question stringlengths 3 301 | answer stringlengths 9 26.1k | context list |
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if the shortest distance between two points is a straight line between them, then why do airplane trajectories appear curved when view on a screen ? does the earth's curvature make it appear this way or do other factors play in on this ? | Sometimes it does just appear they are curved. Such as going across the pond, it looks more curved because the earth is round. If you could flatten it out(without warping) it would be straighter.
Also, winds play a part in the route as well. The most direct route is always a straight line, but that doesn't mean it's a... | [
"Two distinct points always determine a (straight) line. Three distinct points are either collinear or determine a unique plane. Four distinct points can either be collinear, coplanar or determine the entire space.\n",
"Due to the idea that a 'straight line' is defined as the shortest path between two points, he ... |
are we sure all elements heavier than iron are made in supernovae? | Whilst not a direct answer to your question, it is worth noting that the claim that all heavy elements are made in supernovae is wrong. See [this answer from our FAQ](_URL_0_) for some in-depth details on the main sources of heavy elements, with the s-process in particular being somewhat similar to your proposal (albei... | [
"Elements heavier than iron were produced in supernovae through the r-process and in AGB stars through the s-process, both of which involve the capture of neutrons by atomic nuclei. Elements such as lead formed largely through the radioactive decay of heavier elements.\n",
"For elements lighter than iron on the p... |
Did sailors/pirates really walk bare foot on wooden ships? Wouldn't they get stubbed toe's and splinters very fast, especially after and during battles? | Yes they would go without shoes.
The decks on a ship were quite well worn, sanded, pitched and sealed. Additionally, bare feet also were good for climbing rigging as well.
As for worrying about stubbed toes and splinters. You're thinking very modern first world....
Feet that aren't protected by nice thick socks an... | [
"Bonnet is alleged to have been one of the few pirates to make his prisoners walk the plank. No contemporary source makes any mention of Bonnet forcing prisoners to walk the plank, and modern scholars such as Marcus Rediker, Professor of History at the University of Pittsburgh, generally agree that the whole concep... |
Seattle set decibel record. Why are multiple people louder than a single person? | Because sound waves obey the [superposition principle](_URL_0_). Two waves are added on top of each other to produce a new wave with a larger or smaller amplitude. In the case of uncorrelated waves, the spatial average of this effect is that the squared amplitude of the total disturbance just scales linearly with the n... | [
"On September 15, 2013, Seattle Seahawks fans successfully broke the Guinness World Records for the loudest stadium in the world. The 131.9-decibel record occurred during the sack of San Francisco 49er quarterback Colin Kaepernick in the first quarter. Fans then broke their new record during the third quarter of th... |
what happens when a ski lift breaks down? how does everyone get off safely? | Well when it happened to me, we just sat there annoyed until it was fixed. But a ski lift is essentially a giant conveyor belt, so there's probably a way to rotate it mechanically without power. | [
"The next day, Parker begins to climb out of the lift, but the screw comes loose and causes the lift to fall. Blocked by a cable, the lift is hanging a few meters above the ground. Parker jumps out of the lift and lands safely, but the lift falls off the cable and lands on her ankle, fracturing it. Injured, she beg... |
What happens to a frictionless pendulum that is set swinging in a vacuum? | If it's actually frictionless, it will oscillate into eternity. | [
"As with any freely hanging object, it can be disturbed and start to swing. Since there is no atmospheric drag in space to slow the swing, a small bottle of fluid with baffles may be mounted in the spacecraft to damp the pendulum vibrations via the viscous friction of the fluid.\n",
"An object with some \"windmil... |
The form of astrology seen in present-day newspapers was invented in 1930, but "astrology" in general is much older than this. What was astrology like in Europe in 1900? In 1500? | Well, I can't tell you what day-to-day astrology was like for the average person, but I can tell you *something* about astrology in the 17th century. [This](_URL_0_) is a nocturnal. Basically, you can use it to tell you what time it is using the stars, and a rough idea of your position.
That particular nocturnal is f... | [
"By the 13th century astrology had become a part of everyday medical practice in Europe. Doctors combined Galenic medicine (inherited from the Greek physiologist Galen - AD 129-216) with studies of the stars. By the end of the 1500s, physicians across Europe were required by law to calculate the position of the Moo... |
how do tv commercials work? | TV commercials are bought and placed into "slots" during regular programming. For instance, Doritos or Pepsi or whoever can choose to buy a slot that's open in the middle of a broadcast of CSI or whatever show. Typically companies do a lot of demographic research to see what their target consumer watches (sugary cereal... | [
"Commercials on TV are shot in its own studio. In the intervals between transmissions of them audience have the opportunity to buy clothes, shoes, accessories and furnishings from renowned designers and newcomers to the world of fashion.\n",
"A television advertisement (also called a television commercial, commer... |
What exactly happened in Waco in 1993? Why was the incident so controversial? | It was a government raid that ended up with many civilian deaths including women (some pregnant) and children. The ATF and FBI were heavily armed with military equipment (Helicopters, tanks, .50 caliber sniper rifles) and it seemed to some people that they had intended to kill the Branch Davidians at Waco.
They were ... | [
"The Oklahoma City bombing in April 1995 caused the media to revisit many of the questionable aspects of the government's actions at Waco, and many Americans who previously supported those actions began asking for an investigation. By 1999—as a result of certain aspects of the documentaries discussed below, as well... |
Why were the Jim Crow laws named after "Jim Crow"? | The term "Jim Crow" originated from minstrel shows from the 19th century that featured blackface comedy. A song called "Jim Crow" was written by Thomas Darthmouth Rice, who was a struggling actor who became extremely popular through the simple composition. Other characters such as Jim Dandy and Zip Coon were inspired b... | [
"The phrase \"Jim Crow Law\" can be found as early as 1892 in the title of a \"New York Times\" article about Louisiana requiring segregated railroad cars. The origin of the phrase \"Jim Crow\" has often been attributed to \"Jump Jim Crow\", a song-and-dance caricature of blacks performed by white actor Thomas D. R... |
Why are such a high percentage of Taiwanese Aborigines Christian (~70%) compared to Taiwan in general (~4%)? | [This Chinese language article from Fu-jen University on the history of missionary work in Taiwan](_URL_0_) answers the question well. I'll list the main points of the article below.
Missionary work in Taiwan began as early as the 16th century by both Catholic and Protestant missionaries. Spanish missionaries began ar... | [
"Today, Taiwanese government statistics estimate that Christians comprise some 4.5 percent of Taiwan's population, a figure which is about evenly divided between Protestants and Catholics. Nearly all of Taiwan's aborigines profess Christianity (70% Presbyterianism, the remainder mostly Catholicism).\n",
"Of the c... |
; does fibromyalgia really have a cure? | [Disciplinary Actions against Michael Platt, M.D.
](_URL_0_)
He isn't a doctor anymore due to "negligence, incompetence, and inadequate record-keeping". So I'm just going to disregard his "alternative medicine" views on fibromyalgia.
