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“The Triumph of Christianity,” by Bart D. Ehrman, claims that socially, politically, and religiously, the Roman world was based on “dominance,” strong vs weak. The author also claims that Christianity brought the concepts of “charity” and caring for ones neighbor to Roman society. Thoughts?	In terms of 'charity' I would argue that this had existed for a while. Augustus in the Res Gestae Divi Augusti makes much of his free distributions of grain and money during times of crisis during his time as princeps, for example. Even during the late Republic, grain doles were being expanded, as the Gracchi intro...	[ "Christianity is essentially an ethical religion; and, although its moral principles were meant directly for the elevation of the individual, still they could not fail to exercise a powerful influence on such a public institution as law, the crystallized rule of human conduct. The law of Rome escaped this influence...
can we train our voices over time to get higher or lower?	Yes, this is possible. In my job I have to sometimes raise the volume of my voice and realized that lowering the pitch allows my voice to be heard better. Since I've been doing this I've been able to lower to tone of my voice even more. Any voluntary muscle can be trained and strengthened to an extent.	[ "However, this has the limit of exercising the voice, not yet with art, or its power, increasing the speed of speaking and the richness of vocabulary; therefore, one is alluded to have learnt to speak in public.\n", "For individuals who work with their voice (e.g., singers, actors, teachers, stock brokers) voice ...
Why did several Confederate states ratify the 13th Amendment right after the civil war?	Ratifying the 13th amendment was a precondition for rejoining the Union under presidential reconstruction. If states chose to ratify, they expected that they could regain the privileges of states in good standing, thus being equal again to northern states. Hence why South Carolina (and others) tried to send representa...	[ "Shortly after the Union victory in the American Civil War, the Thirteenth Amendment was proposed by Congress and ratified by the states in 1865, abolishing slavery. Subsequently, many ex-Confederate states then adopted Black Codes following the war, with these laws severely restricting the rights of blacks to hold...
Are there any 2 compounds which would react violently with each other in solid states?	Caesium will react with ice above -116C. If you don't restrict yourself to just "room temperature", then that opens a wide variety of reactions. For instance, thermite, a mixture of iron oxide and aluminium powder, will react _extremely_ exothermically if you heat it strongly enough.	[ "Some mixtures will readily form solid solutions over a range of concentrations, while other mixtures will not form solid solutions at all. The propensity for any two substances to form a solid solution is a complicated matter involving the chemical, crystallographic, and quantum properties of the substances in que...
How "Secure" were borders (in Europe) in the middle ages	So, borders as we would think of them - that being a clearly demarcated, fortified line with manned checkpoints through which one must pass - did not exist, and neither did formal immigration systems. The state apparatus for maintaining them just wasn't there. You did have marches, such as on the English-Scots border, ...	[ "States and rulers have always regarded the ability to determine who enters or remains in their territories as a key test of their sovereignty, but prior to World War I, border controls were only sporadically implemented. In medieval Europe, for example, the boundaries between rival countries and centres of power w...
What color would plants be if our sun was blue?	Ideally, I think even the plants on Earth would be black in colour, to maximize energy absorption. There seems to be some debate over the reason why they're not though. Just wikipedia-ing: _URL_1_ Also, NB: the sun is white :) _URL_0_	[ "Probably the vegetation is very different due to the increased air density, precipitation, temperature, and stellar flux. For the type of light emitted from the K-type stars, plants may take other colors than green. The vegetation would cover more regions than vegetation here on Earth, making this visible from spa...
Would water boil at 99°C? What difference does 1°C make?	The boiling point of a liquid is defined to be the point at which the vapor pressure (the pressure of a the vapor when it is in thermal equilibrium with the liquid) reaches the ambient atmospheric pressure. Temperature comes into play since increasing the temperature increases the vapor pressure. Before the boiling poi...	[ "This boiling-point difference of 16.1 millikelvins between the Celsius scale's original definition and the previous one (based on absolute zero and the triple point) has little practical meaning in common daily applications because water's boiling point is very sensitive to variations in barometric pressure. For e...
