Split (2)

train · 226k rows

question stringlengths 3 301	answer stringlengths 9 26.1k	context list
How does a compass work on my smartphone?	With a device called a Hall Effect magnetometer, which is a solid state device that produces a voltage proportional to the strength of a magnetic field (such as the Earth's) along a particular axis. By having two sensors at right angles, the phone can determine its heading/direction relative to the Earth's magnetic fi...	[ "Compasses are usually made of metal or plastic, and consist of two parts connected by a hinge that can be adjusted to change the radius of the circle one wishes to draw. Typically one part has a spike at its end, and the other part a pencil, or sometimes a pen. \n", "Compasses are usually made of metal or plasti...
Gold Rush Miners of California	The exchange rate was about $16 per ounce and this was generally honored unless the gold was pale and apparently alloyed with a lesser metal (as was the case with gold from western Utah Territory, for example). California Gold Rush miners usually worked for themselves in small teams, so there wasn't a matter of "compan...	[ "During the California Gold Rush, fortune hunters from the United States' East Coast sailed from New York Harbor and other Atlantic ports to Mexican ports in the Gulf of Mexico. After landing, the aspiring miners travelled over land for weeks to Mazatlán, where they would embark from the port to arrive in San Franc...
In science, is it possible for a measured/calculated quantity to have SI units equivalent to a fundamental concept, but not actually be that? [X-Post from /r/answers]	The Hubble Constant, which measures the rate that the Universe is expanding, has units of km/s/Mpc -- which actually works out as units of inverse time. This doesn't really mean anything, as even when you invert it, the so-called "Hubble Time' doesn't necessarily have to apply to anything real in the Universe. (It act...	[ "In branches of physics in which appears often, such as in relativity, it is common to use systems of natural units of measurement or the geometrized unit system where . Using these units, does not appear explicitly because multiplication or division by 1 does not affect the result.\n", "While not included as a S...
how come you can power a radio exclusively via radio waves and we still have to charge our cell phones?	Its a matter of scale. Your radio was able to function on just milliwatts of power, your phone has an ~11 Watt hour battery pack so if it lasts just 11 hours that means you're using about a watt of constant power. There just isn't enough random radio waves bouncing around to absorb to turn into a watt of power. You'...	[ "Wi-Charge claims to deliver power using focused beams of invisible infrared light. The system consists of a transmitter and a receiver. Transmitter connects to a standard power outlet and converts electricity into infrared laser beam. Receivers use a miniature photo-voltaic cell to convert transmitted light into e...
why are "simple fix" patches for games always something like 30 megabytes?	Fixing one line of code may require recompiling a large portion of object files. These object files in turn get linked together into a binary executable. The executable is what is shipped instead of object files or precompiled code.	[ "Fan-made patches fix a notorious bug which results in the game always resetting to the easiest difficulty level (\"Beginner\") after completing the first Battlescape mission, no matter what difficulty level has been selected. This glitch was not noticed by MicroProse and was not fixed in the official patches, resu...
how does the martian surface have pebbles?	Weathering still takes place on Mars, it just does so much more slowly than it does on Earth. That said, water is believed to have been active fairly recently (in geological terms) in Gale Crater (Curiosity's site), and those pebbles may very well be water-deposited (some are believed to have been, though I don't know ...	[ "Pebbles ranging in size from centimeters up to a meter in size are accreted at an enhanced rate in a protoplanetary disk. A protoplanetary disk is made up of a mix of gas and solids including dust, pebbles, planetesimals, and protoplanets. Gas in a protoplanetary disk is pressure supported and as a result orbits a...
Why was the Chernobyl shield/arch designed the way it is?	A) It would be not sufficient to enclose the "elephant foot", the rest of the building is also radioactive contaminated, as example one design requirement was: “They must minimize the amount of digging and cutting into the upper layers of the ground, as the upper soil is heavily contaminated with nuclear material from ...	[ "The Chernobyl-2 site (a.k.a. \"The Russian Woodpecker\") is a former Soviet military installation relatively close to the power plant, consisting of a gigantic transmitter and receiver belonging to the Duga-3 over-the-horizon radar system. Located from the surface area of Chernobyl-2 is a large underground complex...
Is telekinesis even remotely possibly in any way shape, or form?	Can you move objects with your mind? Sure, you do it all the time, in fact you are doing it right now, since your brain is moving your eyes along the screen while you are reading this. Similarly, your brain is responsible for moving your hands, which is responsible for all sorts of activities. There's no reason, fro...	[ "Telekinesis is a term used in parapsychology as either an alternate for psychokinesis or as the name of a specialty ability under the umbrella term of psychokinesis, to refer to using the power of the mind to cause the movement of matter at a distance.\n", "Telekinesis is an alien who apparently lacks arms or le...
if smoke is bad for you and contains carcinogens, how is it safe to eat meat that has been smoked for 6 hours?	Tobacco isn't used to smoke food and cigarettes aren't made from wood. A lot of things we use and consume may contain carcinogens. But they are all used and or consumed in different ways. It doesn't matter of its smoked. salty, spicy and sugary foods can be carcinogenic too.	[ "Chemicals used in processed and cured meat such as some brands of bacon, sausages and ham may or may not produce carcinogens. For example, nitrites used as food preservatives in cured meat such as bacon have also been noted as being carcinogenic with demographic links, but not causation, to colon cancer. Cooking f...
Dear Historians, how did the Japanese culture and country looked to the times of Julius Gaius Cesar? Have they been equal empires?	Julius Caesar likely never knew Japan existed. Julius Caesar likely didn't even know China existed. The Chinese themselves only knew of Rome sometime late in the Han Dynasty, where it was known as "Great Qin." Japan was also only first mentioned in the late Han Dynasty as a "Kingdom of Yamatai." For instance, the...	[ "Japanese officials said it was the biggest funeral in modern Japanese history, and the unprecedented turnout of world leaders was recognition of Japan's emergence as an economic superpower. It was also the largest funeral in the history of the Asian continent. The Shōwa Tennō was the longest-reigning emperor in Ja...
why is it that the gas prices change at the pump, when the tanks underground were filled at a different price? why does the price of oil affect us at the pump so quickly?	Sellers of commodities, like gas station owners and refineries, price their product based not on what it costs to produce it, but on what it costs to replace it.	[ "Crude oil is the greatest contributing factor when it comes to the price of gasoline. This includes the resources it takes for exploration, to remove it from the ground, and transport it. Between 2004 and 2008, there was an increase in fuel costs due in large part to a worldwide increase in demand for crude oil. P...
why do i have to wait an hour to install a game for my pc when i use a disk, but when i use a disk for my console, it takes minutes	Installing games to pc takes longer because all of the games data loads onto the hard drive and runs from that instead of the disc. whereas console games run off the discs and only install essential files to any built in hard drives. Some console games allow you the option to fully install a games content to your har...	[ "Because some computer configurations are much faster at reading data than at writing it, updating access times after every read operation can be very expensive. Some systems mitigate this cost by storing access times at a coarser granularity than other times; by rounding access times only to the nearest hour or da...
what does an inverted cross symbolize? where did it come from?	It comes from a legend about St. Peter's martyrdom. Allegedly, he was going to be crucified, but he felt that he didn't deserve to be killed in the same way Jesus was, so he asked to be hung upside-down instead. It's used now in the Catholic Church (along with keys) as a symbol of the papacy, because Peter was "the roc...	[ "An inverted (upside-down) cross (particularly the crucifix) has also been considered a symbol of both the Devil and the Antichrist, although in Catholic tradition a plain inverted cross (without the corpus or figure of Christ) is a symbol of Saint Peter. \"See\": Cross of St. Peter\n", "A Latin cross or Crux imm...