It is bullshit. | [
"As with many other medically unexplained syndromes, there is no universally accepted treatment or cure for fibromyalgia, and treatment typically consists of symptom management. Developments in the understanding of the pathophysiology of the disorder have led to improvements in treatment, which include prescription... |
Why were early probes - namely Pioneers 10 and 11, Voyagers 1 and 2, as well as the more recent New Horizons - not placed in an orbit around their target bodies and instead performed only a fly-by? | New Horizons was sent to Pluto at a very high speed so it would get there within a reasonable amount of time. All that excess speed means it would have had to carry at least an order of magnitude more fuel than it had to decelerate into an orbit of Pluto. I did the math once and I don't remember the actual amount but i... | [
"The Pioneers were uniquely suited to discover the effect because they have been flying for long periods of time without additional course corrections. Most deep-space probes launched after the Pioneers either stopped at one of the planets, or used thrusting throughout their mission.\n",
"Remotely guided space pr... |
why did they use biplanes then switch to
monoplanes? | Biplanes had double the wing span and therefore had (almost) double the lift. However, they also had a lot more drag (wind resistance). Back when engines were weaker, you'd need two wings to achieve lift at lower speeds. However, engines became stronger, eliminating the need for the second wing. Removing the second win... | [
"Throughout the pioneer years, both biplanes and monoplanes were common, but by the outbreak of the First World War biplanes had gained favour after several monoplane structural failures resulted in the RFC's \"Monoplane Ban\" when all monoplanes in military service were grounded, while the French also withdrew mos... |
Why did they put coins on the eyes of the dead in the old west? | There are a lot of websites on this but none is definitive; [this one is of interest](_URL_0_). In general, we can say that the practice is widespread, functionally, as a means to keep the eyelids from snapping open after death. The coins are often fused in the popular mind with the coin placed in the mouths by the anc... | [
"Contrary to popular etiology there is little evidence to connect the myth of Charon to the custom of placing a pair of coins on the eyes of the deceased, though the larger gold-foil coverings discussed above might include pieces shaped for the eyes. Pairs of coins are sometimes found in burials, including crematio... |
Do ripples travel slower upstream? | It works like you would expect. Water and sound waves propagate through a medium as atoms collide with atoms.
Try the same things with light or radio waves and [you'll get some famously strange results.](_URL_0_) | [
"Fast ripples activities in the hippocampus considered as pathologic patterns directly associated with epilepsy, but they appear as both physiologic and pathologic activity in neocortex. Although underlying physiology and identifying contributions of fast ripples in generation of seizures are still under investigat... |
how come when we first mishear a lyric, it is so engrained in our minds, but once we read the correct lyric the connection is completely lost and we can't hear what we originally thought. | I'd really like an answer to this. I have many examples of this:
"I'm balls-deep in muddy water," is probably my favorite. | [
"Adults and children can recognize a wrong note in a simple melody. If one note of the simple five-note opening to The Star-Spangled Banner is played incorrectly, those who’ve heard the song before can instantly recognize that it is wrong. Westerners recognize standard chord progressions that are “wrong” even thoug... |
why are dogs not intimidated when a human snarls and shows their teeth? | Dogs are hard wired to recognize the body behavior of other dogs, not humans (they do come closer than any other animal at recognizing and taking cues from humans but it still isn't as good as their ability to do so from other dogs). Also, there is a lot of other body language going on (ear position, tail position, arc... | [
"This signal is frequently used as a calming signal, and it is the main reason why dogs may react so strongly towards meeting dogs when they are forced to approach head on. Their instincts tell them that it is wrong to approach someone like that. Forcing dogs to approach each other head on can cause them to feel an... |
DAK of any quality sources/information regarding the reasons for the Vandal migration out of Europe and into North Africa? | The Vandals are an extremely interesting topic, but they are basically now in the process of a scholarly reassessment, so I don't think there are any good popular press works that deal solely with them that aren't entirely outdated. However, you can find discussions of them within larger works that deal with the fall o... | [
"The Vandals under Genseric (also known as Geiseric) crossed to Africa in 429. Although numbers are unknown and some historians debate the validity of estimates, based on Procopius' assertion that the Vandals and Alans numbered 80,000 when they moved to North Africa, Peter Heather estimates that they could have fie... |
Exactly how heavily were the Japanese influenced by China? | It is extremely difficult to quantify a cultural influence exactly, mostly because it is not just "we do like China does" with an exact copy, but an adaptation of Chinese cultural elements to the preexisting Japanese elements. Therefore with my answer I will try to give elements of pure Chinese influence over Japan unt... | [
"Chinese influence on Japanese culture refers to the impact of continental Asian influences transmitted through or originating in China on Japanese institutions, culture, language and society. Japanese culture has made its reputation through anime, manga, and music such as JPOP, but other elements of its culture su... |
Has skepticism towards scientific discoveries always been present in societies, or has it changed over time? | I'll answer them one at a time.
> Has skepticism towards scientific discoveries always been present in societies, or has it changed over time?
One could argue that popular opinion towards scientific discoveries has shifted away from suspicion towards acceptance. Upto early modern times, things which could not be un... | [
"Other significant scientific advances were made during this time by Galileo Galilei, Edmond Halley, Robert Hooke, Christiaan Huygens, Tycho Brahe, Johannes Kepler, Gottfried Leibniz, and Blaise Pascal. In philosophy, major contributions were made by Francis Bacon, Sir Thomas Browne, René Descartes, and Thomas Hobb... |
why don't developed countries make their own clothing without child labour? | Because it's cheaper to have it made in other countries. | [
"Concerns have often been raised over the buying public's moral complicity in purchasing products assembled or otherwise manufactured in developing countries with child labour. However, others have raised concerns that boycotting products manufactured through child labour may force these children to turn to more da... |
if the probability of landing on any one space on a monopoly board is equal, why do people land on boardwalk much much less frequently? | Probability of landing on any one space in monopoly isn't equal at all.
There are actually a lot of studies on the subject. Given dice roll rules, cards and stuff that transport you around, rules that throw you in jail etc.
btw the most cost-efficient property to buy is orange | [
"Space Travel allows the player to choose to go to any space on the board. Thus, likelihood of landing on a particular space in \"Blue Marble Game\" can't be exactly calculated like in \"Monopoly\", as players can choose to go to different spaces on the board based on current game conditions. Because of Space Trave... |
why are sounds less annoying for those making them? | Control and anticipation.
