Split (2)

train · 226k rows

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how companies electronically surveil their employees	1) Yes, some firewalls will show it in real time. Some will show logs. Whether or not they go through logs depends on how big of a company, and how much they suspect you of being naughty. Sometimes they just have alerts on specific domains that will signal them to check more thoroughly. 2) Both 3) You can see the ssl...	[ "An EOR, or Employer of Record, is designed to facilitate all components of independent contractor management, including classification, auditing, and compliance reviews. Employer of Records help drive down the risk of co-employment and allow enterprises to engage and manage independent contractors without the stre...
What was the air combat effectiveness of the Me-262? Did the Luftwaffe ever develop strategies and tactics that made it an effective fighter?	There was a real discrepancy between the Me-262's reputation and the actual results it achieved in German service. The sorties of 262 units often showed that it could not translate the technical advantages of the turbojet into masses of Allied aircraft shot down. Some sorties actually had either equal losses for both s...	[ "Eventually, German pilots developed new combat tactics to counter Allied bombers' defences. Me 262s, equipped with up to 24 unguided folding-fin R4M rockets—12 in each of two underwing racks, outboard of the engine nacelle—approached from the side of a bomber formation, where their silhouettes were widest, and whi...
security certificates (root, wildcard, etc)	Certificates are cryptographically signed electronic documents that are generated and released by "certificate authorities". The certificate authority is an organization that says "Okay, we're going to issue all of these certificates. We trust them to be who they say they are. Therefore if you trust us, you implicit...	[ "These certificates can be used to digitally sign and encrypt email, authenticate and authorize users connecting to websites and secure data transmission over the Internet. Any application that supports the Secure Socket Layer (SSL) can make use of certificates signed by CAcert, as can any application that uses X.5...
Did America finally enter WWII to stop the Holocaust or because Germany was trying to take over Europe (and eventually the world)?	America officially entered WWII because it was attacked by Japan. The United States declared war on Germany on December 11 because Germany had declared war on the United States that same day. The declaration passed unanimously in both the Senate and House. Prior to entering the war, America had supported Allied efforts...	[ "Asylum of the European Jewish population was not a priority for the U.S. during the war, and the American Jewish community did not realize the severity of the Holocaust until late in the conflict. But the Nazis did not allow Jews to leave Occupied Europe or Germany during this time.\n", "There has been sharp cri...
on a subatomic level, what stops two objects made of the same exact material from joining and forming a bigger object? what force is there that repels the two objects?	A few things, notably that what we see as the "same material" often isn't actually the same material. Take metals: they oxidize. For iron, that means rusting. While a thick layer of rust takes a while, the iron atoms on the outside oxidize about as instantaneously as anything can happen. So when you try to stick ...	[ "In a solid, constituent particles (ions, atoms, or molecules) are closely packed together. The forces between particles are so strong that the particles cannot move freely but can only vibrate. As a result, a solid has a stable, definite shape, and a definite volume. Solids can only change their shape by force, as...
Would a blind synesthetic person be able to see sounds?	This hasn't been heavily studied, probably because the number of cases to study would be quite small. If the neural pathways leading to synesthesia are intact even when the person becomes blind, then in theory the person would still see the visual illusion with sound. [Here's a study](_URL_1_) that showed evidence that...	[ "For example, blind individuals show enhanced perceptual and attentional sensitivity for identification of different auditory stimuli, including speech sounds. The spatial detection of sound can be interrupted in the early blind by inducing a virtual lesion in the visual cortex using transcranial magnetic stimulati...
What did a serf have that a slave didn't?	Firstly, in the early 18th century there were not just serfs in Russia, but also slaves. In Russia, slavery was abolished by Peter the Great in 1723. The difference in position was not about having better opportunities to improve their lot in life, and indeed, a Russian house slave probably had better avenues for imp...	[ "The last type of serf was the slave. Slaves had the fewest rights and benefits from the manor. They owned no tenancy in land, worked for the lord exclusively and survived on donations from the landlord.\n", "Within his constraints, a serf had some freedoms. Though the common wisdom is that a serf owned \"only hi...
why are cpu's so expensive?	They are very hard to make. They are sandwiches of various metals and semiconductors formed into billions of microscopic structures which are sensitive to the faintest electrical impulses and impossibly complexly arranged so as to perform billions of mathematical operations in the blink of an eye, all in the space of a...	[ "The Prices of different pieces of graphics hardware vary due to the power and speed of the piece. Most high end gaming pieces of hardware are dedicated graphics cards, and cost over $200, and can go as high as the price of a new computer, depending on the quality desired. In the graphics cards department, using in...
are movie theaters dying due to changing culture or economic reasons?	It's because it's $13.13 per ticket and $1 more for 3D and $2 more for RPX. And $5.50 for small coke and $6 for small popcorn. Or I can pay red box $2	[ "Recently some cinemas, (often interchangeably called \"theatres\") have been forced to shut shop due to the high entertainment tax (which stands at 55%), that results in huge losses. Since 2000, 50 cinemas have shut down in the city. \n", "In the 1980s, cinema audiences were in decline nationally, due among othe...
why countries with deficitary balance of payments try to devalue its currency to export more goods instead trying to strengthen the same currency to make imports cheaper?	Strengthening the currency can be done effectively in the short term, but not the long term. This is because it is done by central banks purchasing the domestic currency with reserves of foreign currency. This increases demand for your currency and therefore increases it's value, but eventually those reserves of foreig...	[ "If, on the other hand, a currency is undervalued, its exports will become cheaper and therefore more competitive internationally. At the same time, imports will also become more costly, stimulating the production of domestic substitutes to replace them. That will result in a growth of currency flowing into the cou...
With the amount of planes that were shot down during WW2, what happened to the debris?	It's important to consider how the relative damage that, say, a bomber crashing into a neighbourhood would compare to the damage of an actual bomb dropping. In general, planes being shot down and crashing into residential areas or factories was greatly overshadowed by the damage caused by the bombings delivered by sa...	[ "Three aircraft were lost: two in a collision and one due to engine fire. Bullet holes were discovered in several aircraft upon their return, presumably the result of being fired upon by individual German soldiers.\n", "During the Second World War, several aircraft — mostly RAAF Bristol Beaufort bombers — were lo...
why does the negative binary number system work the way it does	There are a couple of different ways of representing negative numbers in binary. The easiest (for humans, anyways) one is called "sign magnitude," and it's basically what you just described. One bit (the sign) denotes whether it's positive (0) or negative (1). The other bits make up the "magnitude," or value of the ...	[ "In mathematics, negative numbers in any base are represented by prefixing them with a minus (\"−\") sign. However, in computer hardware, numbers are represented only as sequences of bits, without extra symbols. The four best-known methods of extending the binary numeral system to represent signed numbers are: sign...