Bras/chest support in Roman times?	Not bra, but we have really well preserved mosaics of roman women in bikini swimwear: [Villa del Casale](_URL_0_).	[ "Women in ancient Rome adopted a form of the Greek \"apodesme\", known as the \"strophium\" or \"mamillare\". Since the Romans regarded large breasts as comical, or characteristic of aging or unattractive women, young girls wore breast bands \"(fascia)\" secured tightly in the belief that doing so would prevent ove...
what being in love feels/is like	Love is what is left when the honeymoon phase is gone. It is like having a puppy. The first day you bring him home it is the greatest thing in the world. You are so excited that they can do no wrong. Then 6 months later that same puppy has just chewed your remote control and shit on your bed. If you love them you will ...	[ "BULLET::::- \"Love\" is a feeling of affection for another person (a parent, sibling, friend, or lover) or people (allies / followers, friends, or family members) that the character has strong emotional ties to.\n", "This can help explain why no love can feel quite the same as that \"first\". These \"firsts\" ca...
What properties of blood can sharks "smell"? Notothenioids have clear blood because it contains no hemoglobin, a feature no other vertebrate shares. If notothenioid blood was put in a shark tank would sharks recognize it as blood?	Following the references from the smell section of the [Wikipedia page for sharks](_URL_1_), one is broken, but the other yields this: > Experiments on isolated olfactory lamellae of certain skates (family Rajidae) have revealed astonishingly low [thresholds] to chemical stimuli — responding to concentrations as low...	[ "The blood of Greenland sharks contains three major types of hemoglobin, made up of two copies of α globin combined with two copies of three very similar β subunits. These three types show very similar oxygenation and carbonylation properties, which are unaffected by urea, an important compound in marine elasmobran...
I'm a Roman Emperor ruling in Rome. The Persians attack in the East. How does the news get to me, and how long does it take?	The news of the attack would reach you via a government courier (think pony express) who travelled along the Cursus Publicus (the public way). These paved highways connected the empire to its distant provincial territories and trading partners. It was created by the Emperor Augustus to facilitate the flow of taxes, mes...	[ "The battle, which ended indecisively, raged until night-time. The emperor's death was offset by the heavy losses sustained by the Persians in their repulse on the main sector of the front; but in a profound sense the battle was disastrous to the Roman cause; at best, a momentary reprieve was purchased by the loss ...
Does the behavior of plasma share any similarities with that of fluids?	Yes, the equations of plasma physics can be approximated by a fluid model in certain regimes. For instance, in an intense (non-neutral) cyclotron beam, we typically assume that the plasma is "highly magnetized", which means that the externally imposed magnetic field is much stronger than the self-electric field produce...	[ "A plasma is a \"quasineutral\" (total electrical charge is close to zero) mix of ions (atoms which have been ionized, and therefore possess a net positive charge), electrons, and neutral particles (un-ionized atoms or molecules). Most plasmas are only partially ionized, in fact, the ionization degree of common pla...
robitussin and other over the counter cold medicine, how does it work?	> Is it a mixture of chemicals that serve to alleviate symptoms? Yep. > Does it help the immune system fight in some way? Nope. > Does it actually help your recovery time, or does ot just make you feel more comfortable while your immune system takes exactly as long as it would have anyway to defeat an ailment? ...	[ "Another crucial application of MF membranes lies in the cold sterilisation of beverages and pharmaceuticals. Historically, heat was used to sterilize refreshments such as juice, wine and beer in particular, however a palatable loss in flavour was clearly evident upon heating. Similarly, pharmaceuticals have been s...
Why did ancient chinese coins had a hole in their center?	In Imperial China, copper coins were often the smallest unit of currency. Since it was very hard to carry and keep many of these coins in one place, the hole was to string the coins together in one length on some fiber. From there, certain amounts of stringed coins denoted higher levels of currencies (say, maybe 1000 c...	[ "Although Chinese cash coins kept their round shape with a square hole from the Warring States period until the early years of the Republic of China, under the various regimes that ruled during the long history of China the square hole in the middle experienced only minor modifications such as being slightly bigger...
what's the reasoning behind the idea that money is free speech and (even small) contributions are not bribes?	It is because money is often used to promote speech - getting it to as many ears as possible. If I were to shout on a street corner, this is easily considered free speech. If I were to buy a printing press and print up fliers for an issue, this is easily considered free speech (or a free press, to get technical). If...	[ "Because the regulations dealt mostly with soft-money contributions that were used to register voters and increase attendance at the polls, not with campaign expenditures (which are more explicitly a statement of political values and therefore deserve more protection), the Court held that the restriction on free sp...
why don't we just bomb north korea's leaders with drones?	Because China would get mad.	[ "Drones or UAV (Unmanned aerial vehicle) are another means to fight against pollution. The South Korean Ministry of Environment initiative is to use the flying camera in order to observe all activities of incineration. Ministry officials aim to use these devices to track down all illegal activities producing pollut...
if vanilla extract is a brownish color, why is vanilla ice cream white?	You need very little vanilla to achieve enough taste. Also more often than not its artificially colored. For instance when making chocolate chip cookies or edible cookie dough you'll find the same thing. Usually the recipe, which is crafted to serve at least several people only calls for 2-3 tsp of vanilla extract. If ...	[ "Vanilla is frequently used to flavor ice cream, especially in North America and Europe. Vanilla ice cream, like other flavors of ice cream, was originally created by cooling a mixture made of cream, sugar, and vanilla above a container of ice and salt. The type of vanilla used to flavor ice cream varies by locatio...
why is the concept of social darwinism / eugenics so morally reprehensible?	One thing I can tell you is that social Darwinism is used as an argument, sometimes, to justify the poor being poor and the rich, rich, etc. Which is ridiculous. And for that, it's frowned upon. But that's all I know. Edit: Reason number 2 for social Darwinism being bad: social Darwinism = weaker people "naturally" ...	[ "Because social evolution was posited as a scientific theory, it was often used to support unjust and often racist social practices — particularly colonialism, slavery, and the unequal economic conditions present within industrialized Europe. Social Darwinism is especially criticised, as it purportedly led to some ...