Why does closer thunder sound sudden and sharp, while distant ones are more drawn out?	Mostly because of echoes/difference in path lengths. The farther you are away from a lightning bolt, the more chances the sound has to bounce off a few things (or not) before reaching you. The more a sound bounces around, the longer its path length, and the longer it takes to reach you. So, some of the sound goes direc...	[ "The Earth's curvature also contributes to distant observers not hearing the thunderclap. Thunder is more likely to reflect off the Earth's surface before it reaches an observer far from the strike, and only the right refraction and reflection of the sound off of the atmosphere will give it the range it needs to be...
Are the background smattering of stars bright enough to illuminate two astronauts holding hands in deep space so that they could see each other?	> Are the background smattering of stars bright enough to illuminate two astronauts holding hands in deep space so that they could see each other? Well even if the astronauts appeared pitch black, the eye would be acclimatised to the dark, and they would be able to make out their silhouette against the stars. > Fo...	[ "W. Mott Hupfel III photographed \"The American Astronaut\". He worked closely with McAbee to achieve a black and white that could help audiences suspend disbelief about an outer space where there is no atmosphere to filter light, while still leaving a lot up to the imagination. \"We wanted the audience to see much...
what do the "pill" terms mean when online asking to be "blue/red/black/etc pilled" on a certain subject/topic?	It is a reference to the famous scene in the Matrix when Morpheus offers Mr. Anderson one of two options. -Take a blue pill, the story ends wake up tomorrow back in your bed and fall back in line with whatever beliefs you have. -Take the red pill and experience the full unredacted truth of your existence, good or ba...	[ "The red pill, together with its opposite the blue pill, is a popular cultural meme, a metaphor representing a choice between the \"red pill\", representing a life of harsh knowledge, desperate freedom, and the brutal truths of reality, and the \"blue pill\", representing a life of luxurious security, tranquil happ...
how come when i'm dizzy my vision always spins to the right? do other people's spin left?	Inside your inner ears are structures and fluid that help you detect motion. The fluid in your inner ear moves when you move. After spinning around, for example, the fluid in your inner ear also spins. When you stop, the fluid keeps going. You feel dizzy because your brain is hearing conflicting stories from your eyes ...	[ "\"Stand erect with arms outstretched, horizontal with the shoulders. Now spin around until you become slightly dizzy. There is only one caution: you must turn from left to right if you are in the northern hemisphere and counterclockwise if you are in the South hemisphere.\" A tip for this is to look at the end of ...
The first human head transplant is set for December 2017. Have we reached a point in medical technology were this is even possible?	Technology has advanced that we can attach all the individual parts however it's not because something is attached that it will work. We can transplant the head, attach all the nerves arteries without any problems. Thats just mechanical attaching. However that's the easy part. There are tons of problems, the primary be...	[ "In November 2017, Sergio Canavero claimed that a team lead by Rey had performed the first successful human head transplant. This procedure did not involve Spiridonov. To date, no evidence has been presented of a successful procedure.\n", "Writing in \"The Guardian\" in 2017, neuroscientist Dean Burnett noted tha...
Did prima noctis (the right of the first night) really happen?	/u/sunagainstgold answered [this question here](_URL_2_) and you should also check out this answer on [In Medieval Europe, if a female serf was very pretty would the Lord who owns her land simply take her as his wife? Even if she was already married?](_URL_0_) which are from the [FAQ on marriage](_URL_1_).	[ "\"Controra\" is a term used in southern Italy to indicate a precise moment of the day: it is the early afternoon, the hour when the shadows of the dead appear to contact the living. For this reason, right after lunch, local people close themselves at home to rest. It is very warm, crickets sing and streets are des...
why is a 3d printer considered a printer?	It's mostly called a printer because that terminology is easy to understand to most people. The same way that an inkjet printer has a head which moves back forth across a tray to reproduce an image, a 3D printer has a head which moves back and forth across a tray to reproduce a shape. I can see your point, but this is...	[ "A \"3D printer\" is a device for making a three-dimensional object from a 3D model or other electronic data source through additive processes in which successive layers of material (including plastics, metals, food, cement, wood, and other materials) are laid down under computer control. It is called a printer by ...
What do the amplitude and frequency of a single photon actually represent?	This gets to the heart of quantum mechanics, which is that the light is not a continuous thing but is instead quantized into discrete smallest-possible packets - the photons. Your question is continuing to take the principles of classical physics and apply them to the quantum realm, which you can't do. It makes total ...	[ "For electromagnetic radiation, the amplitude of a photon corresponds to the changes in the electric field of the wave. However, radio signals may be carried by electromagnetic radiation; the intensity of the radiation (amplitude modulation) or the frequency of the radiation (frequency modulation) is oscillated and...