When brakes are applied to an idling car, how come some gear doesn't break inside the drivetrain?	If you're referring to an automatic transmission, the engine is connected to the drivetrain via a fluid coupling known as a torque converter. At low engine speeds, the torque converter is transmitting relatively low torque to the drivetrain which is why your brakes are able to overcome the drive torque. At higher engin...	[ "Differential braking (or braked differential) systems remove the clutches on the track and add a differential on the transmission output. The differential allows the tracks to turn at different speeds while remaining powered. Steering is then accomplished by slowing one track with a brake. The advantage to this de...
How accurate is the idea of feudal armies being comprised of conscripted peasants?	Well, the period you're referring to saw some fairly dramatic changes, but there are enough similarities that we can speak at least a little in general terms. Instead of getting into the more complex questions, I'll try and do my best with the question of conscripted peasants. Yes, there was a system somewhat analogou...	[ "When the German peasants revolted in 1525, most Imperial troops were fighting in Italy. Georg von Waldburg could only recruit 4,000 unreliable Landsknechts and could do nothing more than to negotiate with the peasants. But after the victory against France in the Battle of Pavia, many war veterans returned to South...
Based purely on the total number of people killed by people fighting in the name of each religion, which religion has historically been the most violent?	Sorry for my english i'm not a native speaker. There is no precise answer to this question. However i'll provide a link toward a paper written by [Naveed s. Sheikh](_URL_0_) ( University of Louisville) where he tried to do an estimation. He also clearly explains the methodology he used. At the end he comes up with : ...	[ "John Morreall and Tamara Sonn have argued that all cases of violence and war include social, political, and economic dimensions. Since there is no consensus on definitions of \"religion\" among scholars and no way to isolate \"religion\" from the rest of the more likely motivational dimensions, it is incorrect to ...
- why do people pick at scabs, fits, pimples, etc? we know it's bad and it hurts, but we still do it.	I don't have an answer for you but I can tell you that when I spent some time looking after some young baboons they also liked picking off my scabs when they were grooming.	[ "What Southport is famous for is the shit and the piss throwing. Because the inmates have no access to each other, what they do is fill cups up with shit and piss and throw it at each other. You get caught doing it once, they keep your hands handcuffed behind your back so you can't throw anything. So if you really ...
why is it that a large number of american students choose the high cost of their university over studying abroad?	If they can't afford a college education without loans, how are they going to afford studying abroad?	[ "As universities face declining public financial support and the pressure to keep tuition affordable, academic institutions have relied on international students to offset the rising cost of higher education. The majority of international students in the United States are from China, India and South Korea. However,...
how are single grooves on lp's able to create such a vast array of different sounds, and all at once?	Look at a speaker, if it's a buffer it will look more obvious. Play something at a relatively high volume if possible. Sound is generated by the speaker moving back and forth and moving the air with it. On a buffer the movement is easier to see as it's a large speaker, also you can more easily feel the air moving in f...	[ "BULLET::::- On vinyl, each Session is split into three LPs, with 12 total records averaging 20 minutes per side of vinyl. Again, as crossfading between sides of vinyl is not physically possible, many songs feature their full intro or outro, extending the running time by a few minutes. Furthermore, \"shimripl casua...
brainfreezing when drinking something cold	The mouth is situated really close to the brain. Specifically, at the back of your throat, two arteries meet: the internal carotid and the anterior cerebral, and they both feed directly into the brain. Cold sensations there pass signals to the outer covering of your brain, which you then interpret as pain. This sen...	[ "BULLET::::- Brain: The brain, command center for the human nervous system, is cold and wet. The brain is composed of water in addition to the squashy and soft gray and white matter. The brain is capable of transmitting great deal of signals without failing. The way the brain is operating and its shape all are defi...
if a space elevator was built, would it get bent or flung out into space because of earth's rotation?	It can't be done with current materials. There isn't anything strong enough, that is light enough to use. As for the way it works, it would need a "counter weight" in a geosynchronous orbit. Meaning that it would be orbiting the earth in the same direction as the earth is spinning and at the same speed. This is somethi...	[ "A space elevator is a proposed type of space transportation system. Its main component is a ribbon-like cable (also called a tether) anchored to the surface and extending into space above the level of geosynchronous orbit. As the planet rotates, the centrifugal force at the upper end of the tether counteracts grav...
why don't inter-species friendships (e.g. cats and ferrets) occur in the wild?	They do it's just much more uncommon	[ "Mutualism can contribute to the formation of interspecies friendships because it involves a pair of organisms experiencing mutually beneficial exchanges with each other which may lead to a long-lasting bond. The mutualistic relationship observed between coyotes and badgers after hunting ground squirrels together i...
what the treble does on sound devices, and how it relates to the bass	treble is the opposite of bass. It's the higher frequencies in music, whereas bass is the low. ELI5 - Bass is the low rumbling sounds in the music and treble is the higher pitched guitars and vocals (though most vocals are mid to high range).	[ "The BassBox is an acoustic instrument. The sound of this instrument is created by the overblowing of two flutes that obtain their air from a large fast-moving bass speaker. The sound does not resemble the sound of a flute but that of a wooden percussion instrument with many overtones. The instrument can be heard i...
can someone explain the american mid-term elections? (i'm european)	Most of our national (Senate and House of Representatives) and local (governors, Judges, school board members) elections are held in two year intervals. Every four years, those elections coincide with the presidential election. It's the same election every other year, but because so much more attention is given to th...	[ "Midterm elections in the United States are the general elections that are held near the midpoint of a president's four-year term of office. Federal offices that are up for election during the midterms include all 435 seats in the United States House of Representatives, and 33 or 34 of the 100 seats in the United S...
Are stem cells really that "next big thing" as advertised? Why or why not?	The potential implications of stem cell based regenerative medicine are huge for medicine. While most stem cell therapies that go on today use adult stem cells like the hematopoietic stem cells in the bone marrow for blood cancers or [immune related disorders](_URL_2_) or [mesenchymal stem cells](_URL_0_) which are of...	[ "Medical researchers widely report that stem cell research has the potential to dramatically alter approaches to understanding and treating diseases, and to alleviate suffering. In the future, most medical researchers anticipate being able to use technologies derived from stem cell research to treat a variety of di...
