question stringlengths 3 301 | answer stringlengths 9 26.1k | context list |
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what are the differences between an exempt and non exempt salary employee? | Exempt employees are "exempt" from overtime pay. That means you are not required to be paid overtime, ever. Exempt employees are generally white collar workers in management or professional (usually educated) positions and almost always paid on salary basis. If your position is primarily management and you're salaried... | [
"Conversely, some low-level employees (particularly administrative-support staff) that had previously been classified as exempt were now reclassified as non-exempt. Although such employees work in positions bearing titles previously used to determine exempt status (such as \"executive assistant\"), the 2004 amendme... |
Why Do We Experience such events when traveling near the speed of light? | There are several effects at work here. Your field of vision becomes narrowed due to [relativistic aberration](_URL_1_). When travelling a significant fraction of c, the speed of light, the light you emit & recieve is biased towards the direction you are travelling in.
This is tied to another effect Sagan mentions, ... | [
"Einstein showed in his thought experiments that people travelling at different speeds, while agreeing on cause and effect, measure different time separations between events, and can even observe different chronological orderings between non-causally related events. Though these effects are typically minute in the ... |
What would happen if only your arm and nothing else was exposed to a vacuum? | A follow up if it isn't too late. Some science fiction stories have had astronauts cover a tiny micrometeorite hole by sticking a thumb on it or dropping trau and sitting on it. The stories mostly give the hero a blood blister and perhaps a bit of frostbite. Is this in any way accurate? | [
"Vacuuming physically removes solid materials from victims and the contaminated environment. Vacuuming should only be done when the victim and all people in the vicinity are wearing respiratory protection and the usefulness of vacuuming can be limited by the availability of supplies, equipment, and electricity.\n",... |
how do the membranes on tide pods (and the like) dissolve in water but not because of the liquid inside? | The membrane is made from something that is only water soluble, so the liquid inside, not being water, doesn't dissolve the membrane. | [
"When particles to be removed do not settle out of solution easily, dissolved air flotation (DAF) is often used. After coagulation and flocculation processes, water flows to DAF tanks where air diffusers on the tank bottom create fine bubbles that attach to floc resulting in a floating mass of concentrated floc. Th... |
How in the world could a particle have a 1/2 spin value? | The best analogy I know:
Think of a Möbius strip (you can actually make one made of paper so that you feel this). Put an object on it (like your finger) and move it through a full rotation. It won't return to the same spot. I will be located on the other side (the negative side since exp[i360/2]=-1). Now give it anothe... | [
"The conventional definition of the spin quantum number, , is , where can be any non-negative integer. Hence the allowed values of are 0, , 1, , 2, etc. The value of for an elementary particle depends only on the type of particle, and cannot be altered in any known way (in contrast to the \"spin direction\" describ... |
if i put a 1 gallon jug of water on my chest, it feels heavy, but when i swim at the bottom of a pool, i don't feel crushed. why? | Cause when you're at the bottom of a pool, the weight of the water is pressing on you uniformly, from all directions.
(You *do* feel it on your eardrums, however.) | [
"This is not of practical importance, because the body is mostly composed of barely compressible materials such as water. People often wonder whether scuba divers feel their body being crushed by the pressure, but divers would have to reach depths of thousands of feet before their flesh began to suffer significant ... |
I am a German Officer in a 1945 British POW camp. What is my life like? | For one thing, as seen in *Soldaten: On Fighting, Killing, and Dying* by Sonke Neitzel and Harald Welzer, you were probably at some point put in a room filled with secret microphones and given someone to talk to, either a fellow prisoner or a British agent in disguise as a fellow prisoner. Often times they were given c... | [
"A team of Allied prisoners of war (POWs), coached and led by English Captain John Colby (Michael Caine), a professional footballer for West Ham United before the war, agree to play an exhibition match against a German team, only to find themselves involved in a German propaganda stunt.\n",
"At a Prisoner of War ... |
Was Hitler completely responsible for the Final Solution? | Hi there,
Not to preclude further discussion, but you may be interested in the following answers regarding Hitler's involvement in the Holocaust, largely by /u/commiespaceinvader:
- ["What is the concensus on the "Weak Dictator" theory of Hitler and the cause of the Holocaust."](_URL_2_)
- ["Did Hitler know about the... | [
"In 1940, the idea of the Final Solution was still \"unthinkable\", and Stern believed that Hitler wanted to make Germany \"judenrein\" through emigration, as opposed to extermination. In December 1940, Lehi even contacted Germany with a proposal to aid German conquest in the Middle East in return for recognition o... |
why are cuban cigars such a big deal? why are they illegal? | We have an embargo against Cuba. Meaning all trade with the country is off limits. It's got nothing to do with the cigar and everything to do with Cuba. | [
"While Cuban cigars are smuggled into the US and sold at high prices, counterfeiting is rife. It has been said that 95% of Cuban cigars sold in the US are counterfeit. Although Cuban cigars cannot legally be commercially imported into the US, the advent of the Internet has made it much easier for people in the US t... |
As you approach the speed of light, does the CMB in front of you get blueshifted? | I'll try to expand slightly on the existing answer.
As /u/somedave explained, "approaching the speed of light" is an ill-defined thing as your speed depends on the referential. The CMB as we observe it has a [dipole anisotropy](_URL_0_), meaning that it looks hotter in one direction than the opposite, and this is exac... | [
"is measured, even though the object is not moving away from the observer. Even when the source is moving towards the observer, if there is a transverse component to the motion then there is some speed at which the dilation just cancels the expected blueshift and at higher speed the approaching source will be redsh... |
Accurate books on Pirates and Sailing? | From my user profile:
* N.A.M. Rodger, The Safeguard of the Sea: A Naval History of Britain, 660-1649: The first volume of Rodger's multi-volume naval history of Britain, this book covers seapower from the earliest days of "England" until the end of the second English Civil War. He includes passages on non-English Br... | [
"The book was released in two volumes. The first mostly deals with early 18th-century pirates, while Volume II records the exploits of their predecessors a few decades earlier. In the first volume, the author sticks fairly close to the available sources, though he embellishes the stories somewhat. He stretches the ... |
law of large numbers | It is pretty simple. The average of whatever experiment you are doing (flipping coin/rolling dice) should approach the expected value the more times you repeat the experiment.