What are the most notable cities and locations during the viking-age (political, cultural, religious, economical and so on)	I could make a detailed description of the locations and characteristics of Harald Bluetooths Trelleborg fortresses, Jelling (which was recently subjected to new research, don't bother reading anything on Jelling (except the runestone) older than 5 years), Aarhus, Ribe, Haithabu/Hedeby, Lejre, and Kaupang/Skiringssal, ...	[ "The Hedeby Viking Museum (Danish-Vikingemuseum Hedeby) (German-Wikinger Museum Haithabu) is a museum near the site of Hedeby, a former medieval city in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany focusing on the Viking Age history of the region. While the region is now in modern Germany, it was once the oldest city in Denmark unt...
why is there no b#	This is a really good question. If I understand it right, you're asking about the reason why the scale sounds good without a black note between e/f or b/c. There's a nice math-based answer. First, you need to know about "beat frequencies." In short, if two musical notes have frequencies A and B, then the notes have...	[ "B-D.I.C.E. is an organization that tries to discredit DICE by posing as DICE members. Without a convincing disguise, their tricks are easily uncovered. The famous slogan is \"We are B-D.I.C.E., but that doesn't mean we're nice!\"\n", "\"2 B R 0 2 B\" is a science fiction short story by Kurt Vonnegut, originally ...
why do we sometimes have an urge to smell disgusting things?	You mean like our poop? It's an evolutionary drive. Because animals often track other animals by scent, when we smelled our own poop we could gauge how strong the smell is and therefore gauge the level of danger we would be in after having defecated. The stronger the smell is, the further and faster it would travel ...	[ "An online study of people's responses to \"horrible sounds\" found vomiting \"the most disgusting\". Professor Trevor Cox of the University of Salford's Acoustic Research Centre said that \"We are pre-programmed to be repulsed by horrible things such as vomiting, as it is fundamental to staying alive to avoid nast...
What was the connection between Osama bin Laden and the US government, prior to 9/11?	I think your first question refers to the mujahideen in Afghanistan, who were a loose coalition of opposition groups to the pro-Soviet Democratic Republic of Afghanistan in the 1970s. As the backbone of the anti-Soviet insurgency, the US funneled supplies to mujahideen groups through the Pakistani intelligence servi...	[ "On October 29, the Arabic news agency Al Jazeera aired a video of Osama bin Laden (see 2004 Osama bin Laden video). In a speech that justifies and takes responsibility for the actions of September 11, bin Laden calls out the Bush administration and the American position in the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. \"Your ...
how does hydrogen turn into people?	Stars are bright and hot because in their cores they have nuclear fusion going on. Nuclear Fusion is when small elements are crunched together (fused) to form larger elements. Depending on the star, different atoms will be combined to create different elements. Some stars convert hydrogen into helium. Other stars conve...	[ "Hydrogen gas can be produced naturally through rock-water interactions or as a byproduct of microbial metabolisms. Free H can then be consumed by other microbes, oxidized photochemically in the atmosphere, or lost to space. Hydrogen is also thought to be an important reactant in pre-biotic chemistry and the early ...
Why are rocket engines not able to throttle down all the way?	I'm far from an expert, but I will attempt a little discussion. One issue is that rocket engines tend to use supersonic flows. That is, the exhaust gases are moving faster than the speed of sound. The result is that nothing downstream can affect the combustion chamber. If the engine is throttled down until flow is su...	[ "In practice, the degree to which rockets can be throttled varies greatly, but most rockets can be throttled by a factor of 2 without great difficulty; the typical limitation is combustion stability, as for example, injectors need a minimum pressure to avoid triggering damaging oscillations (chugging or combustion ...
