question stringlengths 3 301 | answer stringlengths 9 26.1k | context list |
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why can certain entities charge a "convenience fee" for paying by credit card when credit card company policy is that the price cannot be more when paying by credit card | Straight up: these entities are violating their contracts with their merchant services provider. There is a maximum fee of $1/transaction that merchants are allowed to charge for Debit transactions, but credit must be the amount of the sale. I don't believe minimum transaction amounts are allowed either. Unfortunately,... | [
"Merchants that accept credit cards must pay interchange fees and discount fees on all credit-card transactions. In some cases merchants are barred by their credit agreements from passing these fees directly to credit card customers, or from setting a minimum transaction amount (no longer prohibited in the United S... |
when someone rubs their fingers together rather forcefully for a while, why does black residue start to appear? | The friction causes your epithelial cells to slough off and the oils combined with sweat and dust and whatever else you might have on your finger (or in the grooves of) accumulate into the dirty looking matter you're asking about.
If in the shower, you can also do this on your body. Some places (like the behind the an... | [
"Another source of contention is that the Brown crime scene fingerprint has the appearance of having been rolled, which is the practice of taking a person's inked finger and rolling it on an index card, and not the smudged, bloody and unreadable print as originally reported. Traditionally, after the fingertip is co... |
Is there anything considered "cutting edge" in history right now? | What this made me think of was using satellites to map old Egyptian pyramids hidden under the sand. In the last decade we've discovered so much we never knew existed by using lasers to "see" what lies beneath. I imagine this will be used everywhere and open up so much about our history. | [
"State-of-the-art (sometimes cutting edge or leading edge) refers to the highest level of general development, as of a device, technique, or scientific field achieved at a particular time. It also refers to such a level of development reached at any particular time as a result of the common methodologies employed a... |
How do (we think) type-II semiconductors work? | I think this is a typo: Type-II **super**conductors? | [
"In solid-state electronics using the proper types and amounts of dopants in semiconductors is what produces the p-type semiconductors and n-type semiconductors that are essential for making transistors and diodes.\n",
"Two unique semiconductors, one n-type and one p-type, are used because they need to have diffe... |
how do companies that sell domains create them, if i decided i wanted to do there job how would i do it? | A group called ICANN (the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) maintains servers all over the globe that tell computers where to look for a .com domain, or a .de domain, or a .us domain, or a .mil domain. Each of those top-level domains has a different *registrar*. The registrar is the organization in c... | [
"Domain name registrants (usually those who register and renew domains as an investment) sometimes \"park\" their domains and allow advertising companies to place ads on their sites in return for per-click payments. These ads are typically driven by pay per click search engines like Google or Yahoo, but ads can som... |
How far can a human being theoretically travel in a lifetime? | See: _URL_0_
It is reckoned that the top achievable velocity for soft fleshy things is about 0.5 c. Above that the diffuse interstellar medium made up mostly of hydrogen will create too much of a radiation problem for the flesh, or even hardened electronics, to handle.
| [
"BULLET::::- Thursday, July 20 travelling beating Axel Fehlau's previous record of 1021.36 km from 1995 setting a new official International Human Powered Vehicle Association, and Guinness world record for the most distance traveled by human power in 24 hours on land.\n",
"Greg Kolodziejzyk set two world records ... |
why does a person feel more pain during a lethal injection execution than an animal being "put to sleep"? | Because drug manufacturers don't want their drugs associated with executions, so they won't sell the drugs used on animals to the state for that purpose. The state has to scrounge up whatever lethal drugs it can that will do the job, and it's usually not the one that are least unpleasant. | [
"Therefore, such effects are not as reliable as physiological effects at stopping people. Animals will not faint or surrender if injured, though they may become frightened by the loud noise and pain of being shot, so psychological mechanisms are generally less effective against non-humans.\n",
"The execution can ... |
formal and informal fallacies | A formal fallacy is an argument where the given information doesn't support the conclusion that is made. An informal fallacy occurs when there is a flaw in the reasoning, but not necessarily with the logic.
Examples:
Formal Fallacy:
> If a computer turns on, then it is working.
>
>
> The computer is working.
... | [
"Fallacies are commonly divided into \"formal\" and \"informal\". A formal fallacy can be expressed neatly in a standard system of logic, such as propositional logic, while an informal fallacy originates in an error in reasoning other than an improper logical form. Arguments containing informal fallacies may be for... |
why, at airport security screenings, do electronics need to be put in a separate tray? can't scanners see through a bag/luggage? | Large batteries and metal bodies of your laptop/tablets block x-rays, making it hard/impossible to see other things in the bag. | [
"Clothing and other organic materials are transparent to millimeter waves of certain frequencies, so a recent application has been scanners to detect weapons and other dangerous objects carried under clothing, for applications such as airport security. Privacy advocates are concerned about the use of this technolog... |
Did the colonisation of Congo by Leopold II benefit the congo in the post-colonial period in terms of infrastructure? | I wrote a fairly lengthy paper on the Congo following decolonization recently, but obviously I’m not flaired so I’m not sure if this will be accepted.
Anyway, I believe most scholars are of the consensus that what occurred in the Congo under Leopoldo was assuredly a genocide. Although maybe not done for traditional r... | [
"Colonial rule in the Congo began in the late 19th century. King Leopold II of Belgium, frustrated by Belgium's lack of international power and prestige, attempted to persuade the Belgian government to support colonial expansion around the largely unexplored Congo Basin. The Belgian government's ambivalence about t... |
why do some meats need to be thoroughly cooked (e.g. chicken) and others can be cooked to varying degrees (e.g. beef) or not at all (e.g. fish)? | Some bacteria can live in chicken (salmonella) that is not found in raw red meat. That's why you have to cook chicken thoroughly.
Fish and seafood have the [anisakis](_URL_0_) parasite, raw fish must be frozen on site at certain very low temperatures (double of your freezer at home) for the parasite to die. If it hasn... | [
"Meat is cooked for four reasons: to tenderise it, to provide additional flavours, to kill harmful bacteria, and to kill parasites such as Trichinella spiralis and Diphyllobothrium. All four can be achieved by cooking meat at high temperature for a short time, and also by cooking at low temperature for a long time.... |
Is LASIK reasonably safe? | As with most surgeries (and it is a surgery), the safety of LASIK depends a lot on the patient.
With modern femtosecond lasers to make the flap and wavefront-guided computer stippling lasers to shape the cornea, the LASIK procedure itself is basically setting the whole thing up and pressing a button.
