". Fyodor Dostoyevsky, o...
how can a website like _url_0_ still exist, when google has a virtual monopoly as a search engine?	A few thoughts that came to my mind. _URL_1_ has it's "famous" toolbar. It's their way of gaining attention. It makes _URL_0_ your default search engine and people who don't know better just keep it this way. Which means that they still get thousands of search tasks. Bing is owned by microsoft. At least it is the se...	[ "Using search personalization, Google has doubled its video market share to about eighty percent. The legal definition of a monopoly is when a firm gains control of seventy to eighty percent of the market. Google has reinforced this monopoly by creating significant barriers of entry such as manipulating search resu...
How does blood get to every cell?	Yes blood vessels can branch out untill they are so small that they are approximately the diameter of a single red blood cell ( so called capillary vessels). Most cells are not in direct contact with actual blood, but the "liquid part" of the blood with nutrients and oxygen is kind of squeezed out of the blood vessels ...	[ "Blood supplies nutrients and important metabolites to the cells of a tissue and collects back the waste products they produce, which requires exchange of respective constituents between the blood and tissue cells. This exchange is not direct, but instead occurs through an intermediary called interstitial fluid, wh...
why is infrared light used to keep food warm when uv light is higher energy?	Theoretically you could cook food with EM energy of any frequency of sufficient intensity, but that doesn't mean it's useful or efficient. Microwave ovens use, you guessed it, microwaves, which are lower energy than infrared. Microwaves can heat food well because they're the right energy to excite waters, fats, and oil...	[ "Infrared radiation can be used as a deliberate heating source. For example, it is used in infrared saunas to heat the occupants. It may also be used in other heating applications, such as to remove ice from the wings of aircraft (de-icing). Infrared can be used in cooking and heating food as it predominantly heats...
to prevent water and shock damage, why can't the electronic components within mobile phones just be encapsulated in an airtight rubber or plastic coating/mould?	The cost of doing so exceeds the off chance you are going to drop your phone in the toilet. Also, since most people get a new phone every two years or so, it doesn't make that much sense to invest in durability.	[ "BULLET::::- Protected connections – No corrosion when the electronics are enclosed, away from water or oxygen in the atmosphere. Less risk of electrical faults such as short circuit due to insulation failure, especially where connections are made or broken frequently.\n", "Membranes are often the most costly and...
What is the basis of Suetonius being called, by many, a tabloid journalist of ancient Rome? What differentiates him as a source from other, more respectable ones?	First of all, Suetonius isn't any worse a source than any we have for ancient Rome. Even the bit that give him this poor reputation are terribly useful. The accusation of Suetonius being little more than a tabloid is common enough I wasn't able to track down the origin of that comment, but where it occurs it occurs w...	[ "As a historian, Titus Labienus would viciously attack the different classes of Roman society, thus eventually leading to his nickname Rabienus or “rabid one”, for his \"furious invective\". His writings were full of such controversial material that when he recited his works in public, he would have to pass over se...
why can i still smell poop when it's totally submerged?	You can't. You smell it from your asshole, from it's trip between your asshole and the water and from the fartiness that snuck out during said poop. If you could smell stuff through water you're entire house would smell like the sewer.	[ "Mudskippers have the ability to breathe through their skin and the lining of their mouth (the mucosa) and throat (the pharynx); this is only possible when the mudskippers are wet, limiting them to humid habitats and requiring that they keep themselves moist. This mode of breathing, similar to that employed by amph...
why is every other version of windows terrible?	I don't get why people say 8 is crap. Is it because of the Metro interface? It takes less than 1 min to get old start menu back. When people say "but you shouldn't have to install something to make it like that!. They then state they use Chrome or Firefox.... Windows 8 is a great OS. I used to have to reboot my Window...	[ "Windows Me was heavily panned by many users and critics, mainly due to stability issues. Due to its many bugs and glitches, Windows Me is considered one of the worst operating systems of all time. A \"PC World\" article dubbed Windows Me the \"Mistake Edition\" and placed it 4th in their \"Worst Tech Products of A...
How do specific organs (eyes, wings, etc) evolve slowly over time?	Eyes. Step one. Some light sensitive proteins or molecules evolve. These are coupled to other proteins or molecules and are used to help regulate your day night cycle. There's a substantial evolutionary advantage to being able to behave differently in the day to the night. Step 2. This pigment is concentrated in a sp...	[ "Eye formation in the human embryo begins at approximately three weeks into embryonic development and continues through the tenth week. Cells from both the mesodermal and the ectodermal tissues contribute to the formation of the eye. Specifically, the eye is derived from the neuroepithelium, surface ectoderm, and t...
What is the significance of the ability to create "artificial life" in the lab and how far away are we from lab grown organ transplants being common procedures?	The two articles you've linked to have no science in common with one another. I'm not knowledgeable about the organ transplant link, so I'll let someone else comment on it. The Venter "artificial life" is hugely symbolic in the same sense that urea was first created from inorganic compounds, showing that the same law...	[ "An artificial organ is a man-made device that is implanted or integrated into a human to replace a natural organ, for the purpose of restoring a specific function or a group of related functions so the patient may return to normal life as soon as possible. The replaced function doesn't necessarily have to be relat...
what is vsync?	Vsync is the setting to synchronise your GPU with the monitor. Let's suppose your monitor refreshes the screen 50 times per second. (This is fairly typical.) But you've got a really powerful GPU that can draw 100 frames per second. What happens is that the GPU runs ahead of the monitor. By the time the monitor has fi...	[ "Vsync was originally released as Isis2 in 2010, but Birman changed the name of the package in order to avoid similarity of the name to ISIL. The name Vsync is a reference to the formal model used by the system, namely virtual synchrony.\n", "A VSN can be formed by providing logical connectivity among collaborati...