The same reasons that people who habitually get car sick tend to be ok when they're the ones doing the driving. They know what's coming, and can prepare for it, and they can also mitigate the worst effects through their own actions. | [
"At the very least, noise may be annoying or displeasing or may disrupt the activity or balance of human or animal life, increasing levels of aggression, hypertension and stress. In the extreme, excessive levels or periods of noise can have long-term negative health effects such as hearing loss, tinnitus, sleep dis... |
why do humans seek privacy when performing sexual acts? | A lot of anthropologists and evolutionary psychologists are coming to blame agriculture for this. Agriculture and fixed city-states are a fairly new invention, about 10,000 years ago -- an evolutionary eye-blink. Prior to this, humanity operated in a hunter-gatherer clan-based society, where scarcity of resources deman... | [
"Though most people seek sexual privacy, some wish to behave sexually in public. Ince explores the attitudes of our society towards visible live sex, such as a child masturbating in a living room or a couple having sex in a car. He claims that family and legal prohibitions directed at the visibility of live sex are... |
how do dictators actually make their money? | By owning businesses, trading capital and goods, taxes, tariffs, theft, printing money, there are plenty of ways to make money when you own a country. | [
"Dictators either inherit the position from a previous ruler, rise up the ranks in the military/party or seize power as entrepreneurs. Early texts called only the entrepreneurs tyrants, distinguishing them from \"bad kings\". Such tyrants may act as renters, rather than owners, of the state.\n",
"Some dictators h... |
Who was the wisest man before Socrates? | Thales of Miletus - many, most notably Aristotle, regard him as the first philosopher in the Greek tradition. According to Bertrand Russell, "Western philosophy begins with Thales." | [
"According to Plato's \"Apology\", Socrates's life as the \"gadfly\" of Athens began when his friend Chaerephon asked the Oracle at Delphi if anyone were wiser than Socrates; the Oracle responded that no one was wiser. Socrates believed the Oracle's response was not correct, because he believed he possessed no wisd... |
Why is Andrew Jackson so low in the presidential rankings this year? | in addition to my post see this post before the 2017 rankings came out featuring great comments by /u/Irishfafnir and /u/DBHT14
_URL_0_ | [
"Still, Jackson's performance in office compared to other presidents has generally been ranked in the top half in public opinion polling. His position in C-SPAN's poll dropped from 13th in 2009 to 18th in 2017.\n",
"Despite some criticism, Jackson's performance in office has generally been ranked in the top half ... |
Question about the big bang and dark matter/energy. | Dark matter and dark energy are not 'negative matter' or 'negative energy'. The energy content of the universe is not necessarily zero. | [
"According to the Lambda-CDM model, by this stage, the matter in the universe is around 84.5% cold dark matter and 15.5% \"ordinary\" matter. (However the total matter in the universe is only 31.7%, much smaller than the 68.3% of dark energy). There is overwhelming evidence that dark matter exists and dominates our... |
what protects journalists from being interrogated by the government for information on illegal activity? | Some jurisdictions have specific journalist shield laws that allow a journalist to claim privilege over the sources of information. Some law enforcement agencies, for free speech reasons, have official or unofficial policies that make targeting a journalist difficult outside of certain circumstances (like the journali... | [
"In the United States, there is no right to protect sources in a federal court. However, federal courts will refuse to force journalists to reveal their sources, unless the information the court seeks is highly relevant to the case and there's no other way to get it. State courts provide varying degrees of such pro... |
why concrete roads (and sidewalks) have seams but asphalt is laid in a seamless stretch? | Because asphalt is bendy and stretchy, elastic, so thermal expansion isn’t that much of an issue, but concrete is very brittle (breaks and cracks easily) so it needs expansion joints | [
"Asphalt concrete (commonly called asphalt, blacktop, or pavement in North America, and tarmac, bitumen macadam, or rolled asphalt in the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland) is a composite material commonly used to surface roads, parking lots, airports, as well as the core of embankment dams. It consists of... |
How powerful was the Venetian navy around the turn of the 16th Century, and how was it organized? | While I cannot answer your question, I can offer some great further reading. "City of Fortune: How Venice Ruled The Seas" written by Mediterranean scholar Roger Crowley is a good book that discusses the history of Venice, and other subjects such as it's relationship with powers like Byzantium and Later the Ottomans, it... | [
"The Venetian navy () was the navy of the Venetian Republic, and played an important role in the history of Venice, the Republic and the Mediterranean world. The premier navy in the Mediterranean for many centuries, from the medieval to the early modern period, it gave Venice a control and influence over trade and ... |
Can I get an explanation for a case that a friend claims exemplifies a link between vaccines and autism? | > He later got his vaccinations, which she claims coincided with a sharp fever, requiring hospitalization, after which he was diagnosed with low-functioning autism
One of the reasons the suspicion that vaccination is linked to autism persists, is that the age at which autism symptoms begin to emerge coincides with th... | [
"The idea of a link between vaccines and autism has been extensively investigated and conclusively shown to be false. The scientific consensus is that there is no relationship, causal or otherwise, between vaccines and incidence of autism, and vaccine ingredients do not cause autism.\n",
"The idea of a link betwe... |
If Italy didn’t exist as a unified state until 1861, and each region had its own language, what exactly is the Italian language then? Is it an amalgamation of every regions languages? Or was Italian spoken in one part of the peninsula and then spread and declared the official language? | Although there was no single Italian state, there was nonetheless a long back-and-forth between Italian intellectuals on the *miglior lingua*, or "Better Language." I actually wrote [this answer](_URL_0_) about a month ago explaining how Modern Standard Italian is based on a modernized version of Tuscan dialect because... | [
"The Italian Peninsula's history of fragmentation and colonization by foreign powers (especially France, Spain and Austria-Hungary) between the fall of the Western Roman Empire and its unification in 1861 played a considerable role in further jeopardizing the linguistic situation. When the unification process took ... |
why do you tend go to sleep later at night when you’ve taken a nap in the day? how does your body know that you’ve taken a nap and why does it take it into account? | Think of an hour glass that slowly fills with sand.
Your body has chemicals that act the same way, slowly building up within your body...akin to sand slowly building up in an hour class.
As more "sand" builds up, the more tired you become. One way to push some "sand" back or get rid of some of the buildup is to sleep... | [
"A nap is a short period of sleep, typically taken during daytime hours as an adjunct to the usual nocturnal sleep period. Naps are most often taken as a response to drowsiness during waking hours. A nap is a form of biphasic or polyphasic sleep, where the latter terms also include longer periods of sleep in additi... |
why do products sold on infomercials require four to six weeks for delivery? | The 4-6 weeks gives the seller time to manufacture or buy as many units as are sold in any given period. This cuts down on cost, as inventory doesn't have to sit in storage before it is sold. | [
"Limited product availability incentivises customers to buy; items are reserved for 15 minutes once customers place them in their basket, after which they are released to other shoppers. Delivery lead times vary between 2–28 days depending on how the logistics for sales are handled.\n",
"Grocery delivery companie... |
how do sea captains "fight" a storm? | There are a few strategies. Usually they revolve around keeping the bow (front) of the ship pointed toward the waves. A wave on the side can much more easily roll the boat. If you've ever seen surfers paddling out through waves it's a similar concept. Nose on the ship is designed to cut through water. Anyways the seas ... | [
"After a while, they receive news that a freak storm has turned their way and are forced to brave it. During the storm, J.J. thinks it would be best to raise the sails and outrun the storm and tries to raise them himself. He is stopped by Luke and they fight, but during this, a wave knocks J.J. down and he accident... |
is it standard practice for manufacturers to retain one copy of every product made for archival? and if yes, how is this managed, especially for technology products that change quite frequently? | Not really, but it depends on the product (food for example, bakeries don't keep a box of 20 year old cookies). I'd say most companies build a product and then ensure they have sufficient quantities of spares on hand. What spares means for a product depends on what it is. A car for example needs 10 years of spares, but... | [
"In contrast, even if digital data is stored on a medium that will preserve its integrity, highly specialized digital equipment will always be required to reproduce it. Changes in technology may thus render the format unreadable or expensive to recover over time. For this reason, film studios distributing digitally... |
Self: Question about the International Space Station | It would crumple like an umbrella in a strong wind. It takes something on the order of 3 kilometers per second of delta-*v* to go from low Earth orbit to a lunar transfer orbit. There's no point on the ISS structure where you could apply sufficient thrust to make that delta-*v* without the structure snapping like the l... | [
"According to the original Memorandum of Understanding between NASA and the RSA, the International Space Station was intended to be a laboratory, observatory and factory in space. It was also planned to provide transportation, maintenance, and act as a staging base for possible future missions to the Moon, Mars and... |
Is it possible for you to burn in direct sunlight while in space? | It depends on what you mean exactly by "burn."