The critical par... | [
"Complications due to LASIK have been classified as those that occur due to preoperative, intraoperative, early postoperative, or late postoperative sources: According to the UK National Health Service complications occur in fewer than 5% of cases.\n",
"LASIK is most similar to another surgical corrective procedu... |
why can you "brick" phones so easily, but not computers? | Bricking generally means making completely unusable at the hardware level. The reason that computers rarely get bricked is that we RARELY do any manipulation of the computer at the hardware level. To brick a computer, you would need to break the BIOS (Basic Input/Output System) which pretty much no one non-techy mess... | [
"The term \"brick\" has also expanded beyond smartphones to include most non-working consumer electronics, including a game console, router, or other device, that, due to a serious misconfiguration, corrupted firmware, or a hardware problem, can no longer function, hence, is as technologically useful as a brick. Th... |
what is the difference between good and bad welding? | I'm learning this myself as I continue practicing :)
There's alot that can make a weld good or bad. What makes a weld good isn't necessarily how pretty it is, it's mostly about penetration (among other things). Penetration is basically how good of a job you're doing making sure your welding rod is melting into your ... | [
"Welding can be dangerous and unhealthy if the proper precautions are not taken. However, using new technology and proper protection greatly reduces risks of injury and death associated with welding. Since many common welding procedures involve an open electric arc or flame, the risk of burns and fire is significan... |
Is a human closer (in orders of magnitude) to the size of universe or the size of a muon? | In terms of mass we are closer to the size of a muon, which is 1.88x10^-28 kg ,compared to the mass of the observable universe which is 3x10^52 kg | [
"The Huge-LQG is three times longer than, and twice as wide as the Yadav \"et al.\" upper limit to the homogeneity scale, and has therefore been claimed to challenge our understanding of the universe on large scales.\n",
"On January 11, 2013, the discovery of the Huge-LQG was announced by the University of Centra... |
Did the spread of Buddhism nearly cause an economic collapse in Ancient China? | What is clearly true: that Buddhists survived off of the charity of others. that buddhists were at many times free from corvee or taxes. And that many went into the buddhist clergy.
However, whomever told you that this was such a significant number that it was economically traumatic is way way off.
There were freq... | [
"The prominent status of Buddhism in Chinese culture began to decline as the dynasty and central government declined as well during the late 8th century to 9th century. Buddhist convents and temples that were exempt from state taxes beforehand were targeted by the state for taxation. In 845 Emperor Wuzong of Tang f... |
i don't understand how it is possible to cool a car engine with air alone. so how does air-cooled engines work? | There is a lot of air, and the average temperature of the air is suitable for long-term engine operation. It's simply a matter of exchanging the engine heat with enough air. Even liquid cooled engines do this, they use a fluid to move the heat to a radiator and from there into the air. An air cooled engine simply do... | [
"Internal combustion engine cooling uses either air or liquid to remove the waste heat from an internal combustion engine. For small or special purpose engines, cooling using air from the atmosphere makes for a lightweight and relatively simple system. Watercraft can use water directly from the surrounding environm... |
why do us schools have such a ridiculously long summer break? | The tradition is in farming/agriculture. Child labor :) | [
"Schools and universities typically have a summer break to take advantage of the warmer weather and longer days. In almost all countries, children are out of school during this time of year for summer break, although dates vary. In the United States, public schools usually end in late May in Memorial Day weekend, w... |
Why is blasting an earth-ending asteroid into pieces so readily dismissed? | First, not all asteroids are composed of the same material. A primarily rocky asteroid would be affected differently than a primarily metallic asteroid. So you would need to know a lot about the asteroid (density, etc).
Second would be accuracy - you again need a huge amount of data to determine just where the most ... | [
"Laser Ablation is a promising method because it allows an asteroid to be redirected without breaking the asteroid into smaller pieces, each of which may pose its own threat to Earth. The nuclear impactor is another proposed method for deflecting asteroids, but is less promising than laser ablation for both politic... |
Why were there so many one-term presidents between Jackson and Lincoln? | > Were there any historical factors in the antebellum period that caused this, or was it mostly a coincidence?
Hard to say conclusively, given how subjective history is. But one contributing factor no doubt was the rise of slavery and expansion of US territory as sources of political tension (the two were intertwined... | [
"Jackson's popularity with the American public and the vitality of the political movement with which he was associated is confirmed by the fact that no president was again able to secure a majority of the popular vote in two consecutive elections until Ulysses S. Grant in 1872.\n",
"On November 6, 1860, Lincoln w... |
how is it that a cop can testify that a suspect said something incriminating to them and it is admissible, but the cop can't testify that the suspect said something exonerating because it would be hearsay? | It's called an "admission by a party opponent." Basically, the statements of an opposing party in litigation are always admissible and are either an exception to hearsay or not hearsay at all (depending on the jurisdiction). So the prosecution can use the defendant's own statements against him in court (interestingly, ... | [
"An incriminating statement includes any statement that tends to increase the danger that the person making the statement will be accused, charged or prosecuted – even if the statement is true, and even if the person is innocent of any crime. Thus, even a person who is innocent of any crime who testifies truthfully... |
why can't canadians watch/stream the same usa shows online? | Licencing restrictions by the content providers who still operate under a model that continues to artificially divide the planet into discrete entities.
Try [Proxmate.](_URL_0_). | [
"A Canadian network is allowed to override the cable or satellite feed of an American broadcast signal when they air the same program simultaneously, ensuring that the Canadian broadcaster, not the American broadcaster, is able to benefit from the advertising revenue associated with broadcasting to the Canadian aud... |
Why wasn't Prometheus a more worshipped figure in Ancient Greece? | Prometheus did in fact have a cult, but it was a fairly minor one. It's wrong to think that since a figure appears as an important character in folklore he is necessarily an important cult-figure, though--Roman Jupiter, for example, is more or less nonexistent in the corpus of Roman folklore as it exists, unlike other ... | [
"It is understandable that since Prometheus was considered a Titan and not one of the Olympian gods that there would be an absence of evidence, with the exception of Athens, for the direct religious devotion to his worship. Despite his importance to the myths and imaginative literature of ancient Greece, the religi... |
Why Italy wasn't occupied by the Allies after WWII, compared to Germany/Austria or Japan? | The short answer is because the Italians themselves had defenestrated Mussolini and the Fascists before fighting alongside the Allies in a civil war to take their country back from Nazi Germany.
The long answer is that Italy *was* occupied by the Allied forces after World War II, but that it was a much more kind occup... | [
"Italy, an Axis power, invaded Greece in the Greco-Italian War of 1940–41, but it was only with German intervention that the Axis succeeded in controlling Greece. Italian forces were part of the Axis occupation of Greece.\n",
"Italy now effectively became an occupied country, as the Germans poured in troops, alth... |
Why are diesel engines preferred over petrol in heavy towing/moving applications? | Diesel is preferred for the following:
* Better gas mileage
* Power (torque) is maximized at a lower RPM setting (compression 17:1 vs. 9:1 for gas) reducing wear & tear on engine.
* Longevity favors Diesel Engines
I'm sure others will chime in soon; I work on airplanes, haha. | [
"In North America, diesel engines are primarily used in large trucks, where the low-stress, high-efficiency cycle leads to much longer engine life and lower operational costs. These advantages also make the diesel engine ideal for use in the heavy-haul railroad and earthmoving environments.\n",
"Many modern diese... |
why is it a bad thing if companies and apps collect my data? | > What's the big deal if you ain't got anything to hide?
