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question stringlengths 3 301	answer stringlengths 9 26.1k	context list
Is being uncomfortably hot or cold a form of pain?	I can only help with part of your question. Hopefully someone else here can clarify the rest. Your skin contains nerves that act as receptors for various sensations, such as pain, temperature, pressure, vibration, and proprioception. _URL_0_ The nerves in your skin connect all the way back to certain parts of your ...	[ "Pain can either be relegated to a specific part of the body or spread to the entire body. It is typically constant, and may be moderate to severe in intensity. It is often made worse by touch, movement, emotions, barometric pressure and temperature changes, usually cold temperatures along with many other similar '...
“Zoning out” that can occur where you’ve read text, but you weren’t paying attention – state of inattentiveness called something? Is there a certain brain process that occurs?	The term used in the literature is "mind wandering." Here's my comment on this from a past post: > This occurs due to a failure to maintain executive control over automatic thoughts. When you're engaged in a task that requires your continuous attention, you are still engaging in mental processes that are separate fr...	[ "Perseveration according to psychology, psychiatry, and speech-language pathology, is the repetition of a particular response (such as a word, phrase, or gesture) regardless of the absence or cessation of a stimulus. It is usually caused by a brain injury or other organic disorder. Symptoms include \"lacking abilit...
what's going on inside those box things on laptop chargers?	edit - disregard my comment and read what the actual engineers have to say in the replies Power (electricity) from the nearby power plant comes down the wires to your house or apartment and it's alternating its direction of travel 60 times every second (60 hertz). This is necessary to send electricity across many ...	[ "Out of the box, it is used to connect to the sync and charge cradle, allowing the Palm to connect to a desktop PC and receive battery power. A range of accessories were also available for the Universal Connector, including folding keyboards, external battery packs, wired and wireless modems, and many more.\n", "...
why can't nuclear power plants use their own generated power for cooling?	Nuclear engineer here. They can, and they do. When a nuclear power plant is online, it actually supplies all its own power. The main generator has taps that feed back into the plant's auxiliary power system. However, when the reactor has to scram, or when the power grid has an instability, they usually cannot, and he...	[ "Kirk Sorensen and others have suggested that additional nuclear power plants, particularly liquid fluoride thorium reactors have the energy density to mitigate global warming and replace the energy from peak oil, peak coal and peak gas. The reactors produce electricity and heat so much of the transportation infras...
Is sound the power or amplitude of pressure waves?	I'm not too sure what you mean by power, but when looking at sound waves, the amplitude determines the volume, and the wavelength the pitch. Tiny imperfections in the shape of the wave are what gives it tone and timbre; the reason we all don't sound exactly the same when singing the same note. We hear the sound becaus...	[ "Sound pressure or acoustic pressure is the local pressure deviation from the ambient (average or equilibrium) atmospheric pressure, caused by a sound wave. In air, sound pressure can be measured using a microphone, and in water with a hydrophone. The SI unit of sound pressure is the pascal (Pa).\n", "In acoustic...
Aide-de-camps vs. Adjutants during the American Civil War?	From the wartime Army Officer's Pocket Companion: > The bureau duties of adjutant-generals and assistants are: publishing orders in writing; making up written instructions and transmitting them; reception of reports and returns; disposing of them; forming tables, showing the state and position of corps; regulating ...	[ "In May, 1918, privates were given the opportunity to volunteer for duty overseas. In the rush to help end the war officers resigned their commissions so they would be qualified for duty overseas before the war was over. As a result, the first Arkansas National Guard Soldier to die in combat during World War I was ...
did the life style of gatherer tribes changed much between the attainment of Behavioral modernity and the agricultural revolution/first contact with agricultural societies?	'Behavioral modernity' is about 50 KYA, agriculture starts around 10 KYA in the Near East, and about 5 KYA in North-Western Europe. In between, there's the major innovations of the bow-and-arrow and the domestication of the dog, probably at least before 15 KYA because these things were known in the Americas, first colo...	[ "The transition from agrarian, nomadic individuals to industrial and sedentary habits emerged out of the improvements made in agricultural and central food planning. Early sedentary societies have been argued to emerge as early as 1600 BCE along southern Mexico, as there is a correlation between domesticated plant ...
Do black holes ever die?	Ok. I'm seeing a lot of answers that are just missing the point so I'll say this straight. Yes, Black Holes and Hawking Radiation are both Hypothetical. But per those hypotheses... A black hole while being a region of the universe that no "thing" can escape from, Emits radiation on it's own at a temperature that is l...	[ "\"Death by Black Hole\" is divided into seven sections: The Nature of Knowledge, The Knowledge of Nature, Ways and Means of Nature, The Meaning of Life, When the Universe Turns Bad, Science and Culture, and Science and God.\n", "It is thought that supermassive black holes like these do not form immediately from ...
why do scientists assume an alien species would use the same math system as us.	An alien species very well may use base 7. Even other human civilizations have used different bases: the Babylonians used base 60, iirc. Prime numbers are still prime regardless of what base you write it in. When we write, for example, 7 in binary, it's 111, but that doesn't change any of the properties of the number....	[ "Many of these species only exist in this place, because they are alien species that were introduced by the wise, product of his exchange with experts from other latitudes, which was communicated through letters.\n", "It has been pointed out that it is not at all clear that \"WMCF\" establishes that the claim \"i...
how did popcorn become a standard movie "meal"?	Popcorn was originally sold by street peddlers. Oftentimes businesses rented popcorn carts to poor / homeless people to sell popcorn on sidewalks around the city, in exchange for a cut of the day's take. Unpopped popcorn isn't heavy or bulky, and cooking it requires simple equipment and little skill or effort. Thus ...	[ "Popcorn was an Italian pop music show which ran 1980–1985 on Canale 5 produced by Berlusconi's Fininvest. Hosts included Sammy Barbot, Tiziana Fiorveluti, Claudio Cecchetto, Augusto Martelli, Italy-based US singer Ronnie Jones and English actress Karina Huff.\n", "Popcorn is a 1996 novel by the British writer Be...
how is it that disposable lighters have lighter fluid inside and it comes out as gas?	The gas inside the lighter is under fairly high pressure which keeps it in a liquid state until it gets released. I wouldn't recommend trying it, but when I was younger we use to scare people by throwing cheap lighters on the ground behind them. The plastic cracks, pressure is release, loud pop ensues.	[ "A metal enclosure with air holes generally surrounds the flame, and is designed to allow mixing of fuel and air while making the lighter less sensitive to wind. The high energy jet in butane lighters allows mixing to be accomplished by using Bernoulli's principle, so that the air hole(s) in this type tend to be mu...
megaupload	Megaupload is a file hosting service, meaning everyone and their dog can use it to upload files to be hosted on the internet, where anyone can download them. This is a legitimate service, even if it is abused by people loading copyright infringing material onto the service, like pirated software, ripped CDs, or bootle...	[ "A German-born programmer named Kim Dotcom founded Megaupload, which is a Hong Kong-based company established in 2005 for the use of file storage and file sharing. At its peak, Megaupload was the 13th most visited website on the Internet. Megaupload's sister sites include Megavideo.com, Megapix.com, Megalive.com, a...