How popular was the concept of democracy in colonial America?	One thing you need to understand is that the term democracy has different meanings today then in 1787 America. Today we use the terms Republic and Democracy interchangeably, however in 1787 democracy would have meant direct-democracy( such as ancient Athens) the notion of this democracy was extremely unpopular among t...	[ "Jeffersonian democracy was a foundational American cultural innovation, which is still a core part of the country's identity. Thomas Jefferson's \"Notes on the State of Virginia\" was perhaps the first influential domestic cultural critique by an American and was written in reaction to the views of some influentia...
Some smartphones, like the ones which use the Android OS have very short battery lives. What is stopping the companies from using larger batteries?	Most smartphone companies are more concerned about making their phone even a fraction of millimeter thinner, so they sacrifice battery life for thinness. A great example of a company breaking this mould is Motorola with their Droid RAZR Maxx. They fit a 3300 mAh battery on it, so it isn't difficult, it's just a matter ...	[ "By the end of 2017, smartphone battery life has become generally adequate; however, earlier smartphone battery life was poor due to the weak batteries that could not handle the significant power requirements of the smartphones' computer systems and color screens.\n", "Mobile-based tablets are the reverse, and ru...
why is everything so cold? why is absolute zero only -459.67f (-273.15c) but things can be trillions of degrees? in relation wouldn't it mean that life and everything we know as good for us, is ridiculously ridiculously cold?	The more atoms vibrate the hotter the temperature. The slower they vibrate the lower the temperature. They can vibrate as fast as they want but once they stop vibrating the temperature doesn't go any lower. In other words, the lowest temperature means they are standing still. But they can always vibrate even faster no...	[ "Theoretically, the coldest a system can be is when its temperature is absolute zero, at which point the thermal motion in matter would be zero. However, an actual physical system or object can never attain a temperature of absolute zero. Absolute zero is denoted as on the Kelvin scale, on the Celsius scale, and on...
how come the third rail on subway systems doesn't short circuit when it gets wet?	1. Water on the rail itself doesn't short circuit, as the rail is more conductive than the water. 2. The water doesn't bridge between the third rail and a suitable ground. It might drip off, but it won't form a continuous path like a wire very easily. 3. Water is an awful conductor, so outside of very high voltages s...	[ "To the east of the station, the subway runs in a twin bored tunnel until just before the next station (Lansdowne). This allowed the tracks to pass underneath nearby railway lines without disturbing them during construction. To the west, the tracks follow a short \"cut and cover\" tunnel before emerging outside at ...
What major new inventions/technology were developed or poularized around 1860 to 1890?	You're describing the Gilded Age and part of the Second Industrial revolution in most textbooks. This would have been a period that focused on industrial processes and the "first" examples of consumerism with plenty of examples of advertisements for tobacco and alcoholic beverages to different groups in society. I thin...	[ "Until the 1980s, it was universally believed by academic historians that technological innovation was the heart of the Industrial Revolution and the key enabling technology was the invention and improvement of the steam engine. However, recent research into the Marketing Era has challenged the traditional, supply-...
if an ambulance is called to a casualty, but then sees one happen in front of it or is close by another, which one do they go to?	EMT here. If there are multiple patients on one scene we will triage and attend to the most critical patient first. Of course in that scenario dispatch will likely already know there are multiple injuries, so another truck should be on the way. If not we let dispatch know. If you mean what happens if we see a car ac...	[ "The film opens at an emergency telephone exchange, which receives a request for an ambulance once every 3½ minutes. A call is placed about a road traffic accident on Shoreditch Road. An ambulance is dispatched to the scene of the incident.\n", "The final stage in the pre-hospital management of a mass-casualty in...
What gravitational forces (from outside of our solar system) are acting on our Sun?	The sun is feeling the mean gravitational field of the entire galaxy (all stars) + the dark matter than is actually dominant part by mass. So the sun is feeling primarily the gravitational attraction of the dark matter which is homogenous in distribution + the stars, and since the galactic center is much denser than th...	[ "The Sun's inner gravitational focus point lies at minimum distance of 550 AU from the Sun, and is the point to which light from distant objects is focused by gravity as a result of it passing by the Sun. This is thus the distant point to which solar gravity will cause the region of deep space on the other side of ...
Did eyes evolve only once on Earth? Is there something about the small band of "visible" light that makes it optimal for eyes to evolve to see? Or is it just a coincidence that most animals see in the same spectrum?	"eyes" evolved independently in an enormous number of species. Or more accurately, the basic parts of an eye developed waaay long ago in the species that formed the base of a lot of different genetic trees. Long before the dinosaurs, or before most mammals existed. And this has to do with what the most basic form if...	[ "Many researchers have found the evolution of the eye attractive to study, because the eye distinctively exemplifies an analogous organ found in many animal forms. Simple light detection is found in bacteria, single-celled organisms, plants and animals. Complex, image-forming eyes have evolved independently several...
why does binge gaming make me feel like an angry zombie irl?	I hate to say this, but you're a gaming addict. If you take small, regular "hits", you're ok, but if you take too big of a hit, and then try to jump off you go into withdrawal symptoms, and what fixes those? Another hit.	[ "Griffiths has also proposed that another reason why online video games are potentially addictive is because they \"can be played all day every day.\" The fact that there is no end to the game can feel rewarding for some, and hence players are further engaged in the game.\n", "Many reviewers complained of painful...
How gory was Napoleonic era warfare	Well you thought wrong, dumbass! 5 TIMES DUDES GOT REKT IN NAPOLEONIC WARFARE (#4 WILL SHOCK YOU!) #1 These Colors Don't Run! So during the Waterloo campaign, this British battalion had to stand in the open under French cannon fire. This colors sergeant, will brass balls, can see one pointed straight at...	[ "The Napoleonic wars was a series of wars lasting from 1803 to 1815. Spain was just one of the many countries which resisted the expansion of the French Empire under Napoleon I. It is notable for the bravery of its general population who fought as Guerrillas, preventing the occupying French forces from obtaining su...
During WWII did the British government ever ask for "royal subjects" from all over the world to report for military duty? Did some just show up and volunteer?	_URL_0_ The commonwealth contribution was enormous, of the over eight and half million personnel raised under the British Empire around three and half million came from outside the British isles. Whether it was through conscription or voluntary was dependent upon time and place. India contributed two and a half ...	[ "During both World Wars, subjects throughout the British Empire volunteered to help the United Kingdom. During World War I, the Dominions raised their own armies, but were under the British command structure, and very much integrated into the British fighting forces. Over 2.5 million men, which included Canada send...
why can't the interest rate set by the boe remain low indefinitely?	When interest rates are low people (and companies) tend to spend more money or invest in capital because the opportunity cost which is basically the cost of the next best option (of saving their money to earn interest from a bank instead of trying to create income from business expansion/ventures) is much lower. W...	[ "In a Feb. 6, 2012, speech, Bullard noted that the \"large output gap\" view is a reason some cite for keeping nominal interest rates near zero for an indefinite period. \"If we continue using this interpretation of events, it may be very difficult for the U.S. to ever move off of the zero lower bound on nominal in...
how do companies like that popular company selling evs or that other popular ridesharing company lose billions of dollars each quarter and yet manage to avoid bankruptcy? not only that they are viewed as companies which have a bright future in front of them?	They spend money provided by investors, who buy a piece of the business hoping to cash in on future profits.	[ "As the carmakers leasing electric cars believed that these vehicles occupied an unprofitable niche of the automobile market, an alliance of the major automakers litigated the CARB regulation in court, resulting in a slackening of the ZEV stipulation, permitting the companies to produce super-low-emissions vehicles...