Your phone knows where it is every second of the day. It knows when you're driving, when you're working, when you're sleeping, etc. It knows when you're goofing off instead of working, and if you have a voice assistant turned on it listens to everything that ... | [
"BULLET::::- Every time a credit card or a store loyalty card is being used, or a warranty card is being filled, data is being collected about the user's behavior. Many people find the amount of information stored about us from companies, such as Google, Facebook, and Amazon, disturbing and are concerned about priv... |
If someone is born with polydactyly (extra fingers) and get the extra finger removed, do they experience phantom limb syndrome? | No, they wouldn't. Phantom limb comes after the brain has dedicated a small region of the somatosensory cortex to a corresponding body part, and that happens throughout the course of childhood. Kids can even lose entire limbs, not just digits, and not get phantom limb. | [
"For many years, the dominant hypothesis for the cause of phantom limbs was irritation in the peripheral nervous system at the amputation site (neuroma.) By the late 1980s, Ronald Melzack had recognized that the peripheral neuroma account could not be correct, because many people born without limbs also experienced... |
Why does blood turn red when it's oxygen depleted and blue when it's oxygen rich? | Blood is never blue, it's your veins that are blue(ish). [A source](_URL_0_) (not a great one). | [
"The color of human blood ranges from bright red when oxygenated to a darker red when deoxygenated. It owes its color to hemoglobin, to which oxygen binds. Deoxygenated blood is darker due to the difference in shape of the red blood cell when hemoglobin binds to it (oxygenated) verses does not bind to it (deoxygena... |
How exactly does this work? Anti-gravity magnets in a copper pipe. | Copper is not ferromagnetic, but it is a conductor. When a conductor moves through a magnetic field (or a magnetic field moves around a conductor) such as in a case of a permanent magnet falling down a copper pipe -- [eddy currents are generated.](_URL_0_). The eddy currents create a fairly strong opposing electromagne... | [
"Currents bound inside the atoms of strong magnets can create counter-rotating currents in a copper or aluminum pipe. This is shown by dropping the magnet through the pipe. The descent of the magnet inside the pipe is observably slower than when dropped outside the pipe.\n",
"Most often, magnet wire is composed o... |
Did any of the Crusades help the Byzantine Empire in any way? | The first Crusade actually liberated some cities for the Byzantines so they did gain some land. Originally the Crusaders agreed to give all conquered territory to the Byzantines but after the first couple of cities fell they reneged on that promise (the Byzantines also failed to support the Crusaders with an army that ... | [
"During the course of the war, the Seljuq Turks and their allies attacked the Fatimid Caliphate of Egypt, capturing Jerusalem and catalyzing the call for the First Crusade. Crusader assistance to the Byzantine Empire was mixed with treachery and looting, although substantial gains were made in the First Crusade. Wi... |
How/Why did the eagle become the symbol of Rome | The eagle or aquila as it was called in Latin, was actually just one of five animals used to represent Rome as part of their standards. Pliny the Elder mentions five animals being used to represent Rome, the eagle, wolf, boar, minotaur, and the horse. At Gaius Marius' second consulship those present decided that the ea... | [
"The eagle is the symbol used to depict John the Apostle, whose writing is said to most clearly witness the light and divinity of Christ. In art, John, as the presumed author of the Gospel, is often depicted with an eagle, which symbolizes the height to which he rose in the first chapter of his gospel. The eagle ca... |
Is there such a thing as a real-life self-destruct? | After the Germans signed the Armistice on 11/11/1918 their High Seas Fleet sailed to Scapa Flow where it was interred under the guns of the Royal Navy. When the negotiations of the Treaty of Versailles were finished, the High Seas Fleet was supposed to be broken up and pa... | [
"Self-destruct mechanisms are frequent plot devices in science fiction stories, such as those in the \"\" fictional universe, or the \"Alien\" universe. They are applied to military installations and starships which would be too valuable to allow an enemy to capture. An artificial intelligence may invoke self-destr... |
why are car wheels so much smaller than bicycle wheels? | While you are correct that all else being equal, bigger wheels are harder to push but make the vehicle go faster, most vehicles use gearing to have any overall ratio they want (the ratio between the speed of whatever the power source is and the wheels), making that issue obsolete. The main reason why cars generally use... | [
"Smaller wheels are more maneuverable. For this reason, and in some cases for comic effect, they are used in some clown bicycles. Smaller wheels more faithfully follow the terrain, giving a harsher ride on bumpy roads that are effectively smoothed by larger ones. It may be desirable for bicycles with smaller wheels... |
how did they make the first operating system without an o.s to build it on/with? | In the early days of computing, the "operating system" (although it wasn't usually called that) was programmed into ROM - Read Only Memory. When the computer was turned on, it would read the instructions in this memory and execute them. There was no way of changing what was in this memory.
So the first things that loo... | [
"The first operating system used for real work was GM-NAA I/O, produced in 1956 by General Motors' Research division for its IBM 704. Most other early operating systems for IBM mainframes were also produced by customers.\n",
"The first operating system publicly released by the company was a variant of Unix announ... |
why is it when windows predicts a time to completion for moving a file it's often off by a magnitude of 10? | Say a friend asks you to buy 50 lb of food and hands you a shopping list. You go to the supermarket, read the items on the list line by line, and it says:
- 1 lb of white rice
- 1 lb of white rice
- 1 lb of white rice
Then your friend calls you and asks how long you're going to need. So far it has taken you 3 secon... | [
"A file's access time identifies when the file was most recently opened for reading. Access times are usually updated even if only a small portion of a large file is examined. A running program can maintain a file as \"open\" for some time, so the time at which a file was opened may differ from the time data was mo... |
why do photographers who take ages like mr mcfadyen to get the perfect shot, don't just use a videocamera? | Still photos can be much higher resolution since the camera doesn't have to process 24 FPS or anything.
The shutter speed is also much more customizable. The lower shutter speed required for video creates motion blur between frames. This can be desired in video but the sharpness of a still frame with a fast shutte... | [
"Some of these disadvantages can be viewed as advantages. For example, slow setup and composure time allow the photographer to better visualize the image before making an exposure. The shallow depth of field can be used to emphasize certain details and deemphasize others (in bokeh style, for example), especially co... |
Old Western movies have the “Wanted Dead or Alive” posters for outlaws plastered all over town. Now-a-days, there are rewards for fugitive capture but not kill, for that is now murder. When was the last time the US government actually encouraged people to go out and kill fugitives for a reward? | This is a question that has come up before, and while definitely more can be said, [this previous thread](_URL_0_) I suspect will be of interest at least as a starting point, especially the comments from /u/amescg . | [
"Like many American films of the time, \"The Mysterious Outlaw\" was subject to cuts by city and state film censorship boards. The Chicago Board of Censors required cuts of all details of the prisoner Buck Lessen escaping from jail, including the attack on the guard, changing clothes, and the outlaw jumping from th... |
how can parrots live so long. | While it's usually the large parrots that have very long lives, birds in general live longer than mammals of similar sizes. There are a few ways birds do this:
The simplest to realise is that they can fly away from predators (who often can't fly).
On a genetic level, birds have gained a lot of ways to resist the agei... | [
"Some large parrot species, including large cockatoos, amazons, and macaws, have very long lifespans, with 80 years being reported, and record ages of over 100. Small parrots, such as lovebirds, hanging parrots, and budgies, have shorter lifespans up to 15–20 years. Some parrot species can be quite loud, and many o... |
Did General George B. McClellan prolong the American Civil War? | Certainly so - he had many opportunities to crush the enemy as Lincoln requested, but his timidness let him down time and time again. I recommend James M. McPherson's *Battle Cry of Freedom* to display his numerous faults as a commander.