why has the supreme court declared section 4 of the voting rights act unconstitutional?	Basically, it said that certain areas of the country must go through extra steps if they want to change any process related to voting. For example, even closing an expensive or infrequently utilized polling place at a local school requires federal approval if you're in a certain area. These were areas that abused...	[ "On June 25, 2013, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down Section 4(b) of the Voting Rights Act as unconstitutional, a ruling which was shortly followed the implementation of Voter i.d. laws in Texas. Those against this decision typically argue that it unfairly targets key Democratic constituencies such as minority gro...
horizontal drilling: how do they steer?	The answer of "They don't" is wrong. Dead wrong. I'm a Directional Driller in the Oil and Gas business with 11 years of experience, so let me see if I can break it down, Mr. Potato head style. Downhole while drilling in a wellbore, you have two main components. The Mud Motor, and the MWD. Let's explain them. The ...	[ "Horizontal drilling involves wellbores with a terminal drillhole completed as a \"lateral\" that extends parallel with the rock layer containing the substance to be extracted. For example, laterals extend in the Barnett Shale basin in Texas, and up to in the Bakken formation in North Dakota. In contrast, a vertica...
What impact did the Bahá'í Faith have on Iran during the Islamic Revolution?	What do you exactly mean by "the impact of the Baha'i Faith have on the Iranian Islamic Revolution"? Are you asking if the Islamic Revolution incorporated some Baha'i doctrine? Or are you asking if the Baha'i Faith contributed to the fall of the Islamic Revolution? _____________________________________________________...	[ "The 1979 Islamic Revolution has refocused the persecutions against the Bahá'í Faith. Amnesty International and others report that 202 Bahá'ís have been killed since the Islamic Revolution (see below), with many more imprisoned, expelled from schools and workplaces, denied various benefits or denied registration fo...
What form does energy take without matter?	This question doesn't really make sense. Energy isn't a thing that things are made of. There's no such thing as pure energy. Energy is a quantity that things can have.	[ "Historically, confusion about mass being \"converted\" to energy has been aided by confusion between mass and \"matter\", where matter is defined as fermion particles. In such a definition, electromagnetic radiation and kinetic energy (or heat) are not considered \"matter\". In some situations, matter may indeed b...
what is the problem between greece and germany?	LI5: Let's say there's a group of friends that call themselves the "EU". One of the kids is named Greece, and he's been spending his allowance like crazy. He spends his money on expensive toys and other things he doesn't need until he's completely broke. Now he can't afford to eat lunch at school. One of the requireme...	[ "Germany's role in managing the European debt crisis, especially with regard to the Greek government-debt crisis, led to criticism from some quarters, especially within Greece, of Germany wielding its power in a harsh and authoritarian way that was reminiscent of its authoritarian past and identity.\n", "Germany ...
why is going to the dmv always such a clusterfuck?	They don't have enough staff, the staff they do have works slow and it's a government agency so they have no incentive to work faster or harder because they'd have to rape a baby in front of the President to lose their job.	[ "DVS went through a lot in a short period of time. We grew the business every year and ran into growing pains financially and ended up getting a line of credit with Bank of America. In 2007, the economy went south and we had incredible sales erosion due to retailers going out of business, distributors becoming fina...
why is it harder to concentrate when you're sick or in pain, e.g. when you have a cold or a headache?	For the same reason it's hard to concentrate when it's noisy or there's a bright light in your face: Your brain is distracted by all the other stimuli it's being exposed to (in this case, the stimulus of feeling like shit).	[ "Another theory into the cause of cold-stimulus headaches is explained by increased blood flow to the brain through the anterior cerebral artery, which supplies oxygenated blood to most medial portions of the frontal lobes and superior medial parietal lobes. This increase in blood volume and resulting increase in s...
how does somebody like aaron swartz face 50 years prison for hacking, but people on trial for murder only face 15-25 years?	If you kill somebody, it's just one crime : murder. If you hack a bunch of computers, you're facing a criminal charge for each system you hack each time you hack it. It's the same as robbing five banks at gunpoint. A dozen crimes with two two year sentences can potentially have a longer penalty than a single ten ye...	[ "Max Ray Vision (formerly Max Ray Butler, alias Iceman) is a former computer security consultant and hacker who is serving a 13-year prison sentence, the longest sentence ever given at the time for hacking charges in the United States. He was convicted of two counts of wire fraud, including stealing nearly 2 millio...
why do some people think it's bad to drink bottled water after it has been opened and sitting out for a few hours?	It isn't bad for you. Pure water left out in a clean container will be fine for ages and ages. Sure there are bacteria and stuff in it, but nothing your body can't handle. As long as something hasn't died in your water, you should be fine. Bacteria can't form massive colonies in water alone. Besides, before being i...	[ "In 2001, a WWF study, \"Bottled water: understanding a social phenomenon\", warned that in many countries, bottled water may be no safer or healthier than tap water and it sold for up to 1,000 times the price. It said the booming market would put severe pressure on recycling plastics and could lead to landfill sit...
what is dynamic braking as why is it always prohibited?	I think what you mean is compression braking as used on large trucks _URL_0_ Which is different (and much noisier than using engine braking by selecting a lower gear. Colloquially this is called "Jake Braking". A Jake Brake is a trademark of Jacobs brand compression brakes. If you see a sign that says "No Jake Brakin...	[ "Dynamic braking is the use of an electric traction motor as a generator when slowing a vehicle such as an electric or diesel-electric locomotive. It is termed \"rheostatic\" if the generated electrical power is dissipated as heat in brake grid resistors, and \"regenerative\" if the power is returned to the supply ...
when i microwave a dry muffin, it get's moist (and tasty). where did the water come from?	This is not guess like you're five idiots. If you don't know the answer just don't comment.	[ "Closed containers, such as eggs, can explode when heated in a microwave oven due to the increased pressure from steam. Intact fresh egg yolks outside the shell will also explode, as a result of superheating. Insulating plastic foams of all types generally contain closed air pockets, and are generally not recommend...
why does pubic hair only grow to a certain length	When it gets to a certain length it just falls out. It doesn't stop growing	[ "In males, the first pubic hair appears as a few sparse hairs that are usually thin on the scrotum or at the upper base of the penis (stage 2). Within a year, hairs around the base of the penis are abundant (stage 3). Within 3 to 4 years, hair fills the pubic area (stage 4) and becomes much thicker and darker, and ...
why did commanders throughout history fight in the front lines?	Because they were often the the most effective fighting force in the field of battle. Your typical commander was a noble, which meant: * they had ample food and medical care as a child, making them bigger and stronger than most men * they were trained in sword and horse almost from birth * they had the best equipment...	[ "BULLET::::- Many of the generals of World War I had experience in combat, but only from the days before trench warfare became widespread. Because of this, officers lacked the experience that in the past had made it viable to command troops from a distance.\n", "BULLET::::- Training: Officers would not command fo...