If you mean get a sunburn, i.e. skin damage (possibly severe) arising from radiation damage to the skin, then yes, of course. Indeed, with no atmosphere or ozone to mitigate the radiation, you'd get a pretty nasty sunburn pretty fast.
But I'm guessing you mean burn in... | [
"BULLET::::- Collecting surfaces could receive much more intense sunlight, owing to the lack of obstructions such as atmospheric gasses, clouds, dust and other weather events. Consequently, the intensity in orbit is approximately 144% of the maximum attainable intensity on Earth's surface.\n",
"Physicist and Eart... |
Why was the Canadian Army chosen to liberate the Netherlands in WWII? | Largely due to logistics and location. They weren't so much chosen to liberate the Netherlands, as their position in the line, made them the ones to do it.
Basically since the capture of Caen the Canadians held the position of the left flank on the Allied front. Thus through the liberation of France the Canadians adva... | [
"After Market Garden, the Canadian Army was given the initiative to liberate the Netherlands, the Canadian armed forces managed to push the German forces to the upper part of the Netherlands by 1945 in which Germany surrendered, abdicating its claim to the Netherlands and all other occupied territories.\n",
"Mack... |
how can any style be considered "modern" (like modern architecture)? wouldn't any style be considered modern during its time? | There is "modern" meaning contemporary and then "[Modernism](_URL_0_)" (or Modern) with a capital M referring to a specific artistic movement in the early to mid 1900s | [
"It has expression in styles traditionally classified as Art Deco, Streamline Moderne, and PWA Moderne. Architectural historian Richard Guy Wilson characterized the style of \"Moderne\" by the eclectic coexistence of \"traditionalism and modernism\". The Moderne style of architecture appears as a descriptor in docu... |
Is energy "real" in the same way matter is "real", or is it simply a bookkeeping device? | Energy is a quantity that is conserved in systems that are time-invariant. This comes rigorously from Noether's theorem. I don't know if that meets your definition of real. You can't touch or see energy. | [
"Many problems in physics involve matter in motion about some certain point in space, be it in actual rotation about it, or simply moving past it, where it is desired to know what effect the moving matter has on the point—can it exert energy upon it or perform work about it? Energy, the ability to do work, can be s... |
how do security arrangements work when heads of state travel to foreign countries? | There has to be cooperation between the security groups of both countries. On the one hand, the visiting government has to trust that the host will provide adequate general security. On the other hand, the host has to be willing to give the visiting head of state's security team some latitude to operate and ensure that... | [
"The diplomatic corps may, in certain contexts, refer to the collection of accredited heads of mission (ambassadors, high commissioners, and others) who represent their countries in another state or country. As a body, they usually only assemble to attend state functions like a coronation, inauguration, national da... |
Has anyone ever observed a star go out in real time? | I am not sure that we can really catch the "last light" from a star, because stars do not disappear all of the sudden. Most stars evolve to become white dwarfs and then fade over a timescale longer than the age of the Universe. More massive stars are expected to explode as supernovae, which are very bright for several ... | [
"In 185 CE, Chinese astronomers recorded the appearance of a bright star in the sky, and observed that it took about eight months to fade from the sky. It was observed to sparkle like a star and did not move across the heavens like a comet. These observations are consistent with the appearance of a supernova, and t... |
In Ancient Greece, how were the Greek Myths passed from one generation to the next? | Well, aside from the literary ways (such as Homer, or Hesiod, or any of the Athenian playwrights such as Sophocles, Aeschylus, etc.) there was always oral tradition, which was in fact the origin of something like 'Homer' (it's really debated to what extent Homer is one person. Not my specialty, suffice it to say I thi... | [
"Many ancient Greek legends originated or are set in this region. The older myths took their final form during the Mycenean age (1600–1200 BC) when the Mycenean Greeks established themselves in Boeotia and the city of Thebes became an important centre. Many of them are related to the myths of Argos, and others indi... |
since chemical weapons were not used in ww2 out of fear of retaliation why would it be different for nuclear weapons? | The hope is that it *wouldn't* be different, and that no one will ever use nuclear weapons because they would in turn be attacked by them. Rationally, you would never do something that might result in a nuclear-armed nation being so mad at you they'd use their nuclear arms. Most nations only develop nuclear weapons wit... | [
"World War II was seen as a significant success for chemical arms control as none of the belligerents made significant use of chemical weapons. In the immediate aftermath of the war, arms control efforts focused primarily on nuclear weapons given their immense destructive power, and chemical disarmament was not a p... |
why companies still buy microsoft products despite linux and open-/libreoffice being easy, functional and completely free? | Office provides a lot of teamwork & integration features that the free solution doesn't. If you're working on a term paper by yourself, it's probably not a big deal. When you've got a dozen people revising a project proposal & want it tied into your SharePoint system, it becomes more important. | [
"However, excluding some notable exceptions like the Debian Project (which is expressly noncommercial and committed to free software on principle), most Linux distributors don't actively seek to limit their usage of proprietary software or restrict the proliferation of non-free licenses in connection with their dis... |
Do we use the same nerves for all sensations? | We have different sensors and different accompanied nerve fibers for different applications. For example, even different qualities of touch, like pressure amount, pressure change, tension, vibration and so on are sensed by different sensors and nerve fibers that are localized all throughout the body. Temperature has de... | [
"Human emotions can be easily evoked by different cues, and the sense of touch is one of the most emotionally charged channels. Affective haptic devices produce different senses of touch including kinesthetic and coetaneous channels. Kinesthetic stimulations, which are produced by forces exerted on the body, are se... |
How long can a single thread of spider silk get before it breaks under it's own weight? | Wikipedia says the breaking length of spider silk is 109km (_URL_0_).
The breaking length is the length of a uniform wire (thread) of a given material which breaks under its own weight. By tapering the thread (thicker higher up and thinner further down) you could of course get a longer thread. | [
"Many spiders use especially fine silk called \"gossamer\" to lift themselves off a surface, and silk also may be used by a windblown spider to anchor itself to stop its journey. The term \"gossamer\" is used metaphorically for any exceedingly fine thread or fabric. Biologists also apply the term \"balloon silk\" t... |
- how is it scientists are finding links between meat and cancer when humankind has always existed on meat and vegetable diet? | Just because we've always done something doesn't mean that it wouldn't cause cancer. We've always lived under the same sun, but sunlight is a cause of cancer.