For example, if you are rolling a die, the expected value is 3.5. If you only roll the die a couple times, you might have averages pretty dif... | [
"A law of large numbers for the number of particles in the process on the integers informally means that for all large formula_15, formula_5 is approximately equal to formula_33 for some positive constant formula_34. \n",
"Benford's law, also called the Newcomb–Benford law, the law of anomalous numbers, or the fi... |
If wood does not conduct electricity, why are trees struck by lightning so often? | To give a short answer, pretty much anything can conduct electricity if you put a high enough voltage difference between the two ends. Their shape (long and pointy) makes them an easy point for electricity to go from cloud to ground. | [
"Trees are frequent conductors of lightning to the ground. Since sap is a relatively poor conductor, its electrical resistance causes it to be heated explosively into steam, which blows off the bark outside the lightning's path. In following seasons trees overgrow the damaged area and may cover it completely, leavi... |
why is it harder to breathe when it's cold outside? | The cold air makes the bronchi constrict because its not use to it and and not let as much air go through to the bronchioles
after getting use to the cold you bronchi will relax and you will breath easy
_URL_0_ this picture will aid what im saying | [
"There has been controversy over why damp cold air feels colder than dry cold air. Some believe it is because when the humidity is high, our skin and clothing become moist and are better conductors of heat, so there is more cooling by conduction.\n",
"This is why we feel cooler in dry air. The drier the air, the ... |
Is density of energy flow the current best measurement of complexity in a system? | You will have to define complexity. If you're referring to the set of rules required to produce the system, then you'll want to take a look at [Kolmogorov Complexity](_URL_1_). If you're referring to the difficulty of perfectly describing the current state of the system, you'll probably want something like [Entropy](... | [
"Particle physics, dealing with the smallest physical systems, is also known as \"high energy physics\". Physics of larger length scales, including the macroscopic scale, is also known as \"low energy physics\". Intuitively, it might seem incorrect to associate \"high energy\" with the physics of very small, \"low\... |
why do cereals and yogurts have a list of the colors used on the packaging? | **Edit:** I'm assuming that OP is talking about the dots printed on packaging (where there's one dot for every color used in the printing process) and not about the list of artificial colors in the ingredients.
> nearly no food items use this, only a few random ones.
Almost all of them have it. It's just usually h... | [
"The CCE also used the Red Star brand name for its canned tomatoes, peas, corn, peaches, soup, olives and olive oil, potato starch flour, dried fruit, breakfast cereal, toothpicks, matches, and other products.\n",
"White label production is often used for mass-produced generic products including electronics, cons... |
How bad is reading on a moving vehicle for your eyes? | Reading in a vehicle is not "bad" for your eyes. When reading, your eyes are constantly moving in order to bring into focus different areas of text, regardless of wether the object is perfectly fixed or not. You're obviously more likely to get motion sickness, which is where I think some of the confusion comes from, ... | [
"Those with strabismic amblyopia tend to show ocular motion deficits when reading, even when they use the nonamblyopic eye. In particular, they tend to make more saccades per line than persons with normal stereo vision, and to have a reduced reading speed, especially when reading a text with small font size\n",
"... |
Medieval combat strategy in the TV show 'Game Of Thrones' [Season 6 spoilers] | I wrote a long analysis of the battle [here](_URL_0_). I still need to get around to rewriting the section on cavalry warfare and it's very informal in tone, but you may want to check I out.
As for whether or not Jon could have won without the Knights of the Vale, I don't think so. He would have needed much higher qua... | [
"To regain the castle, the Goodies fight the Town Planner and his clerks by archery, swordsmanship and jousting (with the Goodies riding their trandem, instead of a horse). The Goodies and their also fight other medieval contests and, surprisingly, the Goodies end up winning the 'battle' — so they are able to hold ... |
Does any animal posess a sense that humans don't have? How would we know? | Just off the top of my head:
* Some birds, fish, and insects (maybe even some humans?) can see in additional ranges of color that most humans cannot: _URL_5_. The basis for this is that they have versions of cone cells (light receptors) that we lack, and we can test their eyes' responsiveness to different wavelengths ... | [
"\"Convergent evidence indicates that non-human animals [...], including all mammals and birds, and other creatures, [...] have the necessary neural substrates of consciousness and the capacity to exhibit intentional behaviors.\"\n",
"For it is an instinct of human beings, from childhood, to engage in mimesis (in... |
How do some people continue to accept fringe/pseudo science as accepted science? | Other subreddits that may help you are /r/neuro or /r/cogsci, where this sort of phenomenon is discussed often.
There are a number of reasons for the appeal of pseudoscience, or antiscience. One of them is the [Dunning-Kruger Effect,](_URL_1_) which correlates competence with the ability to recognize competence; esse... | [
"For mainstream scientists, attributes of fringe science include being highly speculative or relying on premises already refuted. Fringe science theories are often advanced by persons who have no traditional academic science background, or by researchers outside the mainstream discipline. The general public has dif... |
why is the cost of groceries still high when the price of gas has fallen back down? | What /u/Teekno said, water, is a huge part of it, and not limited to just California - reports were that last summer was so dry in the midwest that grains and corn were also going to have a much smaller crop this past fall, on top of the pork shortage, and this past winter [has killed over 30k dairy cattle,](_URL_0_) w... | [
"Furthermore, retail fuel prices have decreased over the past 15 or so years largely due to supermarkets providing fuel at their superstores at hugely discounted prices in order to entice users to the store. Supermarket prices are an irrelevance to many diesel users, as very few supermarket forecourts are accessibl... |
do antivirus programs such as avg and norton actually work or am i throwing away my money by purchasing one? | ive used microsoft security essentials for years...its free and has worked great for me | [
"Norton AntiVirus is an anti-virus or anti-malware software product, developed and distributed by Symantec Corporation since 1991 as part of its Norton family of computer security products. It uses signatures and heuristics to identify viruses. Other features included in it are e-mail spam filtering and phishing pr... |
Why is the level of Carbon-14 (approximately) constant? | The assumptions are that cosmic rays hit the Earth at a constant rate, and always have done., and that the N2 in the atmosphere has remained largely constant too. As carbon dating is only useful for 50,000 years or so, we don't need to worry about the atmosphere billions of years ago, and it seems a fair assumption tha... | [
"The rate of creation of carbon-14 appears to be roughly constant, as cross-checks of carbon-14 dating with other dating methods show it gives consistent results. However, local eruptions of volcanoes or other events that give off large amounts of carbon dioxide can reduce local concentrations of carbon-14 and give... |
I stand accused of witchcraft. How do I beat the rap? | I can speak to Salem, not so much to the European witch hunts, though I believe they share traits.
The interesting thing about witchcraft accusations during this time period is that there was a fundamental difference between the way that ordinary people understood witchcraft and the way that theological scholars under... | [
"In July 2006, Sariya Allan, a teaching assistant at Durand Primary School in Stockwell, South London, quit her job after she was suspended for refusing to listen to a seven-year-old pupil read a \"Harry Potter\" book in class. A practising Pentecostal, she told the girl that \"I don't do witchcraft in any form,\" ... |
How many art/artifacts in museums are the real deal? | It's impossible to answer for every museum, because every museum is different, but typically an art or history museum that focuses on exhibitions will not have *any* replicas or reproductions. Replicas would take up storage space that could be used to house unique artworks and artifacts, and would be unlikely to be act... | [
"These museums are mainly composed of man-made artifacts with an important aesthetical dimension (i.e., natural history, social history, science and technology museums are excluded, as well as palaces whose purpose is primarily historical and architectural and secondarily as an art collection). Museums contained in... |
I know the Romans had no conception of race, but did they view Black Africans any differently than they did the Persians, Libyans, or Celts? | Can anyone tell me where this concept of the Romans not having an idea of race is coming from? Never heard of this before. | [
"The Roman Africans were generally local Berbers or Punics, but also the descendants of the populations that came directly from Rome itself or the diverse regions of the Empire as legionaries and senators.\n",
"Abun-Nasr, in his \"A History of the Maghrib\", said that \"What made the Berbers accept the Roman way ... |
Tuesday Trivia | AskHistorians Fall Potluck: Historical Food and Recipes | Opera, being an Italian invention, has a rich and lively food tradition. Although now at the opera you’re generally limited to a slammed back cocktail during intermission, eating during opera was totally normal during its baroque and classical heydays. The most typical foods to nosh on during the opera were wine and so... | [
"The book is considered a valuable compilation of Victorian era recipes. Lady Clark obtained the recipes by asking hostesses or cooks, and then testing each one at Tillypronie. She documented each recipe's source with the name of her source, and often also the date. There is comprehensive coverage of plain British ... |
why any time i let a device download the updates it wants to, it runs slower and less reliably than before. | The updates make that one device run better... IF there wasn't any other software that depends on it.