There are thousands of pigeons in central London. They don't seem to be eaten by birds of prey. What's preventing predation?	The volume of pigeons far outweighs the predatory ability of birds of prey. That said, there are plenty of good examples of predatory birds making a living off of pigeons. [From wikipedia](_URL_1_) [One example: Pale Male in NYC](_URL_0_)	[ "With only their flying abilities protecting them from predation, rock pigeons are a favourite almost around the world for a wide range of raptors. In fact, with feral pigeons existing in almost every city in the world, they may form the majority of prey for several raptor species that live in urban areas. Peregrin...
when a nuclear warhead is de-commisioned, what happens to the nuclear material?	Both, actually. Usually used as fuel though, since it takes a whole lot less energy to repurpose it than make it from scratch.	[ "As the nuclear warhead reenters the Earth's atmosphere its high speed causes compression of the air, leading to a dramatic rise in temperature which would destroy it if it were not shielded in some way. As a result, warhead components are contained within an aluminium honeycomb substructure, sheathed in a pyrolyti...
Why is Byzantium not just called the Roman Empire and why isn't its fall considered the actual fall of the Roman Empire?	Traditionally in the West, part of the differentiation is in language and the eventual split in religion - Latin vs. Greek - Catholic vs. Orthodox. The tail end of the Roman Empire and its western successor was Latin and Catholic while the Byzantines, the eastern successor was Greek and Orthodox. The Byzantines in ...	[ "Byzantium is a term used by modern historians to refer to the later Roman Empire. In its own time, the Empire ruled from Constantinople (or \"New Rome\" as some people call it, although this was a laudatory expression that was never an official title) was considered simply as \"the Roman Empire.\" The fall of Cons...
Second time trying: I see a lot about sexuality in Greece and Rome but what about the Ancient Middle East?	This is actually a good question, does anyone know	[ "The era known as the Age of Enlightenment (1650s to 1780s) gave rise to, in part, a general challenge to the traditional doctrines of society in Western Europe. A particular interest in the Classical era of Greece and Rome \"as a model for contemporary life\" put the Greek appreciation of nudity, the male form and...
how is spacecraft controlled over such long distances? how do scientists factor in obstacles such as asteroids?	For most of their journey, spacecraft do not fire their engines. Engines are fired to put the spacecraft into a specific orbit, and then it is left to coast under the influence of gravity until it needs to be put into a different orbit. For example, to go to Mars you would first have to wait until Mars is in the righ...	[ "For spacecraft missions where large changes in the direction of flight are necessary, direct propulsion by the spacecraft may not be feasible due to the large delta-v requirement. In these cases it may be possible to perform a flyby of a nearby planet or moon, using its gravitational attraction to alter the ship's...
how do we know there weren't any intelligent civilization on earth before man	There would be evidence of it somewhere still on earth, and what we have found does not show that. Things like structures, metal tools, mass burials would be left behind somewhere. We have done a decent job of mapping things like extinction events as well as the growth of species over the last 540 million years, and t...	[ "The current scientific consensus is that human beings are the only animal species with the cognitive ability to create civilizations. A recent thought experiment, however, has considered whether it would \"be possible to detect an industrial civilization in the geological record\" given the paucity of geological i...
american educational system	Most children start school around 4 or 5 with kindergarten. This is the youngest level of school that the government says everyone must go to. Some parents put their children in preschool at an even younger age, but that's almost like day care and may not actually teach very much. After kindergarten is elementary sc...	[ "Class, Bureaucracy, and Schools: The Illusion of Educational Change in America is a 1971 book by American historian Michael B. Katz. The book focuses on the history of education in the United States between 1800 and 1885 in public elementary schools, and follows their transition from one-room schools to centralize...
If you were stuck between two planets with the same gravity at equal distances apart would you move or be stationary?	It depends on the size of your body compared to the distance between the two planets. If you're a point particle, then you will just be stationary, since the forces from the two planets are equal and opposite. However, if the size of your body is large enough, you will start to notice that the bits of your body at your...	[ "BULLET::::- \"Floating\" objects in a spacecraft in LEO are actually in independent orbits around the Earth. If two objects are placed side-by-side (relative to their direction of motion), they will be orbiting the Earth in different orbital planes. Since all orbital planes pass through the center of the Earth, an...
why do dark objects get hotter in the sun than lighter objects?	Dark objects absorb light while light objects reflect it. The energy from the absorbed light becomes heat energy, which makes the darker object hotter.	[ "Although they are at temperatures of roughly , the contrast with the surrounding material at about leaves sunspots clearly visible as dark spots. This is because the luminance (which is essentially \"brightness\" in visible light) of a heated black body (closely approximated by the photosphere) at these temperatur...