For example he had an opportunity to make an assault upon Richmond during... | [
"George B. McClellan (1826–1885) rose to prominence as a major general during the Civil War who organized the Army of the Potomac. Although he was unsuccessful in early battles, the Union victory at the Battle of Antietam temporarily halted the Confederate invasion of the northern states. He was later removed from ... |
When did our understanding of the Holocaust go from it being a series of individual events to it being viewed as a systemic, highly mechanized system of murder? | Holocaust literally translates from the Greek to "whole burnt". [This link](_URL_0_) explains in detail how the term comes about. *The* Holocaust was discerned early on, however the term holocaust has been used throughout history to describe precisely what is: the systematic destruction of people. From the article:... | [
"Responsibility for the Holocaust is the subject of an ongoing historical debate that has spanned several decades. The debate about the origins of the Holocaust is known as functionalism versus intentionalism. Intentionalists such as Lucy Dawidowicz argue that Adolf Hitler planned the extermination of the Jewish pe... |
Many of the medications used to treat bi-polar disorder were originally intended and are still used in treating epilepsy. Is there some sort of connection between the two? | Maybe. The medications used to treat epilepsy work because they essentially make it harder for a neuron to "fire" ([action potential](_URL_0_)). No one truly knows what happens in Bipolar disorder (not hyphenated, btw), but a similar governance of the action potential has been found to reduce episodes of both mania an... | [
"The use of antipsychotics, such as haloperidol and olanzapine, have provided complete relief of symptoms in case-reports. The evidence for the use of benzodiazepines, such as lorazepam, has shown mixed results. Other drug treatments that have been tried, with unclear efficacy, include neurokinin-1 receptor antagon... |
In what way was did Chilean coup d'etat in 1973 affect the Cold War? | The US did achieve their goal of removing a Socialist government in South America in order to install a more Capitalist and American-friendly (albeit very authoritarian and repressive).
The US government's role in ousting Allende and supporting Pinochet caused severe tension with The USSR at a time when the two count... | [
"The 1973 Chilean coup d'état was a watershed moment in both the history of Chile and the Cold War. Following an extended period of social unrest and political tension between the opposition-controlled Congress of Chile and the socialist President Salvador Allende, as well as economic warfare ordered by US Presiden... |
What supplies did the first Australian settlers have when they arrived in Sydney Cove in 1788? | The First Fleet consisted of 11 ships:
* 2 navy ships, for carrying officers and staff;
* 6 convict transport ships;
* 3 supply ships.
Lieutenant Philip G. King (later Governor of New South Wales), who travelled on the fleet as part of Governor Phillip’s staff, recorded that the transport and supply ships carried ... | [
"In the early days of the colony at Sydney Cove in Australia, the merchant Robert Campbell was one of the first merchants to attempt to trade, but lacked sufficient currency. When he first sailed into Sydney aboard his company's ship the \"Hunter\" in 1798, Campbell was forced to sell his first consignment of goods... |
Are there any plants in the world that produce heat as a part of their regular chemical reactions? | Although /u/heap-o-sheep answered the question in the literal sense, there are plants that can produce considerable amounts of heat. [Eastern skunk cabbage](_URL_1_), for example, produces enough heat to melt the snow above it in early spring, allowing it to get a head-start on growth compared to other plants. Wikipe... | [
"Thermogenic plants have the ability to raise their temperature above that of the surrounding air. Heat is generated in the mitochondria, as a secondary process of cellular respiration called thermogenesis. Alternative oxidase and uncoupling proteins similar to those found in mammals enable the process, which is st... |
If the Earth had the gravity of the moon, would falling of the top of the Empire State Building kill a human? | **Short answer:** A faller's impact speed would be about 50 mph in moon gravity, as opposed to 122 mph in earth gravity. This is survivable.
**Long answer:** Moon surface gravity is 1.6 m/s^2 which is about 15% of earth surface gravity, 9.8 m/s^(2).
Taking all other things to be equal (for example assume we're still ... | [
"Evidence from the Moon indicates that from 4 to 3.8 Ga it suffered a Late Heavy Bombardment by debris that was left over from the formation of the Solar System, and the Earth should have experienced an even heavier bombardment due to its stronger gravity. While there is no direct evidence of conditions on Earth 4 ... |
How did upper classes have an 'advantage' when voting during the Roman Republic? | You're not thinking about this quite right. The *comitia centuriata* did not divide the centuries up evenly. The first centuries had far fewer members than the lower centuries, but still accounted for exactly the same weight at the vote. /u/LegalAction made up a nice little [diagram](_URL_0_) (which I hope he doesn't m... | [
"Elections in the Roman Republic were an essential part to its governance, with participation only being afforded to Roman citizens. Upper class interests, centered in the urban political environment of cities, often trumped the concerns of the diverse and disunified lower class; while at times, those already in po... |
what has to be done to a minecraft mod to make it work with a new version of the game? | This may be better suited in /r/minecraft | [
"Around November 2011, the mod \"Forge\" was released. Rather than adding new gameplay features to \"Minecraft\", \"Forge\" allowed players to be able to run several client-side mods simultaneously. Before becoming compatible with \"Forge\", \"IndustrialCraft\" and \"BuildCraft\" would not run side-by-side, because... |
Question about Hydrogenated Oils / "Trans Fat" | When you *completely* hydrogenate oil, it turns in to completely normal saturated fat. However, trans-fats are mono- or poly-unsaturated (or, as we're used to seeing on the label, "partially hydrogenated" oils). They have different chemical properties than their geometric isomers cis-fats (which are the ones that are... | [
"In the United States, partial hydrogenation has been common as a result of preference for domestically produced oils. However, since the mid-1990s, many countries have started to move away from using partially hydrogenated oils. This led to the production of new margarine varieties that contain less or no trans fa... |
Do animals pet humans or other animals? Or is petting other animals an exclusively human behavior? | There's a lot of animals that show affection and grooming behavior to other species, including repetitive contact over shoulders/head/back. I'm not aware of any species that spontaneously pet, but I suspect that's because the majority of animals aren't easily equipped to pet. But if you widen the definition to includ... | [
"PETA is an animal rights organization and, as such, it rejects speciesism and also opposes the use and abuse of animals in any way, as food, clothing, entertainment, or research subjects. One oft-cited quote of Newkirk's is: \"When it comes to feelings like hunger, pain, and thirst, a rat is a pig is a dog is a bo... |
Is the generation of fossil fuels inevitable on a planet with life? | There are many parts of the world where fossil fuels didn't form because the right conditions didn't exist. For fossil fuels to form you need large amounts of biomatter to be placed in an anoxic (no oxygen) environment, and then buried and placed under great pressure. In most cases when plants and animals die that does... | [
"Fossil fuels such as coal and oil are made primarily of plant material that was deposited millions of years ago. This period of time equates to thousands of half-lives of C, so essentially all of the C in fossil fuels has decayed. Fossil fuels also are depleted in C relative to the atmosphere, because they were or... |
How do drugs which act on serotonin receptors treat disorders of the nervous system? | Good question, though the answer isn't entirely well understood.