With most device drivers, auto-updating is ok. Ideally, you would save the updated file first, uninstall the old device driver and clean up any traces in your registry [Windows], remove dead links, shared libraries... | [
"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",
... |
- why does a new song sound amazing on multiple plays the first day only to sound oddly bad and repetitive the day after? | I feel like this depends on the type of songs you're listening to. What music are we talking about? | [
"The song is of a jazz fusion nature, but certain points of the song resemble shoegazing. The song is notable for suddenly \"starting\" roughly 30 seconds into the song, after a very quiet intro. It is also quite notable for sounding \"out of place\" on its home album \"The Golden D\".\n",
"BULLET::::- Pet Sound ... |
what does an audio file consist of? | Sound is pressure waves. A microphone detects the pressure changes and outputs electrical currents depending on how much the pressure changes. A sound card will detect the voltages that the microphone creates on the wire. It does this by periodically "sample" the signal and converts the voltage reading into a binary nu... | [
"An audio file format is a file format for storing digital audio data on a computer system. The bit layout of the audio data (excluding metadata) is called the audio coding format and can be uncompressed, or compressed to reduce the file size, often using lossy compression. The data can be a raw bitstream in an aud... |
wouldn't it be cheaper for insurance companies to cover lasik surgery once, instead of a lifetime supply of contact lenses/eye doctor appointments? | Lasik or PRK doesn't preclude never needing to see an eye doctor again -- most people will need multiple corrections over their lives, or will simply need to start wearing glasses again. | [
"Some people with poor outcomes from LASIK surgical procedures report a significantly reduced quality of life because of vision problems or physical pain associated with the surgery. A small percentage of patients may need to have another surgery because their condition is over- or under-corrected. Some patients ne... |
why do so many languages, even when some use a completely different alphabet from english, use the same punctuation at the end of their sentences? | Western influence.
Some languages have independently invented their own versions of various punctuation. For example, there are several different variations of the period. However, Western influence is causing some cultures to forego their traditional full-stop mark for the period as we know it in English.
For some o... | [
"Punctuation has been added to many languages which originally developed without it, including a number of different comma forms. European languages like German, French, Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese use the same comma as English with similar spacing, though usage may be somewhat different. For instance, in Stan... |
how/why do celebs insure parts of their body (i.e . taylor swift's legs for $40 million)? | Taylor Swift believes that her legs are a big part of how she earns her living: people find them attractive and she uses them for dancing. If they were to be damaged or become less attractive, she would lose out on potentially millions.
So if an insurance company is willing to take on that sort of risk, she gets a po... | [
"In 2010 Simmons stated that he had kept off his own 100+ pound (45 kg) weight loss for 42 years, had been helping others lose weight for 35 years, and that in the course of his fitness career had helped humanity lose approximately 12 million pounds (5.5 million kg). Simmons used the web as a method of outreach by ... |
boomerangs | Oddly enough, they were never originally meant to "come back". They were hunting tools, and the returning effect is just a product of improved aerodynamics.
There are two things happening. The boomerangs shape is similar to that of a planes wing, creating high pressure on one side, and low pressure on the other, gene... | [
"Boomerang (Frederick \"Fred\" Myers) is a fictional supervillain appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. He has been a member of several prominent supervillain teams and clashed with several heroes throughout his career, most notably Spider-Man.\n",
"Boomerang is a shuttle roller coaster at... |
Men's Victorian Era Clothing. | The absolute most helpful book for you is Joan Severa's *Dressed for the Photographer: Ordinary Americans & Fashion, 1840-1900*. It's incredibly detailed, and, of course, lavishly stuffed with copies of historical photos and daguerreotypes. The only thing I ever have to complain about in it is the loaded language use... | [
"A mantua (from the French \"manteuil\" or \"mantle\") is an article of women's clothing worn in the late 17th century and 18th century. Originally a loose gown, the later mantua was an overgown or robe typically worn over stays, stomacher and a co-ordinating petticoat.\n",
"Fashionable women of the Regency era w... |
if explain like i am five is for complex topics why can i google 90% of the answers? | First, I'll just say that you have a good point for some of the questions here.
However, ELI5 isn't so much about topics that you can't find an answer on Google as it is about topics that you can't find an answer *that you understand* on Google. It can be difficult to get a good explanation of something like black hol... | [
"Google Answers came out of beta in May 2003. It received more than 100 question postings per day when the service ended in December 2006. According to Danny Sullivan of Searchenginewatch, Google Answers was not solid enough to compete against Yahoo Answers.\n",
"Questions are initially open to answers for four d... |
Was there ever such a thing as an professional group of secret agents for rulers? | Are you talking about a secrect police force or some form of guardian force that remains anonymous? I've watched a lot of novices with secrect agencies and they vary heavily between movies. | [
"The goals of the secret service, in Arthashastra, was to test the integrity of government officials, spy on cartels and population for conspiracy, to monitor hostile kingdoms suspected of preparing for war or in war against the state, to check spying and propaganda wars by hostile states, to destabilize enemy stat... |
When did large penises become desirable? (Considering Greek/Renaissance art often depicted small penises as being aesthetically pleasing) [NSFW] | Congratulations, OP. Thanks to you, I now have 'large penis' all over my search history.
Your articles are correct, as far as they go. Certainly, in classical Greek and Rome, abnormally large penises were seen as crude, barbaric, and/or amusing ([this AskHistorians thread](_URL_3_) has examples and citations). Ther... | [
"Nonetheless, there are indications that the Greeks had an open mind about large penises. A statue of the god Hermes with an exaggerated penis stood outside the main gate of Athens and in Alexandria in 275 BC, a procession in honor of Dionysus hauled a 180-foot phallus through the city and people venerated it by si... |
american pragmatism | I'm going to assume you mean the *philosophical school* of pragmatism, which originated in America, and not the watered-down idea of "pragmatism" which is used to mean "willing to get along with others".