Does the number of other groceries in my fridge affect how long it will take for a room temperature pitcher of water to cool down?	The less space for air in your fridge means less heat transfer every time you open the fridge door. This means that a full fridge (containing already-chilled groceries) has a head start when you first place the pitcher in, while an empty fridge needs to spend extra energy cooling the air down again. That said, assumi...	[ "Cooling the food product to a temperature just above freezing in a refrigerator is generally required to slow the growth of these organisms. This cooling can permit foods to remain safely edible for up to two weeks after opening.\n", "Domestic refrigerators and freezers for food storage are made in a range of si...
How do camouflaging animals know what colour/texture to mimic?	Short answer: they don't. All they know is that they didn't get eaten. Genetic mutations that affect an animal's colour or texture are relatively common. Having fur or feathers a different colour, or a different length, or patterns of stripes or dots; all of these can happen with a single genetic change. Any populatio...	[ "Animals such as chameleon, frog, flatfish such as the peacock flounder, squid and octopus actively change their skin patterns and colours using special chromatophore cells to resemble their current background, or, as in most chameleons, for signalling. However, Smith's dwarf chameleon does use active colour change...
Are hot places windier?	Well, from a general standpoint, some of the fastest winds are found in the northern and southern poles, where polar extratropical storms rage. It may depend on certain factors other than temperature, but just because hotter air often contributes to low pressure doesn't mean hot places everywhere are windy.	[ "Another powerful factor in the heat wave was that a temperature inversion grew over the city, and air stagnated in this situation. Pollutants and humidity were confined to ground level, and the air was becalmed and devoid of wind. Without wind to stir the air, temperatures grew even hotter than could be expected w...
from a business standpoint, in terms of monitary gain, how does the history channel profit from running 18 hours a day of pawn stars?	Discovery Channel, TLC, The History Channel, they started out as niche channels...inexpensive programming aimed at a specific audience it was easier to target ads for. Then came Mythbusters, a big hit that appealed to a broader audience. Soon all the networks wanted to try to reach a wider range of viewers, and but...	[ "Pawn Stars UK is a British reality television series which debuted on 26 August 2013 on the British version of the History channel. The series is filmed in Sealand, Flintshire in Wales, and chronicles the day-to-day activities of pawn shop Regal Pawn, collaboratively run by Mark Andrew Manning, Mark Lever Holland,...
In the HBO show Rome, the two lowborn characters generally drink wine, was wine the drink of choice among commoners? Would there not be a less expensive option?	Other than mead, which was often more expensive (and hard to make) and not especially popular, Italians in the Roman world drank pretty much exclusively wine, as far as alcohol went. Distillation was unknown in antiquity, and while beer has existed since earliest antiquity it was extremely uncommon in the Roman world, ...	[ "For as long as wine has been made, it has been manipulated, adulterated, and counterfeited. In ancient Rome, Pliny the Elder complained about the abundance of fraudulent Roman wine which was so great that even the nobility could not be assured that the wine they were pouring on their table was genuine. For the poo...
what is the police command and accountability structure in the us?	US citizen here, St. Louis area, but with no law enforcement experience. As far as I can tell, different executive entities cover their jurisdiction, and usually only step into a lower level if asked or needed. For instance, in Ferguson, they would have the local police department, a county sheriff's department, a stat...	[ "Unlike the police system in the United States, the central government appoints the head positions of city and county Police Departments in the ROC and thus forms a solid chain of command for all police personnel. By calling a personnel review board, the Director-General of NPA has the full control of personnel rot...
During WW2, how did the US and Canada ship people and war supplies across the Atlantic without the boats being sunk by the Germans.	The full answer to this question is massive. Historians have written books inn the subject and still not covered everything. To give you a brief explanation, the Allied strategy in the Battle of the Atlantic had four prongs: intelligence, the convoy system, air cover, and hunter-killer groups. A major source of int...	[ "During the Second World War, Canadian personnel manned the carriers (from 1943 until sunk in 1944) and (from 1944 until returned to the US in 1946), with their complement of Royal Navy Fleet Air Arm carrier based aircraft.\n", "The North Atlantic air ferry route was a series of Air Routes over the North Atlantic...
how does meat left at room temperature spoil so quickly? more importantly, where do these harmful bacteria exist before they get in the meat? are they just hanging around in the air waiting for something to infect?	All meat has bacteria on it. Want to know why you can't order a hamburger medium rare? It's ground beef. All of the surface bacteria gets ground too, meaning it's inside and out. Thats why burgers are cooked more thoroughly than, say, a steak. A steak only has surface bacteria, so you only have to sear the outside of...	[ "Bacteria are typically killed at temperatures of around . Most harmful bacteria live on the surface of pieces of meat which have not been ground or shredded before cooking. As a result, for unprocessed steaks or chops of red meat it is usually safe merely to bring the surface temperature of the meat to this temper...
how did "chips" in the uk get to be known as "french fries" in the states?	Frying strips of potato originated in neither countries, it's likely that both countries adopted the recipe independently thus named them independently. Thomas Jefferson wrote in 1802 of "potatoes served in the French manner"; while Charles Dickens wrote in in 1859: "Husky chips of potatoes, fried with some reluctant...	[ "Fries, deep-fried chipped potatoes, are very popular in Belgium, where they are thought to have originated. The earliest evidence of the dish comes from a book entitled \"Curiosités de la table dans les Pays-Bas-Belgiques\" written in 1781, which described how inhabitants of Namur, Dinant and Andenne around the Me...
can i make a citizen's arrest on a police officer?	I'm a cop. As a police officer, I only have a few special powers over a regular citizen when I am on duty. 1) arrest for crimes not committed in my presence upon probable cause. 2) serve arrest warrants 3) detain people to conduct investigations upon reasonable suspicion. I also have a few extra administrative p...	[ "Police and various other officers have powers of arrest. In some places, a citizen's arrest is permitted; for example in England and Wales, any person can arrest \"anyone whom he has reasonable grounds for suspecting to be committing, have committed or be guilty of committing an indictable offence,\" although cert...
Eggs are a big investment for birds, so why do chickens lay unfertilized eggs? Why don't they 'hold on' to that investment until it's fertilized?	Veterinarian perspective here: we have bred this into chickens, AND eye laying rate is related to nutritional intake. So, we're selecting for the layingest of layers, and feeding them the perfectly formulated feed for maximum production. The average layer hen is actually VERY skinny, because all of their resources are ...	[ "The birds produce a lean carcass and are active foragers, though they are sometimes more vulnerable to predators such as birds of prey due to their light colouration. The egg laying ability is highly valued as the production exhibited by some ducks rivals that of hens. The breed is prone to broodiness and a pair c...
Historically speaking, what do the "Freemasons" have to do with "masonry"?	Quite frankly, The connection between practicing medieval stone masons and the modern Masonic fraternity isn't well documented. The best documented link between the fraternity and practicing stone masons can be traced to Scotland during the rule of James VI when his master of works William Schaw established what became...	[ "Freemasonry or Masonry consists of fraternal organisations that trace their origins to the local fraternities of stonemasons that from the end of the fourteenth century regulated the qualifications of stonemasons and their interaction with authorities and clients. The degrees of Freemasonry retain the three grades...