Why did the Germans not make a more concerted effort at breaking the blockade during World War I?	In order to effectively end the blockade it would not have been enough to just sink the ships patrolling between Norway and the UK. Trade would only have been possible if Germany somehow could secure shipping in the North Sea and Atlantic. Not only was the British Navy superior in numbers, the location of the British I...	[ "The British economic blockade of Germany was made effective through the support of spy networks operating out of neutral Netherlands. Points of weakness in the naval blockade were determined by agents on the ground and relayed back to the Royal Navy. The blockade led to severe food deprivation in Germany and was a...
what turns a "skin crease" into a "wrinkle" that stays there even when the reason for the crease (smiling, sitting a certain way, etc.) is gone?	Think of it like an elastic waistband. That thing can go a long time retaining its elasticity -- in my experience, ten, fifteen years. But eventually it hits that point where it's stretched too much. You pull to stretch, and it -- stays stretched. Basically it's run out of elasticity to return back to its previous ...	[ "A wrinkle, also known as a rhytide, is a fold, ridge or crease in otherwise smooth surface, such as on skin or fabric. Skin wrinkles typically appear as a result of aging processes such as glycation, habitual sleeping positions, loss of body mass, sun damage, or temporarily, as the result of prolonged immersion in...
the technical difference between the rock-ish music genres: rock, metal, heavy metal, alternitive, grunge, etc.	_URL_0_ Knock yourself out.	[ "BULLET::::- Alternative metal – any style of heavy metal music that deviates from the norm, usually by incorporating elements found in alternative rock (particularly its melodic vocals). Many alternative metal bands also tend to either have funk or hip hop music influences.\n", "Since rock music is so diverse an...
Why are some greenhouse gases more effective than others?	A greenhouse gas is just any (atmospheric) gas that primarily absorbs and emits radiation in the infrared region of the spectrum - and some are much better at doing this than others (i.e. they absorb/emit a greater range of infrared wavelengths). It also depends on the lifetime of the gas in the atmosphere, as well as...	[ "A special case is water generation in greenhouses because the air inside a greenhouse is much hotter and more humid than the outside. Particularly in climatic zones with water scarcity, a greenhouse can strongly enhance the conditions necessary for atmospheric water generation. An example is the seawater greenhous...
how are large computer files compressed into 1/4 of their size?	Say I wanted to compress the quote: > First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win. You will notice that there is some repetition in the quote. Lets say that 1= "then they" 2= "you" 3= "they" We get > First 3 ignore 2, 1 laugh at 2, 1 fight 2, 3 2 win. We've gone down f...	[ "However, large compressible files become highly fragmented since every chunk smaller than 64KB becomes a fragment. According to research by Microsoft's NTFS Development team, 50–60GB is a reasonable maximum size for a compressed file on an NTFS volume with a 4KB (default) cluster (block) size. This reasonable maxi...
Why do the planets nearer a star become rocky and those farther out become gas giants	The actual reason for this is the frost line _URL_0_ The theory goes that inside the frost line, most light elements are fluid gasses, and thus tend to dissipate rather than coalesce (the thing required to start planetary formation). Because of this there is less planetary formation and much of it is rocky. Outside ...	[ "One possibility is that because the planet orbits so close to its star, it is — unlike Jupiter — ineffective in cleansing the planetary system of rocky bodies. Instead, a heavy rain of heavier elements on the planet may have helped create the large core.\n", "Excluding close-in planets that have lost their gas e...
why is tonight's democratic debate scheduled at the same time as a football game?	Because the head of the DNC, Debbie Schultz, is strongly backing Hillary Clinton (she used to work for Hillary's previous campaigns) and she is of the opinion (and is probably correct about this) that the more people watching the debates, the more likely people are to vote for Bernie Sanders in the primaries. If you lo...	[ "The campaigns of both Bernie Sanders and Martin O'Malley have criticized the days and times for the debates as well as stating that more debates are needed. Of the nine debates, two took place on a Saturday, two on Sunday, three on a Thursday, one on a Tuesday and one on a Wednesday. The choice of Saturday was cri...
how does a psychologist know what kind of thoughts are okay for their patients to have and what kind are not?	They have a degree in studying the human psyche. Most of what a psychologist does is not to judge you based on an individual thought, but attempt to understand your thought process. For instance, if someone said "man life sucks you know" it may just be causal talk between friends, but if you can determine that the pa...	[ "Psychological suggestion can lead people to expect a particular response, which can result in thoughts and behaviors that will help bring the anticipated outcome to fruition – for instance by breathing more heavily. Chris French, head of the anomalistic psychology research unit at the University of London says tha...
Monday Methods: Sometimes you can't know everything – and why that's a good thing	Your post made me thinking - and maybe this would be better suited for a question - but I wonder if there is a specific approach for that transition period when the spread of literacy among a population takes place. While I have no academic formation, I am aware that there are ways of investigating the mindset of an i...	[ "Someone who has a more sophisticated understanding, more predictively accurate understanding, and/or an understanding that allows them to make explanations that others commonly judge to be better, of something, is said to understand that thing \"deeply\". Conversely, someone who has a more limited understanding of...
Why is superluminous communication not possible through the use of quantum entanglement in this thought experiment?	I think a specific example might help here. > Suppose we generate a pair of quantum entangled particles - P1 and P2. Ok, let's take this entangled state \|X_up > \|X_down > + \|X_down > \|X_up > > Beforehand we agree that I will measure the spin of P1 along the X axis, and you will measure the spin of P2 alon...	[ "\"Signal nonlocality\", which is forbidden in orthodox quantum theory, would allow nonlocal quantum entanglement to be used as a stand-alone communication channel without the need of a classical light-speed limited retarded signal to unlock the entangled message from the sender to the receiver. This would be a maj...
diesel engines.	Just keep the fuel lines clean. Diesel has a bad tendency to get gunky when it's cold. This is actually what the glow plugs are for. In a diesel, ignition is actually caused by crushing the bejeezus out of the fuel until it autoignites. If the fuel is cold, it sticks together when injected and won't vaporize, and so y...	[ "The Diesel cycle is a combustion process of a reciprocating internal combustion engine. In it, fuel is ignited by heat generated during the compression of air in the combustion chamber, into which fuel is then injected. This is in contrast to igniting the fuel-air mixture with a spark plug as in the Otto cycle (fo...
What is the most aerodynamic shape?	Well it depends on the operating speed. Aerodynamic drag has 2 major components pressure drag and viscous drag. These can be imagined in two cases. Lets first consider a perfectly thin flat plate that is parallel to the direction of flow. In this case the flow near the plate exerts a drag shear force. This force is...	[ "The aerodynamic shape of the car was designed by Oscar Jankovits, probably inspired by contemporary aerodynamic theories such as Paul Jaray's,and built at the Jankovits' garage between 1935 and 1937. It was a barchetta with central driving position, with fully integrated wings (ponton styling). The body shell was ...
How much can we tell what a person looks like from a DNA sample, and how close are we to getting a complete picture of a person from that?	You can usually tell someone's race (that is, their geographic ancestral origin) with reasonable precision based on a genetic sample. I'm not sure if there are forensic databases correlating racial features with particular genetic variants, but based on this crude measure you could at least say, someone is of Samoan an...	[ "People can also be identified from traces of their DNA from blood, skin, hair, saliva, and semen by DNA fingerprinting, from their ear print, from their teeth or bite by forensic odontology, from a photograph or a video recording by facial recognition systems, from the video recording of their walk by gait analysi...