Many neurological problems (i.e. depression, OCD, general anxiety disorder, etc.) involve low levels of certain types of neurotransmitters, including serotonin. Since SSRIs (Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors) increase levels of extracellular serot... | [
"Drugs that alter serotonin levels are used in treating depression, generalized anxiety disorder and social phobia. Monoamine oxidase inhibitors (MAOIs) prevent the breakdown of monoamine neurotransmitters (including serotonin), and therefore increase concentrations of the neurotransmitter in the brain. MAOI therap... |
Will an EMP effect electronics that are powered off and have no iron derivatives in them? | Yes. An electromagnetic pulse would be picked up by any conductor within range. In some cases, like a piece of rebar holding down a parking lot bumper, this doesn't really matter too much; the rebar could care less about having a (comparatively small) current run down it.
Electronics, on the other hand, contain ... | [
"An energetic EMP can temporarily upset or permanently damage electronic equipment by generating high voltage and high current surges; semiconductor components are particularly at risk. The effects of damage can range from imperceptible to the eye, to devices literally blowing apart. Cables, even if short, can act ... |
Why do milk or sugary drinks cause thicker saliva? | I conducted a pretty thorough literature review to determine why exactly thicker saliva secretions are related to ingestion of some foods and drinks but not others. Apparently there's a **lot** of research out there on saliva.
I finally hit paydirt with this study: *The influence of beverages on the stimulation and v... | [
"Saliva acts as a buffer, regulating the pH when acidic drinks are ingested. Drinks vary in their resistance to the buffering effect of saliva. Studies show that fruit juices are the most resistant to saliva's buffering effect, followed by, in order: fruit-based carbonated drinks and flavoured mineral waters, non-f... |
would democracy benefit if lobbying and lobbyists were made illegal in the united states? | I've worked for very large companies that do big and bad things and also provide the means to do big and sometimes bad things. Oil companies, weapons makers, utilities, insurance--and I never met anyone that I would call evil. Most of those companies actually talk with their employees about what their lobbying is attem... | [
"Lobbying has been the subject of much debate and discussion. There is general consensus that lobbying has been a significant corrupting influence in American politics, although criticism is not universal, and there have been arguments put forward to suggest that the system is working properly.\n",
"It has been a... |
Could intelligent life that evolved in an aquatic environment develop sophisticated technology? | I don't think there is an answer to this question that isn't speculation. | [
"Biologists have found extremophiles that thrive in ice, boiling water, acid, alkali, the water core of nuclear reactors, salt crystals, toxic waste and in a range of other extreme habitats that were previously thought to be inhospitable for life. This opened up a new avenue in astrobiology by massively expanding t... |
if i place both waters into a bucket from where the two oceans meet but don’t mix, why do they mix just fine in the bucket? | The idea of "two oceans meet but don't mix" is more or less a myth. Most of the pictures of this you see on the Internet are at rivermouths or headlands, where a sharp contrast between water types is visible ... but it mixes away pretty quickly.
Tom Scott did a video on this recently.
_URL_0_ | [
"Consider the situation in which a large container is filled with two separated liquids, for example a dye on one side and water on the other. With no barrier between the two liquids, the random jostling of their molecules will result in them becoming more mixed as time passes. However, if the dye and water are mix... |
Is every neuron in the body indirectly connected to every other neuron? | There are nerve cells like Ganglions; Ganglions are collections of nerve cell bodies outside the central nervous system and their nuclei are used for collections of neurons inside. However, these ultimately are used as part of the signals to the central nervous system... so it depends on how loose or tight of a defi... | [
"Neurons communicate with each another via synapses, where either the axon terminal of one cell contacts another neuron's dendrite, soma or, less commonly, axon. Neurons such as Purkinje cells in the cerebellum can have over 1000 dendritic branches, making connections with tens of thousands of other cells; other ne... |
why do some people have the mindset that only a race that is "in power"/majority can be racist? | This is part of the jargon used in sociology, ethnic studies, in related fields, where it is useful to distinguish between oppression of groups with low social status versus the general concept of racial prejudice. Unfortunately, some people do not understand that language is context-dependent, and try to assert that t... | [
"Yet, according to Seidman, Whites are most commonly unaware of their privilege and the manner in which their culture has always been dominant in the US, as they do not identify as members of a specific racial group but rather incorrectly perceive their views and culture as \"raceless\", when in fact it is ethno-na... |
the black hole mathematical debunk. | Basically, physicists work with two different sets of theories. Quantum mechanics for the very small, and relativity for the very large. One of the biggest mysteries at the moment is that these two theories are not compatible with each other. Though quantum mechanical laws give very accurate readings for small objects,... | [
"Black Hole is a solitaire card game that is akin to Golf and Tri Peaks, but its tableau is somewhat like that of La Belle Lucie. Invented by David Parlett, this game's objective is to compress the entire deck into one foundation.\n",
"Mathur's research is focused on string theory, black holes, the AdS/CFT corres... |
if fevers are how our bodies fight infections and over the counter pain meds like tylenol are fever reducers, do they make it take longer to get better? | Yes. A fever (within reason) is a good thing. Tylenol makes you feel better, a fever helps you get better. | [
"Treatment consists of rest, non-weightbearing and painkillers when needed. A small study showed that the nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug ibuprofen could shorten the disease course (from 4.5 to 2 days) and provide pain control with minimal side effects (mainly gastrointestinal disturbances). If fever occurs or ... |
Do larger people have larger organs? | Yes. It all starts with your skeleton. A larger frame needs larger muscles to move it. Larger muscles will need more nourishment. This leads to a larger digestive tract and a circulatory system with more volume. A larger circulatory system has more RBC's which need a larger spleen to filter them, has more fluid which n... | [
"These areas were said to be proportional to a person's propensities. The importance of an organ was derived from relative size compared to other organs. It was believed that the cranial skull—like a glove on the hand—accommodates to the different sizes of these areas of the brain, so that a person's capacity for a... |
Have other countries ever tried to sanction the United States government for its foreign policy acts? | The Russian boycott of the 1984 Olympics in LA might fit your criteria. The US boycotted the olympics in he USSR because of Russia's invasion of Afghanistan. The USSR responded 4 years later by boycotting the LA OlympicsThe USSR announced its intentions to boycott the 1984 Summer Olympics on May 8, 1984, citing securit... | [
"The American foreign policy expert George Kennan, serving at the time as ambassador to Yugoslavia, sought unsuccessfully to dissuade President John F. Kennedy from proclaiming the week on the ground that the United States had no reason to make the resolution, which in effect called for the overthrow of all the gov... |
How did scientist succeed to create an acoustic black hole ? | Very good question!
First off, there are two very different things that could be referred to as acoustic black holes. The first is called a "[Sonic Black Hole](_URL_7_)," and this is made by having a fluid that moves faster than the speed of sound in the medium. The second is actually called an "[Acoustic Black Hole](... | [
"Acoustic black holes were first theorized to be useful by William Unruh in 1981. However, the first black hole analogue was not created in a laboratory until 2009. It was created in a rubidium Bose–Einstein condensate using a technique called density inversion. This technique creates a flow by repelling the conden... |
how is polyester soft when it's basically plastic? | From my understanding- fiber size. Bending a solid steel cylinder is a lot more difficult than bending a woven steel cable. The fabric might be essentially plastic, but it's a bunch of small plastic threads knit together. | [
"Materials used for the plastic are often polyurethanes or epoxy resins. Both of these are soft and malleable before curing, becoming much harder after setting. Materials used for fibers vary extensively, although common choices are carbon or Kevlar fibers, as well as organic fibers, such as hemp.\n",
"Plastics a... |
the concept of falsifiability. i just can't understand it. | Falsifiability is a property of a statement about the world. It was proposed by Karl Popper as a way to tell scientific statements from metaphysical statements. If a statement is falsifiable, it is part of science. If it is not, it is not. That doesn't mean it's wrong or stupid, it just means it's not science.