If keratin is “waterproof” why does it take so long for hair to dry?	Water gets trapped between the hairs. There's a large surface area. Ever washed the nylon hair of a My Little Pony in the bath as a child (or a sad adult). Clearly nylon is waterproof, and their tails take a while to dry.	[ "Keratin that is present in the hair, scales and in the epidermis of the skin is hydrolyzed in the presence of alkali (at pH values greater than 11.5). The disulfide bridges found in keratin protein are cleaved but can be reformed. Long periods of liming will result in hair removal. The main removal of keratin is p...
the us involvement in middle east wars "for oil" theory	A common misconception is that the US wants to import oil. In reality the US has enough oil reserves to last for a hundred years. It is therefore more likely that they want control of the oil. Companies also have an interest in lobbying the US government to give them access (by using force) to middle east oil. > It...	[ "The history of American economic interests in the Middle East cannot be examined without understanding the involvement of several Western powers in the region. The availability of oil in the Middle East was always known, however, it did not influence politics or economics until Winston Churchill, prime minister of...
Is there a point where further miniaturization of transistors will no longer be possible and we will hit a stopping point for computers getting more powerful?	Yes, there certainly is and is one of the main modern-day problems. The thing is we won't eventually reach a limit, we are at the limit right now. I believe it is IBM that has already delayed a promissed 10nm transistor for a couple of years already. That's about 30 atoms. You can't get smaller than that, or two ...	[ "Miniaturization in optoelectronics, for example the miniaturization of transistors in integrated circuits, has improved their speed and cost. However, optoelectronic circuits can only be miniaturized if the optical components are shrunk along with the electronic components. This is relevant for on-chip optical com...
how do fire extinguishers work?	Depends on the type of extinguisher. Fire needs three things to work - heat, fuel and oxygen. Since fuel can't really be altered, you can stop a fire by either reducing the heat or removing the oxygen. _Most_ fire extinguishers go for the latter - they spray out an non flammable foam that suffocates the fire.	[ "A fire extinguisher is an active fire protection device used to extinguish or control small fires, often in emergency situations. It is not intended for use on an out-of-control fire, such as one which has reached the ceiling, endangers the user (i.e., no escape route, smoke, explosion hazard, etc.), or otherwise ...
How did the Samurai die out or become less important in Japan?	There was a long period of internal peace in Japan from about the 17th century onward, the Tokugawa shogunate period. During this time Samurai largely transitioned into being bureaucrats, rulers, courtiers, etc. After Japan was forced to end its relative isolation in the mid 19th century Japan began to modernize, inten...	[ "Japan's Warring States period (1467–1615), which had scarred Japan for almost 150 years, came to an end with the establishment of the authoritarian Tokugawa shogunate. This in turn ushered in an era of peace that would last for over 260 years and ended with the overthrow of the shogunate in 1868. The relatively pe...
What resources existed in Ancient Egypt that made it so desirable for Greece, Rome, etc. to conquer?	Two things: Ancient Egypt was... ancient. Even in the Archaic and Classical Greek Periods, long before building the Colossus of Rhodes or the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus, the Pyramids had already stood for THOUSANDS of years. There was a sense, in the Mediterranean World, that Egypt was the eldest of all civilizations a...	[ "The civilization of Ancient Egypt was indebted to the Nile River and its dependable seasonal flooding. The river's predictability and the fertile soil allowed the Egyptians to build an empire on the basis of great agricultural wealth. Egyptians were among the first peoples to practice agriculture on a large scale,...
Have there been any famous combat soldiers within the past hundred years who were known to be retarded or otherwise mentally disabled?	Mental disability is a very, very, very broad spectrum. Do you want to narrow it down somewhat?	[ "BULLET::::- In 1882, Laza K. Lazarević (1851–91), wrote the short story \"The People Will Reward All of This\". The author describes the difficult position of disabled war veterans after returning from the battlefield and inhuman attitude of the state towards them.\n", "In the aftermath of World War I, disabled ...
how are broken ribs mended without surgery?	They don't tend to wander so the torso is just bandaged to stay mostly straight and the two ends will naturally heal together. Most of the time a rib is broken but the break is just a crack which remains set already.	[ "Rib removal may be medically approved in several situations. If a rib is fractured in such a way that it might puncture a vital organ, it may be safer to remove it than wait for it to heal. A cancerous rib may be removed to stop the cancer spreading. Rib bone material may be used for a bone graft. The excess press...
Why do neutrons embrittle material?	Good question! The short answer is that it damages the crystal structure of metals/ceramics/whatever, causing more errors in the crystal structure, which allow cracks to form more easiy and it breaks. The long answer is that it's the same process as "cold working." When you bend a paperclip back and forth, it becomes ...	[ "Neutron embrittlement, sometimes more broadly radiation embrittlement, is the embrittlement of various materials due to the action of neutrons. This is primarily seen in nuclear reactors, where the release of high-energy neutrons causes the long-term degradation of the reactor materials. The embrittlement is cause...
The economics of slavery in America	> we can all agree that slavery was terrible Unfortunately, not everyone does agree. There are a fair number of Americans who consider the Confederacy to be "their team" and defend every aspect of it. Some push their line via reddit. So redditors have become a bit cautious in their replies about slavery. As for y...	[ "In \"The Rise of American Civilization\" (1927), Charles and Mary Beard argue that slavery was not so much a social or cultural institution as an economic one (a labor system). The Beards cited inherent conflicts between Northeastern finance, manufacturing, and commerce and Southern plantations, which competed to ...
what's the science and psychology behind superhuman strength? e.g. mothers lifting cars to save children etc.	Most of all these answers are wrong. The simple fact is that "hysterical strength" is a myth. There are no solidly documented cases of it ever happening. Not a single video. Not a single demonstration. It's because it doesn't happen, and there is no mechanism for it to happen. There is no "hidden strength" in...	[ "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...
Why do small stars live much longer than big stars?	Bigger stars have more mass → more gravity → higher internal pressure → hotter → burn faster. More precisely, [the lifetime of a star on the main sequence scales roughly as M^(-2.5)](_URL_0_) Yes, bigger stars have more fuel, but they burn through it much faster.	[ "The more massive the star, the shorter its lifespan, primarily because massive stars have greater pressure on their cores, causing them to burn hydrogen more rapidly. The most massive stars last an average of a few million years, while stars of minimum mass (red dwarfs) burn their fuel very slowly and can last ten...