Does anything evaporate with water?	Anything with a vapor pressure equal to or greater than the vapor pressure of the water will carry over. Ever drink distilled spirits? Whiskey, Vodka, etc? You evaporate off the alcohol, and some water to concentrate alcohol. Long story short, anything more volatile or as volatile as water will be carried over as well...	[ "Evaporation generally deals with evaporation of water from a mixture or solution, containing another liquid or fine solids. This concentrated stream is in most cases the product and as such the only waste stream is pure water, which poses no risk to the environment and may be disposed into the stormwater/ sewage s...
What did native Americans on the coast of modern day California think about earthquakes?	Alfred Kroeber recorded several Yurok stories that include earthquakes. A few can be found [here](_URL_0_). Some stories involve earthquakes as a moderating force between humans and non-humans (Woge, pronounced wah-gay), and between humans and Sa:al, or evil forces. In one of the referenced stories, evil forces were a...	[ "Although the written history of California is not long, records of earthquakes exist that affected the Spanish missions that were constructed beginning in the late 18th century. Those records ceased when the missions were secularized in 1834, and from that point until the California Gold Rush in the 1840s, records...
What was the average day like for a woman in ancient Greece? Specifically the Classical Era	The greater part of the population in Classical Greece were slaves; naturally this includes women. They therefore had no public face, no public or home life of their own, and no rights of any kind. Having said that, female slaves who served in a domestic setting could be integrated into the household in fairly benign ...	[ "The status and characteristics of ancient and modern-day women in Greece evolved from the events that occurred in the history of Greece. According to Michael Scott, in his article \"The Rise of Women in Ancient Greece\" (\"History Today\"), \"place of women\" and their achievements in ancient Greece was best descr...
if my phone is off, how does it know i pressed the button to turn it on?	Yes, it is "really off." The button physically completes a circuit, allowing electricity to flow to the computer in the phone. The same way a light switch 'knows' you turned it on.	[ "When the mobile phone or data device is turned on, it registers with the mobile telephone exchange, or switch, with its unique identifiers, and can then be alerted by the mobile switch when there is an incoming telephone call. The handset constantly listens for the strongest signal being received from the surround...
How much of a role did Herbert Hoover play in the Great Depression?	Herbert Hoover first and foremost believed in volunteerism and private charity. He did not encourage federal intervention whatsoever. He expected that the Great Depression (which wasn't considered that during Hoover's years just yet) would be solved if everyone worked together. The National Historic Site of his childho...	[ "In 1929, the Great Depression began, the asset bubble burst, and the unemployment rate rose. The following year, though most people thought that there was nothing worth worrying about, Hoover took decisive action on issues such as employment, construction, public construction, and agriculture, which helped restore...
Why does the ocean look vibrant blue/green in the tropics, but look grey up in the north Atlantic?	Northern water looks murkier because there's more plankton in it. Southern water can't dissolve as much carbon dioxide or oxygen, since it's warmer, so not as much lives in it.	[ "The Atlantic ecotype (\"A. o. winstoni\") is found along most of the Atlantic (east) coast of Dominica, which is wetter than the west coast. It is intermediate in size, and has a typically orange to chocolate brown ground color, with small, scattered white spots, like the Montane type.\n", "Lakes and oceans appe...
Is there any evidence that suggests the universe is limited to the four dimensions we are aware of? Is there any evidence to the contrary?	There are many theories out there that have built on Einstein's theory of four-dimensional spacetime. One of the most well-known is [string theory](_URL_2_), which comes in many varieties, each of which predicts more than four spacetime dimensions, though the specific number varies. Originally, 26 total dimensions were...	[ "Finally, the first two results each appeared to establish 11 dimensions, the third result appeared to specify the theory, and the last result explained why the observed universe appears to be four-dimensional.\n", "In 1998/99 Merab Gogberashvili published on arXiv (and subsequently in peer-reviewed journals) a n...
How long was an average trench during WWI?	The Western Front at it's most consistent, from December 1914 to March 1918, was about 540 miles in length. The Eastern Front was just over twice that length. Trench lines typically ran continuously for miles on end, and it was only in areas such as the Vosges sector on the southern most part of the Western Front, or i...	[ "Regina Trench () was a German trench dug along the north-facing slope of a ridge running from north-west of the village of Le Sars, south-westwards to Stuff Redoubt (), close to the German fortifications at Thiepval on the Somme battlefield. It was the longest such trench on the German front during the First World...
how does the brain heal and get back past memories after a severe concussion?	Just wrote a long post about living with severe amnesia,.. you don't really get them back, and when you remember them it's like it's happening to someone else or you saw it on TV.	[ "Concussions are proven to cause loss of brain function. This can lead to physical and emotional symptoms such as attention disorders, depression, headaches, nausea, and amnesia. These symptoms can last for days or week and even after the symptoms have gone, the brain still won't be completely normal. Players with ...
I have heard of some badass British Army regiments, but were any of them Irish?	Yeah, look into the Irish regiments during the Boer war. Queen Elizabeth herself decided that all Irish regiments should wear the Shamrock on St. Patricks day no matter where they are in the world in recognition of their bravery in the Boer wars. They still do this today. It's described in this article _URL_0_	[ "Irishmen also enlisted in other Irish regiments of the regular British army based elsewhere in England, Scotland and Wales (some Irish in name only). These included four regular cavalry regiments (the 4th (Royal Irish) Dragoon Guards, the 5th (Royal Irish) Lancers, the 6th (Inniskilling) Dragoons, and the 8th (Kin...
What do scientists mean and what does it look like when they say "equations break down"?	Let's take a step back: Science is about creating models that both match natural phenomenon and predicts results as well. Science is NOT about explaining what is "actually" happening in the real world. This is a common misconception. There are a couple interesting things that follow from this, such as the abilit...	[ "The equations are derived from the basic principles of continuity of mass, momentum, and energy. Sometimes it is necessary to consider a finite arbitrary volume, called a control volume, over which these principles can be applied. This finite volume is denoted by formula_1 and its bounding surface formula_2. The c...
how is donation write-offs beneficial to people?	I assume we are talking about claiming charitable donations on your taxes? It helps by incentivizing people to give their money to charity. So lets say I pay 20% of my income in taxes but I can claim 100% of my charitable donations. If I give $100 to a charity I will get $20 back at the end of the year, I'm really...	[ "A systematic review came to the result that altruism and financial compensation are the main motivations to donate, and to a lesser degree procreation or genetic fatherhood and questions about the donor's own fertility. Financial compensation is generally more prevalent than altruism as a motivation among donors i...
How do present day Germans feel about WW1 and WW2?	We're historians and we can't really answer questions on current day events. For example, had you asked us how Germans in the 60's and 70's felt about the two world wars, then it would have been something we could have answered. I would recommend going to AskReddit or AskSocialScience for this kind of question.	[ "While its impact appears to be less well-known and studied than the impact which World War One had on German Americans, World War Two was likewise difficult for them and likewise had the impact of forcing them to drop distinctive German characteristics and assimilate into the general US culture. According to Melvi...