Was there a Chinese resistance to Japanese occupation similar to the French resistance of Nazi occupation in WW2? Did they make any significant headway?	Hello! I unfortunately can't give a complete answer at the moment, as I don't have my books on me; but yes, there was indeed organized resistance against the Japanese during the Second Sino-Japanese War and even earlier during the invasion of Manchuria. Given China's own political disunity and the sheer geographic scal...	[ "On 28 January 1932, Japanese forces invaded Shanghai and the Chinese resisted, fighting to a standstill; a ceasefire was brokered in May. The Battle of Shanghai in 1937 resulted in the occupation of the Chinese administered parts of Shanghai outside of the International Settlement and the French Concession. People...
why is social security "running out" ?	The social security is funded by payroll tax, for the benefit of mainly retirees. Problem is that the population of the United States (and pretty much all developed countries) is aging, and the pool of people paying the payroll tax is decreasing while that of the aging dependents are rising. ATM it is predicted that at...	[ "Because of the importance of Social Security to millions of Americans, many direct-mail marketers packaged their mailings to resemble official communications from the Social Security Administration, hoping that recipients would be more likely to open them. In response, Congress amended the Social Security Act in 1...
the difference between newtonian and einsteinian physics.	First, Newton contributed enormously to science, not only by developing the three laws of motion but also developing calculus simply because math at the time was inadequate to his needs, that's hardcore. We can still use Newton's equations today as they are generally good enough to provide answers in everyday life. ...	[ "In analogy to the distinction between quantum and classical mechanics, Einstein's general and special theories of relativity have expanded the scope of Newton and Galileo's formulation of mechanics. The differences between relativistic and Newtonian mechanics become significant and even dominant as the velocity of...
why do you see white when you get hit in the eye in a dark room?	You're optic nerve is stimulated and you end up seeing a random selection of colours. Since you're in the dark everything you see appears white because it's in comparison to the blackness.	[ "This can be seen when the eyes are closed and looking at the back of the eyelids. In a bright room, a dark red can be seen, owing to a small amount of light penetrating the eyelids and taking on the color of the blood it has passed through. In a dark room, blackness can be seen or the object can be more colourful....
why did public schools stay open during the government shutdown?	They are run by the state, not the federal government.	[ "Some school districts in the United States were shut down because of the number of teachers that requested the day off. Schools in Alexandria, Virginia, and in Prince George's County Public Schools in Maryland were closed. Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools in North Carolina, and Center City Public Charter Schools ...
why cassini needs to crash into saturn to avoid contaminating a moon?	Huygens probe is clean, Cassini is not. It's pretty much as simple as that, but there's also that Titan is significantly less inhabitable than Enceladus so if something was hitchhiking it would most likely die.	[ "The \"Cassini\" space probe was deliberately disposed of via a controlled fall into Saturn's atmosphere on September 15, 2017, ending its nearly two-decade-long mission. This method was chosen to prevent biological contamination of any of the moons of Saturn now thought to offer potentially habitable environments....
Art Historians: My wife and I have a painting from 1896 that we humbly request your assistance in identifying.	You might have better luck posting at arthistory	[ "The early history of the painting is not known with much certainty. It may have been held by Leo Nardus. It was acquired by Heinrich Baron Thyssen-Bornemisza around 1929, and displayed at at Rechnitz and later at in Lugano. It was sold by his daughter before 1954, and then auctioned at Christie's in London in 1974...
Why does the nucleus of an atom increase in mass when it is broken apart?	The difference in these masses is what's known as the binding energy. The fact that the mass of the nucleus is smaller than the sum of the masses of its parts is precisely why nuclei form in the first place.	[ "A nuclear decay happens to the nucleus, meaning that properties ascribed to the nucleus change in the event. In the field of physics the concept of \"mass deficit\" as a measure for \"binding energy\" means \"mass deficit of the neutral atom\" (not just the nucleus) and is a measure for stability of the whole atom...
What was entertainment like in the Soviet Union?	I'm in a soviet cinema class right now, so I at least have some experience with the film side of things. We are up to the mid 1970s, so my answer will fit in with that timeframe. Also because it's a film class primarily, I have more perspective on the artistic than the political/historic. There are films that predate...	[ "From the early days of the first communist-ruled state, Soviet Russia, arts were recognized as a powerful means of propaganda and placed under strict control and censorship in all communist states. Lenin and Joseph Stalin were the preferred subjects, although almost all of Stalin's images and monuments were remove...
Are everyone's small intestines folded up in the same way?	Gastroenterologist here: Short answer - it depends where: 1)The small intestine is made up of the duodenum (roughly 12 inches long), Jejunum and Ileum. The duodenum is covered by sheeth of tissue called retroperitoneal fascia. The means that the duodenum itself is immobile and has a fixed path. The segments of th...	[ "There is no small intestine as such in non-teleost fish, such as sharks, sturgeons, and lungfish. Instead, the digestive part of the gut forms a spiral intestine, connecting the stomach to the rectum. In this type of gut, the intestine itself is relatively straight, but has a long fold running along the inner surf...
why is boiling water a safe way to kill bacteria while they can build up resistances to antibiotics etc.?	because they can't build resistance to being literally burned/cooked to death at \~100 °C	[ "Techniques include boiling, filtering, chemical treatment, and ultraviolet light; boiling is by far the most effective of these methods. Boiling rapidly kills all active bacteria, viruses, and protozoa. Prolonged boiling is usually unnecessary; most microorganisms are killed within seconds at water temperature abo...