Historians sometimes talk about World War II as a continuation of World War I. How similarly was the infantry equipped between the two wars?	The standard U.S. infantry equipment used during the majority of World War II owes much to developments that occurred before, during, and after World War I. * The [M1928 haversack and pack carrier](_URL_11_) was a near-exact copy of the [M1910](_URL_16_), which was not really a very good design to begin with; [it coul...	[ "A shorter weapon was more convenient when riding in a truck, armored personnel carrier, helicopter, or aircraft, and also when engaged in close-range combat. Based on the combat experience of World War II, the criteria used for selecting infantry weapons began to change. Unlike previous wars, which were often foug...
why do people hold each other at gunpoint standoffs for so long? if a bullet travels literally faster than sound a human should have no chance to react, so it would be just whoever fires first right?	They might not want to actually kill someone. Unless you sever their spinal cord or hit them in the head, they're not going down immediately. The whole thing in the movies where people fall down from being shot once or twice doesn't happen in real life. Your body goes into overdrive to keep you on your feet, even mo...	[ "BULLET::::- Seesaw 60 – Two people stand atop a giant seesaw. They have 60 seconds to move a 10 kg barrel from one side to the other without letting either end of the seesaw touch the floor. A third person gets to call out advice to the other two people. This challenge has had 1 victory.\n", "BULLET::::- Form of...
How is it possible for scientists to predict the properties of the products of a chemical reaction, if they've never dealt with those specific products before?	The simple answer to the general question, "How do we theorize the existence of phenomena before they are observed?" is that we have constructed mathematical models of how the universe behaves based on other observations. We can plug other numbers into these models to make predictions about how as yet unobserved event...	[ "Predicting the products given by each mechanism will show whether or not a given crossover experiment design can distinguish between the mechanisms in question. This is particularly relevant when employing an isotopic label. It is possible that labeling at one position could distinguish between only two of several...
Need to understand 'Hedonistic Dissonance'	Sorry, to be clear, are you not understanding the term itself or are you looking for interesting research on it?	[ "Involutional melancholia or involutional depression is a traditional name for a psychiatric disorder affecting mainly elderly or late middle-aged people, usually accompanied with paranoia. It is classically defined as \"depression of gradual onset occurring during the involutional years (40-55 in women and 50-65 i...
What did the followers of the historical Buddha believe of him and his teachings at the time of his death, and how, when, and why did this develop into the view of him as an eternal transcendent super-being centuries later?	Questions like "did the Buddha believe....?" and "Did the Buddha's earliest followers believe...." are always hard to answer because of the fog of time through a long period of oral transmission of the original teachings. A subset of the Buddhist cannon can be categorized as "Early Buddhist Texts" (EBTs) [1] but even ...	[ "The Buddhist tradition believes that the Buddha one day saw a sick man, an old man and a dead body in sequence, then he left his princely life and sought insights and a way out of human suffering. According to Ambedkar, this was absurd. He proposed that the Buddha likely sought insights because he was involved in ...
what causes animals to die of old age?	The cells in your body are constantly replicating themselves and then dying off. Your hair and nails are made of these dead cells (and that's why your hair and nails grow). However, every time a cell replicates, it's not exactly perfect. There's a piece of the cell that acts almost like a timer. Every time the cell...	[ "BULLET::::- Mutation Accumulation Theory of Aging - Because extrinsic mortality is so high in the natural world, few animals survive to old age. As a result, random harmful germ line mutations accumulate with little to no selective disadvantage.\n", "Medawar's theory was critiqued and later further developed by ...
why can women have an abortion but the father be forced to play child support	The moment a man clumsily drops his load inside a woman, he forfeits his right to abandon any children that messy load might produce. The moment a woman lets a man drop his load inside her, she also forfeits her right to abandon any children that messy load might produce. *However...* Between the the time sai...	[ "In cases where contraception fails resulting in an unapproved pregnancy, some women choose not to have an abortion. These women tend to avoid seeking medical care throughout the pregnancy and during delivery due to the chance they will be forced to have an abortion or the financial penalties they would face. This ...
Why didn't the medievals eat their pie crusts?	Hi, pre 17th century English food history buff here. I've baked a lot of pastries based on the historical recipes. We can learn a lot from the ingredients used in pastry recipes. For example, here is one of the oldest English coffin (pastry baking dish) recipe I've seen is this one: "thenne take blank suger & ayr...	[ "Medieval cooks had restricted access to ovens due to their costs of construction and need for abundant supplies of fuel. Pies could be easily cooked over an open fire, while partnering with a baker allowed them to cook the filling inside their own locally defined casing. The earliest pie-like recipes refer to coff...
why does my phone show no reception but when i call someone it appears?	There are a bunch of possible reasons - The software in your phone is badly programmed. - The measuring mechanism that tells the phone how many bars to display for signal strength is not calibrated to match how much signal strength you actually need to make a call. It's kind of like if you have a ruler where every in...	[ "If you have ever tried to make a call out on a PBX, and been accidentally connected to an incoming call, you have experienced glare. This can sometimes happen at home too, if you pick up your phone to make a call out at the exact second that a call is about to start ringing in.\n", "Because the SIT is well known...
Is it possible to conclude that gun ownership rates reduce crime when crime rates can be affected by a variety of different things?	"Conclude" is a very strong word to use in a situation like this, but yes, it is possible to gather strong evidence in one direction or another depending on how you luck out with circumstances. Because this isn't the kind of situation where you can neatly divide communities into experimental and control groups, you ha...	[ "In a review of his own research, Kleck determined that of 41 studies half of them found a connection between gun ownership and homicide but these were usually least rigorous studies. Only six studies controlled at least six statistically significant confound variables, and none of them showed a significant positiv...
what are the tiny specks/hairs that can sometimes be seen when closing one's eyes?	If you mean the specks of light you can sometimes see when you close your eyes (particularly when pressing or rubbing the eyes), it's called phosphene and is basically the result of the brain being tricked into thinking it's seeing light due to the applied preassure to the cells of the eyes.	[ "In oryzomyine rodents, for example, the width, form, and presence of beading in the interorbital region vary among species. In birds and many other animals whose eyes are set on the side of the skull, the interorbital region normally consists of a thin interorbital septum only. This may be pierced by a hole of lar...
why is processed meat cheaper than non-processed meat?	They can use all the garbage bits. Remainders and the like. All the meat that's left when you take all the good cuts out.	[ "Cheap meat is relatively inexpensive meat (e.g. fatty cuts of lamb or mutton) possibly due to the consumer price not including the overall costs of industrial meat production. The phenomenon is thus related to subsidies, hidden costs, or non-material costs (\"moral cost\") of meat production. Non-material costs ca...
Did Michail Kalaschnikow develop the AK-47 on his own or did he just lead a development team?	According to C.J Chivers' The Gun (which is a history of the AK and its impact essentially) it was a bit of both. Kalashnikov certainly had some important input on the design but other members of his design team contibuted/refined some of the AK-47's more notable features (I forgot who is thought to have done what but ...	[ "The AK-47 is best described as a hybrid of previous rifle technology innovations. \"Kalashnikov decided to design an automatic rifle combining the best features of the American M1 and the German StG44.\" Kalashnikov's team had access to these weapons and had no need to \"reinvent the wheel\". Kalashnikov himself o...
does oxidation make oxygen disappear?	Yes and no. In oxidation oxygen reacts with the metal. The oxygen would bond with the metal. So yes in the end you would have less gaseous oxygen, but none of the oxygen atoms would actually disappear. Oxygen only would change the for it is in.	[ "For reactions involving oxygen, the gain of oxygen implies the oxidation of the atom or molecule to which the oxygen is added (and the oxygen is reduced). In organic compounds, such as butane or ethanol, the loss of hydrogen implies oxidation of the molecule from which it is lost (and the hydrogen is reduced). Thi...