Around the beginning of the 1800s, a German man named Immanuel Kant revolutionized philosophy. Kant had been workin... | [
"Pragmatism is regarded as a distinctively American philosophy. As advocated by James, John Dewey, F. C. S. Schiller, George Herbert Mead, and others, it has proved durable and popular. But Peirce did not seize on this fact to enhance his reputation, and even coined the word \"pragmaticism\" to distinguish his phil... |
Does the human eye see in pixels? | In a sense yes in that you have a [mosaic](_URL_10_) of [photoreceptors](_URL_7_) that are sensitive to photons much like the sensor in a camera (see also [this](_URL_11_) and [this](_URL_2_) image). However, the photoreceptors do not send signals directly to your brain. In front of them (i.e. closer to the front of yo... | [
"Calculating the point where the human eye can detect pixels is not straightforward. Obviously, people's visual acuity varies greatly. But pixel geometry varies as well, in shape and spacing (known as \"interpixel gap\"), depending on a display's technology and design.\n",
"It has recently been discovered that ea... |
how does the planet recover from radioactive containment? | containment or contamination?
Radioactivity by default just goes away. it is the result of decomposing unstable particles. They have a half life and basically dwindle into nothing-ness (well given off as energy).
So it recovers primarily by waiting, we have remediation tactics and technologies as well that can help c... | [
"If every possible measure standing between safe operation and core damage fails, the containment can be sealed indefinitely, and it will prevent any substantial release of radiation to the environment from occurring in nearly any circumstance.\n",
"While the containment plays a critical role in the most severe n... |
How come we can focus on stars? | Stars are so far away that the light that enters our eyes from them is essentially parallel rays. Such rays will all require the same amount of bending by the lenses of our eyes, regardless of how far away each different source is. Thus, our iris dies not have to deform the lens anew for each star we look at. | [
"Stars twinkle for the same reason. They are so far from Earth that they appear as point sources of light easily disturbed by Earth's atmospheric turbulence which acts like lenses and prisms diverting the light's path. Viewed toward the collimated light of a star, the shadows bands from atmospheric refraction pass ... |
can someone please explain "foot pounds of torque" | Think about it like this:
1 foot pound of torque means you've got precisely the amount of power needed to lift 1 pound on a 1 foot lever. 100 foot pounds of torque means you've got the power to move 1 pound on a 100 foot lever, or 100 pounds on a 1 foot lever. Of course you need to ignore the weight of the lever in ... | [
"Torque is a product of the length of a lever and the force applied to the lever. One dyne is the force required to accelerate 1 g with 1 g·cm/s, this force equals 10 N, therefore 1 dyn·m = 0.00001 N·m.\n",
"\"Foot-pound\" is also used as a unit of torque (see \"pound-foot (torque)\"). In the United States this u... |
What was the cause of the My Lai Massacre? | This is a very difficult question to answer, but I will try. To really give you a comprehensive answer, we would have to explore everything from the psychology of counterinsurgency on the common soldier to events that happened a mere days before the massacre. Unfortunately, I am currently in South America and do not ha... | [
"The Houla massacre () was an attack that took place on May 25, 2012, in the midst of the Syrian Civil War, in the town of Taldou, in the Houla Region of Syria, a string of towns northwest of Homs. According to the United Nations, 108 people were killed, including 34 women and 49 children. While a small proportion ... |
why is death such a morbid concept to humans, even though it is a biological process for every living thing to die? | The fact of not knowing exactly what is going to happen afterwards, jumping into the unknown can be terrifying to most but others may find it intriguing. If people knew what was going to happen it may be more accepted. For example: My greatest fear is the ocean, only because i have no idea what is down there and i don'... | [
"Cultural anthropologist Ernest Becker asserted in his 1973 book \"The Denial of Death\" that humans, as intelligent animals, are able to grasp the inevitability of death. They therefore spend their lives building and believing in cultural elements that illustrate how to make themselves stand out as individuals and... |
Why are pixels square? | Pixels are typically square or rectangular because we want to be able to reference them in a simple manner using (x,y) coordinates. This divides the plane into a tiny rectangular area for each pixel.
Pixels don't have to be square. There are plenty of other [pixel geometries](_URL_0_).
Picture quality isn't dependent... | [
"Non-square pixels arise often in early digital TV standards, related to digitalization of analog TV signals – whose horizontal and vertical resolutions differ and are thus best described by non-square pixels – and also in some digital videocameras and computer display modes, such as Color Graphics Adapter (CGA). T... |
The earliest gospel, Mark, ends with the apostles discovering the empty tomb and fleeing in terror. Do we know whether the resurrection was already an overt part of the christian tradition of this time? | There's a lot of debate over the ending of Mark, to say the least. There's three main options:
A) The "longer ending" (16:9-20) is authentic and original.
B) That verse 8 is the original ending intended by Mark and the rest is a later addition.
C) There was originally a longer ending past verse 8, but somehow it was... | [
"The gospel of Mark (written c.70 CE) contained no post-Resurrection appearances in its original version, which ended at , although Mark 16:7, in which the young man discovered in the tomb instructs the women to tell \"the disciples and Peter\" that Jesus will see them again in Galilee, hints that the author may ha... |
what is happening when i "walk off" a minor injury? | Relevant article:
_URL_0_ | [
"If the patient is making an honest effort, the examiner should feel the \"normal\" limb's heel extending (pushing down) against his or her hand as the patient tries to flex (raise) the \"weak\" leg's hip. Feeling this would indicate an organic cause of the paresis. If the examiner does not feel the \"normal\" leg'... |
During internal bleeding where does the blood leak to? | Instead of being packed tightly together, most of your tissues have a little bit of fluid separating cells, so there's a little space there for blood. In addition, some organs are located within a membrane-bound cavity. Either way, blood will follow the path of least resistance and find a place to settle. In certain pa... | [
"Bleeding, also known as a hemorrhage or haemorrhage, is blood escaping from the circulatory system from damaged blood vessels. Bleeding can occur internally, or externally either through a natural opening such as the mouth, nose, ear, urethra, vagina or anus, or through a wound in the skin.\n",
"Internal bleedin... |
Why did Robert E. Lee order Pickett's Charge during The Battle of Gettysburg? | While Lee was a good general, I would not descibe him as amazing. In all his battles, he lost a higher percentage of his own forces than he managed to cause the enemy, making his campaigns unsustainable in the long run.
As for Pickett's charge, it was not enitrely an unwise decision, however, it was poorly carried out... | [
"As soldiers straggled back to the Confederate lines along Seminary Ridge, Lee feared a Union counteroffensive and tried to rally his center, telling returning soldiers that the failure was \"all my fault.\" Pickett was inconsolable. When Lee told Pickett to rally his division for the defense, Pickett allegedly rep... |
What are my chances of getting heads at least once from two coin flips? | There are 4 outcomes out of two coin flips:
1. heads & heads
2. heads & tails
3. tails & heads
4. tails & tails
The outcomes which land at least once heads are 1, 2, 3. The probability of that event is, therefore, 3/4.