So spe... | [
"Falsifiability is defined strictly in terms of the logical form of the theory, but this criterion of demarcation can not work without being complemented by methodological rules. Thus, contemporary philosophers consider that Popper's demarcation criterion has two parts: the logical part (stated in terms of rules of... |
in movies and tv shows that have fake pop music, where do they get the songs? | Sometimes archived, sometimes a small band doing it free for exposure. Sometimes from a site, there are free royalty-free ones but even a small studio can afford the subscription only ones.
As an amatuer filmaker, I also have friends that play instruments and they have made music soundtracks for me before.
With old... | [
"Music for the film was curated by the all-female, five-piece rock band, Fake Club. The band appeared in the film, performing music of their own writing, including some songs created specifically for the film. Fake Club members were also responsible for the selection of all other tracks used in the film. The soundt... |
What is the most realistic documentary/drama/film that you've seen which reflects how medieval people actually looked? | The film version of *The Name of the Rose*. | [
"BULLET::::- Medieval Studies at the Movies: An Online Reference Guide to Medieval Subjects on Film and Television (maintained by The Virtual Society for the Study of Popular Culture and the Middle Ages)\n",
"Until the publication of Kevin J. Harty's book \"The Reel Middle Ages\" (1999) there had been no comprehe... |
Today is the 73rd anniversary of D-Day: what was the main factor for Allied victory? | Logistics and economics.
The overall GDP of the Allies, with the US in the war, was much greater than of the Axis. Moreover, the Allies knew how to play to their logistical strengths. The US cranked out more tonnage in new merchant ships than, say, the Japanese ever had. The US supplied the Soviets with trucks, railro... | [
"In \"D-Day\", Murray looks at the opening phase of the Allied invasion of Normandy, and the battles on the crucial east flank by British forces, designed to allow the securing of the critical objective of the city of Caen, key to controlling Normandy.\n",
"D-Day for the invasion of Normandy by the Allies was ori... |
What was the shortest recorded distance between two opposing trenches during WW1? | Multiple Australian historians (from Ekins, Carlyon and even Bean himself) have cited localised areas in the AIF's area of operations (so "British" sectors) distances as short as 50-60 yards in some cases. Not a Western Front example but the distance between AIF/British trenches and Turkish at Quinn's Post during the G... | [
"In the decade leading up to World War II, the French built the Maginot Line, based on their experience with trench warfare in World War I. The Maginot Line was an extensive state-of-the-art defensive system far superior to any previous trench system: a chain of massive constructions of concrete, iron, and steel fo... |
why do some websites only show you the price of an item after you put it in your cart? | They do that to avoid running afoul of manufacturer set minimum prices. Manufacturers of premium goods, generally sell them in expensive retail outlets (with skilled sales staff). If customers go to the store and take lots of staff time to make a decision but buy on a cheaper Amazon the retailers will go broke, and m... | [
"When shopping online, it can be more difficult to negotiate price given that you are not directly interacting with a sales person. Some consumers use price comparison services to locate the best price and/or to make a decision about who or where to buy from to save money.\n",
"Prices are generated by the pricing... |
Why don't we pull energy from the ionosphere like Tesla suggested? | AFAIK Tesla built that tower for _transmitting_ power wirelessly. And we do transmit power wirelessly by bouncing it off the ionosphere, in long-wave radio transmissions.
As explained here (search threads) and other science sites countless times, this is not a practical way to transmit power for actual devices. The c... | [
"By the mid-1890s, Tesla was working on the idea that he might be able to conduct electricity long distance through the Earth or the atmosphere, and began working on experiments to test this idea including setting up a large resonance transformer magnifying transmitter in his East Houston Street lab. Seeming to bor... |
Seems like a lot of the pictures coming from the Curiosity Rover are colour corrected. What colour would Mars be to the naked eye? | The Mars sky would look reddish to the human eye, or at least that's the best approximation. [Due to how digital photography works](_URL_0_), it can actually be pretty difficult to tell sometimes.
They believe it would be reddish due to the absorption of sunlight in the 0.4-0.6 µm range by dust particles as well as t... | [
"Generating accurate true-color images from Mars's surface is surprisingly complicated. To give but one aspect to consider, there is the Purkinje effect: the human eye's response to color depends on the level of ambient light; red objects appear to darken faster than blue objects as the level of illumination goes d... |
(Biology) How is it someone can be allergic to shrimp but not any other seafood? | [Allergies occur when your immune system reacts strongly to an epitope (protein shape) that isn't actually harmful](_URL_0_).
Similar species contain many proteins that are highly homologous (same sequence, evolutionarily descended from the protein in a common ancestor), these may have shared epitopes in that the prot... | [
"A seafood allergy is a hypersensitivity to an allergen which can be present in fish, and particularly in shellfish. This can result in an overreaction of the immune system and lead to severe physical symptoms. Most people who have a food allergy also have a seafood allergy. Allergic reactions can result from inges... |
Could a space vehicle, such as the Shuttle, eliminate its need for a heat shield if it reduced its orbital speed via thrust, and plummeted back to earth via gravitational pull alone? | It's very possible to re-enter without needing a heat shield, you would just need to continue using your thruster/engine all the way down to stop yourself from falling too quickly and picking up speed. A powered descent like that is of course highly inefficient so isn't done in practice when you can use the atmosphere ... | [
"Crewed space vehicles must be slowed to subsonic speeds before parachutes or air brakes may be deployed. Such vehicles have kinetic energies typically between 50 and 1,800 megajoules, and atmospheric dissipation is the only way of expending the kinetic energy. The amount of rocket fuel required to slow the vehicle... |
if bleach removes color from fabric/surfaces, how come the sponges i use to scrub with bleach don't end up all faded and splotchy? | Bleach lifts stains out of natural fibres, while synthetics with colour as part of their makeup resist.
Take cotton and polyester for example.
Take a sample of each and drop em in bleach overnight. By morning the cotton will be gone and the bleach untouched.