I read somewhere that in intergalactic space, it's a pitch dark void, is this true?	See [this thread](_URL_0_) from earlier today: lots of answers there, some of them even good. None put exact figures on light levels in intergalactic space, unfortunately. The upshot is: if you were within a couple of million light years of a nice bright galaxy (like our one, or Andromeda), you ought to be able to see...	[ "Dark Void is a video game developed by Airtight Games using the Unreal Engine 3 and published by Capcom for the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and Microsoft Windows. In the game, players must face an alien threat that humanity had previously banished. The game mixes on-foot and mid-air combat. It was released worldwide i...
How much emphasis was placed on continued ability in hand-to-hand/close quarters combat during the rise of gunpower?	This is a long, long period of history you're asking about here. I think it's best separated into before and after the development of the socket bayonet (the late 17th century). I'm most familiar with warfare before that development, so I'll focus my comments there - specifically on the 15th and 16th centuries. Arqueb...	[ "Although hand-to-hand fighting was accorded less importance in major militaries after World War II, insurgency conflicts such as the Vietnam War, low intensity conflict and urban warfare have prompted many armies to pay more attention to this form of combat. When such fighting includes firearms designed for close-...
Is it possible to temporarily demagnetize a "hard" magnet?	If you heat a magnet up enough it will demagnetize temporarily (or maybe permanently depending on the material it is made of and how it cools).	[ "Few materials can be made to magnetically levitate stably above the magnetic field from a permanent magnet. Although magnetic repulsion is obviously and easily achieved between any two magnets, the shape of the field causes the upper magnet to push off sideways, rather than remaining supported, rendering stable le...
how do we make things cold?	You have the right idea. We make things cold by removing heat. Technically there is no such things as "cold", just the absence of heat. The easiest way to remove energy is to condense all of the energy in something into a small area which will cause it to heat up. If it heats up to hotter than the surrounding area, it...	[ "Another common method of cooling is exposing an object to ice, dry ice, or liquid nitrogen. This works by convection; the heat is transferred from the relatively warm object to the relatively cold coolant.\n", "Cold-working processes, in which the product's shape is altered by rolling, fabrication or other proce...
Lee Harvey Oswald had defected to the Soviet Union in the late 1950s. Is this as unusual as it sounds, for the time? Why wasn't a bigger deal made of it after the Kennedy assassination?	I don't have any data relating to the numbers of Americans who defected to the USSR during the Cold War, so hopefully another contributor will come in with some information on that, but I am somewhat confused as to your suggestion that Oswald's time in the Soviet Union wasn't made "a bigger deal". As soon as Oswald's a...	[ "BULLET::::- After two years of living and working in Minsk, American defector Lee Harvey Oswald applied to the Soviet Union for an exit visa so that he could return to the United States. He, his wife and daughter were finally granted permission to leave on May 30, 1962.\n", "A few days after the assassination of...
why gwyneth paltrow is one of the most hated celebrities	Many people believe that she's rich, snobbish, elitist, and out of touch with average people. She came from money, enjoyed success in Hollywood, and married someone rich and famous. Many of her quotes and behavior typify the things that people hate in rich and famous people. She has two children: Apple and Moses. ...	[ "His 2015 book \"\"Is Gwyneth Paltrow Wrong About Everything?\"\" focuses on the negative impact celebrity endorsement have on public health. Caulfield argues that the public should be wary of accepting health advice from entertainers and artists. The book won the 2015 Science in Society General Book Award from the...
What happens to muscle mass that is gained through exercise, when you stop exercising?	_URL_0_ Muscular atrophy occurs during detraining, but it appears the amount of myonuclei gained through hypertrophy remains constant, so when retrained the muscles will bounce back fairly quickly. So if you stop working out and start working out again, you regain mass better than if you were starting from scratch.	[ "Substrates produce metabolic fatigue by being depleted during exercise, resulting in a lack of intracellular energy sources to fuel contractions. In essence, the muscle stops contracting because it lacks the energy to do so.\n", "Substrates produce metabolic fatigue by being depleted during exercise, resulting i...
Can you melt any substance?	No, some things just can't be melted. When you melt a substance, you are weakening the bonds between molecules until the molecules are more free to move around (in a solid state, the molecules are fixed in place and only vibrate). When something is melted the molecules themselves keep the same structure, just the weake...	[ "Selective laser melting (SLM) does not use sintering for the fusion of powder granules but will completely melt the powder using a high-energy laser to create fully dense materials in a layer-wise method that has mechanical properties similar to those of conventional manufactured metals.\n", "For a solid to melt...
How much of a problem is space debris for the ISS and shuttles?	There are no more space shuttles, but for the ISS and other spacecraft, the answer is space debris is a potential hazard, but fairly easily managed. NASA and the DoD track tens of thousands of pieces of debris to ensure there are no collisions. The orbits of the ISS or any other spacecraft can be adjusted to avoid pote...	[ "As of April 2019, 3,000 of the 10,000 pieces of space debris routinely tracked by the US Military as a threat to the International Space Station were known to have originated from the 2007 satellite shoot down.\n", "NASA's study concluded that debris accounted for half of the overall risk to the Shuttle. Executi...
When a snake swallows an animal whole, what actually kills the animal? Does it suffocate, or does it die from being exposed to the snake's gastric acids or something else?	I have a pet python. Constrictors asphyxiate their prey before swallowing them. Basically, they strike and latch on with their jaws and coil their neck tightly around their prey restricting lung function and blood circulation. The snake holds this position for a few minutes until it is sure the prey is dead, then lei...	[ "Prey is killed by constriction; after an animal has been grasped to restrain it, a number of coils are hastily wrapped around it. Then, by applying and maintaining sufficient pressure, the snake prevents its prey from inhaling, so that it eventually succumbs to asphyxiation. Recently, the pressures produced during...
Do some people burn more calories performing mental tasks than others performing those same tasks? Given they both have the same experience or knowledge of the subject?	Last time calorie burning by the brain was brought up,a brain at rest and a brain thinking hard burns the same number of calories. That question was asked by some one wondering why we felt tired after exams and hours of concentration. The studies cited were limited by ethical concerns. They didn't put people under me...	[ "Research has found that different tasks require different levels of arousal for optimal performance. For example, difficult or intellectually demanding tasks may require a lower level of arousal (to facilitate concentration), whereas tasks demanding stamina or persistence may be performed better with higher levels...