Equivalently, the "at least one X*_outcome_*" wording allows you to simplify the determina... | [
"If after tossing four heads in a row, the next coin toss also came up heads, it would complete a run of five successive heads. Since the probability of a run of five successive heads is (one in thirty-two), a person might believe that the next flip would be more likely to come up tails rather than heads again. Thi... |
How Different was Isaac Newton from his time? Compared to what was happening at that time, how significant was his work? | I'm not sure I can answer the how different was he question for you. Certainly others were interested in similar questions, be they optical, alchemical or astronomical/mechanical. Afterall it was only after prodding by his contemporaries that Newton ultimately looked at the question of what sort of orbit a body would t... | [
"Because of the resounding impact of his work, Newton became a scientific icon, much like Albert Einstein after his theory of relativity. Many books, plays, and films focus on Newton or use Newton as a literary device. Newton's stature among scientists remains at the very top rank, as demonstrated by a 2005 survey ... |
the difference between a legal and an illegal war. | In just war theory we can distinguish between *jus ad bellum* (right to war) and *jus in bello* (right in war). The first concerns itself with what are justifications for going to war, and the second with proper conduct when in war. Together these can be seen as the law of war. Over time there has been a number of sour... | [
"The law of war refers to the component of international law that regulates the conditions for war (\"jus ad bellum\") and the conduct of warring parties (\"jus in bello\"). Laws of war define sovereignty and nationhood, states and territories, occupation, and other critical terms of international law.\n",
"The \... |
Since a Muslim cannot enslave another Muslim, most of the Ottoman Janissaries were kept Christian. Why didn't they convert to Islam to win their freedom? | I think you have a slight misunderstanding. Muslims can absolutely *have Muslim slaves*. The Mamluks for whom the Ottomans' predecessor empire was named started off as, yup, Muslim slaves. The famous "singing girls" of the medieval Islamic courts from al-Andalus to Baghdad were almost all slaves. ~~Muslim children of M... | [
"As a rule, Ottoman rule largely tolerated Christian subjects but also discriminated against them, making them second-class citizens with higher taxes and various legal restrictions like being unable to take Muslims to court, have horses, have weapons, or have houses overlooking those of Muslims. While the Ottoman ... |
Is there such a thing as genetic memory? | Short answer: not in anything like the way you're thinking, no.
Slightly longer answer: first of all, the only truly genetic information the fetus gets from its mother is in the DNA of the egg, which actually forms while *she's* still in her mother's womb - she just has one batch of oocytes for her whole life that she... | [
"Eric Kandel (Nobel Prize for Medicine in 2000) demonstrated the existence of a genetic memory. Now, it is possible to differentiate between genetic and epigenetic in mental disorders. This is performed through intracellular chemical messengers (signal transduction), which attempt to modify the activity of genes.\n... |
What is the mesh made of that is used for hernia repair? No medical advise. | Wikipedia has an article on [inguinal hernia surgery](_URL_0_) with a section on [meshes](_URL_0_#Meshes). Sounds like you may be getting a type of [biomesh](_URL_3_).
These are still an emerging technology. [Cook Biodesign](_URL_6_) has very interesting resources on their own product. If this turns out to be the one... | [
"Surgical mesh is a loosely woven sheet which is used as either a permanent or temporary support for organs and other tissues during surgery. Surgical mesh is created from both inorganic and biological materials and is used in a variety of surgeries. Though hernia repair surgery is the most common application, it c... |
A few questions regarding common phenomena on the molecular level. | > what aspect of this causes cellular damage?
Heat causes chemical bonds to break and proteins to denature.
> something is acidic (donates hydrogen) why does this cause burning or damage to human skin?
The acid can react with various compounds and change their properties and again, a change in pH can cause protei... | [
"In 1874, Jacobus Henricus van 't Hoff and Joseph Achille Le Bel independently proposed that the phenomenon of optical activity could be explained by assuming that the chemical bonds between carbon atoms and their neighbors were directed towards the corners of a regular tetrahedron. This led to a better understandi... |
why australia is allowed to participate in eurovision? | They asked nicely.
Since it's a TV show, more viewers means more money from ads. If Australia wants to participate, and thus have the show run in their country too, the creators profit.
I'd also imagine that since us Americans are well.... our usual hyper-patriotic selves, Australia has a hard time hanging onto our ... | [
"On 17 November 2015, the EBU announced that the Australian Associate Member broadcaster SBS had accepted the invitation for Australia to return and compete in the Eurovision Song Contest 2016. The EBU's Reference Group voted unanimously in favour of Australia's participation. In , Australia was granted direct entr... |
Should we think of the Japanese Emperor as more akin to the Pope than a Caesar? | **Short answer:**
Japan has a political history with both real and superficial parallels to other polities, but in general analogies are more trouble than they're worth. Treat Japanese political terms and institutions as their own thing and they'll be easier to understand. Whatever European parallel you think you see ... | [
", or , was the 122nd Emperor of Japan according to the traditional order of succession, reigning from 3 February 1867 until his death on 30 July 1912. He presided over the Meiji period, a time of rapid change that witnessed the Empire of Japan rapidly transform from an isolationist feudal state to an industrialize... |
Does charging your phone slower, by connecting it to a pc by usb-a, makes the battery last longer than connecting directly into a outlet? | The low and slow methods are less stressful on the battery because the heating is related to the square of the power (P=I^(2)*R) and some will overheat until you don't really want to hold it in your hand or shutdown entirely. Thermal expansion and contraction flex a battery that doesn't want to be flexed, but most batt... | [
"Sleep-and-charge USB ports can be used to charge electronic devices even when the computer is switched off. Normally, when a computer is powered off the USB ports are powered down, preventing phones and other devices from charging. Sleep-and-charge USB ports remain powered even when the computer is off. On laptops... |
How much do vitamins actually help? My family is very pro vitamin and I feel like they're wasting hundreds a year. | [some stuff ~~deleted~~ per "no medical advice" rule]
You'll often hear reports of how "a study found xyz to be beneficial to your health, because xyz deficiency may increase your risk of Redditosis", but this rarely translates to "you, random person on the street, with no signs of xyz deficiency or Redditosis, should... | [
"A 2012 review found no evidence that beta-carotene or vitamin A supplements increase longevity in healthy people or in people with various diseases. A 2011 review found that vitamin A supplementation of children under five who are at risk of deficiency reduced mortality by up to 24%. However, a 2016 and 2017 Cochr... |
how do barcodes work when the same item is sent to different places with different register systems, different prices assigned, etc.? | The bar code is just another way of writing a number, which is also printed directly below the barcode.
What happens is that the manufacturer says "this bar code number corresponds to this product," and all of the stores list it in their systems under that number.