Did the concepts of feminism or women's equality exist in any Pre-Modern societies?	One of my personal heroes is Christine de Pizan. She was a Venetian woman born in the mid 14th c. who was widowed at 25. She then became Europe's first professional woman writer. She wrote extensively on the role of women in Italian society, including at Court and her feminist writings included ripostes to male figures...	[ "Women's rights refers to the social and human rights of women. In the United States, the abolition movements sparked an increased wave of attention to the status of women, but the history of feminism reaches to before the 18th century. (See protofeminism.) The advent of the reformist age during the 19th century me...
Why are tornadoes always very distinguishable? If they are just wind currents why hasn't there ever been a nearly, if not completely, invisible tornado?	From [Wikipedia](_URL_0_): "Tornadoes can have a wide range of colors, depending on the environment in which they form. Those that form in dry environments can be nearly invisible, marked only by swirling debris at the base of the funnel." They are always very distinguishable because nobody ever bothers showing you a ...	[ "Tornadoes are destructive, small-scale storms, which produce the fastest winds on earth. There are two main types—single-vortex tornadoes, which consist of a single spinning column of air, and multiple-vortex tornadoes, which consist of small \"suction vortices,\" resembling mini-tornadoes themselves, all rotating...
how japan recovered so quickly after ww2	Japan is a very homogenous country. That means all the people are alike. Now when you have a lot of people who are alike it is easier to work together. Especially if you have a culture that values discipline, hard work, and loyalty. Now Japan was damaged by WWII but not absolutely destroyed like Germany because the mai...	[ "The second reason that accounts for Japan's rapid recovery from WWII was the outbreak of the Korean War. The Korean War was fought in territory that had been, until 1945, Chōsen (朝鮮) that Empire of Japan had colonised. As the United States was participating in the conflict on the Korean Peninsula, it turned to the...
how do pillows that claim to cool your head work?	Thermal conductivity. Essentially the pillow is at room temperature, but your head is typically ~20°F warmer. Heat, much like a gas, always tries to hit equilibrium (everything at the same temp.) As such. The pillow will absorb the heat from your head. Now here's where the claim comes in. Different materials will co...	[ "Pillows are formed when a large flow of water runs into a large obstruction, causing water to \"pile up\" or \"boil\" against the face of the obstruction. Pillows normally signal that a rock is not undercut. Pillows are also known as \"pressure waves\".\n", "Throw pillows are usually (loosely) placed on sofas or...
If elements above 83 (+43, 61) are all man made, is it strictly impossible for them to appear in nature?	It's not that they're never created naturally, it's that they decay too fast to be found naturally on Earth. All of the material that makes up Earth is the product of stellar fusion that occurred at least 4.5 billion years ago (the age of our solar system), but most of it is much older than that. These larger element...	[ "The remaining 24 heavier elements, not found today either on Earth or in astronomical spectra, have been produced artificially: these are all radioactive, with very short half-lives; if any atoms of these elements were present at the formation of Earth, they are extremely likely, to the point of certainty, to have...
getting started with raspberry pi.	You should ask in /r/raspberry_pi, you have a better chance of an answer there. Also try the [RaspberryPi forums](_URL_0_)	[ "The Raspberry Pi is a series of small single-board computers developed in the United Kingdom by the Raspberry Pi Foundation to promote teaching of basic computer science in schools and in developing countries. The original model became far more popular than anticipated, selling outside its target market for uses s...
why do different functions of the brain always form in the same regions across humans?	It's the same reason we all have roughly the same organ placement, skeletal structure, the same reason our teeth are all in the same order. Evolution has proven that this is the best set up that has yet to be provided via random mutation. Evolution is not intelligent.	[ "The function of the brain is to provide coherent control over the actions of an animal. A centralized brain allows groups of muscles to be co-activated in complex patterns; it also allows stimuli impinging on one part of the body to evoke responses in other parts, and it can prevent different parts of the body fro...
How does an ethnic group appear? Did one ever disappear? If yes, why? If no, why not?	Wouldn't /r/askanthropology be a better place to ask this question?	[ "Ethnic groups differ from other social groups, such as subcultures, interest groups or social classes, because they emerge and change over historical periods (centuries) in a process known as ethnogenesis, a period of several generations of endogamy resulting in common ancestry (which is then sometimes cast in ter...
Are pigeons considered isolated in their respective cities?	This study by [Jacob et al. 2014](_URL_1_) looks into this question for pigeons in western Europe. They found a correlation between increasing genetic distance and larger geographical distances ([see figure](_URL_0_)), meaning that nearby pigeons are more likely to be closely related to each other. However, the measu...	[ "Feral pigeons often only have small populations within cities. For example, the breeding population of feral pigeons in Sheffield, England, has been estimated at only 12,130 individuals. Despite this, feral pigeons usually reach their highest densities in the central portions of cities, so they are frequently enco...