It's less to do with design and more to do with chemical r... | [
"If white paper is desired, bleaching uses peroxides or hydrosulfites to increase the brightness of the pulp. The bleaching methods are similar for mechanical pulp, but the goal is to make the fiber brighter.\n",
"Chlorine-based bleaches have been used since the late 18th century to whiten cotton and linen clothe... |
Will we have Caprica style virtual reality in our lifetime? | I haven't watched Caprica, but I'm assuming that you mean nearly-completely convincing representations of the world generated in real time. This is very difficult to put odds on. I don't work on interfaces, and I don't know a ton about what's happening there, so for this post I'm just going to make the unicorns-and-rai... | [
"Virtual reality is referred to as \"oneirochronon\", a Greek-rooted word literally meaning \"dream time\". The \"Hyperlogos\" stores all human knowledge on gigantic servers placed inside Earth's moon and the moons of other planets. The device used for the interface is a tiny implant called a \"reno\", suggesting a... |
how do stores constantly get away with false advertising? | There's a legal concept called "mere puffery." Basically, claims that are unreasonable or clearly just brags are not taken as statements of fact. One of the more famous cases of puffery is *Leonard v. Pepsico*, in which someone tried to redeem 7 million Pepsi Points (purchased for $700,000) for a Harrier jet, as depict... | [
"Marketing becomes a problem because some users operate online stores by using their Wechat accounts. To advertise goods, viral marketing methods including utilizing acquaintances network and posting advertisements several times a day in Moments are widely used. However, the existence of commercial advertising impa... |
Was it common to play dead in Middle Age wars in Europe? | It's not impossible, but it would be a poor decision if you wanted to have a good chance of survival. The dead and wounded were not sacrosanct on the medieval battlefield. Soldiers would pick through bodies to loot the dead or find wounded who could be captured and ransomed. Quite often, wounded soldiers would be finis... | [
"The Thirty Years' War was Europe's deadliest religious conflict. In the Battle of Lützen, 47 soldiers perished and were buried in a mass grave. Archaeological and osteological analyses found that the soldiers ranged in age from 15–50 years. Most corpses had evidence of blunt force trauma to the head while seven me... |
Would a glass with a textured inside help a carbonated drink last longer before going flat? | Arguably, a textured glass would make your soda go flat faster. The irregular geometry would promote nucleation sites for the CO2 bubbles. To make your drink stay carbonated longer, the smoother the better.
Edit: typos | [
"Pouring sparkling wine while tilting the glass at an angle and gently sliding in the liquid along the side will preserve the most bubbles, as opposed to pouring directly down to create a head of \"mousse\", according to a study, \"On the Losses of Dissolved CO during Champagne serving\", by scientists from the Uni... |
On a tactical level, did infantry in feudal Japan (from the ashigaru to the samurai themselves) use battle tactics and formations? If so, what did they do? | They did use formations. At the onset of the Sengoku Jidai, spears replaced mounted archery as the dominant form of fighting on Japanese battlefields. I don't know if you've ever fought with a spear but one on one it's a bit difficult to use at best, so formation fighting was simply better than non formation fighting... | [
"In Classical Japan, the Japanese style of warfare was generally fast-moving and aggressive, with far shallower formations than their European equivalents. The naginata and yari were more commonly used than swords for Japanese ashigaru foot soldiers and dismounted samurai due to their greater reach. Naginata, first... |
why is it that when one eats quickly, they get a stomachache ? | Your tummy and intestines need time to sort out and process what you're eating. Like on an assembly line, if the speed of the line is too quick for each station to properly assemble or modify the item, the final product has too much or too little of something it may need. So when you eat too fast, you might not have en... | [
"Food allergies can have fast onset (from seconds to one hour) or slow onset (from hours to several days) depending on mechanism. Symptoms may include: rash, hives, itching of mouth, lips, tongue, throat, eyes, skin, or other areas, swelling of lips, tongue, eyelids, or the whole face, difficulty swallowing, runny ... |
What is the most complex entity whose central nervous system can be currently simulated by a computer? | The answer really hinges on what you mean by "simulate". Let's start with the basics: how does one simulate a single neuron?
There are mathematical models that have been developed to describe how the average cell body voltage of a neuron changes over time, beginning with the famous [Hodkin-Huxley model](_URL_0_), whic... | [
"Nervous systems differ from the majority of silicon-based computing devices in that they resemble analog computers (not digital data processors) and massively parallel processors, not sequential processors. To model nervous systems accurately, in real-time, alternative hardware is required.\n",
"A current exampl... |
Greek inscriptions | The standard collections of translated Greek inscriptions from the Archaic and Classical periods are:
* R. Meiggs/D. Lewis, *A Selection of Greek Historical Inscriptions to the End of the Fifth Century BC* (revised ed. 1989)
* C.W. Fornara, *Archaic Times to the End of the Peloponnesian War* (2nd ed. 1997)
* P. Hard... | [
"The earliest known inscriptions in Greek tend to identify or explain the object on which they are inscribed. Possibly the earliest known Greek inscription is found on a jug from the first half of the eighth century BC, discovered in Osteria dell'Osa in Latium. Most early inscriptions were written in verse, though ... |
what is the basis of 'open source' when referring to games, i generally see this comment about older games. | Open source refers to the license used for the distribution of the software/game/intellectual-property. Typically open-source means that you can modify and and redistribute the software as long as you retain attribution to former others and also redistribute the source code. The most common licenses (google away!) fo... | [
"Some of the open-source game projects are based on formerly proprietary games, whose source code was released as open-source software, while the game content (such as graphics, audio and levels) may or may not be under a free license. Examples include \"Warzone 2100\" (a real-time strategy game) and \"Micropolis\"... |
how a video game fits on a disk when only 15 songs can fit on it | PlayStation 1 games came on CDs. Let's compare the contents of an audio CD to those from a PlayStation 1 game CD.
An audio CD contains stereo sound encoded as 16-bit, 48kHz PCM. That means for every second of audio there are 48000 pairs of numbers where each number needs 2 bytes. So, 48000x2x2 = 192,000 bytes per s... | [
"There are 34 songs in the game: a song played during the opening video and on the game menu; 15 main songs played during levels; 16 very sort songs (about 7 seconds long) played when levels are loading; a song played on 'bonus levels'; and a closing song.\n",
"The game shipped with 30 songs on disc, with the abi... |
In terms of a percentage, how much oil is left in the ground compared to how much there was when we first started using it as a fuel? | Estimates vary wildly, especially for [how much we've used so far](_URL_1_), but they say we've used up to 1 trillion barrels and have 1.5 trillion left that we think we can get to with current technology. [Here's a video](_URL_0_) with some additional sources in the description. | [
"In regard to fossil fuels, when oil was originally discovered, it took on average one barrel of oil to find, extract, and process about 100 barrels of oil. The ratio, for discovery of fossil fuels in the United States, has declined steadily over the last century from about 1000:1 in 1919 to only 5:1 in the 2010s.\... |
why do amish think that 17th century had an ideal technology for a pure christian life? | The Amish do not universally shun modern technology, it can vary between groups and communities. There are Amish who drive cars and use voicemail. That being said, they have a tendency to not immediately accept new technology automatically. Rather, to them they place a high value on community, family, and separation fr... | [
"Until the early 20th century, Old Order Amish identity was not linked to the use of technologies, as the Old Order Amish and their rural neighbors used the same farm and household technologies. Questions about the use of technologies also did not play a role in the Old Order division of the second half of the 19th... |
why is heart failure such a quick death when suffocation takes so much longer under the exact same circumstances? | You're probably thinking of cardiac arrest, not heart failure. Cardiac arrest is when the heart stops pumping blood, heart failure is when the heart can't keep up with the body's oxygen needs.
When your heart stops, your brain stops receiving oxygen, and you pass out in less than 30 seconds.