why does having a positive mind set help with sickness and pain?	It doesn't. Praying does not help either. It Just makes coping easier.	[ "Positive psychology is the study of factors which contribute to human happiness and well-being, focusing more on people who are currently healthy. In 2010, \"Clinical Psychological Review\" published a special issue devoted to positive psychological interventions, such as gratitude journaling and the physical expr...
why can quicksilver and scarlet witch be used in marvel movies from two different intellectual property owners, such as x-men and the avengers?	Quicksilver and Scarlett Witch are mutants, but they have also been a part of The Avengers team pretty much since its beginning. Fox have the rights for the X-men, but Marvel has the rights for The Avengers, and Quicksilver and Scarlett kinda fall in the middle, which gives both companies the right to use them - as lon...	[ "Marvel Studios launched the Marvel Cinematic Universe in 2008, focused on the Avengers and their related characters, whose film rights they still owned. Marvel was then bought by Disney in 2009, but could not use the X-Men or their related characters. Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch were an odd case, as they had...
In WWI, what would happen to a Frenchman living in Germany or a German guy living in France? How did they deal with immigration?	It really depends on the nation in question. For example, the announcement of war in Russia was greeted by anti-German rioting in 1914. In Moscow, there were riots in the streets and while at first the police tried to stop them, they gave up their attempts. Instead, they found all the German nationals in the city and e...	[ "During the interwar period, France had experienced considerable immigration from elsewhere in Europe. In particular, a large number of Poles and Spanish republicans, who had emigrated to France, subsequently served in the French army and were captured by the Germans. These foreign prisoners were often singled out ...
How long will it be before the great attractor is visible and moves out from behind the center of the milky way?	Depends what you mean by "visible". It'll still be in the plane of the galaxy, which is a hard region to observe at best. The Sun takes around 200 million years to do a full orbit of the Milky Way, so it will probably take of order 10^6 years for it to no longer be obscured by the bulge of the MW. It will still be hard...	[ "The first indications of a deviation from uniform expansion of the universe were reported in 1973 and again in 1978. The location of the Great Attractor was finally determined in 1986: it is situated at a distance of somewhere between 150 and 250 Mly (million light years) (47–79 Mpc) (the latter being the most rec...
Shrimp have low levels of mercury and pollutants?	Mercury levels in fish generally [depend on where they are in the food chain](_URL_0_). The ones at the top which live the longest accumulate the most mercury, because they eat smaller fish that have already accumulated mercury. Shrimp are small and are pretty close to the bottom of the chain, so they don't have time o...	[ "Shrimp are high in levels of omega-3s (generally beneficial) and low in levels of mercury (generally toxic), with an FDA study in 2010 showing a level of 0.001 parts per million, analysing only methylmercury.\n", "In pollution research \"Artemia\", the brine shrimp, has had extensive use as a test organism and i...
the difference between techno and house	Start [here](_URL_0_). It's better than any ELI5 because it has audio examples. Although some of it is less factual and more a matter of opinion, it's fairly accurate overall.	[ "Tech house is a subgenre of house music that combines stylistic features of techno with house. The term \"tech house\" developed as a shorthand record store name for a category of electronic dance music that combined musical aspects of techno, such as \"rugged basslines\" and \"steely beats,\" with the harmonies a...
why is it socially acceptable to vilify scientology and other religious sects?	The horrible things committed in Scientology come from the highest echelons of the organization, though, and no Scientologist that I know of has ever spoken out against crimes committed in the name of Scientology. They are all either complicit, ignorant, or coerced. It is a cult and a villainous organization through an...	[ "The real danger to conventional religion, as Peter Lamborn Wilson asserts, was not so much the mixing of sodomy with worship, but \"the claim that human beings can realize themselves in love more perfectly than in religious practices.\" Despite opposition from the clerics, the practice has survived in Islamic coun...