How did Malay become the official language of Indonesia and not Javanese?	One of the issues that comes with governing w In the region is the cultural plurality, especially in language. Indonesia has hundreds of different native languages, Javanese being a major one. By this point, Malay had already beed used as a unifying language, especially trade, religion, and politics. The VOC also used ...	[ "The Javanese language was formerly written with a script descended from the Brahmi script, natively known as \"Hanacaraka\" or \"Carakan\". Upon Indonesian independence it was replaced with a form of the Latin alphabet.\n", "The Javanese language was commonly written with a script descended from the Brahmi scrip...
why do we need to spend nearly one-third of our life sleeping? why did evolution not bring that number down?	For starters, you have the fundamental fallacy of evolution. It does not have direction. HAD a random mutation occurred to eliminate sleep, it might have flourished. but then, night time is dangerous, and sleeping is a good way to conserve energy and avoid predators, so maybe wandering around at night would have b...	[ "The evolution of both cetaceans and birds may have involved some mechanisms for the purpose of increasing the likelihood of avoiding predators. Certain species, especially of birds, that acquired the ability to perform unihemispheric slow-wave sleep had an advantage and were more likely to escape their potential p...
What makes light sources appear as crosses on film (and when you squint your eyes)?	> [Lens flare is the light scattered in lens systems through generally unwanted image formation mechanisms, such as internal reflection and scattering from material inhomogeneities in the lens. These mechanisms differ from the intended image formation mechanism that depends on refraction of the image rays. Flare manif...	[ "If the scene is illuminated with a sheet of light this creates a reflected line as seen from the light source. From any point out of the plane of the sheet the line will typically appear as a curve, the exact shape of which depends both on the distance between the observer and the light source, and the distance be...
If you cut a tree's branch and plant it in a different place, will the second tree be genetically identical to the first tree??	The branch will, yes. This is how a lot of fruit plants (and other crops) are kept consistent. They're not grown from seeds, which would involve changes to the genetics, but are all clones or cuttings of the same original plant, carried forward over the year (or centuries). Also, seedless anything..	[ "Two trees may grow to their mature size adjacent to each other and seemingly grow together or conjoin, demonstrating inosculation. These may be of the same species or even of different genera or families, depending on whether the two trees have become truly grafted together (once the cambium of two trees touches, ...
why are western countries not rioting and revolting against their governments, but middle eastern countries are?	The biggest reason is the difference in the quality of life. Sure your rights are being infringed upon, but are you actually going to do anything about it? No. Your life is too comfortable. You would probably rather watch some TV or hang out with friends than take to the streets, risking your life in a riot. It's only ...	[ "The Arab world is also ambivalent about having a fully secular, western-style society. Iran is still a theocratic country and Saudi Arabia has monarchies. Government and general public are wary of Western influences that might corrupt their heart and mind. For example, Saudi Arabia did not lift the ban on cinemas ...
How much guerrilla warfare occurred after the end of the Civil War? Were there any particular militia groups that attempted to carry on the Confederacy as an official government?	Rather than guerrilla warfare, you might consider the Reconstruction period one of political terrorism. Now, /u/Bernardito can come in here and tell me I'm wrong 10 ways from Sunday (and probably be right), but I draw the line between the two in terms of their goals. I see guerrilla warfare as seeking the overthr...	[ "After the withdrawal of regular Confederate troops in the fall of 1861, a bitter guerrilla conflict soon began between bands of pro-Confederate irregulars (commonly known as bushwhackers) and the Union homeguards. By early 1863, Frank, ignoring his parole and oath of allegiance, had joined the guerrilla band of Fe...
what is my computer doing while i'm not telling it to do something?	From a purely practical standpoint it is just sitting there waiting for a command. However if you open up task manager you may see 60+ background processes running. So what gives? Most of these processes have to do with maintaining the function of the system. You'll have a process for the touchpad of your laptop, a pro...	[ "While a computer may be viewed as running one gigantic program stored in its main memory, in some systems it is necessary to give the appearance of running several programs simultaneously. This is achieved by multitasking i.e. having the computer switch rapidly between running each program in turn. One means by wh...
The Holocaust: Death Toll and Terminology	Hi! As this question pertains to basic, underlying facts of the Holocaust, I hope you can appreciate that it can be a fraught subject to deal with. While we want people to get the answers they are looking for, we also remain very conscious that threads of this nature can attract the very wrong kind of response. As such...	[ "Scholars are divided on whether the term Holocaust should be applied to all victims of Nazi mass murder, with some using it synonymously with \"Shoah\" or \"Final Solution of the Jewish Question\", and others including the killing of Romani peoples, Poles, the deaths of Soviet prisoners of war, Slavs, homosexual m...
What makes the under arm areas of white clothing turn yellow? Is it the sweat, components of deodorant, or both? Can anything be done to prevent it/Is there any way to get it out?	Eccrine sweat glands are found over most of the body and are the most numerous type of sweat glands. They secrete a type of sweat which is largely composed of water (approximatley 99%). In addition to water, minute amounts of salts, metabolic wastes, antibodies, lactic acid and vitamin C make up the other approximately...	[ "When mixed with sweat, aluminium zirconium tetrachlorohydrex gly is known to stain clothing with a yellowish tint. It can also cause a stiffening of the affected areas of clothing. These stains can be removed with the application of vinegar or a mild bleach. If excessive amounts of aluminium zirconium tetrachloroh...
why is volkswagens false emissions test hurting the company's reputation more than other more serious recalls that have killed people?	It is not that emissions are more important than a human life. It is the fact that in this case, it was a very purposeful lie. And it makes people wonder if they are lying about this, what other things might they be lying about that might directly affect their safety. To some degree, people accept that production erro...	[ "In 2015, the Volkswagen emissions scandal involved revelations that Volkswagen AG had deliberately falsified emission reports by programming engine management unit firmware to detect test conditions, and change emissions controls when under test. The cars thus passed the test, but in real world conditions, emitted...
why do wholesalers need distributors to get into retailers?	Just because you have the knowledge to make a good beer doesn't mean you have the knowledge to run a distribution system. Drivers, warehouses, meeting exacting delivery schedules... yeah, if you have the expertise to do it, that's great, but you're probably better at making beer.	[ "BULLET::::- Importing distributors: Importing distributors purchase product in their own right and resell it in their local markets to wholesalers, retailers, or both. Importing distributors are a good market entry strategy for products that are carried in inventory, such as toys, appliances, prepared food.\n", ...