It doesn't communicate any information about price, h... | [
"Barcodes are often the means whereby data on products and orders are inputted into inventory management software. A barcode reader is used to read barcodes and look up information on the products they represent. Radio-frequency identification (RFID) tags and wireless methods of product identification are also grow... |
do subprime loans hurt credit score? | Subprime loans are reported by business name. They don't say Loan, subprime 1 of 1. They report the name of the issuer and your payment history, loan amount, and paid off/delinquent/etc. | [
"The information in a credit report is sold by credit agencies to organizations that are considering whether to offer credit to individuals or companies. It is also available to other entities with a \"permissible purpose\", as defined by the Fair Credit Reporting Act. The consequence of a negative credit rating is... |
How do we know there were giant insects back when the dinosaurs roamed the Earth? | For one thing, they didn't live at the same time as the dinosaurs, but in the Carboniferous period about 100 million years prior to the appearance of dinosaurs. For another, they can indeed leave fossils. They had tough exoskeletons, and even soft body parts can be preserved under ideal conditions. | [
"Representatives of the extinct dragonfly-like order Protodonata such as the Carboniferous \"Meganeura monyi\" of what is now France and the Permian \"Meganeuropsis permiana\" of what is now North America are the largest insect species yet known to have existed. These creatures had a wingspan of some and a mass of ... |
How do trees have flowers if trees existed before flowers did? | and how can there be birds with wings and insects with wings? | [
"Blossom trees have a tendency to lose their flower petals in wind-blown cascades, often covering the surrounding ground in petals. This attribute tends to distinguish \"blossom\" trees from other flowering trees.\n",
"The general assumption is that the function of flowers, from the start, was to involve animals ... |
When did drinks like beer switch to being served almost exclusively cold? | I just want to jump in and say that beer is not, and should not be, exclusively served cold. Different styles of beer are best at different temperatures - for example an Imperial Stout or a Double IPA should be served "warm" (14-16℃), an IPA or a Saison should be "cellar temperature" (12-14℃), or an American Pale Ale o... | [
"Beer was often served at room temperature since refrigeration was mostly unavailable. Adolphus Busch introduced refrigeration and pasteurization of beer in 1880 with his Budweiser brand. Some saloons kept the beer in kegs stored on racks inside the saloon. Some saloons made their own beer. Sometimes the beer was a... |
every now and then i'll lay down to go to sleep and my tv (that's off) makes a loud popping sound. what is that? | Sometimes after watching TV for a while the internal heat makes the outer plastic expand and then it falls back into place as it cools down. | [
"At the beginning of the series final Charlotte and Michael aren't talking. Over breakfast, they hear the tap in the kitchen making a strange sound, as they approach it the tap bursts and the two are stuck holding the water pipe shut until help arrives.\n",
"In a post-credits scene, an obviously older Dave and An... |
zen buddism | A very very long time ago, Buddhism started up in India. As time passed, many people started thinking many different things about it. One of these schools was called "Mahayana." Some people who followed this school went to China. In China, many more people started thinking even more different things about it. In the 50... | [
"Zen (; ) is a school of Mahayana Buddhism that originated in China during the Tang dynasty, then known as the Chan School (\"Chánzong\" 禅宗) and later developed into various schools. It was strongly influenced by Taoist philosophy, especially Neo-Daoist thought, and developed as a distinct school of Chinese Buddhis... |
why are the poverty guidelines set so low? | The problem is that these guidelines are set using Census data, which is of all Americans, across the entire state.
So a family of four would absolutely not survive in NY at 23K a year - but if you drop them into Utah, chances are they could make do because the cost of living there can be much, much, much lower.
I ca... | [
"There are a variety of factors that may reinforce or instigate the existence of extreme poverty, such as weak institutions, cycles of violence and a low level of growth. Recent World Bank research shows that some countries can get caught in a \"fragility trap\", in which self-reinforcing factors prevent the poores... |
If I have a mirror and point it at the sun, will the light make it back to the sun? | Yes.^1
^1 There will be a lot of dispersion in the atmosphere, assuming the mirror is in the atmosphere, and so it is unlikely that the reflection would be visible to the naked eye to an observer in space. But likely at least a few photons will be directed towards the sun. | [
"And when Zenodorus the astronomer came down to Arcadia and was introduced to us, he asked us how to find a mirror surface such that when it is placed facing the sun the rays reflected from it meet a point and thus cause burning.\n",
"With the sun as light source, a mirror can be used to signal by variations in t... |
How populated with life is an ocean? | To specifically answer your question... the chances of you finding life in a random point in the pacific is 100%, provided you have the right tools.
The ocean is at least as populated as desert or jungle - just not necessarily by macroorganisms (fish, mammals, molluscs, etc.).
While it depends on which zone of seawa... | [
"The oceans are home to a diverse collection of life forms that use it as a habitat. Since sunlight illuminates only the upper layers, the major part of the ocean exists in permanent darkness. As the different depth and temperature zones each provide habitat for a unique set of species, the marine environment as a ... |
how do underwater speakers work? | > I get that sound waves travel at different frequencies in the air than in the water
Not at different frequencies, different speeds. Different frequencies produce different tones in air or the water, so sound can travel at all different frequencies in both.
> but how do they get sound to travel the correct way
... | [
"The diver’s speech is picked up by the microphone and converted into a high frequency sound signal transmitted to the water by the omnidirectional transducer. The signal can bounce off the bottom and surface and other obstructions, which can extend the range around obstructions, but will also degrade the signal du... |
Basic question on HVAC | Everything will eventually turn to heat. Note that just the amount of heat in kW does not describe the situation well, you need to know the temperature it's available at. If the temperature difference with the outside is big enough you could potentially extract energy from it.
edit: source: Chemical Engineering MSc. | [
"HVAC (heating, ventilation, and air conditioning) is a major subdiscipline of mechanical engineering. The goal of HVAC design is to balance indoor environmental comfort with other factors such as installation cost, ease of maintenance, and energy efficiency. The discipline of HVAC includes a large number of specia... |
if we americans strive to separate church and state, why are so many polling locations in churches? | Why cant they be?
The separation of church and state just means that there can be know government endorsed religion. It does not mean that politicians cant be religious or that government functions couldn't be held in a church etc. | [
"The church is in the United States, divided into congregations that once had clear geographical boundaries. Since the 1930s, however, the boundaries have been indistinct and overlapping. Since 1856, congregations are collected into districts (23 as of 2010), whose boundaries are clear and usually correspond with s... |
Plasma: how can the same phase of matter seem so eclectic in its behaviour? | The definition of plasma is straight-forward: it is a gas of charged particles, typically free electrons and positively charged ions. In principle, you can get exotic plasmas (I've heard about electron-positron plasma, and you can also get 'cold' plasma), but I will not discuss those further here.
Plasma can exist in ... | [
"Plasma is often called the \"fourth state of matter\" after solid, liquids and gases, despite plasma typically being an ionized gas. It is distinct from these and other lower-energy states of matter. Although it is closely related to the gas phase in that it also has no definite form or volume, it differs in a num... |
At what point in the digestive journey are gasses produced? And can the gas overtake solids in the tract? | Gases are formed due to the gut flora breaking down the chyme in your intestines into simpler chemicals, so that they can be absorbed through your intestinal lining.