Can the magnetic field of the Earth be "thrown off"?	In the far field of a magnetic dipole the field is proportional to the inverse cube of the distance so it falls off very quickly. Say the leakage field 1 meter from the magnet is 1 Tesla. By the time you're 100 meters from the magnet the field will be 1/100^3 or one millionth of the strength at 1 meter, already far w...	[ "The motion of the conductive molten metal beneath the Earth's crust, or the Earth's dynamo, is responsible for the existence of the magnetic field. The interaction of the magnetic field and solar radiation has an impact on how much radiation reaches the surface of Earth and the integrity of the atmosphere. It has ...
Why are blacksmiths called blacksmiths?	They smith the black metals (iron) as opposed to white(tin), silver(flatwear and other objects), gold(jewelry). It comes from the color of the final product.	[ "Blacksmith is a person who creates objects from iron or steel by “forging” the metal, by using tools to hammer, bend, cut and otherwise shape it in its non liquid form. Usually the metal is heated until it glows red or orange as part of the forging process. Blacksmiths produces things like wrought iron gates, gril...
how do they launch space ships from the moon back to earth?	The moon's gravity is much weaker than the earth's, and there's no atmosphere to offer up any resistance, so they didn't need as much thrust to escape the moon's gravity well. Considering that, the lunar lander was designed to launch from the moon using its landing gear as its platform. once it was in orbit, the luna...	[ "BULLET::::- Direct Ascent: The spacecraft would be launched as a unit and travel directly to the lunar surface, without first going into lunar orbit. A Earth return ship would land all three astronauts atop a descent propulsion stage, which would be left on the Moon. This design would have required development of ...
[Astronomy] What kind of technology would a 65 million light-years away alien civilization need if they wanted to see the dinosaurs?	The two big limiting factors are (a) resolution, and (b) brightness. For (b), you need a big collecting area and very sensitive detectors in your telescope. The particulars depend so much on technology that I won't speculate about what you need there. For (a), we can get more specific, and talk about the Rayleigh Crit...	[ "During their exploration of Earth, the aliens find a communication tower beaming into space. At the end of the story, they follow the beam and find an enormous fleet of human ships, powered by rockets. The aliens, equipped with faster-than-light ships, are amazed that humans dared to cross interstellar space with ...
How would long-distance roads in 19th century America compare to modern-day highways?	It would have been pretty terrible, frankly. Even in the 1920s and 1930s a long-distance journey in an automobile would have been anything but comfortable. There would have been designated roads, but before the 1920s, no standardized traffic signals. Very few service stations because there were so few automobiles to se...	[ "New highways in the early 20th century helped propel automobile travel in the United States, primarily cross-country travel. Commissioned in 1926, and completely paved near the end of the 1930s, U.S. Route 66 is a living icon of early modern road tripping.\n", "The many precursors to the state highway system pre...
what do presidents do after their term(s) is/are done?	They collect money for the rest of their lives from the government and the intelligent ones make even more giving speeches.	[ "The president is elected by the Electoral College composed of elected members of the parliament houses, the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha, and also members of the Vidhan Sabha, the state legislative assemblies. Presidents may remain in office for a tenure of five years, as stated by article 56, part V, of the Cons...
Historical incidents of non-state-backed or subversive currencies?	There's the [WIR Bank](_URL_1_) currency that's been in use since 1934 until now . . . does an alternative currency have to go into disuse for it to be historic? The [The Wörgl experiment](_URL_0_) (July 1932 to November 1933) resulted in a growth in employment and meant that local government projects such as new ...	[ "In 1952, the Trucial States Council was established to encourage co-operation between the seven Rulers. The Indian rupee remained the \"de facto\" currency of the Trucial States as well as the other Persian Gulf states such as Qatar, Bahrain and Oman until these countries introduced their own currencies in 1969, a...
why is there a minimum age limit to vote but no maximum age limit?	Growing up is a more predictable process than ageing (even though it is not 100% predictable). Some 12 year old children are smarter than others, but they all have some degree of immaturity. Maturity takes time. Some elderly people remain quite smart even into their 90's, while other don't. Some people become senil...	[ "Although a person may attain the age of majority in a particular jurisdiction, they may still be subject to age-based restrictions regarding matters such as the right to vote or stand for elective office, act as a judge, and many others.\n", "A voting age is a minimum age established by law that a person must at...
why aren't there really big predators about the same size of possible prey? and sometimes there are big predators without big prey?	I'm no biologist but from what I understand it's kind of just pointless. If you wanted to be large enough to eat a blue whale then you would need a ton of food to sustain yourself. Since you would need so much food the only really good meal for you is now whales. It's much more efficient to be smaller and just devour s...	[ "One of the factors to consider is size. Prey that is too small may not be worth the trouble for the amount of energy it provides. Too large, and it may be too difficult to capture. For example, a mantid captures prey with its forelegs and they are optimized for grabbing prey of a certain size. Mantids are reluctan...
How close was poland to giving Nazi germany the danzig corridor?	This was the basis of my final paper during my undergrad, well it was more about the "creation and effect on interwar German-Polish relations" (to quote my title). And in short, not at all. First off it has to be noted that Poland never legally controlled Danzig. It was a Free City, nominally under control of the Leag...	[ "The dispute between Germany and Poland over rights to Free City of Danzig and land transit through the Polish Corridor to the exclave of East Prussia, served as Hitler's pretext for Nazi Germany's invasion of Poland, which commenced on September 1, 1939. The strategy of the Nazi government was to temporarily divid...