Humankind has more cancer now than ever before *primarily* because we're living longer than ever before. When your primary causes of death aren't childbirth, ... | [
"Human diet was estimated to cause perhaps around 35% of cancers in a human epidemiological analysis by Richard Doll and Richard Peto in 1981. These cancer may be caused by carcinogens that are present in food naturally or as contaminants. Food contaminated with fungal growth may contain mycotoxins such as aflatoxi... |
Can DNA Polymerase 1 create Phosphodiester Bonds between nucleotides? | Yes, any DNA polymerase has to create those bonds. A polymerase creates a polymer of a subset of smaller units, and nucleotide subunits are bound through a phosphodiester bond. | [
"In natural DNA, each nucleotide is composed of one of four nucleobases (cytosine [C], guanine [G], adenine [A] or thymine [T]), a sugar called deoxyribose, and a phosphate group. The nucleotides are joined to one another in a chain by covalent bonds between the sugar of one nucleotide and the phosphate of the next... |
current, voltage, amperage, etc. i learned it in school, but it still hasn't clicked. | Current is the flow of an electric charge, like water through a pipe. Voltage is like the water pressure in the pipe. Amperage is how much electricity is used, or how much water is going through the pipe. Watts is amps time volts, which gives the amount of work per second the electricity does, say the amount of waterin... | [
"High-voltage switchgear was invented at the end of the 19th century for operating motors and other electric machines. The technology has been improved over time and can now be used with voltages up to 1,100 kV.\n",
"BULLET::::- Electronics Engineering - this class teaches students about direct current, alternati... |
if ethernet cable can transfer so much data, why not use this instead of hdmi and other cables for data. | > So why is the Ethernet cable not the master cable of electronics?
You actually hit an idea that has been getting traction off and on for a decade or so. Basically, you CAN use Ethernet for all sorts of other purposes, including replacing an HDMI cable. Ethernet (twisted pair) could replace a whole bevy of differen... | [
"UTP cable is also the most common cable used in computer networking. Modern Ethernet, the most common data networking standard, can use UTP cables. Twisted pair cabling is often used in data networks for short and medium length connections because of its relatively lower costs compared to optical fiber and coaxial... |
When did Proto Germanic languages transform into Modern German? | super-tl;dr - around the time of Martin Luther, sixteenth century
tl;dr - With good knowledge of modern German, you would be able to recognize thirteenth-century Middle High German texts as German and grasp chunks, but you might struggle to put together the overall picture depending on the type of text (narratives are... | [
"A defining feature of Proto-Germanic is the completion of the process described by Grimm's law, a set of sound changes that occurred between its status as a dialect of Proto-Indo-European and its gradual divergence into a separate language. As it is probable that the development of this sound shift spanned a consi... |
why did having summers off become standard in education? | The thing about kids needing to work on the farm is a nice anecdote, but not wholly true. In reality, it was the lack of air conditioning.
_URL_0_
| [
"For over a century, scholars have recognized that summer vacation is a period when students’ rate of academic development declines relative to the school year. The gap in the learning cycle which occurs during summer vacation is more prominent for children that are disadvantaged. Some studies indicate that this ma... |
Why does sour cream tone down the spicyness of hot food? | Spiciness will be determined by the concentration of free [capsaicin](_URL_0_) that reaches the nerve endings in your mouth. Capsaicin and other similar molecules bind and interact with the pain receptors on certain neurons, and it prefers to stay bound to the receptors than to remain in solution. Capsaicin is a "hydro... | [
"BULLET::::- Other ingredients - heat is also affected by other ingredients. Mustard oil and wasabi can be added to increase the sensation of heat but generally, more ingredients in a sauce dilute the effect of the chilis, resulting in a milder flavor. Many sauces contain tomatoes, carrots, onions, garlic or other ... |
how come tv shows cover up brand names on products (like food or toiletry packaging) but youtubers can show brands and review them all day long? | Tv shows that do that don't get paid by companies. So they don't show any names.
But there are also clear cases when TV shows are paid to do commercials.
_URL_0_ | [
"Some TV programs also deliberately place products into their shows as advertisements, a practice started in feature films and known as product placement. For example, a character could be drinking a certain kind of soda, going to a particular chain restaurant, or driving a certain make of car. (This is sometimes v... |
why is finding water on mars such a big deal to the general public? | Because a scientifically-illiterate mass media took a report of modest scientific interest and sexed it up.
NASA kinda egged the deception on by holding a press conference to announce the findings like it was some major, Earth-shaking thing. And I'm *sure* the fact that they're announcing this in the same week that t... | [
"Understanding the extent and situation of water on Mars is vital to assess the planet’s potential for harboring life and for providing usable resources for future human exploration. For this reason, \"Follow the Water\" was the science theme of NASA's Mars Exploration Program (MEP) in the first decade of the 21st ... |
How do whales create oil out of a plankton diet? Can't we replicate this process instead of mining our limited fossil fuels? | There is an entire field of biology interested in, among other things, engineering organisms to produce useful chemicals. See here: [Synthetic biology](_URL_0_)
Gross oversimplification: basically, you take or modify biochemical pathways that already exist in nature and put them together in a lower organism (e.g. bact... | [
"Whale feces, the excrement of whales, has a significant role in the ecology of the oceans, and whales have been referred to as \"marine ecosystem engineers\". Nitrogen released by cetacean species and iron chelate is a significant benefit to the marine food chain in addition to sequestering carbon for long periods... |
why is the code for league of legends considered "spaghetti"? | Instead of being built in an organized fashion from the ground up, it has been built in tiny pieces all strung together. Very difficult to read, follow, and make changes to, since things are often connected in ways that don't make sense.
For example, let's say you wanted to update the color on the tree from "light gre... | [
"Spaghetti code is a pejorative phrase for unstructured and difficult-to-maintain source code. Spaghetti code can be caused by several factors, such as volatile project requirements, lack of programming style rules, and insufficient ability or experience.\n",
"Spaghetti code can also describe an anti-pattern in w... |
Why is a gold nanoparticle suspension a different colour to bulk gold? | [Plasmon oscillations.](_URL_0_)
So gold as a solid has some very loosely-held electrons that can move around the block of metal very freely. They're so loosely held that we can think of the electrons as particles in a cloud of gas about the size of the gold particle. So these electrons will move some distance (coup... | [
"Nanoparticles often possess unexpected optical properties as they are small enough to confine their electrons and produce quantum effects. For example, gold nanoparticles appear deep-red to black in solution. Nanoparticles of yellow gold and grey silicon are red in color. Gold nanoparticles melt at much lower temp... |
(High Middle Ages) What kind of economic influence did rich individuals or families have? | A corporation is a legal entity. In the Middle Ages, the term might be applied to things like Universities or maybe monasteries where groups of people lived together for similar purpose. The corporation as a legally defined business came later.
Now what did being rich in the Middle Ages actually look like? It depends ... | [
"The new mercantile governing class, who gained their position through financial skill, adapted to their purposes the feudal aristocratic model that had dominated Europe in the Middle Ages. A feature of the High Middle Ages in Northern Italy was the rise of the urban communes which had broken from the control by bi... |
Have there been any "great heists" similar to the one's we see in movies? | hi all! Just a reminder to prospective respondents that single sentences and/or links to Wikipedia are [not acceptable here](_URL_0_). A couple of quick excerpts of the rules:
> Answers in this subreddit are expected to be of a level that historians would provide: comprehensive and informative. ...