How was it that Persia was able to preserve its language and ethnic identity, while Egypt and the Levant did not?	> The conquering Arabs initially intended for Islam to be the religion of the military conquers, but for the conquered to retain their original religions. For this reason, people were not forced to convert even when militarily conquered. Instead, they had to pay that jizya, or poll tax and lived as dhimmīs, or a prot...	[ "Middle Persian was a lingua franca of the region before the Arab invasion, but afterwards Arabic became a preferred medium of literary expression. Instrumental in the spread of the Persian language as a common language along the Silk Road between China and Parthia in the second century BCE, that lasted well into t...
Does a plucked string really create an infinite set of overtones?	A plucked string in principle produces an infinite set of overtones. But the power in the overtones tends to decrease with harmonic number. For example, the 8th harmonic (7th overtone) might have 1/8th or 1/64th the power of the first harmonic (funcamental tone), and so on. As you get to higher and higher harmonics, ...	[ "Other stringed instruments such as the violin, viola, cello, and double bass also exhibit inharmonicity when notes are plucked using the pizzicato technique. However, this inharmonicity disappears when the strings are bowed, because the bow's stick-slip action is periodic, so it drives all of the resonances of the...
On Jupiter there is a storm that never ends. Is that something that could happen on Earth?	This is not really true. If you are speaking of the Great Red Spot it is unlikely that this is a persistent feature that lasts the lifetime of the planet. Further if we consider Earth it is highly unlikely we would get something even remotely as persistent. This is because massive storms like hurricanes lose energy w...	[ "The storms on Jupiter are similar to thunderstorms on Earth. They reveal themselves via bright clumpy clouds about 1000 km in size, which appear from time to time in the belts' cyclonic regions, especially within the strong westward (retrograde) jets. In contrast to vortices, storms are short-lived phenomena; the ...
The Netherlands seemingly went from cutting edge to obsolescent and backwards to cutting edge again in our modern day. What happened there? How did the Dutch, who industrialized quite late, surpass the Belgian early adopters?	Though the Netherlands was late to the game when it came to industrializing, its economy did already have certain traits that are associated with more modern economies, such as a large service sector, and a very productive agricultural sector. In 1800 43% of Dutch people were employed in agriculture, compared to 36% in...	[ "Towards the 1800s, the Netherlands did not industrialize as rapidly as some other countries in Europe. One explanation for this is that the Netherlands were struggling to come to terms with having lost their dominant economical (based mainly on trade and agriculture) and political position in the world. Griffiths ...
Why is it harder to drink from a can with the tab removed	The tab prevents your upper lip from forming a seal with the back of the opening, and thus air can flow in to replace the liquid flowing out.	[ "Beverage openers are useful for opening every day beverage containers for those who have limited hand strength as it eliminates the need for strong twisting or pulling motions. Plastic bottles may become stuck due to a high volume of carbonation released during shipping or overtightening. Some do not have fingerna...
why do we have to eat and urinate throughout the day, but can make it through 8+ hours of sleep just fine?	During sleep, your metabolism slows. Your digestive and renal systems shift into a slow mode so they produce less waste.	[ "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", "\"Urinating in bed is frequent...
Can wild type insects make mistakes?	You may find your answer in the work of french entomologist J H Fabre. His main focus was to test the limits of adaptability/rigidity in insect behavior, and he would devise experiments to test these. For instance, he noticed a certain wasp always dragged its paralysed prey to the nest by the antennae. So he checked...	[ "Natural selection in favour of features that deflect predators' attacks is straightforward to explain: variants of patterns that more effectively deflect attack are favoured, since animals with ineffective variants are likely to be killed. Naturalists since Edward B. Poulton in his 1890 book \"The Colours of Anima...
why aren't state sponsored cyber attacks considered an act of war?	Basically, everyone's doing it. & #x200B; If one nation suddenly decided it's tanks on the lawn time, then everyone else would have the same excuse - You can't claim the moral high ground when proof is released that you were doing the exact same thing to your enemy.	[ "Interviewed by Candy Crowley on CNN's State of the Union, Lieberman claimed \"it is a fact cyber war is going in some sense right now\", \"a cyber attack on America [could] do as much or more damage ... by incapacitating our banks, our communications, our finance, our transportation, as a conventional war attack.....
Best Websites on surname origin and genealogy	My go-to source for names online is [Behind the Name](_URL_0_). They also have a [website for first names](_URL_1_). Not sure if they quite cover the genealogical information you're looking for, but hopefully it's a bit helpful!	[ "Index entries contain the surname and Christian name(s) of the bride and groom, the year, county and parish where the marriage took place, and source of the record. The original Index is held at the Society of Genealogists and it may be searched online through the subscription website FindMyPast.\n", "The popula...