What's the deal with the "thumbs up" gesture?	It is now [commonly believed](_URL_0_) that "thumbs up" meant "stab him in the heart" - with the thumb representing the gladius, the short stabby sword used by Roman gladiators and soldiers. To this day, "thumbs up" is used [as an insult](_URL_1_) in Italian culture. It's hypothesized that another symbol was to show t...	[ "A thumb signal, usually described as a thumbs-up or thumbs-down, is a common hand gesture achieved by a closed fist held with the thumb extended upward or downward in approval or disapproval, respectively. These gestures have become metaphors in , regardless of whether the gesture was actually made.\n", "In form...
japanese fascination with hello kitty	Mickey Mouse is an iconic character in American pop culture for families. You grow up with him because you've been exposed to him all your life either through your parents or just having him shoved in your face through anything Disney. Basically Hello Kitty is the Mickey Mouse of Japan.	[ "The Adventures of Hello Kitty and Friends (Traditional Chinese: Hello Kitty 愛漫遊) is a 3D CGI animated series featuring Hello Kitty and other characters from the Japanese company Sanrio. It was produced from February 2008 onwards by Sanrio Digital and Dream Cortex, and distributed by Sanrio Digital. It consists of ...
the power of the potus. under what circumstances could a president give an order? what's to stop a president from giving an order to launch icbms at antarctica for no reason?	As far as ICBMs go, the contract you sign to enter the military stipulates that you are not required to follow unlawful orders, or orders that you believe shouldn't be followed (which of course is up to the interpretation of the courts when you get booted). If the president orders the nukes launched, it then has to go ...	[ "The President is obliged to act on the advice of the Cabinet. It is only when the Cabinet's advice is contrary to the PCRH's views that the President may act in his personal discretion to cancel or confirm the order, having first considered the PCRH's recommendations. In confirming an order, he may make such varia...
if distilled water is just evaporated and then re-condensed, why isn't rain pure water?	Because distilled water is theoretically distilled in a controlled environment. There is dust and pollen and smoke and shit in the air and clouds which contaminate rain.	[ "After water is evaporated to the atmosphere, it is transported and returned to the surface through condensation and precipitation. Condensation of water vapor occurs in ascending air masses that develop a lower temperature and saturation vapor pressure. Since the cooling and condensation happens at relatively slow...
how does inhaled asthma medications weaken your immune system?	asthma medications are generally a sympathetic stimulant and a corticosteroid. The sympathetic stimulant does the same thing that your body does during fight-or-flight. Both cause your lungs to "open up" so you can take in air better because asthma causes your lungs to 'close up' Corticosteroids are immunosuppresant...	[ "While the use of inhaled steroids and long acting beta-adrenoceptor agonists (LABA) are recommended in asthma guidelines for the resulting improved symptom control, concerns have been raised that salmeterol may increase the small risks of asthma deaths and this additional risk is not reduced with the additional us...
Did the Japanese ever resort to using biological and chemical warfare against the Americans during the Pacific War?	They never brought out the chemical weapons, no. I touch on this a bit in [this longer answer](_URL_0_), but to reiterate, where there were a few scattered reports of individual grenades being used, these almost certainly were isolated incidents at best, and not a reflection of Japanese policy in the fight with the USA...	[ "The USA similarly explored biological warfare agents, developing anthrax spores, brucellosis, and botulism toxins for possible military use. Japan developed biological warfare agents, with the use of experiments on human prisoners, and was about to use them when the war ended.\n", "During the first few months at...
why is is customary in rap/hip-hop to use a different name?	It's often a part of culture. Especially in the African American community, nicknames are what people are most known by.	[ "What's Your Name? is the third studio album by Adam Sandler. Unlike his other comedy albums, which typically mix songs with non-musical comedy skits, \"What's Your Name?\" consists entirely of songs of various genres, including country, ballad and reggae. \"What's Your Name?\" was certified gold, having sold over ...
is there any scientific basis for horoscopes?	Only in the sense that there are constellations in the sky. Those exist, although they're more folklore than science. The actual horoscopes themselves are not based in science.	[ "There are currently no scientific studies that have shown support for the accuracy of horoscopes, and the methods used to make interpretations are pseudo-scientific. In modern scientific framework no known interaction exists that could be responsible for the transmission of the alleged influence between a person a...
Why does uncooked pasta take a long time to expire?	It is dried, nothing to go stale and nothing for any microorganisms to live in.	[ "The storage of pasta depends its processing and extent of drying. Uncooked pasta is kept dry and can sit in the cupboard for a year if airtight and stored in a cool, dry area. Cooked pasta is stored in the refrigerator for a maximum of five days in an airtight container. Adding a couple teaspoons of oil helps keep...
why do some cigarette smokers end up with huge health complications (artificial larynx, tracheotomy, etc.) while other heavy smokers seem to have been smoking for years with minimal complications?	Statistics. Smoking does not guarantee health complications, it only increases your risk of them. Who ends up with health complications is a matter of environmental factors and genetics. A light smoker might end up with lung cancer while a heavy smoker has only a light cough. But make no mistake - on a global level, t...	[ "A number of studies have shown that tobacco use is a significant factor in miscarriages among pregnant smokers, and that it contributes to a number of other threats to the health of the fetus. It slightly increases the risk of neural tube defects.\n", "In 2015, a meta-analysis found that smokers were at greater ...
Wouldn't implanting young DNA compatible cells that replicate normally without being targeted by your immune system be the "cure" for old age?	This may be true if all cells in your body continually divide, but there are important cells (such as almost all your neurons in your nervous system) that are post-mitotic and will accumulate DNA damage over time.	[ "In April 2014, an international research team expanded on this break through. There remained the question of whether the same success could be accomplished using adult somatic cells. Epigenetic and age related changes were thought to possibly hinder an adult somatic cells ability to be reprogrammed. Implementing t...
why do indians bobble their heads when speaking? (no racism intended	It's simply a gesture that's become culturally common in India. Here's a [video which explains the meanings](_URL_0_).	[ "In India, this particular head shake can also be acknowledgment or encouragement. In the Western world, people often use a nod for the same purpose. It is used to convey a variety of gestures, although 'affirmative' and 'negative' are the most common ones. The meaning of the Indian head bobble depends on the conte...
what is the difference between insurance and a provider?	Medi-Cal is a state of California program to insure people who need insurance. There are many Medi-Cal providers, and it seems you got assigned to Molina. So, Molina is your insurance company. This is not the same as a medical provider. You'll need a Doctor to treat you, and you'll need one that accepts payments fro...	[ "Insurance may also be purchased through an agent. A tied agent, working exclusively with one insurer, represents the insurance company from whom the policyholder buys (while a free agent sells policies of various insurance companies). Just as there is a potential conflict of interest with a broker, an agent has a ...
how do snakes and other poisonous animals/insects produce their venom?	Snakes have [special venom glands in their heads](_URL_0_). Spiders may just use digestive juices.	[ "Cobras, vipers, and closely related species use venom to immobilize, injure or kill their prey. The venom is modified saliva, delivered through fangs. The fangs of 'advanced' venomous snakes like viperids and elapids are hollow to inject venom more effectively, while the fangs of rear-fanged snakes such as the boo...
what exactly is google's tensorflow?	It's a library. Think of it as a pre-made tool for working on something (in this case AI). Just like when you want to repair something you don't start by creating your own screwdrivers, hammers, etc. You use the ones available. (Tenserflow represents the tools in this example). As for AI. It's just a subset of CS that...	[ "TensorFlow is a free and open-source software library for dataflow and differentiable programming across a range of tasks. It is a symbolic math library, and is also used for machine learning applications such as neural networks. It is used for both research and production at Google. \n", "TensorFlow computatio...