By Mycenaean standards of beauty, what would Helen of Troy have looked like?	We don't know much about Mycenaean beauty standards, as most of their writings revolve around record keeping and trade rather than literary works, news reporting, or other types of writing. The script of the Mycenaean Greeks, Linear B, was not very good at encoding Greek. It was successful as a script because the limit...	[ "Helen – the proverbial \"Helen of Troy\" – exemplified both sexual passion and tremendous beauty for the Greeks. She was the daughter of Zeus and Leda, the Queen of Sparta, and her beauty was seen by the Trojans as the direct cause of the decade long Trojan War between Greece and Troy. The war began after the godd...
How important is gravity for human embryo development?	Saw a Nova episode that talked about this. Pregnant mice were sent to the Mir space station while the fetuses developed. The mice were brought back to earth to give birth. The infants could not determine which direction was up when dropped into water. I believe that this was the episode: _URL_0_	[ "The primary issue to be considered in off-Earth reproduction is the lack of gravitational acceleration. Life on Earth, and thus the reproductive and ontogenetic processes of all extant species and their ancestors, evolved under the constant influence of the Earth's 1\"g\" gravitational field. It is imperative to s...
if i was to stop masturbating, eventually, would i simply stop producing semen or does my body dispose of the 'old' semen some other way?	The unused sperm cells eventually break down and are reabsorbed by the body.	[ "It is widely believed that urinating after an ejaculation will flush the urethra of remaining sperm. Therefore, some of the subjects in the March 2011 study who produced sperm in their pre-ejaculate did urinate (sometimes more than once) before producing their sample. Therefore, some males can release the pre-ejac...
is it plausible that a person from 1313 BC Britain would be aware of the existence of Egypt?	Feasible, I'd say, but not very likely. There's decent evidence of trade between the Wessex culture and the Mycenaean world in the mid-2nd millennium (faience beads, gold cups with similarities to Mycenaean designs); no direct evidence of Egyptian trade, though. I did find one article from 1953 arguing that a faienc...	[ "Others have challenged the lack of archaeological evidence for Bernal's thesis. Egyptologist James Weinstein points out that there is very little evidence that the ancient Egyptians were a colonizing people in the third millennium and second millennium BC. Furthermore, there is no evidence for Egyptian colonies of...
how candlestick charts work and why they're useful	The "bar" of the chart shows you the opening/closing price for the day (often, modern charts will use a red color to show a loss for the day and green color to show a gain). The "wick" is showing you the highest/lowest price reached during the day. This allow you to see, in one chart, what the overall gain/loss (leng...	[ "Candlestick charts are a visual aid for decision making in stock, foreign exchange, commodity, and option trading. For example, when the bar is white and high relative to other time periods, it means buyers are very bullish. The opposite is true for a black bar. Candlestick charts serve as a cornerstone of technic...
why do we use water as a containment field for nuclear fuel rods, yet contaminated water is such a notable and talked about issue when a meltdown occurs?	> Isn't that water then contaminated? Yeah, but it's not in the water supply. Water is good at cooling things. Just because we want most of our wanter to not be contaminated, doesn't mean we avoid using some of our water for cooling spent fuel rods. There is plenty of water used in a nuclear plant that's expected...	[ "In the nuclear power industry, water can also be used as a neutron moderator. In most nuclear reactors, water is both a coolant and a moderator. This provides something of a passive safety measure, as removing the water from the reactor also slows the nuclear reaction down. However other methods are favored for st...
why are our names followed by our fathers' names and not our mothers'?	Because for the longest time, marriage wasn't seen as something two equals did - it was seen as the woman "leaving" her family and joining her husband's family. Children of that union were considered part of the father's family. So everyone took the father's name. The exact details vary depending on country and time pe...	[ "Names of mothers, fathers, married women and men (in a system of prohibiting the use of nouns sounding like the names of certain family members), and initiated boys and girls may be formed from other nouns and proper names with the prefixes (or just ) and meaning \"mother of\" and \"father of\" respectively (thoug...
What can we expect the world in terms of population, famine, resources to be like in 40-50 years?	There's a thing called the "Rule of 70". Basically, you take the "human growth average" (which is 1.1% at the moment) and divide it into the number 70. So, if the human growth average (HGA) stays constant for the next 70 years (which it definitely won't), it would take roughly 70 years for the human population to doubl...	[ "BULLET::::- According to the UN Population Bureau, life expectancy in 2200 will be around 100 years for developed countries and the world population will be about 11 billion. However, the UN has warned that these projections could be invalidated by any change and progress in future life extension technology and di...
why does running just after eating cause cramps?	When you're digesting, a lot of your blood is directed to your stomach and intestines. Which means you have less available for your legs.	[ "The causes of runner's diarrhea remain under debate, although several theories include ischemia and mechanical trauma. The reduced incidence of diarrhea in cyclists would indicate the latter. Diet is often cited as a common cause of diarrhea in distance runners, particularly with meals including berries and dried ...