What is the relationship between a photon's spin and polarization?	Light has two types of angular momentum: spin and orbital (SAM and OAM). They can be represented by the equations [here](_URL_0_). SAM is explained by the circularity of the light's polarization. If you have a plane wave of light where the polarization direction "spins" in a circle as the beam propagates, then the bea...	[ "An electron in a magnetic field can have its spin oriented in the same (\"spin up\") or in the opposite (\"spin down\") direction with respect to the direction of the magnetic field (which is assumed to be oriented \"up\"). The \"spin down\" state has a higher energy than \"spin up\" state. The polarization arises...
gel electrophoresis, i have a bio test tomorrow.	Depending on the pH, most biomolecules have a charge. When placed in an electric field, those molecules will try to migrate towards the electrode with the opposite charge of the biomolecule. Now, if you place indentations into a gel (like agarose, for example) you can load the molecules into the indentation (well). Th...	[ "Gel electrophoresis is used in forensics, molecular biology, genetics, microbiology and biochemistry. The results can be analyzed quantitatively by visualizing the gel with UV light and a gel imaging device. The image is recorded with a computer operated camera, and the intensity of the band or spot of interest is...
weather anomaly in arctic canada: why has it been colder than normal while the rest of the country will be warmer above normal? again.	Temp also has a lot to do with air currents. A wind pushes hot air from south america into the US during winter and we get a record high temp in february. A wind current that would normally blow south could have decided to stop and blow back towards the arctic.	[ "In late December, a strong Arctic air mass, due to the weakening of the Northern Polar vortex, came and established from Canada into the Midwestern and Northeastern United States with the core of the cold centered in the Upper Midwest, Interior Northeast, and Eastern Canada. Temperatures were below average for tha...
Was the fall of the Soviet Union expected, or a surprise?	I heard Ambassador Matlock speak recently (American Ambassador to the USSR from 1987-1991) and he said that the American diplomatic corps was actually discussing the imminent collapse with their Soviet counterparts back into 1988. He referenced the incredible confidentiality of the talks as a factor that helped the bre...	[ "In a posthumously published 1964 book entitled \"Cold Friday\", Communist defector Whittaker Chambers predicted an eventual Soviet collapse beginning with a \"satellite revolution\" in Eastern Europe. This revolution would then result in the transformation of the Soviet dictatorship.\n", "When in 1991 the Soviet...
What inspired the Romans to keep such good records of their history?	Each of the ancient historians would have their own reasons to write about Roman history. One reason that has been touched upon by some of my friends is how Roman culture demanded that you do something with your time, and for some, writing histories was more appealing than going to war, or seeking political office. Som...	[ "Rome's earliest history, from the time of its founding as a small tribal village, to the downfall of its kings, is the least well preserved. Although the early Romans were literate to some degree, this void may be due to the lack of will to record their history at that time, or such histories as they did record we...
What is the minimum mass required for a celestial object to become spherical in shape?	AFAIK the smallest round moon in the solar system is Mimas (about 3.8 x 10^19 kg), although it slightly tidally distorted ovoid by Saturn's gravity. > Planets are round because their gravitational field acts as though it originates from the center of the body and pulls everything toward it. With its large body and ...	[ "The fact that many large celestial objects are approximately spheres makes it easier to calculate their surface gravity. The gravitational force outside a spherically symmetric body is the same as if its entire mass were concentrated in the center, as was established by Sir Isaac Newton. Therefore, the surface gra...
how come roadways aren't filled with tire dust if over time, tires become worn out?	Tire dust is very light. It blows easily in the wind and it is actually a significant portion of air pollution in cities. It can also be partially melted (such as skid marks from rabid breaking) and will stain the road black in places.	[ "Old tires can be used as an alternative fuel in the manufacturing of Portland cement, a key ingredient in concrete. Whole tires are commonly introduced into cement kilns, by rolling them into the upper end of a preheater kiln, or by dropping them through a slot midway along a long wet kiln. In either case, the hig...
how does a store like game make profit on selling a 20 dollar steam card for 20 dollars?	They buy them for less than $20	[ "Steam Trading Cards are distributed through several methods; if a game has a trading card set, playing that game will periodically grant the player trading cards until a threshold is met. For most games, this threshold is reached once the user has received half the number of cards required for a full set. For free...
How many dictators has the US supported throughout history?	It depends on what you define as a dictator and how fair rigid your definition of support means. I mean, does the US giving food aid to North Korea constitute us supporting Kim Jong-il (and now Kim Jong-un)? Does US support of South Korea in the past constitute the US supporting a dictator since some consider past So...	[ "In the twentieth century, prominent Latin American dictators have included the Somoza dynasty in Nicaragua, Alfredo Stroessner in Paraguay, and Augusto Pinochet in Chile, among others. As an outside influence, United States interference in Latin American politics is controversial and has often been severely critic...
the relationship between radiation particles and the electromagnetic spectrum	Alpha particles are 2 protons and 2 neutrons, basically the nucleus of a helium-4 atom. Beta particles are electrons. Gamma particles (or gamma rays) are photons at an energy level above x-rays.	[ "EM radiation exhibits both wave properties and particle properties at the same time (see wave-particle duality). Both wave and particle characteristics have been confirmed in many experiments. Wave characteristics are more apparent when EM radiation is measured over relatively large timescales and over large dista...
what would happen if china decided to stop producing consumer goods?	China's entire economy would collapse, t shirts would triple in price.	[ "BULLET::::- Stephen Ezell and Robert D. Atkinson describe a similar phenomenon pointing out associated threats this could mean for the Chinese economy. The selling of a product in China could become more expensive for foreign producers due to the fact that they now have to incorporate the Chinese technology standa...
Are there any records of the initial exposure of Europeans to new world foods?	Rebecca Earle has an excellent book on this subject called [The Body of the Conquistador](_URL_0_). The main thrust of her argument is that the ways in which sixteenth century Europeans, and Spaniards in particular, saw the body was very different than we do today. In those days, notions of well-being were guided by hu...	[ "In 1521, the first European exploration, the Magallanes-Elcano expedition, arrived in Pukapuka. From that moment on, the Europeans would bring new plants of European and American origins such as mango, vanilla, avocado, lemon and tamarind. In addition to other ornamental flowers, since before then the Tahitians on...
how is it possible for the internet archive's wayback machine to store copies of so many websites?	The simple answer is, they don't store everything; When you go to a website a lot of things are happening and there is a lot of information and what not moving around behind the scenes, but what you see is frankly a relatively small amount of data. Archives work by taking basically pure text with some minor importan...	[ "Internet Archive founders Brewster Kahle and Bruce Gilliat launched the Wayback Machine in 2001 to address the problem of website content vanishing whenever it gets changed or shut down. The service enables users to see archived versions of web pages across time, which the archive calls a \"three dimensional index...
Why are the properties of plastics so varied?	There is a whole sub-field of polymer physics where people try to suss out exactly what you're asking about, what's usually called "structure-property relationships." I'll see if I can write out a brief but satisfying answer... without too much jargon! Common polymer material types - * Goopy -- Runny but thick/vis...	[ "Besides plastics production, plastics engineering is an important part of the industrial sector. The latter field is dominated by engineering plastic as raw material because of its better mechanical and thermal properties than the more widely-used commodity plastics.\n", "The term \"plastics\" covers a range of ...