how is adblock plus able to remove the ads that stream before youtube videos?	> How does it do that? How hard would it be for youtube to detect and prevent this? Adblock programs work by reading the instructions to build the webpage, and telling the browser not to follow certain ones. To prevent that, YouTube would need to make the ads indistinguishable from other content, to the browser.	[ "AdBlock is a content filtering and ad blocking browser extension for the Google Chrome, Apple Safari (desktop and mobile), Firefox, Opera, and Microsoft Edge web browsers. AdBlock allows users to prevent page elements, such as advertisements, from being displayed. It is free to download and use, and it includes op...
why is there no color on magnified images. (i.e. images of bacteria)	It all depends on which type of method you use for magnification. If you use an ordinary optical microscope you will actually see colors. Optical microscopes are however limited in how small things they are able to see. Therefore different kinds of electron microscopes are used to see smaller things. Because "color" is...	[ "While monochromatic photos make this effect appear white, Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute scientist Steven Haddock (an author of a milky seas effect study) has commented, \"the light produced by the bacteria is actually blue, not white. It is white in the graphic because of the monochromatic sensor we use...
is being vegetarian healthy and is it feasible at the population level?	1) Vegetarianism is healthy but you usually have to be a little more aware of your diet. People need things like protein and iron which are extremely prevalent in meat but can substitute different fruits/vegetables or even vitamins to make sure they get what their bodies need. 2) This is more theoretical/difficult to ...	[ "The Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics and Dietitians of Canada have stated that at all stages of life, a properly planned vegetarian diet is \"healthful, nutritionally adequate, and provides health benefits in the prevention and treatment of certain diseases\". Large-scale studies have shown that mortality from i...
If we were to start using solar power on a large scale, would we be able to slow climate change on the back end as well as the front? (Explanation inside)	Let's examine this from a few perspectives with a few totally unreasonable assumptions: The power storage capacity it present in a perfect state and can act as a load follower All power used throughout the whole world is provided via Solar power (this includes transportation like cars) *The replacement of infrastru...	[ "A 2010 paper suggested that a new 90-year period of low solar activity would reduce global average temperatures by about 0.3 °C, which would be far from enough to offset the increased forcing from greenhouse gases.\n", "While acknowledging that the next solar maximum will not necessarily produce unusual geomagne...
why some condiments are labeled as fancy	It is used mainly as a marketing term and as a designation of quality "According to Heinz, “fancy” is simply a USDA designation that producers are allowed to use for marketing if their product meets the standards of US Grade A/US Fancy tomato ketchup, which possesses a better color, consistency and flavor, and has fe...	[ "Fancy is distinctly different from sites like Pinterest in that it offers merchants the ability to sell items directly to consumers. In order to sell on Fancy, a merchant needs to 'claim' an item that users have already posted. Fancy takes a commission fee from each sale.\n", "Fancy is a social photo sharing web...
Could American Civil war be avoided?	Well, it's certainly possible that had historical actors made different choices, historical events may have unfolded differently. History, after all, is never inevitable. But I think it's worth breaking down the possibilities that you put forward to explain why they would have been unlikely. Firstly, abolitionist in...	[ "The American Civil War may be seen as an invasion of home territory to some extent, with both the Confederate and Union armies each making forays into the other side's home territory. After the Civil War, the threat of an invasion from a foreign power was small, and it was not until the 20th century that any real ...
why is the sun so bright and hard to look at when at noon but becomes dim enough at dusk that we can clearly make out its perfect circular shape	The distance the light travels through the atmosphere. When it's directly over you it doesn't have to travel a long distance, but when it's close at the horizon it has a lot of atmosphere to travel through which dims the light and the refraction of particles in the atmosphere also cause the sky to light up in different...	[ "Faces oriented towards the sun at midday will usually have dark shadows in the eye sockets due to the steep downward angle of the sun and the preference of the subjects not to be blinded by the sun. When near-axis fill flash is added in that situation it hits the shaded eyes and sunlit face equally so the eyes wil...
why do banks use apple/google pay for contactless payments instead of their own apps?	Because much more people use google or Apple Pay instead of the banking organisations one allowing the aforementioned to be much more polished and user friendly	[ "Apple assumes some liability for fraudulent use of the service. Banks are expected to carry the burden of the service, and Apple is said to have negotiated smaller transaction fees. In turn, the banks hoped to capture purchases that were formerly handled without credit. \"Financial Times\" reported that Apple rece...
Did Roman people ever travel by aqueduct?	related- was there any policing of the aqueduct, considering how important it was? I mean, stopping people from dumping random things into it, pooping in it, etc.	[ "The ancient Romans also had a complex system of aqueducts, which were used to transport water across long distances. The first Roman aqueduct was built in 312 BCE. The eleventh and final ancient Roman aqueduct was built in 226 CE. Put together, the Roman aqueducts extended over 450 kilometers, but less than sevent...
How do voting machines work and why would we need to audit something as simple as a vote count?	I can't speak to the specifics of the inner workings of the voting machines themselves, but I do work in IT Security and can discuss some of the latter questions. > How could something so simple be the subject of fraud? This all boils down to something akin to what's known as a "Man-in-middle-attack." MitM attacks ...	[ "A fundamental challenge with any voting machine is produce evidence that the votes were recorded as cast and tabulated as recorded. Election results produced by voting systems that rely on voter-marked paper ballots can be verified with manual hand counts (either valid sampling or full recounts). Non-document ball...
Why can't we determine where an electron is located? If time were stopped and you had an omniscient point of view, could you determine all the properties of an electron?	What you have to understand is that the fuzziness of the electron's location is not a result of our imperfect ability to measure its position, but is an intrinsic property of the electron itself. You can't think of an electron as a point-like marble, the position of which is simply not known exactly. Rather, electrons,...	[ "where θ is the aperture angle of the microscope and λ is the wavelength of the light used to observe the electron. Thus, the position uncertainty formula_6 can be made arbitrarily small by reducing the wavelength λ. Even if the momentum of the electron is initially known, the light impinging on the electron will g...
How massive was the flight of German civilians during the end of WWII?	I'll respond beginning with the last question. Hitler commanded the Wehrmacht to destroy every german house, kill every german civilian, whipe out everything that could even leave a clue of people ever living in germany. Why? Well, mostly because in his mind, the german people let themselves, and most of all him dow...	[ "\"Die deutschen Vertreibungsverluste\", using prewar population figures, wartime estimates and postwar figures from both German states and in Central and Eastern Europe, concluded that 3,325,000 people died in the war and expulsions, and estimated that 1,100,000 of these were war dead, including 11,500 civilians k...