I read somewhere that if you put a perfect sphere on a completely flat surface, the surface area of the sphere contacting the surface is 0. How can this be true?	Only nominally true if both the sphere and the flat surface are completely inflexible (which is never completely true). And, of course, as you approach zero contact area, you start dealing with single atoms and run into the problem of not knowing what you really mean by 'contact'.	[ "A sphere of radius \"R\" has constant Gaussian curvature which is equal to 1/\"R\". At the same time, a plane has zero Gaussian curvature. As a corollary of Theorema Egregium, a piece of paper cannot be bent onto a sphere without crumpling. Conversely, the surface of a sphere cannot be unfolded onto a flat plane w...
are people born with empathy or can it be through practice?	Most people are born with the capacity for empathy and some natural inclination to be empathetic. After all, it’s evolutionarily advantageous for a community to care about one another’s survival Fun fact: Some historians credit the printing press during the French Revolution with spreading empathy in a new, more visce...	[ "Lack of empathy occurs in several conditions including autism, schizophrenia, sadistic personality disorder, psychopathy, and sociopathy. One recent view is that an improper ratio of cortical excitability to inhibition causes empathy defects. Brain stimulation is being investigated for its potential to alter motor...
Black holes are alway illustrated with their accretion disks around their equators. Is this necessarily the case?	It's both. So yeah, you get discs everywhere in astronomy, because that's what happens if you have (a) dissipation, and (b) angular momentum. The gas particles can bump into each other and convert kinetic energy into internal wibbles, and that wibbly energy can be spat out as light - so you can cool down, and get rid ...	[ "A gaseous accretion disk that is tilted with respect to a spinning black hole will experience Lense–Thirring precession, at a rate given by the above equation, after setting \"e\" = 0 and identifying \"a\" with the disk radius. Because the precession rate varies with distance from the black hole, the disk will \"w...
What did a typical battle between a Crusader army and a Muslim army look like? How did the crusader armies deal with horse archers?	There is not "the typical battle" during a series of conflicts that spanned hundreds of years. Tactics, equipment and terrain were constantly changing. However, there are some general principles. Crusaders would generally try to keep their guard up. Horse archers could strike any time, so crusaders would travel in for...	[ "The Muslims lay in a semicircle east of the city facing inwards towards Acre. The Crusader army lay in between, with lightly armed crossbowmen in the first line and the heavy cavalry in second. At the later Battle of Arsuf the Christians fought coherently; here the battle began with a disjointed combat between the...
why do your eyes get itchy when you’re sleepy?	I think it's because you forget to blink regularly, which causes them to dry up a bit and that makes them itchy	[ "When the individual is awake, blinking of the eyelid causes rheum to be washed away with tears via the nasolacrimal duct. The absence of this action during sleep, however, results in a small amount of dry rheum accumulating in corners of the eye, most notably in children.\n", "Blepharitis is dryness and itching ...
How can a person go without sleep for years?	There have never been any scientifically proven cases of persons living for prolonged periods of time with complete sleep deprivation. To understand how important sleep is, [a quick look over the consequences of sleep deprivation can help you understand how living long without it is an impossibility.](_URL_0_)	[ "Randy Gardner holds the scientifically documented record for the longest period of time a human being has intentionally gone without sleep not using stimulants of any kind. Gardner stayed awake for 264 hours (11 days), breaking the previous record of 260 hours held by Tom Rounds of Honolulu. LCDR John J. Ross of t...
why don't pcs use arm	Laptops and desktops require too much processing power, which ARM processors are not designed for. ARM is primarily designed to be power savvy, so they're awesome in phones and tablets. Intel is slowly getting into the mobile market, but it's laughable at best compared to ARM. Another reason is that ARM CPU's have mod...	[ "The ARM (including OTG) and MIPS support is mostly aimed at embedded systems, however FreeBSD/ARM runs on a number of single-board computers, including the BeagleBone Black, Raspberry Pi and Wandboard.\n", "ARM has been the CPU architecture of choice for manufacturers of smartphones (95% ARM), PDAs, digital came...
why is it impossible to change from first gear to reverse while driving, but not the other way around?	For starters, you shouldn't change from a forward gear to a reverse gear while moving or vice versa. This should be obvious because it causes immense stress to the the entire driveline. You should only change to a gear in the opposite direction when you are stopped. Now, with that said, I suppose the logic that could ...	[ "Attempting to select reverse while the vehicle is moving forward causes severe gear wear (except in transmissions with synchromesh on the reverse gear). However, most manual transmissions have a gate that locks out reverse directly from 5th gear to help prevent this. In order to engage reverse from 5th, the shift ...
why do most smartphones not have built-in fm receivers? (when they have many other technologies like wifi, gps, 4g, etc.)	This is probably for a number of reasons. For one, people care less about FM radio than before. Second, device manufacturers might have a profit motive in selling audio content and other sources of media rather than FM radio. There are some unique complications with FM, though, compared to the other radio technologi...	[ "Some MP3 players have electromagnet transmitters, as well as receivers. Lots of MP3 players have built-in FM radios, but FM transmitters aren't usually built-in due to liability of transmitter feedback from simultaneous transmission and reception of FM. Also, certain features like Wi-Fi and Bluetooth can interfere...