How were mestizos treated in New Spain?	That depends, at what point in time are you wondering about? A mestizo in 1540 would not be treated the same as a mestizo in 1640, 1740, or 1840.	[ "To reward Spaniards who participated in the conquest of what is now contemporary Mexico, the Spanish crown authorized grants of native labor, in particular the assignment of entire indigenous communities to labor via the Encomienda system. The indigenous were not slaves under this system, chattel bought and sold o...
If you mix drops of blood from two people, could you tell with just the naked eye if their blood types match?	Yes you can. The blood will clot at a macroscopic level (aka visible to the naked eye). For example if you mix type A and type O blood, the anti-A antibodies in blood sample 'O' will react with A antigen from sample 'A' and the mixture will clot. Obviously this will only happen if the two blood types don't match. Befor...	[ "If extraction is believed to be correct, the blood of six donors from the same group was mixed in an Erlenmeyer flask of two liters, by passing it through a filter consisting of silk fabric with a pore size of about 250 microns. This is managed to remove clots and aggregates which might have formed during bleeding...
what causes the "8 bit" style sound that old video games had.	Digital music is stored in samples, these are an array of numbers which roughly correspond to the position of the moving part of the speaker. The computer will loop through these numbers and send information to the speaker on how to move, and thus which sounds to generate. Most modern digital music has 32bit samples fo...	[ "The game's audio was generally well received, with IGN comparing some of Koji Kondo's pieces to the work of Philip Glass. Many atmospheric sounds and surround sound were designed to effectively immerse the player in the game world. Some reviewers complained that the audio samples used in the game sounded dated; ot...
How does physical manipulation (e.g. massage) relax muscles? Does pressure create physiological changes in the tissue?	Stimulation of mechanoreceptors in the skin/muscle/fascia tissue can also activate inhibitory interneurons in the dorsal horn of the spinal cord. This dampens the activity of A-delta and C pain fibers, resulting in short term reduction of pain. This obviously is only a small part of how a massage works physiologically,...	[ "It has been suggested that massage therapy for TMD improves both the subjective and objective health status. \"Friction massage\" uses surface pressure to causes temporary ischemia and subsequent hyperemia in the muscles, and this is hypothesized to inactivate trigger points and disrupt small fibrous adhesions wit...
why, if we are searching for something, can we not seem to see it even if we are looking right at it?	These are all excellent answers, but i think it's mostly attention fatigue and familiarity. You know how in Jurassic Park the T-Rex couldn't see anyone unless they moved? Kind of the same thing - your brain is built to see unusual things first, but when you're looking for something that's right in front of you you can'...	[ "The mere possible presence of another person causes one to look at oneself as an object and see one's world as it appears to the other. This is not done from a specific location outside oneself, but is non-positional. This is a recognition of the subjectivity in others.\n", "\"Looking\" and \"seeing\" are tradit...
does popcorn pop for a reason? did it develop that ability to procreate itself, or are there any other reasons?	It's just what happens when it's cooked. It's not for the benefit of the plant. It pops because the water held inside of the corn kernel vaporizer and explodes. Other grains puff up when cooked. Think about rice crispys. It's puffed rice.	[ "In 1939, George Beadle demonstrated that the kernels of teosinte are readily \"popped\" for human consumption, like modern popcorn. Some have argued it would have taken too many generations of selective breeding to produce large, compressed ears for efficient cultivation. However, studies of the hybrids readily ma...
Why does infrared light appear as white on my cell phone camera?	Most digital camera sensors are actually monochrome! They have a special filter called [Bayer filter](_URL_0_) on top of them, so that each photosite (sensor "pixel") receives either red, green, or blue filtered light. The missing color information is then interpolated by a "demosaicing" algorithm during image processi...	[ "In infrared photography, infrared filters are used to capture the near-infrared spectrum. Digital cameras often use infrared blockers. Cheaper digital cameras and camera phones have less effective filters and can \"see\" intense near-infrared, appearing as a bright purple-white color. This is especially pronounced...
How did the French conquer Vietnam?	It's because after the French helped the Southern Vietnamese establish the Nguyen dynasty under Emperor Gia Long, the next successors however decided to close off Vietnam to trading with foreign nations including the French who used to supply the Vietnamese with arms and weapons. After about 30 years of isolation, thei...	[ "The Japanese invasion of French Indochina was a successful Japanese campaign against the French colonial power in Southeast Asia. The invasion was a part of a greater strategy which was meant to surround and isolate China. Following the fall of the French in Indochina, Viet Minh began its campaign against the Japa...
how does scientology "hook" a superstar like cruise? what does he get out of it?	Do those guys actually believe the whole xenu thing?	[ "On January 14, 2008, a video produced by the Church of Scientology featuring an interview with Tom Cruise was posted on YouTube. In the video, music from Cruise's \"\" films play in the background, and Cruise makes various statements, including saying that Scientologists are the only people who can help after a ca...
In a neutron, is it possible for the up quark to decay into a down quark?	All hadrons made of three down quarks have higher mass than a neutron, so this cannot happen spontaneously as a decay. You have to put in a lot of energy to make this happen in a reaction.	[ "In the so-called beta decay of a neutron (see picture, above), a down quark within the neutron emits a virtual boson and is thereby converted into an up quark, converting the neutron into a proton. Because of the energy involved in the process (i.e., the mass difference between the down quark and the up quark), th...
is more heat generated by air conditioning than cold air except that the cold air just goes where we want it?	That's correct. Air conditioners don't generate cold at all. They are heat pumps that move the heat out of your room and into the outdoor air. And the actually create some more heat in the process.	[ "In warm climates where air conditioning is used, any household device that gives off heat will result in a larger load on the cooling system. Items such as stoves, dish washers, clothes dryers, hot water and incandescent lighting all add heat to the home. Low-power or insulated versions of these devices give off l...
why are three letter acronyms so common in english?	Let me fix that for you. Why are TLAs so common in English?	[ "In English language discussions of languages with syllabic or logographic writing systems (such as Chinese, Japanese, and Korean), \"acronyms\" describe the short forms that take selected characters from a multi-character word.\n", "Most three-letter abbreviations are in fact not acronyms but initialisms: all th...