For example, you get so gassy if you eat dairy while lactose intolerant, because you lack the proper enzyme (lactase) to break down the lactose in dairy ... | [
"Intestinal gas is composed of varying quantities of exogenous sources and endogenous sources. The exogenous gases are swallowed (aerophagia) when eating or drinking or increased swallowing during times of excessive salivation (as might occur when nauseated or as the result of gastroesophageal reflux disease). The ... |
Historical Fiction for the Historian? | I personally love Alejo Carpentier's historical novels. *The Kingdom of this Earth*, about the Haitian Revolution, is still widely considered one of the best works of literature of the 20th century. I personally feel that the better work is his novel Explosion in the Cathedral, which both looks at how the French Revolu... | [
"The novel falls under both historical fiction and global literature (Weltliteratur). It is known as historical fiction due to its basis on remembering the past and it draws from historical facts. It is also known as global literature as it has a broad international market and allows for a study on how the world to... |
why is it 2017 and with all these crazy technological advancements, a phone call still sounds like you’re dragging your phone through gravel underwater. | Honestly sounds like something is wrong with either her mic or your speaker.
Beckground noise will always be a thing, and your phone can't filter it out without listening to your conversation, which it can't do real time. So I would actually see if it happens will all phone calls, or if its just yours... | [
"Away from the beaches, Yell Sound is little used for recreational purposes, possibly due to the relatively high volume of tonnage accessing Sullom Voe. As a primary navigation channel, the entire sound is under the control of Shetland Islands Council's Ports and Harbours Operations authority and has been identifie... |
How do underwater rivers work? And why do they exist? | A river, as we'd conventionally define one, is essentially just a significant amount of water confined within a channel, flowing downhill (i.e. driven by gravity). In particular, if you consider the cross-section of a river, there are two kinds of boundary: a channel (a solid/fluid interface) and the free surface (a fl... | [
"A river is a natural watercourse, usually freshwater, flowing toward an ocean, a lake, a sea or another river. A few rivers simply flow into the ground and dry up completely before reaching another body of water. \n",
"The water in a river is usually in a channel, made up of a stream bed between banks. In larger... |
Considering the path of evolution, how long do you think HIV has really been around aside from its discovery in 1986? | Molecular clock analyses date the origins of the HIV-1 M group (the largest and most genetically diverse and therefore the most likely candidate for the oldest subtype) somewhere at the beginning of the last century.[[1931 (1915-1945)](_URL_0_)][[1908 (1884–1924)](_URL_1_)]
Definitely not man made, all types of HIV ar... | [
"Genetic research indicates that HIV originated in west-central Africa during the late nineteenth or early twentieth century. AIDS was first recognized by the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in 1981 and its cause—HIV infection—was identified in the early part of the decade. Since its ... |
Possible to cook an egg on top of the Mt. Everest? | It's possible to cook an egg at the top of Mt. Everest.
First, I assume you mean "Is it possible to hard boil an egg..." because you could obviously fry/bake/cook by any other means and it would be pretty much the same as cooking at sea level.
It's possible to cook eggs at 70 °C, however. [Here's](_URL_0_) a page th... | [
"The Hillary Step was climbed and the pair reached the summit of Mount Everest at 18:00, 24 September 1975. The wind had dropped and the setting sun sometimes broke through between the clouds. The view was magnificent and they tried to identify some of the mountains and glaciers out across Himalaya. After an hour, ... |
Was Saladin jealous of the crusaders? | It's not entirely wrong, but I wouldn't agree with the framing of it. There's a big caveat here that we can't truly know what Saladin thought or believed. He left very few written documents in his own hands - and none of them are introspective diaries or anything that provides a deep insight into his inner thoughts. In... | [
"Subsequently, the Fidai aided the Muslim cause against the Christian Crusaders of the Third Crusade which included Richard the Lion Heart of England. Saladin having by now established a friendly relationship with Sinan, the Nizari Fidai themselves joined Saladin's forces to defeat the Crusaders in the last great b... |
what difference does it make it the universe is slowing down in expansion or accelerating? what does this mean for humanity? | Entropy will forever increase, and then nothing. | [
"Another common source of confusion is that the accelerating universe does \"not\" imply that the Hubble parameter is actually increasing with time; since formula_21, in most accelerating models formula_22 increases relatively faster than formula_23, so H decreases with time. (The recession velocity of one chosen g... |
why do diseases spread through pigs and birds more so than other animals? | Because of humans relationship with specific mammals and poultry through domestication and even more so now industrialization, the odds of animal pathogens mutating to spread to humans increase greatly.
Tl:dr It's a numbers game and we like chicken and beef and pork, so the odds are in our disfavor. | [
"Similarly, in recent times avian influenza and West Nile virus have spilled over into human populations probably due to interactions between the carrier host and domestic animals. Highly mobile animals such as bats and birds may present a greater risk of zoonotic transmission than other animals due to the ease wit... |
how does nuclear fusion work on the atom-level? | Nuclear fusion is, by definition, on the atomic level. Nuclear fusion is when you smash together 2 light elements to get a heavier element. For example, smashing together 2 hydrogen atoms (each with one proton) gives you a single helium atom (2 protons). | [
"Nuclear fusion occurs when the nuclei of two atoms approach closely enough for the nuclear force to pull them together into a single larger nucleus. The strong force is opposed by the electrostatic force created by the positive charge of the nuclei's protons, pushing the nuclei apart. The amount of energy that is ... |
why passwords made on websites with requirements (i.e. exactly 8 characters) make a password 'more secure' if it decreases the total amount of possible combinations. | They don't make it more secure, and you can use the rules to narrow down the possible combinations. Forcing people to use special characters may however be advantageous because it vastly increases the search space.
These requirements are usually implemented because there are a large number of people who would choose '... | [
"The level of password strength required depends, among other things, on how easy it is for an attacker to submit multiple guesses. Some systems limit the number of times a user can enter an incorrect password before some delay is imposed or the account is frozen. At the other extreme, some systems make available a... |
Cicero, Letters to Brutus, i. 16 | _URL_0_
M. Brutus's letter to Cicero, linked above, is decrying Cicero for supplicating the mercy of Octavian, not Julius Caesar, if that wasn't clear to you.
His anger at Cicero stems from his belief that this undermined his virtuous purpose in slaying Julius Caesar. Asking for clemency for Brutus presupposes both t... | [
"Cicero's Brutus (also known as \"De claris oratibus\") is a history of Roman oratory. It is written in the form of a dialogue, in which Brutus and Atticus ask Cicero to describe the qualities of all the leading Roman orators up to their time. Cicero then attempts to propose a reconstruction of Roman history. Altho... |
if i invest $100 into stocks and they drop, will i owe money? or just lose my $100 | You can never lose more money than you put in on the stock exchange (inflation ignored)
Example: I have $100. Shares are going at $1 each. I buy 100.
I have $0 and 100 shares. Share prices drop to $0.9 each.
I have $0 and 100 shares. I need some cash for a new video game so sell half my shares at $0.9 each.
I have ... | [
"A classic investing example is a trader who has exposure limits, say he is not allowed to have more than $1 million at risk in any one stock. That doesn't mean he cannot lose more than $1 million. If he buys $1 million of the stock at $20 and it goes to $10, he can buy another $500,000. If it then goes to $5, he c... |
If space is a vacuum, how are things able to travel (light, data from satellites, thrusters) without anything to push against or move through? I always thought there needed to be matter for stuff like that to happen | Newton's first law says that objects in motion retain that motion unless acted upon. No push is required for motion to continue.