...
> An in-d... | [
"The Lufthansa heist was a robbery at John F. Kennedy International Airport on December 11, 1978. An estimated $5.875 million (equivalent to $ million in ) was stolen, with $5 million in cash and $875,000 in jewelry, making it the largest cash robbery committed on American soil at the time. In popular culture, it i... |
Why do we give so much shit to Germany when Japan was so much worse? | This submission has been removed because it is [soapboxing](_URL_0_.) or [moralizing:](_URL_1_) it has the effect of promoting an opinion on contemporary politics or social issues at the expense of historical integrity. There are certainly historical topics that relate to contemporary issues and it is possible for legi... | [
"American media portrayed the Japanese negatively as well. While attacks on Germans were generally focused on high-level Nazi officials such as Hitler, Himmler, Goebbels, and Göring, the Japanese were targeted more broadly. Portrayals of the Japanese ranged from showing them being vicious and feral, as on the cover... |
A friend of mine claims Barbarian immigration is the reason for the fall of the Western Roman Empire, how true is this? | Not being snarky or anything, but there are a lot of related questions [here in the wiki](_URL_0_). The point you make is technically true. All citizens of the empire were given Roman citizenship with the Edict of Caracalla in 212. A lot of these people were Germanic, so in some ways it's true that the Romans were Germ... | [
"The scholar Guy Halsall has seen the barbarian movement as the result of the fall of the Roman Empire, not its cause. Archaeological finds have confirmed that Germanic and Slavic tribes were settled agriculturalists who were probably merely \"drawn into the politics of an empire already falling apart for quite a f... |
What was the reaction of Europeans to the Persecution of Muslims in the then newly-indepedent states in the Balkans? | I don't have any answer, but your question is very, vary vague. Could you add some time frame? | [
"At the opening of the 15th century, tensions were still going on between Islam and Christianity. Europe, dominated by Christians, remained under threat from the Muslim Ottoman Turks. The Turks had migrated from central to western Asia and converted to Islam years earlier. Their capture of Constantinople in 1453, t... |
why is 4 beats per measure so common in music? | It’s a really good middle ground between having enough beats to explore the chord you’re on on the progression while also being a small enough number that our brains can easily keep track of it. It’s also really nice because it has clear subdivisions they are also small and convenient to use.
The problem with five is ... | [
"Also in this article, 4-beat is not a musical term commonly used to describe a drum beat time signature found in most types of modern music, but is rather a specific name used to describe a breakbeat music style.\n",
"As beats are combined to form measures, each beat is divided into parts. The nature of this com... |
why are some meteorites cut? | I don't know about "destroys its value".
Slices of meteorite are gorgeous, and if well polished make beautiful additions to someone's rock collection. As a result, they are worth a lot more money than a stoney metal rock. | [
"At an altitude of , the meteor broke into pieces and fell to the Earth in fragments, the greatest of which produced a crater with a diameter of and a depth of . The explosion removed approximately of dolomite and other rocks and formed a tall, extremely hot gas flow. Vegetation was incinerated up to from the impac... |
if meds are always eliminated in half by the body, how is it ever completely eliminated? | First, the half life of a medicine is more of a general rule to follow when considering dosages, and it's not like **exactly** half is left after each half life.
Also, unlike pure math, in the physical world an object can't be cut in half infinitely. Eventually you would get down to a single molecule and at the next h... | [
"Medications may be stopped in the context of end-of-life care, such as medications that may affect risk factors for future disease. Medications that may be stopped as part of discussions about end-of-life care include antihypertensives, medications for diabetes, and drugs for high cholesterol.\n",
"Because indiv... |
Why didn't Mao Zeodong try to take back Hong Kong from Britain after the PRC was created? | There's [an earlier instance of this same question you may want to start with.](_URL_0_) It's three years old, but I was involved in it. We may well have much better answers hanging out now among the many more recent Asia flairs, so there's always room for further discussion. | [
"However, the PRC took a contrary position: not only did the PRC wish for the New Territories, on lease until 1997, to be placed under the PRC's jurisdiction, it also refused to recognise the \"unfair and unequal treaties\" under which Hong Kong Island and Kowloon had been ceded to Britain in perpetuity. Consequent... |
why aren't there more bacteria that thrive in warm temperatures, i would think that high temperatures would allow them to reproduce rapidly by absorbing more energy? | At high temperatures the enthalpy (heat energy of the formation of bonds) of the intermolecular forces is overcome by the entropy (energy of being spread out) and proteins can no longer be held together in their tertiary structure and become denatured, similar to what happens when you cook eggs. A similar effect would ... | [
"Different species of bacteria are able to survive at different temperature ranges. Ones living optimally at temperatures between 35–40 °C are called mesophiles or mesophilic bacteria. Some of the bacteria can survive at the hotter and more hostile conditions of 55–60 °C, these are called thermophile.Methanogens co... |
in us presidential elections, how do news channels "call" which state goes to which candidate so quickly? do they have people in each county counting the votes? | No, they are not counting votes.
Usually they are doing exit polls, where a person with a clipboard asks every 20^th person "Who did you vote for" for a couple of hours. Those results, which might be lies after all, are an input into a model of how people have voted historically.