Questions for a Hundred Years War History Project	From [the rules](_URL_0_): > Is this the right place for your question? > Questions should be about what did happen, not what could have happened. Questions of that type should be posted in /r/HistoricalWhatIf. > Homework > Our users aren't here to do your homework for you, but they might be willing ...	[ "The Hundred Years' War, which lasted from 1337 to 1453, was the backdrop to their pillaging. The Hundred Years' War was fought between two royal families over control of the French throne: the Plantagenets from England, and the House of Valois from France. The War, which is divided into three stages - the Edwardia...
why are a large number of video games, particularly role-playing games, set in medieval setting?	People tend to go with what they're familiar with, and what they grew up with. The earliest popular roleplaying games were tabletops like Dungeons & Dragons, with a smaller percentage set in space and on alien planets. So, when game designers started exploring electronic RPGs, these two settings were what they starte...	[ "\"Medieval Games\" is a party video game set in a storybook medieval world. The game is similar to the \"Mario Party\" series by Nintendo. The game has a story mode with a story based on the Middle Ages. The game features 30 Medieval mini-games including sword fighting, jousting, archery and catapulting. The game ...
how exactly is recycling good for the environment when it almost always requires a source of fuel to break down and re-purpose the materials(in turn creating more air pollution and also requires the excavation of more fossil fuel)?	It is less harmful than excavating new material deposits, by far. It's also the fact that if you just throw it out, it has to go to a landfill, which uses up land and can take hundreds of years to even start to decay (if it ever really does - look at the Pacific Garbage Patch). In order of benefit to the environment,...	[ "By reusing materials, one lives more sustainably by not contributing to the addition of waste to landfills. Reusing saves natural resources by decreasing the necessity of raw material extraction. For example, reusable bags can reduce the amount of waste created by grocery shopping eliminating the need to create an...
if big pharmaceutical companies make all these negative effect drugs, they can obviously make ones with excellent side affects. is there any types of medicines that are like this?	I think you have a very distorted view of pharmaceutical companies. The vast majority of drugs have side effects less bad than the disease they treat, especially when you consider that most treated diseases can cause death, and that these pills cause death only vanishingly rarely, if at all. It is absolutely true that...	[ "Meta-analyses have shown that psychiatric studies sponsored by pharmaceutical companies are several times more likely to report positive results, and if a drug company employee is involved the effect is even larger. Influence has also extended to the training of doctors and nurses in medical schools, which is bein...
if all wavelengths of light travel at the same speed, what causes them to rainbow after exiting a glass prism?	A prism causes light to refract, which is described by the refractive index of the material. The refractive index is different for different waves of light, so that rays of different wave-lengths get refracted at different angles. White light, made up of many wave-lengths, is split up by the refraction and each color...	[ "Refraction is also responsible for rainbows and for the splitting of white light into a rainbow-spectrum as it passes through a glass prism. Glass has a higher refractive index than air. When a beam of white light passes from air into a material having an index of refraction that varies with frequency, a phenomeno...
How Frequent were Wolf attacks on Humans in Medieval and Early Modern Europe?	You're right: There have been thousands of recorded instances from the medieval and early modern periods, with the Beast(s) of Gévaudan being the most prominent example. A decent hypothesis on the decline, especially in light of your observation that this kind of activity began to fall in frequency and cultural signifi...	[ "In France, historical records compiled by rural historian Jean-Marc Moriceau indicate that during the period 1362–1918, nearly 7,600 people were killed by wolves, of whom 4,600 were killed by non-rabid wolves. Numerous attacks occurred in Germany during the 17th century after the Thirty Years' War, though the majo...
Can someone explain what makes brown dwarfs "stars?" How can a celestial body with a temperature between 225-260 K be classified as a star?	> The distinction between hydrogen-fusing stars and brown dwarfs is well defined. But what distinguishes brown dwarfs from planets, given their similar sizes and atmospheric properties? Astronomers vigorously debating that semantic question fall mainly in two camps. One advocates a definition based on formation—a b...	[ "Brown dwarfs are defined as substellar objects that have at some time in their lives burnt deuterium in their interior. The borderline between a brown dwarf and a planet is conventionally taken to be 13 times the mass of Jupiter. All brown dwarfs are either L dwarfs, T dwarfs or Y dwarfs, in order of decreasing te...
how does skin hold in moisture?	Your skin has several layers which serve multiple purposes. Remember that your skin is an organ so keeing that in mind it has a specialized goal , one of which is retaining a level amount of moisture it does this through tiny pores and epithelial tissue wich are basically tiny spongy tissues	[ "Excessive and continuous skin moisture can pose a risk to compromise the integrity of the skin by causing the skin tissue to become macerated and therefore be at risk for epidermal erosion. So this category assesses the degree of moisture the skin is exposed to.\n", "One factor that determines whether skin is dr...
every time people breathe, why don't they naturally take in the maximum lung capacity, which would be more efficient?	What makes you think it's more efficient?	[ "Lung capacity can be expanded through flexibility exercises such as yoga, breathing exercises, and physical activity. A greater lung capacity is sought by people such as athletes, freedivers, singers, and wind-instrument players. A stronger and larger lung capacity allows more air to be inhaled into the lungs. In ...
why do formula 1 cars look the way they do?	F1 cars are super light as they are as bare bones as possible, they are largely shaped the way they are to provide optimal downforce/weight ratio allowing for more grip and stability. Fun fact, for certain turns F1 cars need to go faster (thereby increasing downforce) rather than slower to avoid crashing from lack of ...	[ "Many drivers – especially in open-topped cars such as Formula One cars – will have bright, vivid designs to help distinguish them from other drivers. These designs will traditionally remain with the driver throughout their career, although in 2015 the FIA had to introduce rules limiting F1 drivers to one design pe...
How does the electric field in the salt bridge of an electrochemical cell work?	Let me explain with this [example cell](_URL_0_). It is true that the field points to the left in the lamp, and to the right in the salt bridge (with the anions/electrons moving in the opposite directions since they are negatively charged). But that does not mean there are circular field lines. This is obviously a va...	[ "An electrical double layer develops near charged surfaces (or another charged objects) in aqueous solutions. Within this double layer, the first layer corresponds to the charged surface. These charges may originate from tightly adsorbed ions, dissociated surface groups, or substituted ions within the crystal latti...
why do we accept plastic surgery in entertainment, but not steroids in organized professional athletics when it's essentially entertainment?	In a word... Gambling. No one bets on the outcome of a movie. Steroids are an unknown variable which affect the outcome of a game.	[ "Since their discovery, anabolic steroids (AAS) have been widely used as performance-enhancing drugs to improve performance in sports , to improve one's physical appearance, as self-medication to recover from injury, and as an anti-aging aid. Use of anabolic steroids for purposes other than treating medical conditi...