Were treasure maps a real thing?	Not to discourage other answers, but check out /u/Theamazinghanna's answer in [this post](_URL_0_). It's old, but the answer is pretty solid. There's also a ton of interesting piracy related topics in the FAQ under [Piracy](_URL_1_). I hope that helps!	[ "A treasure map is a variation of a map to mark the location of buried treasure, a lost mine, a valuable secret or a hidden location. One of the earliest known instances of a document listing buried treasure is the copper scroll, which was recovered among the Dead Sea Scrolls near Qumran in 1952. More common in fic...
why in a firefight does the side that has the upper ground have the advantage?	If you are up on a ridge you are able to shoot down by only poking your head over the ridge. However if you were on the lower ground your entire body would be exposed. Since the people on the lower ground are exposing more of their body they are more likely to get shot. Similarly if someone on a ridge wanted to get cov...	[ "However, as stated above, historians like Guelzo argue these benefits were largely nullified by the lack of visibility on a Civil War battlefield. Engagements necessarily took place with massed lines of infantry at ranges of around 100 yards, for the simple fact the enemy could not be seen at longer distances sinc...
Why does a galaxy not form clusters of stars similar to planets?	Galaxies do form [star clusters!](_URL_1_) There are two main types, open (like the [Pleiades](_URL_1_#/media/File:M45_filip.jpg)) and globular (like [M 68](_URL_0_)). However, these are on much smaller scales compared to the spiral arm.	[ "Star clusters are very large groups of stars. Two types of star clusters can be distinguished: globular clusters are tight groups of hundreds to millions of old stars which are gravitationally bound, while open clusters, more loosely clustered groups of stars, generally contain fewer than a few hundred members, an...
in a ponzi scheme, how is it not obvious that you are not receiving any money from your investments?	You do receive money from your investments... until you don't. First, you get some money from some "investors". Then, you get more money from more "investors", and use that money to pay back the investment of the first "investors". Basically, you're always paying back investments with investments from other people. So...	[ "Often, high returns encourage investors to leave their money in the scheme, so that the operator does not actually have to pay very much to investors. The operator simply sends statements showing how much they have earned, which maintains the deception that the scheme is an investment with high returns. Investors ...
How much did Cromwell and the subsequent Glorious Revolution contribute to the ideology of Democracy in general?	I can't really speak to the impact of the Glorious Revolution - my focus is the English Civil Wars (my pedigree btw: MA thesis London in the Civil Wars ... Blah blah... Tower of London BA thesis English Radical Politics and Piracy) - but as to Cromwell's influence... People put far too much at Cromwell's door pers...	[ "Even though no modern republicans advocate a republic modelled on Cromwell's Protectorate, some point out that a Republican Commonwealth of England, Ireland and Scotland has already been tried when Oliver Cromwell installed it on 30 January 1649. Yet by February 1657 some people argued that Cromwell should assume ...
How do fans dry people?	Evaporation rates depend on the saturation of water vapor in the air above the liquid. When the air is not moving, the air nearest to the water becomes humid quickly and it takes time for it to diffuse away allowing more evaporation. When you use a fan, you cycle the air (called forced convection) meaning the water va...	[ "\"Long run\" dryers have an additional fan inside to boost the exiting moist air through longer sections of vent pipe, as in apartments or dwellings where the vent cannot make a short direct connection from the dryer to the outside.\n", "While fans are often used to cool people, they do not actually cool air (el...
What do we know about the rural population of Germany during World War 2?	What are you interested in? They were often better off, as they could rely on their own agricultural production, although this was heavily regulated. Illiegal butchering was considered a serious crime, but records show that it was practised often. They were also less affected by allied bombing raids, but had to...	[ "In World War I, 71 soldiers from the village were killed, and in World War II, 278. Since that time, the resettlement of Germans from the east and central Europe has greatly increased the population. In 1950, there were already 898 new settlers.\n", "In 1951, Gregory Frumkin, who was throughout its existence the...
If scientists knew NOTHING about a caterpillar, could they tell it had the potential to turn into a butterfly by dissection alone?	There's a David Attenborough series called Natural Curiosities which has an episode that covers this exact topic! It's a really lovely series so I recommend it to anyone looking for a pleasant and interesting half-hour. The connection between caterpillars and butterflies was originally made by observing their life cyc...	[ "The caterpillars of this butterfly, like other members of the subfamily Miletinae, are entomophagous and are predators of scale insects like mealybugs. The species unlike many other lycaenid butterflies is not myrmecophilous.\n", "Caterpillars in the genus \"Euphydryas\" are usually attacked by one to three para...
why do ethics outweigh the benefits when it comes to genetic engineering of humans?	If science starts generically engineering babies, it will go in two main ways - - extremely rich people will make extremely perfect humans - smarter, prettier, better than everyone else which will further create class divides worldwide - military superpowers and wanna-be military superpowers will make super soldiers...	[ "I do not think the main problem with enhancement and genetic engineering is that they undermine effort and erode human agency. The deeper danger is that they represent a kind of hyperagency—a Promethean aspiration to remake nature, including human nature, to serve our purposes and satisfy our desires\".\n", "In ...
Why is the formula for acceleration a=2d/t^2 ? Why not a=d/t^2 ?	Re-arrange it first: The distance travelled from constant acceleration is 1/2 at^2 , so your question is the same as asking why there is a 1/2 there, why is it just not at^2 . The distance traveled during constant acceleration is the same as travelling at the average velocity of the trip. You spend half the time going...	[ "Here \"a\" is an acceleration due to proper forces and \"a\" is, by default, a geometric acceleration that we see applied to the object because of our coordinate system choice. At low speeds these accelerations combine to generate a coordinate acceleration like a=dx/d\"t\", while for unidirectional motion \"at any...
how does a hsa (health savings account) work and compare to traditional insurance?	HSA is a bank account. You put your own money in it pre-tax and it can be used for medical expenses. Your employer can also put money in it. It's not insurance by itself, but usually a part of a coverage plan.	[ "A health savings account (HSA) is a tax-advantaged medical savings account available to taxpayers in the United States who are enrolled in a high-deductible health plan (HDHP). The funds contributed to an account are not subject to federal income tax at the time of deposit. Unlike a flexible spending account (FSA)...
how do we stay asleep despite switching positions at night or even in extreme cases with people sleep walking?	When you're in that state, it's similar to being blackout drunk. You're not in the best shape to create new memories. People who have sleep apnea wake up dozens of times per hour because they stop breathing, but they won't remember it.	[ "Normal sleep cycles include states varying from drowsiness all the way to deep sleep. Every time an individual sleeps, he or she goes through various sequences of non-REM and REM sleep. Anxiety and fatigue are often connected with sleepwalking. For adults, alcohol, sedatives, medications, medical conditions and me...
why is censoring tv & radio not a violation of the first amendment?	Access to the airwaves is not uncontrolled, because there is limited spectrum. Thus, you must have a license from the FCC. When you agree to a license, you agree to the FCC's rules on language. If you don't like this, you can use cable TV. HBO had a whole show mocking the TV restrictions about showing female nipple...	[ "Although freedom of the press is guaranteed by the United States Constitution, it is not absolute. The government has the right to control or censor broadcasting on the grounds of national security and to prevent offense. This was specifically demonstrated on December 19, 1941, when President Franklin D. Roosevelt...

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