When you're suffocatin... | [
"Heart failure can develop insidiously over time or patients can present acutely with acute heart failure or acute decompensated heart failure and pulmonary edema due to sudden failure of pump function of the heart. Sudden failure can be precipitated by a variety of causes, including myocardial ischemia, marked inc... |
how exactly do you use tumblr | > we all seen those tumblr posts with funny replies in layers
Those are from the old site layout, they no longer exist. The replies are now in a standard list form.
----
With Tumblr, you create a user account. Each user can create multiple *blogs* -- although it's most common to just have one blog. For example, yo... | [
"Tumblr (stylized as tumblr and pronounced \"tumbler\") is a microblogging and social networking website founded by David Karp in 2007 and owned by Verizon Media. The service allows users to post multimedia and other content to a short-form blog. Users can follow other users' blogs. Bloggers can also make their blo... |
alimony in the us | Alimony laws *very much* vary from place to place, state to state. Long-term alimony is largely a historical artifact now, apart from celebrity cases.
The reason behind alimony was that in more traditional marriages, one spouse (usually the woman) often ended up sacrificing their career for the betterment of the re... | [
"Alimony, also known as 'maintenance' or 'spousal support' is still being granted in many cases, especially in longer term marriages. Alimony is more likely in cases where a spouse has remedial needs that must be met in order for the spouse to become fully employable, for example that one spouse gave up career oppo... |
college and university in the usa. | They can be used either way in most contexts nowadays. Essentially it comes down to prestige. University sounds more formal, usually denotes more programs, more opportunities, and a more full school environment. College may give off the idea of fewer study programs, smaller numbers of courses available, and just gives ... | [
"American University has eight schools and colleges: the School of International Service, College of Arts and Sciences, Kogod School of Business, School of Communication, School of Professional and Extended Studies, School of Public Affairs, School of Education, and the Washington College of Law (WCL). It has over ... |
what causes enclaves and exclaves to form? | Enclaves may have been created for a variety of historical, political or geographical reasons. Some areas have been left as enclaves by changes in the course of a river.
In the feudal system, the ownership of feudal domains was often transferred or partitioned, either through purchase and sale or through inheritan... | [
"In geology an enclave is an aggregate of minerals or rock observed inside another larger rock body. Usually it refers to such situations in plutonic rocks. Micro-granular enclaves in felsic plutons result from the introduction of mafic magma into the magma chamber an its subsequent cooling following incomplete mix... |
how does the body deal with 9,600 calories, 1,260 grams of fat & 54,600 milligrams of sodium at one time? (hot dog contest) | Most likely he pukes much of that back up. If you watch an eating competition, they all run to the port o potty's right after. So you are really getting in say 60 to 100 fl oz (volume measure) of hotdogs which is considerably less.
The sodium will be dealt with by a hormone cascade coming from the kidneys and I think... | [
"A single serving of 44.0 g has 96 Calories (kilocalories), 1.0 g of fat, but no trans or saturated fat, 1.0 mg of sodium, 22.0 g of carbohydrates, 0 g of dietary fiber, 6.0 g of sugar, and 1.0 g of protein.\n",
"For nutritional purposes ICDS provides 500 kilocalories (with 12-15 gm grams of protein) every day t... |
Special Relativity: If an object accelerates at a constant rate, does the progressively increasing time dilation cause an asymptote for the moving objects time? | The situation you're interested in is worked out [here](_URL_0_). Specifically, see equation 5. | [
"In special relativity, time dilation is most simply described in circumstances where relative velocity is unchanging. Nevertheless, the Lorentz equations allow one to calculate proper time and movement in space for the simple case of a spaceship which is applied with a force per unit mass, relative to some referen... |
When/how did France acquire its reputation as a nation with an embarrassing military history? | Check the FAQs section for more answers.
Essentially it came about as a result of the Fall of France. The Simpsons has Willie the Groundskeeper calling the French "Cheese Eating Surrender Monkeys" in c. 1995, so somewhere between 1945 and 1995 the stereotype, a blatantly wrong and horribly simplistic stereotype, came ... | [
"The military history of France encompasses an immense panorama of conflicts and struggles extending for more than 2,000 years across areas including modern France, greater Europe, and French territorial possessions overseas. According to the British historian Niall Ferguson, France has participated in 50 of the 12... |
Why didn't Phillip 1 bring Sparta into the Greek fold? | You're thinking of Philip II, Philip I was the third Argead king of Macedon and reigned back in the Archaic Period. There's a number of previous threads on this subject. [Here's one I wrote myself, though there are any others](_URL_0_), although there are many others. But the short version is that Sparta...really wasn'... | [
"This rapid rise in the power of Macedon was in part due to Philip's exceptional military and diplomatic skills. However, it was also in part due to the weakened state of the major powers of Greece. Sparta had never recovered from Epaminondas's liberation of Messenia, whilst in turn Thebes was still weakened by Epa... |
What happened to the Aral Sea? | A rapid increase in the amount of water diverted from the two rivers which are the primary sources of water for the Aral Sea (the Amu Dar'ya and Syr Dar'ya) for irrigation purposes starting in 1960 led to a dramatically declining water balance (i.e. a lot less water flowed in than evaporated out). This decrease in infl... | [
"The Aral Sea began shrinking in the 1960s, when the Soviet Union decided that the two rivers feeding it, the Amu Darya and the Syr Darya, would be diverted to irrigate cotton and food crops in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. In 1987-1988. due to an accelerated loss of water, the Aral Sea split into northern and souther... |
at what speed does your eyes move when you look somewhere else. | It depends on where you're looking. More specifically, how far your eye has to move to go from one thing to the other.
The top angular speed attainable by the eye is about 900 degrees per second--so to look from as far to one side to the other, a distance of about 150 degrees, would take 167 milliseconds. This top s... | [
"Eyes can also follow a moving object around. This tracking is less accurate than the vestibulo-ocular reflex, as it requires the brain to process incoming visual information and supply feedback. Following an object moving at constant speed is relatively easy, though the eyes will often make saccadic jerks to keep ... |
During WWII, how did the SS concentration camp guards fair psychologically with the crimes they were committing? | While it does not deal with "SS concentration camp guards" but rather reserve police, Browning's _Ordinary Men_ is by far the best work for insight into this that I know of. It is based off a case study of a reserve police batallion tasked with the destruction of Jewish communities in Poland, including summary executio... | [
"Some SS members were subject to summary execution, torture, and beatings at the hands of freed prisoners, displaced persons, or Allied soldiers. American soldiers of the 157th Regiment, who entered the concentration camp at Dachau in April 1945 and saw the human deprivation and cruelty committed by the SS, shot so... |
how do cats purr? i know why they do it, but for the life of my i can't figure out how my cat makes her entire body vibrate when she's happy. | Basically, when they feel content, happy, scared, or any of the feelings that can cause purring, their brain sends signals to their laryngeal muscles, also known as the Voice Box, and make the muscles vibrate rapidly. Then when the cat breathes in and out, the vibrating muscles make that rhythmic kind of rumbling we he... | [
"Purring sometimes seems to be a way for cats to signal their caretakers for food. This purring has a high-frequency component not present in other purrs. This variety of purring seems to be found only in cats in a one-to-one relationship with a caretaker.\n",
"The purr is a continuous, soft, vibrating sound made... |
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