Would the study of Caveman paintings be considered as History?	Although rock art represents a "record" of sorts, it remains undecipherable. As such, the period when that art was created remains before the written record, and it must be considered as prehistoric. Even if the rock art could be "read", the records are so limited that most of what was happening would remain in the sha...	[ "Conkey encourages archaeologists to rethink the possible meanings of Paleolithic images - that cave paintings represented not only an artistic revolution, but a social one that made these images a critical part of sustaining these Paleolithic communities; in which women were involved in more aspects of early life ...
how can lawyers accept to defend in court some very bad people? i.e.war criminals, genocidal leaders, rapists, pedophiles, serial killers.	Lawyers who defend unpopular or heinous people, are actually defending that person's rights. If we deny the rights of one person, we invalidate the rights of all people. These lawyers are there to ensure the system of justice in place is upheld. Look at it this way, not everyone accused is guilty. Not everyone who...	[ "A criminal defense lawyer is a lawyer (mostly barristers) specializing in the defense of individuals and companies charged with criminal activity. Some criminal defense lawyers are privately retained, while others are employed by the various jurisdictions with criminal courts for appointment to represent indigent ...
Old books and documents that are still classified	From [The Smithsonian magazine](_URL_1_).... > 2027: The FBI spied on Martin Luther King Jr. in an unsuccessful effort to prove he had ties to Communist organizations. In 1963, Attorney General Robert Kennedy granted an FBI request to surreptitiously record King and his associates by tapping their phones and placing ...	[ "Books and printed material: a collection of books, pamphlets, serials including magazines and government reports, reference publications such as dictionaries and other published material. This sub-collection holds over 175,680 titles, including 16,000 books and 3740 serials consisting of 34,000 individual issues a...
why is it that dash lights in a car seem to last forever, and normal light bulbs "burn out" after a period of time?	Okay, well the brightness of a filament bulb depends on the size of the filament and how much voltage you shove through it. The more voltage you run through a filament, the hotter it gets, the more light it produces, and the more fragile it is and shorter the lifespan. Dashboard bulbs run less voltage than normal for ...	[ "Because of their long life, fast switching times, and visibility in broad daylight due to their high output and focus, LEDs have been used in automotive brake lights and turn signals. The use in brakes improves safety, due to a great reduction in the time needed to light fully, or faster rise time, up to 0.5 secon...
how sound waves travel in 3d space	Picture, instead of the 'rings' you are thinking of from a 2D perspective, spheres instead. Sound radiates out from its source in the form of a sphere if there are no impediments/obstacles to it. Now you may be talking about the waveform, which is not a representation in 2D but rather a graph of the frequency and/o...	[ "3D sound localization refers to an acoustic technology that is used to locate the source of a sound in a three-dimensional space. The source location is usually determined by the direction of the incoming sound waves (horizontal and vertical angles) and the distance between the source and sensors. It involves the ...
When, how and why did the Norse identity die out?	Note: Large parts of this post is a copy-paste from when I answered a similar question 4 months ago. The Norse identity exists as much today as it did back then - now we call it Nordic or Scandinavian, but the idea that we have more in common with out various neighbours rather than the rest of Europe and the world hav...	[ "The Old Norse form of the name was \"Sunndalr\". The first element is \"sunnr\" which means \"southern\" and the last element is \"dalr\" which means \"valley\" or \"dale\". Before 1870, the name was written \"Sunddalen\" (or \"Sunndalen\"); during the period from 1870–1917, it was spelled \"Sundalen\"; and since ...
Why do people dry tea leaves if their intended use is to be soaked in boiling water?	Dry things tend to have a longer shelf life.	[ "Drying In order to keep the tea moisture-free, they are dried at various stages of production. Drying enhances a tea’s flavors and ensures its long shelf-life. Also, drying brings down the tea’s moisture content to less than 1%. To dry the leaves they are fired or roasted at a low temperature for a controlled peri...
How was United States occupation of Japan after World War II met with such little resistance, when the Japanese were infamous for fighting to the last man?	The official declaration of surrender by the Japanese government went a long way toward removing such resistance. Moreover, you have to appreciate the context at the end of WWII. Japan was in dire straits. Most people don't appreciate that the annihilation of Hiroshima and Nagasaki was absolutely not exceptional in ter...	[ "While there were a number of guerrilla attacks on the Japanese, and the United States periodically bombed Japanese bases, occupation did not end until Japan's military surrender at the end of World War II. The interim period between Japanese occupation and re-establishment of British occupation was marked by major...
Is super-human strength (under stress or influence of drugs) possible?	Junior in college Biology major here, I'll hit the major points. Your muscles are stronger than you think they are. Your brain limits the amount of force your muscles put out to prevent damage to your ligaments/tendons/skeletal system/muscles. When your sympathetic nervous system kicks in, your brain basically says "f...	[ "Records describe instances of people going beyond \"normal\" strength in specific circumstances without taking any specific measures, as in the case of Tom Boyle, who was able to lift the front of a car in order to rescue a person trapped beneath it. Penn State professor of Kinesiology Vladimir Zatsiorsky stated t...
how can the fdic insure a very large amount of investors their money, when something like the "target hack" occurs?	The FDIC only protects people's money (up to $100,000 per account) if the bank goes under (like they did in the great depression). If your CC info or your bank account info is compromised and someone takes your money the FDIC does not reimburse you. That is the obligation of the bank, lawyers and possibly the FBI if ...	[ "In the event that the Fund and other sources of capital are insufficient, the FDIC is authorized to buy and sell securities on behalf of the company (or companies) in receivership to raise additional capital. Taxpayers shall bear no losses from liquidating any financial company under this title, and any losses sha...
why does hot oil make a sizzling sound when something is put in it?	It's not the oil, it's the water from whatever you put into it heating rapidly and boiling off.	[ "Oil of various kinds could be heated to high temperatures and poured over an enemy, although, since it was extremely expensive, its use was limited, both in frequency and quantity. Moreover, it could be dangerous and volatile. Since the smoke point of oil is lower than its boiling point, the oil was only heated an...