Do volcanic eruptions, such as the one currently happening in Hawaii, have an effect on global temperature?	Yes, but no. The current Kilauea eruption is not outgasing or putting enough ash into the air to create a marked effect on the global climate. However, there have been volcanic eruptions in the past, Krakatoa, The Siberian Steps, Tambora, Pinatubo, etc. that have had noticable effects, both in global cooling and glob...	[ "Airborne volcanic ash can reflect the Sun's rays back into space and thereby contribute to cooling the planet. Dips in earth temperatures have been observed after large volcano eruptions such as Mount Agung in Bali that erupted in 1963, El Chichon (Mexico) 1983, Ruiz (Colombia) 1985, and Pinatubo (Philippines) 199...
what is "brainfreeze"?	Your brain uses the temperature sensing nerves at the back of your throat to judge extreme cold. Those nerves are relatively deep in the body while still exposed to the outside. If they're cold, your environment is likely very cold. Your body raises its internal temperature to compensate. Specifically, it increases y...	[ "Mind uploading, whole brain emulation, or substrate-independent minds is a use of a computer or another substrate as an emulated human brain, and the view of thoughts and memories as software information states. The term \"mind transfer\" also refers to a hypothetical transfer of a mind from one biological brain t...
When we rip paper, are we breaking covalent bonds or just hydrogen bonding between molecules?	The forces that hold together the fibers in the paper are van der Waals forces (forces of attraction and repulsion between molecules, AKA friction). So you're rubbing fibers against each other and possibly breaking a few that were held together by van der Waals forces, hence the force you feel when you rip it, but you...	[ "In parallel β-sheet structure, if two atoms C and C are adjacent in two hydrogen-bonded β-strands, then they do \"not\" hydrogen bond to each other; rather, one residue forms hydrogen bonds to the residues that flank the other (but not vice versa). For example, residue \"i\" may form hydrogen bonds to residues \"j...
how can russians who swim in cold water keep their toes and fingers?	The reason you lose your fingers, toes, and other extremities in the cold is due to frostbite, which occurs when your extremities freeze. Your body has shunted blood to your core to keep it warm and functioning, and allowed the temperature in your extremities to drop. If this happens when the air temperature is below f...	[ "Hypothermia continues to be a major limitation to swimming or diving in cold water. The reduction in finger dexterity due to pain or numbness decreases general safety and work capacity, which consequently increases the risk of other injuries.\n", "Most risks are preventable with the use of exposure suits. Wet-su...
Winston Churchill's "We will fight them on the beaches" speech is viewed as one of the great speeches of history, but what was the contemporary reaction to it?	Interestingly, almost no-one actually heard Churchill give that speech on the 4th of June 1940, made following the remarkable evacuation of most of the British troops stranded at Dunkirk. It was delivered in the House of Commons, but unlike many of Churchill's other famous speeches it wasn't delivered on the radio ...	[ "Historian Bruce Kauffman describes Churchill's Munich Speech as a \"little-known speech\" that shows his \"under-appreciated gift of foresight.\" He continues, saying Churchill's speeches, \"leading up to (and during) World War II were great not only because of the matchless rhetoric he seemed to call forth effort...
why do white people have such unusual names ie. tagg, scooter, buck, apple, skylar? where do they come from? or do their parents just make them up?	Every ethnicity has unusual names, it's not something specific to white people. Some are made up, others are passed down generation to generation. Beyonce named her kid Blue -- that's also unusual.	[ "A variety of the name is McShine, attested among black people is such Caribbean islands at Saint Vincent and Trinidad – who are apparently descended from the intermarriage of Scottish immigrants with local blacks and/or from slaves who had taken their master's surname with this variation.\n", "Most English count...
Was the communist takeover of Poland post-WWII an unfortunate necessity to finally unseat the gentry...allowing an eventual functioning Democratic Republic to form?	Although the Polish communist parties defined the szlachta land-owning gentry as one of the Polish nation's class enemies and defined feudalism as a retrograde socioeconomic order, the reality was the szlachta was a class very much on the wane in 1944/45. The szlachta itself had undergone a transformation in the ...	[ "In the aftermath of the joint German-Soviet invasion of Poland, the Polish government evacuated to the West and created the Polish Underground State. While no war was declared between Poland and the Soviet Union, the relations were tense, and eventually broke down in 1943 in the aftermath of the revelations of the...
The relationship between the human mind and numbers	Humans have an innate ability to count, that is greater than most animals but worse than a good number of them too. Some animals have counting/measurement skills that far out-shadow our own. But yes, humans are better are numbers than the vast majority of life forms on this planet - so you could absolutely count that...	[ "Humans have evolved to mentally represent numbers in two major ways from observation (not formal math). These representations are often thought to be innate (see Numerical cognition), to be shared across human cultures, to be common to multiple species, and not to be the result of individual learning or cultural t...
Are raccoons and Pandas related?	This is a question with a lot of answers. In as much as they're animals they're related not only to each other, but also to you and sea sponges. But of course they're more closely related to one another than they are to you and I. We'll also need first to define 'panda'. There's the [giant panda](_URL_2_), whi...	[ "Molecular phylogenetic studies show that, as an ancient species in the order Carnivora, the red panda is relatively close to the American raccoon and may be either a monotypic family or a subfamily within the procyonid family. An in-depth mitochondrial DNA population analysis study stated: “According to the fossil...
What determines whether the light hitting an object is being transmitted or reflected?	We can describe this without going into the microscopic physics, which is a bit obscure. Suppose that the wave is traveling in a medium (such as air or water) that has an index of refraction. If the struck object is an insulator (like glass), the reflection and transmission depend on the indices of refraction of the ...	[ "When light is propagating in a material and strikes an interface with a material of lower index of refraction, some of the light is reflected. If the angle of incidence is greater than the critical angle, total internal reflection occurs: all of the light is reflected. The critical angle can be shown to be given b...
Geologists/Earth Scientists: Will all the current land on earth eventually be "refreshed" via subduction?	A simple steady state mass balance approach that gets to an estimate of the time it takes to recycle the continental crust: The answer is that the crust is recycled, but not really in the way you're thinking of. Continental crust (CC) isn't really subducted much. Because oceanic crust is denser, when an oceanic plate ...	[ "A new source of natural resources can provide a reprieve. The European discovery and exploitation of the \"New World\" is one example of this, but seems unlikely to be repeated today. Present global civilization has covered the planet to such an extent there are no new resources in sight. Wright concludes that if ...
why does cheese stick to the spoon when you put it into hot soup?	The spoon is colder than the soup, so when the melted cheese touches it it partially solidifies and grabs onto the spoon.	[ "The cheese is added only at the end, once the other are ingredients are boiled, to prevent gratination. It is most usually prepared with dices of queso fresco or queso cotija; the contact with the boiling soup heats the cheese and gives it a gummy, chewable texture; in turn it melts slightly, giving the soup a cha...
why do i get sharp pains in my head.	You should probably ask a doctor.	[ "Headache, back pain, or stomach pain are some of the most common types of psychogenic pain. It may occur, rarely, in persons with a mental disorder, but more commonly it accompanies or is induced by social rejection, broken heart, grief, lovesickness, or other such emotional events. \n", "The cause of the pain m...
If I get a vaccine and then get tested for the same disease would I test positive?	It depends on the kind of test. Some tests check for immunity. Those cannot distinguish between a person who had the disease versus a person who was vaccinated. One example of this is the tuberculosis skin test. A positive test means you have antibodies against tuberculosis, which can mean either that you were expose...	[ "Say we test some people for the presence of a disease. Some of these people have the disease, and our test correctly says they are positive. They are called \"true positives\" (TP). Some have the disease, but the test incorrectly claims they don't. They are called \"false negatives\" (FN). Some don't have the dise...