During WWII, were any German-Americans detained in the United States similar to the way Japanese-Americans were?	In 1942, German Americans were the largest ethnic group in the USA, comprising approximately 20 % of the population. Irish Americans were the only group that came close to it in size. German immigration also began before the US was even an independent nation, and continued ...	[ "Japanese Americans were generally forbidden to fight a combat role in the Pacific theatre; although no such limitations were placed on Americans of German or Italian ancestry who fought against the Axis powers. Up to this point, the United States government has only been able to find records of five Japanese Ameri...
How did the invention of the press affect the usage of parchment paper?	Well first, 'paper' doesn't mean any writing material. Paper is a specific material made out of cellulose fibers. (whether from wood, linen, cotton or hemp and other sources). Parchment is made from animal skins prepared into a thin scraped sheet (whether from goat, ox or other animal). Then there's for instance papyru...	[ "Despite this it appears that the final breakthrough of paper depended just as much on the rapid spread of movable-type printing. It is notable that codices of parchment, which in terms of quality is superior to any other writing material, still had a substantial share in Gutenberg's edition of the 42-line Bible. A...
how do moka coffee makers work	The water in the boiler is heated and some of it becomes steam. This expansion of the water increases the pressure in the boiler. In the top of the pot the pressure is lower. This forces the water at the bottom to raise through the filter with the ground coffee.	[ "Moka coffee is coffee brewed with a moka pot, a stovetop coffee maker which produces coffee by passing hot water pressurized by steam through ground coffee at a lower pressure than an espresso maker. The moka pot is an Italian invention, first produced by Bialetti in the early 1930s. The flavor of moka pot coffee ...
Formations during the Sengoku period and how it evolved during this time?	Wars prior to Sengoku were between mounted archers - the samurai. The samurai shot at each other before joining for general melee. The reason they weren't as bloody was that 1) samurai numbers were small 2) mounted archery wearing samurai armor shooting against samurai armor had its limitations to cause casualties 3) t...	[ "The Java War (also known as the \"Diponegoro War\") was fought in Java between 1825 and 1830. It started as a rebellion led by Prince Diponegoro after the Dutch decided to build a road across a piece of his property that contained his parents' tomb.\n", "The Java War or Diponegoro War was fought in central Java ...
why can’t normal airplanes go to space?	Consider, why can't a swimmer swim into the sky? Because there is no water in the sky, and the water is what supports the swimmer. Airplanes "swim" through the air. The air is what supports them. So they can't fly somewhere without air.	[ "Spaceplanes must operate in space, like traditional spacecraft, but also must be capable of atmospheric flight, like an aircraft. These requirements drive up the complexity, risk, dry mass, and cost of spaceplane designs. The following sections will draw heavily on the US Space Shuttle as the biggest, deadliest, m...
why can a company take an erroneous payment from your account in a second but it takes them weeks to give your money back?	My submission will most likely be dropped due to being too short, but... Each transaction costs money. When they take money from you, part of it goes to pay the transaction, so they can use faster forms of payment with higher fees. When they give money back, they lose your payment plus the transaction, so they choos...	[ "This process is not instantaneous: the transaction may not appear on the customer's statement or online account activity for one to two days, and it can take up to three days for funds to be deposited in the merchant's account. The preauthorization will be terminated if it is allowed to expire before the settlemen...
how does hit detection work in first-person shooters?	[check out this video by Gameranx that talk about bullet physics in games](_URL_0_) the player basicly have a lazer pinting straight ahead, if a enemy is touching the lazer when the player press the trigger, the enemy will get hit. some realistic games have a delay from the player pulling the trigger to the enemy gett...	[ "Electro-optical detection systems currently tested (2011) can process the incoming shot signatures at very fast speeds, providing an excellent method not only to discriminate between weapon firings and other non-gunshot events but also to identify categories, characteristics, and sometimes specific weapon types au...