When the uncounted votes are less th... | [
"Election results are announced through live broadcasts by radio and television stations. Some newspapers print special editions to cover the election results. In most constituencies, the results will be out on the night of the election day. In some rural constituencies and constituencies that need recounts, the re... |
Will we always use electric energy as a means to power our homes and electronics? Are there other types of energy we could utilize for the same purpose? | I've heard of some pragmatic Amish or Mennonites taking the electrical motors out of appliances like blenders and replacing them with pneumatic ones, then running air lines through their houses like you would in a machine shop. This is in addition to having machine shops full of air tools. This is inefficient because y... | [
"Electrical power can be generated on-site with renewable energy sources such as solar (particularly with photovoltaics), wind, micro hydro, geothermal; with a generator or Micro combined heat and power with adequate fuel reserves. Such a system is called a stand-alone power system or sometimes referred to as a Hyb... |
why is hydrogen not considered a "fuel" but rather a way to store/transfer energy? | Because hydrogen isn't found in its natural state anywhere on earth. You need energy from other sources to produce it. More energy than you get out of burning the hydrogen fuel | [
"Some hydrogen technologies are carbon neutral and could have a role in preventing climate change and a possible future hydrogen economy. Hydrogen is a chemical widely used in various applications including ammonia production, oil refining and energy. Hydrogen is not a primary energy source, because it is not natur... |
Why do people wake up when they have to use the restroom (usually) and what wakes us up? | Hrm. I don't know the ins and outs of it as we only care at a superficial level whether the animal can feel that they need to pee, so how it's sensed, I don't know. But my guess is that there're mechanoreceptors in the urinary bladder's walls and they react to stretch, so when they hit a certain threshold of activity... | [
"While most Yaza is performed after the last evening sitting, some is done early in the morning. If the practitioner is too tired to go on at night they can get up a few hours early in the morning. Because no alarm clocks are used during sesshin a good way for a person to get up for Yaza is to drink a good deal of ... |
how can it remain profitable to continue to design and produce android tablets when there are so many and they retail for so little? | A product is profitable if it can be sold for more than the inputs (physical components, assembly and sales labor, design costs, etc) cost. Android tablets can be made for a profit if the cost of their inputs fall faster than the price. | [
"Despite Android's popularity, including an activation rate three times that of iOS, there have been reports that Google has not been able to leverage their other products and web services successfully to turn Android into the money maker that analysts had expected. \"The Verge\" suggested that Google is losing con... |
why is there confusion over adhd and aspergers being a real thing? shouldn't there be a concrete opinion on something so common? | ASD is a broad spectrum of tangentially related disorders, and works rather like a scorecard, where if you exhibit x,y,and z, you're autistic. HOWEVER, you can exhibit x, x and y, x and z, or y and z, or whatever combination, and maybe also have ASD. X, y, and z are also thing found in lots of other disorders, things l... | [
"From a biological/genetic point of view, ADHD is said to be highly heritable and twin studies suggest genetics are a factor in about 75% of ADHD cases. However, the genetic connection is questionable. Dr. Joseph Glenmullen states, \"no claim of a gene for a psychiatric condition has stood the test of time, in spit... |
How are medications manufactured to such precise levels? | If you need to make a very small dose, you mix a larger amount with the various binding agents or solvents and then divide it into smaller doses. For example, if you mix 1 gram of your active ingredient with just under 40 kilograms of binding agents, a 1-gram pill will have 25 micrograms of the active ingredient. This ... | [
"Formulation scientists and technologists need tools to select ingredients for new formulations. Tablets contain multiple ingredients beyond the active pharmaceutical ingredients (API) such as fillers, tableting agents, disintegrants, and absorption enhancers or agents that slow down and control absorption. Choice ... |
It's the 25th of December 1991 - I am a Soviet enlistedman, my buddy is a political officer (commissa?), and my boss is a very high-ranking officer. We're stationed in a non-Russian city (Kiev, or Nur-Sultan), but all from different areas of the Union. What happens tomorrow, as the nation dissolves? | You might be interested in this previous answer I [wrote](_URL_2_), but I will also provide some extra details for this specific question.
First of all, it would be highly, *highly* unlikely that a Soviet enlisted member of the military would be buddies with a high-ranking officer. Outside of the fact that most milita... | [
"Semyon Gendin (1902 – February 23, 1939) was head of the foreign military intelligence agency of the Soviet Army General Staff of the Soviet Union. He served in the Cheka, the Joint State Political Directorate and NKVD. His rank was equivalent to that of a Soviet Red Army Komdiv (division commander). He was a reci... |
How did the ancients maintain their weapons and equipment? | I'm more of a Medieval and Napoleonic guy, but here's a few random facts:
* Knights treated their shields like shit, mainly because they were disposable. Only designed to get you through one encounter, they'd be left in the rain. When too banged up to be reliable, straight into the fire.
* squires and servants respo... | [
"The ancient weapons were evolutionary improvements in materials and crafting techniques of late neolithic implements. From the old swords and rhinoceros hide shields it would appear that they were at some erstwhile time a martial race and indulged in warfare. Such weapons are still preserved in Museum. \n",
"Att... |
Does anybody know where I can learn more about the RAF in the Far East during WW2? | Christopher Shores's *Bloody Shambles* trilogy ( Volume 1: The Drift to War to the fall of Singapore, Volume 2: From the Defence of Sumatra to the fall of Burma, and Volume 3: Air War for Burma: The Allied Air Forces Fight Back in South-East Asia 1942-1945) are good places to start. | [
"With the threat of war in the area, the RAF started building up their forces in the Far East in the late 1930s and early 1940s. Seletar airfield was the target of carpet bombing when Japanese navy bombers conducted the first air raid on Singapore, sometime after their ground forces invaded Kota Bahru. It was aband... |
Theoretically what would be the result of millions of atoms in a very small density all losing electrons simultaneously? | You'd get something called [Coulomb explosion](_URL_0_). This can happen without wizards getting involved. | [
"The energy that we obtained is too low because the repulsion term between the electrons was ignored, whose effect is to raise the energy levels. As Z gets bigger, our approach should yield better results, since the electron-electron repulsion term will get smaller.\n",
"The density of the atoms can be controlled... |
Are there sexually dimorphic species for which male and female is a misnomer? | Male and female are actually defined by the relative size of the gametes, not by anything else. In most animal species, there are 2 sexes that produce gametes of different sizes. The "male" is the one that produces the smaller gamete, the "female" the one that produces the larger gamete, by definition. What's interesti... | [
"A single sexually dimorphic species allows behavioural interpretations. All sexually dimorphic species of over exhibit a polygynous breeding strategy. A modern example of this is the gender segregation of elephants where females and the young form family groups while lone males fight for the right to mate with all... |
there is so much Media today about what future technology might be, did ancient cultures such as the Romans ever speculate either through predictions or stories of what technology they thought might be created in the future? | [This comment](_URL_1_) by u/publiusclodius (from the FAQ) covers differing Roman ideas about what the future would look like.
Also, while it doesn't exactly address your question, you might be interested in u/mythoplokos's comment on [the Roman concept of technological progress](_URL_0_), which wasn't quite the same ... | [
"Ancient Inventions was a BBC historical documentary series released in 1998. It was presented by former Monty Python member Terry Jones and looked at great inventions of the ancient world. The series is split into 3 episodes, namely City Life, Sex and Love, and War and Conflicts, all around 50 min long.\n",
"In ... |
the difference between irish and black irish | Dark hair and eyes, and the self identification as black Irish. It's not a specific group, culture, or anything like that, though all sorts of false ancestry claims are made for them.
They are literally anyone of Irish descent with darker hair, eyes, or complexion. | [
"Black Irish is an ambiguous term sometimes used (mainly outside Ireland) as a reference to a dark-haired phenotype appearing in people of Irish origin. However, dark hair in people of Irish descent is common, although darker skin complexions appear less frequently. One popular speculation suggests the Black Irish ... |
the difference between a gas mask and a respirator. | typical use of the term gas mask is for biological, chemical and nuclear warfare agents. the agent would attack soft tissue such as lips, mouth, eyes, nose to the point of irritation or incapacitance or fatally.
whereas respirator typically is used for civilian uses where its main purpose to protect against br... | [
"A respirator is designed to protect the wearer from inhaling harmful dusts, fumes, vapors, and/or gases. Respirators come in a wide range of types and sizes used by the military, private industry, and the public. Respirators range from cheaper, single-use, disposable masks to reusable models with replaceable cartr... |
Why wasn't Japan split into pro-West and pro-Communist states? (unlike W/E Germany, N/S Vietnam, Korea) | German, Korea, and Vietnam were captured by multiple powers e.g. US and USSR. Japan on the other hand was occupied by the US. There were tons of US troops and very few or none (I can't entirely remember) from other nations. The USSR had officially declared war on Japan, but they barely had time to do anything before Ja... | [
"Relations between the Soviet Union and Japan between the Communist takeover in 1917 and the collapse of Communism in 1991 tended to be hostile. Japan had sent troops to counter the Bolshevik presence in Russia's Far East during the Russian Civil War, and both countries had been in opposite camps during World War I... |
why do certain sites, like facebook for example, only allow me to deactivate my account rather than completely delete it? | There is an option to completely delete a Facebook account, you just have to dig around for it. Then there's a two week cool down before it actually deletes. Many of these sites make money from selling user data, they use having a large number of users as a selling point. | [
"Facebook had allowed users to deactivate their accounts but not actually remove account content from its servers. A Facebook representative explained to a student from the University of British Columbia that users had to clear their own accounts by manually deleting all of the content including wall posts, friends... |
why are calf cramps so common? | Straighten leg and pull foot towards you to stretch the muscle is about the only cure I know of.