In addition, there is no need to push against an external object in order to initiate motion. All you need to do is throw something in the direction opposite to the desired motion. (This ... | [
"Outer space is the closest known approximation to a perfect vacuum. It has effectively no friction, allowing stars, planets, and moons to move freely along their ideal orbits, following the initial formation stage. However, even the deep vacuum of intergalactic space is not devoid of matter, as it contains a few h... |
what does the wattage rating on a light bulb package mean? | Aka the light bulb emits an amount of light similar to that a 60-watt incandescent bulb would put out, while only using 9 watts.
The lamp fixture is only designed to handle loads and the resulting heat from a device consuming 100 watts of power or less, which is clearly not an issue using your choice of light bulb | [
"The watt is a unit of power. We are accustomed to thinking of light bulbs in terms of power in watts. This power is not a measure of the amount of light output, but rather indicates how much energy the bulb will use. Because incandescent bulbs sold for \"general service\" all have fairly similar characteristics (s... |
why do animals prefer running water to standing water | They naturally know that still water is more dangerous than running water. It is more likely to have bacteria, molds, algae, or other things that can kill or make them sick. | [
"In the natural environment many animal species depend on the regular flow of water as well as specific bodies of water for their survival. Draining small lakes, ponds, and river beds gets rid of a habitat that many different species of fish, alligators, insects, and other animals were dependent on for their surviv... |
What makes one polity a civilization and another a state? | There isn't really a perfectly defined rule here. A "polity" is just a political unite, used when other, more specific terms (empire, state, city-state) may be misleading. An empire is usually thought of as a polity that encompasses multiple ethno-cultural areas, usually gained through conquest. A "state" is essentiall... | [
"A civilization state (or civilization-state) is a country that represents not just a historical territory, ethnolinguistic group, or body of governance, but a unique civilization in its own right. It has been used to describe continent-sized civilizations with long histories such as China and India, but has also b... |
nutrition labels: what does each category mean, and how does each category affect your health? | I am not sure what exactly you want to know, but I will write something!
The main categories on a nutrition labels are:
Energy (kcal/kJ)
Protein
Carbohydrates
Fats
**Energy** is measured in calories (kcal) or joules (kJ). One should eat around 2000 kcal per day (woman) or 2500 per day (men). When you eat more th... | [
"Nutritional rating systems differ from nutritional labeling in that they attempt to simplify food choices, rather than listing specific amounts of nutrients or ingredients. Dietary guidelines are similar to nutritional rating systems in that they attempt to simplify the communication of nutritional information, ho... |
with tesla being banned in some states what does it mean to go across state lines and buy the car? do you not just order online? | The cars themselves aren't banned. Just dealerships. Because they don't fit the legal description of a car dealer, since the parent manufacturing company is selling them direct.
You can still buy one elsewhere and own it in that state. | [
"In response to constant state auto dealers associations lobbying to prevent Tesla from selling cars directly to the public, Tesla has lobbied in several states for the right to sell cars. In June 2017, Tesla made a \"last-minute push near the end of the Albany legislative session to expand its sales force in New Y... |
Why was the 60 B.C.E consular election so important for Julius Caesar? | This is pretty simple, though someone unfamiliar with the period wouldn't know it.
There's a prestige reason and a tactical reason. The prestige reason is because of age restrictions in place (certainly since Sulla reformed the government ~82 BCE, possibly earlier) 60 was the first year Caesar was eligible to stand f... | [
"When Julius Caesar returned to Rome from his governorship in Hispania towards the end of 60 BC, Pompey and Caesar made an informal political alliance. Julius Caesar was a prominent popularis politician who favoured land redistributions and was a resolute man. He stood for election for one of the two consulships fo... |
In the pre-war years of the 30's while he was out of government and watching Chamberlain appease Hitler repeatedly, what did Churchill think ought to have been done? | Throughout the decade, Churchill watched Germany building up its military and armaments, and called for Britain to build up its own armaments in kind. He believed that Britain had to rearm in order to deter Germany from starting a war. Yes, he criticized the appeasement policy at Munich, but that was already 1938. Howe... | [
"The repeated failures of the Baldwin government to deal with rising Nazi power are often laid, historically, on the doorstep of Chamberlain, since he presided over the final collapse of peace. However, it is also true that by the time of his premiership, dealing with the Nazi Party in Germany was an order of magni... |
How did people 500 years ago entertain them self inside of Europe? | hi! more information is welcome; meanwhile, get started on this section of the FAQ*
[What did people do for fun?](_URL_0_)
*see the link on the sidebar or the wiki tab | [
"Modern tourism can be traced to what was known as the Grand Tour, which was a traditional trip around Europe (especially Germany and Italy), undertaken by mainly upper-class European young men of means, mainly from Western and Northern European countries. In 1624, young Prince of Poland, Ladislaus Sigismund Vasa, ... |
Considering String Theory has hit some bumps, is there an alternative physics theory that could be a step forward to The Theory Of Everything? | Therea are lots of different alternative theories.
Just listing of some alternative approaches:
1. [Grand Unified Theory](_URL_3_)
1. [Loop quantum gravity](_URL_2_)
1. [Causal dynamical triangulation](_URL_1_)
2. [Kaluza–Klein theory](_URL_0_)
4. [Causal Sets](_URL_6_)
6. [Superfluid vacuum theory](_URL_4_)
5. [Tec... | [
"The Trouble with Physics: The Rise of String Theory, the Fall of a Science, and What Comes Next is a 2006 book by the theoretical physicist Lee Smolin about the problems with string theory. The book strongly criticizes string theory and its prominence in contemporary theoretical physics, on the grounds that string... |
Evolution as a bodily response to environmental pressures? | No, only populations evolve. Individuals adapt, and if they can't, they aren't selected for. There's no evidence for anything that "increase" mutation rate in individuals who aren't competing effectively for scarce resources.
Where did you get the idea that it's pretty rare to find transitional forms? Sure, finding fo... | [
"\"Evolution turns the inevitable into a necessity.\" This means that the majority of mammalian evolution took place in mud and rotting vegetation and more than 90 percent of human evolution took place in isolated hunter-gatherer communities and farming communities. Therefore, the human immune systems have evolved ... |
During the Roman empire, who were the most bad ass gladiators that actually won their freedom? Did they have any prior military knowledge and what happens after they were set free? | The gladiatorial scene in Rome was built entirely on the military tradition of the state. Prisoners of war, that is, men with military experience, were always in ready supply. Even the gladiator archetypes (Samnite, Secutor, etc.), were taken from the physicality and fighting of style of Rome's many opponents.
If a gl... | [
"In the Late Republic, about half the gladiators who fought in Roman arenas were slaves, though the most skilled were often free volunteers. Successful gladiators were occasionally rewarded with freedom. However, gladiators being trained warriors and having access to weapons, were potentially the most dangerous sla... |
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