Can someone explain the biological process behind getting used to inhaling cigarette/whatever smoke?	Your body will adapt to the smoke, by making the lungs expand more in order to attempt to get more oxygen into them. Same thing will happen with any reduced oxygen situation such as living higher in the mountains. They will actually expand well beyond their normal size in some cases. This is part of the problems wit...	[ "Smoking is a practice in which a substance is burned and the resulting smoke breathed in to be tasted and absorbed into the bloodstream. Most commonly, the substance used is the dried leaves of the tobacco plant, which have been rolled into a small square of rice paper to create a small, round cylinder called a \"...
Can this article regarding light being stopped be explained?	There are two parts to your question, so let's adress them separately. "I see posts about how they cool the atoms to within a billionth of a degree of absolute zero and, as far as I knew, this was not possible for humans to accomplish." The corresponding temperature would be in the nanoKelvin, which a quick sear...	[ "Two independent teams of physicists were said to bring light to a \"complete standstill\" by passing it through a Bose–Einstein condensate of the element rubidium, one team at Harvard University and the Rowland Institute for Science in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and the other at the Harvard–Smithsonian Center for A...
Having trouble understanding relativity and time dilation. Specifically as it relates to simultaneity of events in different inertial reference frames.	I'm not an expert but I saw [this a while back](_URL_0_). I think that it will answer your question.	[ "Insufficient knowledge of the basics of special relativity, especially the application of the Lorentz transformation in connection with length contraction and time dilation, led and still leads to the construction of various apparent paradoxes. Both the twin paradox and the Ehrenfest paradox and their explanation ...
why was prohibition less successful than the war on drugs?	The war on drugs was a failure in the exact same way that prohibition of alcohol was. We just keep doing it anyway.	[ "Prohibition in the 1920s United States, originally enacted to suppress the alcohol trade, drove many small-time alcohol suppliers out of business and consolidated the hold of large-scale organized crime over the illegal alcohol industry. Since alcohol was still popular, criminal organisations producing alcohol wer...
elim5 why eating 5-6 smaller meals a day is better then 2-3?	It isn't necessarily better. What matters is your overall caloric intake, be that in one meal daily or ten. The idea behind eating more meals is that you never really get that hungry, so you don't overeat.	[ "BULLET::::- Eating 6 smaller meals per day instead of the standard 3 large meals. BFL (along with some dietary experts) maintain that eating smaller, more frequent meals throughout the day will boost the body's metabolism, causing it to burn fat faster.\n", "People usually have two or three meals a day. Snacks o...
if the voyager 1, the furthest man made object from earth, is roughly 18.8b km away, how do we know about cosmic webs, 100 billion lightyears away, and other extremely far structures of the universe?	We... look. With telescopes. And mathematical calculations using the redshift of distant objects and the parallax of less distant objects as Earth orbits the Sun allow us to convert the 2D images produced by telescopes into 3D maps of the structure of the universe, lots of complexity to dive into there, but mostly ...	[ "\"Voyager 1\" is the farthest human-made object from Earth, traveling away from both the Earth and the Sun at a relatively faster speed than any other probe. As of September 12, 2013, \"Voyager 1\" is about 12 billion miles (19 billion kilometers) from the Sun.\n", "The Voyager program probes \"Voyager 1\" and \...
In addition to the moon's own gravitational pull, do the tides it produces have any significant effect on my weight? i.e. is there a noticeable difference between high and low tides?	It will have (little to) no effect on your weight, but it will change the vector of your weight ever so slightly. If this seems odd realize weight is simply the force of gravity upon your person and that force is a vector. All that mass is still acting on you just from different directions. If you want to define weight...	[ "Atmospheric tides are also produced through the gravitational effects of the Moon. \"Lunar (gravitational) tides\" are much weaker than \"solar (thermal) tides\" and are generated by the motion of the Earth's oceans (caused by the Moon) and to a lesser extent the effect of the Moon's gravitational attraction on th...
What preservation are we doing today, that will make the lives of future historians far easier?	The phasing out of teaching cursive in North America is going to mean that much sooner than 200 years the future, historians will need special training in paleography to read handwritten primary sources in their native languages. There is no way to predict anything about 200 years in the future, however, among the...	[ "Susan Mumm has described how survival bias leads historians to study organisations that are still in existence more than those which have closed. This means large, successful organisations such as the Women's Institute, which were well organised and still have accessible archives for historians to work from, are s...
why is it that when people film phone video in portrait mode common websites or apps like youtube, liveleak etc. don't allow play back automatically in portrait full screen mode?	First off, you should never, ever, ever, record video in portrait. The only exception is with Intsagram and Vine, where they are 1:1, so it doesn't matter. It's not filmed in "full screen" you filmed it sideways and the video player automatically rotates it for easy viewing, making it 9x16. YouTube cannot detect if ...	[ "BULLET::::- Camera facing away: This position automatically starts the camera application to take pictures or create videos. If the phone's video player application is being used, twisting to this position automatically changes the video to horizontal full screen mode, and it is possible to stand the 5700 on its s...
Objective USSR history books which are based on the new sources that are available to us today?	The mods of this sub have a pretty comprehensive [booklist](_URL_0_), it's unfortunately a little bare concerning glorious Soviet Union. I can personally recommend American historian Stephen Kotkin's series on Iosef Stalin (he's published two of the three planned parts thus far), Paradoxes of Power 1878-1928, and *W...	[ "The \"Soviet Encyclopedia\" is a systematic summary of knowledge in social and economic studies and in the applied sciences. It became a universal reference work for the Soviet intelligentsia. According to the publisher's foreword in the English-language translation of the encyclopedia, the encyclopedia is importa...
Are there any sounds that the alphabets can not spell?	Define "alphabets". %-) There are a lot of languages in the world (over 4000), and among them they cover a huge range of different sounds or phonemes, including sounds we Anglophones wouldn't think of as "sounds you could use in words"; clicks, for example, or really difficult sounds like the one rendered in ...	[ "When an alphabet is borrowed from its original language for use with a new language—as has been done with the Latin alphabet for many languages, or Japanese Katakana for non-Japanese words—it often proves defective in representing the new language's phonemes. Sometimes this problem is addressed by the use of such ...
why does burping through the nose not smell as bad as through the mouth?	Air going out of the mouth will include any of the smells that cause bad breath caused by bacteria living in your mouth (which are rather happy after you've just eaten). When air goes out through the nose, it doesn't pick these smells up.	[ "European (dry) snuff is intended to be shallowly \"sniffed\" (technically insufflated) into the nose, where nicotine is absorbed through the mucous membranes in the nostrils. Snuff is not deeply \"snorted\" (such as in the way cocaine is) because snuff shouldn't get past the nose, i.e. into sinuses, throat or lung...

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