I’ve also noticed that when I feel a leg cramp coming on I can often lessen the pain by doing the opposite of the above.
I was once told cramping is a sign of dehydration but I’m not 100% on that. | [
"Cattle affected by arthritis have difficulty in moving, including getting up and swelling in joints. Some outbreaks have many lame calves while others have none affected calves. While, some calves have swollen joints, that are so painful that they will reluctant to walk to the feed and water bunks. In rare cases, ... |
why screenwriters and directors are given funding when their movies are typical bombs? | Your only listing the overall critical response to Mr. Clyde's films here, not their financial success, and quite frankly, financial success is a better barometer of sustained employment in Hollywood than critical approval ever has been and ever will be. As long as Mr. Clyde maintains a profitable track record, he's g... | [
"Screenwriters are rarely involved in the development of a film. Sometimes they come on as advisors, or if they are established, as a producer. Some screenwriters also direct. Although many scripts are sold each year, many do not make it into production because the number of scripts that are purchased every year ex... |
In books, human civilization technology is very stagnant for much longer than it was in human history. I guess I'm asking is it even plausible that might have happened in Human History? | You're question makes me think of the very popular series "a Song of Ice and Fire," in which the world has persisted in a state of feudalism for millenia.
You're question allows for an examination of different perceptions of history. When we think of history, we generally think of progress. For example, we believe th... | [
"Although they are no longer technologically advanced, humans have made progress in 300 years. Theirs is a world in which technology is replaced by advances in human awareness and spiritual growth, where the organic replaces the mechanical, where they live in balance and harmony with all life on the planet in what ... |
How many capacitors, or how far would technology have to advance to fully harvest the energy in a lightning bolt? | For the purposes of this discussion, a capacitor is exactly like a big tank of
compressed air, with pressure corresponding to voltage and mass of air corresponding to charge. Imagine another tank of compressed air (the cloud) comes along. Clearly you can't exceed the pressure of the other tank without a pump. So the be... | [
"An average bolt of lightning carries a negative electric current of 40 kiloamperes (kA) (although some bolts can be up to 120 kA), and transfers a charge of five coulombs and energy of 500 MJ, or enough energy to power a 100-watt lightbulb for just under two months. The voltage depends on the length of the bolt, w... |
how can an application or program get constant updates and still be the same size? | a program is like a piece of cloth
occasionally a hole is found
so you put a patch on it
but the cloth remains the same size
when you want to make a cloth a blanket
then you make it bigger
this is called bloat
| [
"Any app that is ready for updating can be updated faster and more efficiently due to this new system. If, for example, a game that is 300 megabytes is updated with a new racetrack that adds an additional two megabytes to the application's size, only two megabytes will be downloaded instead of 302 megabytes.\n",
... |
when a company goes public, can an exec buy majority stock/how is the owner protected? | First of all, a CEO does not have to be the owner of a corporation. The owners of most small private companies tend to serve as the CEO, but the CEO of a large company like, say, GM, usually won't be the largest shareholder. The CEO is appointed by the board of directors, who are themselves appointed by the shareholder... | [
"Companies want to become public through an APO for several reasons. The public shell company already has shareholders, so after the APO is complete, the formerly private company typically already meets the shareholder requirements for NASDAQ and AMEX; 400 and 300 respectively. A company that goes public through an... |
Biblical names like John,Paul,Gabriel or Peter have different pronunciations in other languages like Juan (John ,Spanish) or Paolo ( Paul, Italian). How were these names pronounced during biblical times? | Not trying to discourage any discussion here, but this question might be more fruitful if asked at _URL_0_ | [
"Aramaic and Classical Syriac render the pronunciation of the same letters as ' ' and ' ' . The Aramaic Bibles and the Peshitta Syriac preserve these same spellings. Current scholarly consensus posits that the NT texts were translated from the Greek, but this theory is not supported directly at least by the name fo... |
Are any radioactive elements or isotopes no longer radioactive when part of a molecule? | I think we can safely say that the answer here is no. The reason is that nuclear reactions and chemical bonds exist on vastly different energy scales. For example, a typical chemical bond is in the range of a few electronvolts (eV). On the other hand, when a nucleus decays, that can release several MeV of energy. The M... | [
"All of the elements have some isotopes that are radioactive (radioisotopes), although not all of these radioisotopes occur naturally. The radioisotopes typically decay into other elements upon radiating an alpha or beta particle. If an element has isotopes that are not radioactive, these are termed \"stable\" isot... |
Fellow medievalists: Which historians would you vote into the Medieval History Hall of Fame? (Historiography) | I'd probably go with Michael Prestwich. For my field his work on both the logistics of warfare and Edward I are really quite important. He still has some of the best work on the changes to the composition and recruitment of English armies that happened over the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries.
I gather from anoth... | [
"Despite his biases and errors, William \"has always been considered one of the greatest medieval writers.\" Runciman wrote that \"he had a broad vision; he understood the significance of the great events of his time and the sequence of cause and effect in history.\" Christopher Tyerman calls him \"the historian's ... |
how do stuffed noses work? you can blow your nose and it can get stuffed right away or sometimes you aren't even able to blow your nose and just have to accept your fate | It's caused by inflammation, swelling of the tissue, that's blocking your airway, and incidentally the exit for the mucus that's building up.
Nasal sprays work by reducing or eliminating that inflammation. | [
"BULLET::::- The \"Lowry Technique\". A combination of Valsalva and Toynbee: pinching the nose to close the nostrils, and blow and swallow at the same time. The nose can be closed without using a hand, using the compressor naris muscles; it can be described as \"wrinkling the nose as if there was a bad smell\". A h... |
what causes transformers and other high voltage devices to emit a buzzing sound? | > I assume it's some sort of vibration,
Yep! The transformers are using the inductive interaction between coils of wire to change voltages, and as the current is transferred using "Alternating Current" the magnetic fields will be rapidly switching back and forth. The result is vibration from the stresses imparted to... | [
"Some examples of electromagnetically excited acoustic noise include the hum of transformers, the whine of some rotating electric machines, or the buzz of fluorescent lamps. The hissing of high voltage transmission lines is due to corona discharge, not magnetism. \n",
"Random noise generators can be made from tem... |
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