why are cpu speeds measured in gigahertz (ghz) and ram in megahertz (mhz) when they are usually similar?	It was mostly marketing. In the days when CPUs started achieving GHz speeds, the “GHz” portion was heavily, heavily advertised as being ultra crazy fast! Look we don’t even measure it like those other puny CPUs! When GHz speeds came out, the CPU market was a fierce advertising space. RAM on the other side took far lo...	[ "Both the 6400 and 6600 CPUs had a cycle time of 100 ns (10MHz). Due to the serial nature of the 6400 CPU, its exact speed was heavily dependent on instruction mix, but generally around 1 MIPS. Floating-point additions were fairly fast at 11 clock cycles, however floating-point multiplication was very slow at 57 cl...
how does humblebundle work?	Each customer pays whatever he feels like, lets say 10 < insert currency here > . That amount is distributed among all of the game creators + some charities and and some money go to huble bundle itself. For the most part it's a win-win-win-win situation. First win : you. You win by getting a butload of games for fr...	[ "Mypoolin is a mobile payment service that allows user to transfer money just by knowing their mobile number. A user can signup just by verifying an OTP code which is sent to his/her mobile phone. It also allows the users to track their friends’ activities on the app, thus making it completely social.\n", "In the...
What sparked the fascination with dinosaurs in the 90s?	Expanded [from an earlier answer of mine](_URL_1_) The public fascination with dinosaurs has existed for pretty much as long as the first fossilized specimens were discovered and displayed. One of the attractions of the mid-Victorian Crystal Palace exhibition were [now-apparent fanciful reconstructions](_URL_16_) of *...	[ "The dinosaur renaissance was a small-scale scientific revolution that started in the late 1960s, and led to renewed academic and popular interest in dinosaurs. It was sparked by new discoveries and research indicating that dinosaurs may have been active and warm-blooded animals, rather than cold-blooded and sluggi...
what is mustard gas and why its use by isis is news?	Mustard Gas is a chemical weapon that burns upon contact. If it touches the skin it'll cause painful blisters. However, its main problem is from being breathed in where it'll damage the lungs causing a person to drown in their own fluids. If not killed by the gas the person faces lifelong problems of DNA mutation and...	[ "The BBC reported in September 2015 that, according to an unnamed U.S. official, the U.S. believes that ISIS had used powdered mustard agent at least four times in Syria and Iraq, that ISIS had probably manufactured the mustard agent itself, and probably had an active chemical weapons research team. Mustard agent i...
why do atms eat cards?	In case you are using a stolen card, they don't give it back.	[ "An ATM card (known under a number of names) is any card that can be used in automated teller machines (ATMs) for transactions such as deposits, cash withdrawals, obtaining account information, and other types of transactions, often through interbank networks. Cards may be issued solely to access ATMs, and most deb...
can anyone go to the moon (if they were able to) or is it like some sort of private property of a government ?	No one owns the moon. So you could go there is you wanted to. However I would imagine you need to permits to build a rocket that powerful.	[ "A number of individuals and organizations offer schemes or plans claiming to allow people to purchase portions of the Moon or other celestial bodies. Though the details of some of the schemes' legal arguments vary, one goes so far as to state that although the Outer Space Treaty, which entered force in 1967, forbi...
why is it that ice slows down swelling but when in the cold, our skin turns red from blood flow?	Cold just really slows down molecules down from their natural fast moving state to another state where things aren’t moving much at all. This works well and fine for things that don’t live and die like a pool of water that can just freeze without problems. When you cool sown a warm blooded creature like a human, the ...	[ "Ice is often used to reduce swelling in cycles of 15–20 minutes on and 20–30 minutes off. Icing an ankle too long can cause cold injuries, indicated if the area turns white. Also, it is often recommended that ice not be applied directly to the skin, but should have a thin buffer between the ice and the affected ar...
At what point in history did the US first become politically and/or economically influential?	I am presuming you are referring to international influence outside of the North American sphere. The best answer for the political part would probably be the Spanish-American War. During that conflict, US forces won decisive simultaneous victories against a European (Spanish) military in two hemispheres, humiliating...	[ "The American Century includes the political influence of the United States but also its economic influence. Many states around the world would, over the course of the 20th century, adopt the economic policies of the Washington Consensus, sometimes against the wishes of their populations. The economic force of the ...
how did israel developed from rand rock desert into oecd equivalent progressive nation.	It was built by first world people, at first educated by first world institutions, until they created their own. And they get funded by first world jews all over the world. Jews have always prioritized education(as asians do).	[ "Agriculture and Development was an Israeli Arab organisation formed to fight the 1951 elections. Like other Israeli Arab parties at the time, it was associated with David Ben-Gurion's Mapai party, as Ben-Gurion was keen to include Israeli Arabs in the functioning of the state in order to prove Jews and Arabs could...
What are some good reads to get a background on the historical basis of the bible?	It's pretty controversial but my personal favorite is Neil Silberman and Israel Finkelstein "The Bible Unearthed" (Old Testament). Another good one, also OT, is "Who Wrote the Bible?" The last one is a classic but may be a little outdated at this point (from the late 80s).	[ "BULLET::::- \"The King James Bible at 400: Scripture, Statecraft, and the American Founding.\" (Co-author: Joshua A. Berman). \"The History Channel Magazine\", special supplement, November 2010, pp. 1–11.\n", "The book opens with an introductory chapter surveying the history with which it intends to deal, the co...

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