[Book Request] About Soviet nuclear strategy and nuclear accidents during the Cold War.	While it remains on my "To Read" list, so I cannot personally recommend it per se, [Plutopia: Nuclear Families, Atomic Cities, and the Great Soviet and American Plutonium Disasters](_URL_0_) by Kate Brown came highly recommended to me from my History of the Soviet Union professor in college.	[ "The Learning Channel documentary Doomsday: \"On The Brink\" illustrated 40 years of U.S. and Soviet nuclear weapons accidents. Even the 1995 Norwegian rocket incident demonstrated a potential scenario in which Russian democratization and military downsizing at the end of the Cold War did not eliminate the danger o...
credit reports	> What helps it? Payment history, credit utilization, length of credit history, credit types, and new credit requests/inquiries in that order. Being late on payments is the number one factor, and is a strong predictor of eventual default. Having available credit is the number two factor (that means a sudden em...	[ "A credit report is a record of the borrower's credit history from a number of sources, including banks, credit card companies, collection agencies, and governments. A borrower's credit score is the result of a mathematical algorithm applied to a credit report and other sources of information to predict future deli...
what happened to myanmar(burma) throughout the 20th century after british rule? how did it go from an emerging nation to one of the most isolated countries in asia?	Essentially the military seized power, formed a junta and viciously suppressed democracy, leading to diplomatic isolation and trade embargoes. They have also engaged in long-running and extremely violent repression of minorities, most notably the Karen, Kachin and Shan peoples although there are many others amongst t...	[ "Before the Second World War broke out, Burma was part of the British Empire, having been progressively occupied and annexed following three Anglo-Burmese wars in the 19th century. Initially governed as part of British India, Burma was formed into a separate colony under the Government of India Act 1935. Under Brit...
how to "dry wipe" and why it's preferred in your country than using a bidet.	Whatever method you grew up with will always feel better and like it gets you cleaner. You just wipe until there's not poop on the paper anymore, then you give it one more for good luck and you're all done.	[ "Gel Wipes began to be marketed as complimentary hygiene product for toilet paper by SATU laboratory, as a luxury option by St Joseph’s Toiletries or hipster product by Zum Bum. and Zero Taboos that makes Wipegel Many adults now use gel wipe with toilet paper as an alternative to wet wipe that are causing a lot of ...
Why France and Britain supported Qing in the Taiping rebellion?	The decision of France and Britain to join the Taiping War is one of those somewhat out-of-the-blue affairs of the Late Qing period that really requires a bit of digging into. Sadly, I'm not aware of much work done on the French decision to go to war, at least in English, so this answer will focus primarily on the Brit...	[ "Qing government was very cautious about this rebellion. Because both sides of the conflict are Vietnamese, the Qing government refused to be involved in the conflict, even though the Qing army had gathered in the border area to prevent conflicts from spreading into Chinese territory. Qing refused to intervene mili...
how do you make money from a currency that's depreciating by exchanging currency.	If he's trading new for old, he'd be trading it for face value but gaining money in raw silver. When nobody notices he can do it easily, but once they realize old currency will technically be worth more because of the silver content. Since your character has been stockpiling these coins he can now sell them for more...	[ "Currency exchangers accept payment in national currencies by a variety of methods, including Bank Wire, Direct Deposit, Cheque, Money Order. Some exchangers also sell and fund pre-paid debit cards to make it easier for their clientele to convert DGC into an easily spendable form of national currency.\n", "In a f...
if energy is neither created nor destroyed, what happens when light is pulled into a black hole?	The energy increases the mass of the black hole, via E=mc^(2). A photon of visible light (at a wavelength of 555 nm), would increase the mass of the black hole by about 4×10^(-33) grams.	[ "As more mass is accumulated, equilibrium against gravitational collapse reaches its breaking point. The star's pressure is insufficient to counterbalance gravity and a catastrophic gravitational collapse occurs in milliseconds. The escape velocity at the surface, already at least 1/3 light speed, quickly reaches t...
Museum curators of askhistorians, how did you get your job?	I can't speak to restoring airplanes, but I am an exhibit developer, and I would say that what you study is not anywhere as near important as where you intern and how you can network. (edit to add: This makes it sound like I meant you don't need a degree, but you really do, I just meant don't just sign up for some ...	[ "Other positions commonly found at museums include: building operator, public programming staff, photographer, librarian, archivist, groundskeeper, volunteer coordinator, preparator, security staff, development officer, membership officer, business officer, gift shop manager, public relations staff, and graphic des...
Why do we genetically engineer E. Coli instead of other bacteria?	I don't have too much experience with biochemical techniques, but E. coli is pretty easy to grow (the protocol I learned required about 10 hrs of growth), and therefore a good host to do your protein expression. However, I do know other labs who used insect cells, which are even more hardy, but they take longer (multip...	[ "Because of its long history of laboratory culture and ease of manipulation, \"E. coli\" also plays an important role in modern biological engineering and industrial microbiology. The work of Stanley Norman Cohen and Herbert Boyer in \"E. coli\", using plasmids and restriction enzymes to create recombinant DNA, bec...
how is it that i'm occasionally able to hear sounds miles off in the distance (e.g. trains, motorways) as if they were up close?	The time of day is relevant. Sound is a pressure wave, think of it like a ripple in a lake. The source of the sound is the rock being thrown into the lake, and the ripples are the sound waves. They spread outward and get weaker the further out they go. The air during the day has a fair bit of movement in it. Mostly...	[ "Sound travels about 4.5 times faster in water than in air, and at a similarly higher speed in body tissues, and therefore the interval between a sound reaching the left and right inner ears is much smaller than in air, and the brain is less able to discriminate the interval which is how direction of a sound source...
why do people fight to prohibit publicly funded research into gun violence*, despite funding research into tobacco, food safety, etc? (see comments)	The problem is that the Executive branch and Justice Department wanted the Centers for Disease Control to try to make a criminal justice issue a health issue. The FBI already maintains and provides extensive data about gun violence ages, races, genders, circumstances and weapons used, which is publicly available. The...	[ "Research into gunshot wounds is hampered by lack of funding. Federal-funded research into firearm injury, epidemiology, violence, and prevention is minimal. Pressure from the National Rifle Association, the gun lobby, and some gun owners, expressing concerns regarding increased government controls on freedom and g...
Why is the Florida Coast Darkened?	Don't trust google maps for things like this. Their images are taken from satellites, but its a massive mosaic stitched together from thousands of individual images, taken at different times, all in the hopes of capturing cloudless days. Its likely that area looks different simply because the lighting conditions were ...	[ "The Florida coastline is already experiencing the effects of global warming. It could change the look and appearance of Florida's coastline forever. \"In fact, scientists have already observed changes in Florida consistent with the early effects of global warming: retreating and eroding shorelines, dying coral ree...
Is there a significant correlation between general body size and anus size?	Didn't think I'd be answering something like that today. For the title question, I don't think there is no. And for the prediction question - almost definitely not. The anus is made of soft tissue, which doesn't always scale with size. Of course, small people will have a smaller liver because there's less room, but I ...	[ "After controlling for confounding factors such as evolutionary history, an increase in average body size makes the difference in body size larger if the species has larger males, and smaller if it has larger females. Some studies propose that this is due to sexual bimaturism, which causes male traits to diverge fa...
what is happening under the hood my car that makes it "go" when i press the gas pedal?	Basically controlled explosions. Each car had a certain amount of cylinders ( v6 v8 4 banger etc) that's what people mean when they say that. In each cylinder their is a piston connected to a shaft (crank shaft). Fuel and air are mixed into the cylinder and ignited by a spark plug. The explosion forces the piston down...	[ "The second situation is when the vehicle's wheels are stuck in some type of natural adhesive (mud, sand, snow, etc) and the helpless female sees the only solution is to aggressively hold the gas pedal down in order to force the vehicle free. \n", "To perform a burnout in a rear wheel drive vehicle the driver has...
how do astronomers calculate distance through redshift?	Redshift does not directly indicate the distance but only the relative velocity. Basically, you can calculate what light a star should be sending, based on its mass and you know what you received. The difference in the wavelength is, what the object traveled during the frequency relative to you. I believe you can mode...	[ "Using Hubble's law, the redshift can be used to estimate the distance of an object from Earth. By combining redshift with angular position data, a redshift survey maps the 3D distribution of matter within a field of the sky. These observations are used to measure detailed statistical properties of the large-scale ...
how did whaling work in the age of sail? why couldn't the whales easily escape?	Whales were much more numerous, for starters. Spotting a whale wasn't a rare occurrence. They traveled in great huge pods and were unafraid of men, so it was easier to harpoon one than you might imagine. Later, whaling ships worked together and trapped whales in harbors.	[ "There were several factors that affected the ability of ships to catch whales. These included ice, tides, fog, wind, and competition. They often worked in tandem against them. Ships didn't lower for whales if it was too foggy or too rugged and they collided with each other or the ice due to tides, gales, and fogs....
What were an antebellum Southern slaveholder's most costly investments in his slave "stock?" What kind of agricultural realities made this investment viable?	Slaves were a large investment. The average price of a prime male field hand 20 years old in the decade 1840-1850 was $950 (in 1850 $). (Source: Alfred H. Conrad, John R. Meyer, “The Economics of Slavery in the Ante Bellum South”, The Journal of Political Economy, Volume 66 Issue 2 (April 1958)) Female slaves about ...	[ "He was a planter and slave owner. At the time of the 1820 census, he owned 62 slaves and had extensive plantation near Augusta. He developed it for cotton, the major commodity crop of the Deep South in the antebellum era.\n", "Cockrill was the owner of a cotton plantation in Mississippi, with 135 African slaves ...
why is dog "man's best friend?"	Dogs were really the first animal that man domesticated. Before cattle and other animals for food and work, we domesticated the wolf to be hunting partners! Since we've been selecting which wolves we like best for their depositions for such an extended period of time (maybe 80,000 years? (check)) they are by far more l...	[ "\"Man's best friend\" is a common phrase about domestic dogs, referring to their millennia-long history of close relations, loyalty, and companionship with humans. The first recorded use of a related phrase is by Frederick the Great of Prussia. It was likely popularized by its use in a poem by Ogden Nash and has s...
How does the current pollution levels in Beijing compare to the height of pollution in London during the Industrial Revolution?	I think it's interesting that this thread has diverged from the OP's question about industrial revolution London to 1950s London, and for good reason -- it's a good example of how sources that are better in one area might cause us to change our approach to answering a question to focus on the more documented era. The ...	[ "London had suffered since the 13th century from poor air quality, which worsened in the 1600s, but the Great Smog is known to be the worst air-pollution event in the history of the United Kingdom, and the most significant in terms of its effect on environmental research, government regulation, and public awareness...
What is the coldest temperature you can drink something without harm?	It depends what you are drinking. Honestly, most substances that would stay liquid at temperatures below -30C are probably going to be dangerous to consume at any temperature. There have been specious cases of people who have died drinking super-cooled beer that was liquid at time of drinking and then froze shortly aft...	[ "The actual cause of death in cold or very cold water is usually lethal bodily reactions to increased heat loss and to freezing water, rather than any loss of core body temperature. Of those who die after plunging into freezing seas, around 20% die within 2 minutes from cold shock (uncontrolled rapid breathing and ...
why do i love sleeping so damn much?	It's possible that you're not sleeping enough, or that you're experiencing low-quality sleep. Normal stages of sleep: _URL_0_ If any of these stages are interrupted in any way, you may wake up feeling listless or physically fatigued. In the worst case, you may wake up completely (but temporarily) disoriented and unab...	[ "Kirkham told the \"Yorkshire Post\": \"It's something that's caused me fitful sleep in the time I've been thinking about it. I've no hobby, this is my hobby – it's what I do. I'm an entrepreneur. It's almost as if I can feel the adrenaline running through my veins.\"\n", "The need and function of sleep are among...
why do some english professions have variations for both genders such as "actor/actress" but most don't?	The "-ess" in "actress" and "stewardess" comes from French, as does the related "-ette" (as in "usherette"), while "-trix" (as in "executrix") comes from Latin -- although that one has mostly fallen out of use except in "dominatrix". Mostly, it was words of French or Latin origin that had these endings for the feminin...	[ "After 1660 in England, when women first started to appear on stage, the terms \"actor\" or \"actress\" were initially used interchangeably for female performers, but later, influenced by the French , \"actress\" became the commonly used term for women in theater and film. The etymology is a simple derivation from ...
lebanon and hezbollah? pakistan and taliban? how these political situations work and how they came to be like this? (other examples?)	Lets start off with Lebanon, because I know how that works. Hezbollah is a political party in Lebanon. Lebanon has a parliamentary system that isn't like the American one. They literally do share some portion of the power in the country - but in a "power sharing" sort of way that you would think about between Stat...	[ "Hezbollah () is an Iranian movement formed at the time of the Iranian Revolution to assist the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini and his forces in consolidating power. References in the media or writing are usually made to members of the group—or Hezbollahi—rather than Hezbollah, as Hezbollah is/was not a tightly struct...
body temperature	The specific temperature naturally evolved this way. The higher the temperature, the faster we can move/the faster we can burn calories to do tasks/the better we can fight infections/the more energy we have. At the same time, keeping a higher temperature also requires much more energy present... meaning that we have ...	[ "Normal human body temperature varies slightly from person to person and by the time of day. Consequently, each type of measurement has a range of normal temperatures. The range for normal human body temperatures, taken orally, is (). This means that any oral temperature between is likely to be normal.\n", "Indiv...
Is there a relation between the economic status or education of a person and how strong their accent is?	What's actually happening isn't that one group has an accent and the other doesn't; it's that both groups have an accent, but one of those is elevated as a "normal" dialect. Social separation/isolation leads to linguistic separation. For your primary language, you acquire your language by imitating the speech of other...	[ "Certain accents are perceived to carry more prestige in a society than other accents. This is often due to their association with the elite part of society. For example, in the United Kingdom, Received Pronunciation of the English language is associated with the traditional upper class. The same can be said about ...

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