Can there be a star orbited by hundreds of planets? Thousands?	Our sun is orbited by millions of objects, although we have decided to only call 8 of them planets. Depending on the size and type of the star formed and the original mass of the protostellar cloud giving rise to the solar system, I think there could be sufficient stable orbits for far more than 8 planets. But planet...	[ "Over the course of the twentieth century, several different astronomers reported evidence of a massive planet orbiting one of the two stars, but recent high-precision radial velocity observations have shown that all such claims were unfounded. No planets have been confirmed in this stellar system to date.\n", "P...
the racehorses which always finish last - why do they still bother to compete if they know they'll always be the slowest?	I wouldn't say it's impossible. The "long shot" horses usually aren't really that off pace. You're unlikely to see a horse that's a legit 500:1 or 1000:1 odds, usually they're more like 30:1. These are still specially bred race horses, not some random mule. So why are they there? It may be an inexperienced horse...	[ "If a runner runs faster, he can win the race. Therefore, if all the runners run faster, they can all win the race. (Athletic competitions are examples of zero-sum games, wherein the winner wins by preventing all other competitors from winning.)\n", "Though the vast majority of races are one mile, races are conte...
(not trolling) how is canada not just a better version of the us? it seems like all the problems we have aren't issues over there. am i missing something?	I wouldn't exactly say that we don't have our issues up here. We've got growing concerns over CSIS (our approximate equivalent of the CIA/NSA), immigration and refugee issues have sprung up from time to time, particularly refugee health benefits in the past year or so. While not as immense a problem as the US', neglect...	[ "The Canadian system of government is considered to be fundamentally worse than the US model, with Canada being a far more elitist country. The Canadian nation is portrayed to be a geographic, ethnic, economic and political absurdity, with its ultimate destiny in political union with the United States.\n", "In ke...
why does our brain find patterns in random events?	Suppose someone eats a berry, dies. Another person eats a berry, dies. The man who sees that there is a pattern here does not eat berry for fear of death. The person who does not see a pattern eats a berry and might die. So the pattern-finders survive and we keep this trait. If the man was wrong, worst case scenario i...	[ "Although it is not possible to perfectly predict random events, much can be said about their behavior. Two major results in probability theory describing such behaviour are the law of large numbers and the central limit theorem.\n", "Randomness is therefore a condition which holds of a sequence relative to the i...
Why is it that Western Religions and Islam have had several major conflicts while East Asian Religions(Shinto, Buddhism, Hinduism, etc.) have had a much more peaceful existence.	Ho boy... there's three parts to this question that we need to answer one at a time and in order because there's a vastly incorrect premise here. * Did East Asian religions have a much more peaceful exisence? * Are East Asian religions inherently more pacific? If so, why? * Why do we perceive East Asians to be pa...	[ "Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism and Sikhism, religions founded in the region that is today's India, are spread throughout the subcontinent. Islam and Christianity also have significant region-specific histories. While India and Nepal have a majority of people following Hinduism, Sri Lanka and Bhutan have a majority of...
If we were on a spaceship traveling at a hypothetical 99.9% the speed of light and I spoke something to you, would you be able to hear me?	The core principle of relativity is that the laws of physics do not depend on your frame of reference - they don't depend on your speed. This means that even the speed of light has to be the same for every frame of reference (i.e. as seen from every speed), and you have to change the laws of motion and velocity to make...	[ "Sources conflict about the projected speed, perhaps 30% of the speed of light, \"c\", but 9% may be more likely. At 30%, relativistic effects between people on Earth and on the spacecraft, such as time dilation would become more noticeable, such as the shipboard time being less than the Earth observed time.\n", ...
what kept the heads of medieval arrows on the shaft	The arrow socket would have been glued to the tapered point of the shaft, very quick and easy to make. Arrows were disposable so didn't need to be made sturdy. Also if the head falls off after you've shot the arrow its much more difficult for your adversaries to shoot it back at you!	[ "Arrowheads may be attached to the shaft with a cap, a socket tang, or inserted into a split in the shaft and held by a process called hafting. Points attached with caps are simply slid snugly over the end of the shaft, or may be held on with hot glue. In medieval Europe, arrowheads were adhered with hide glue. Spl...
why do huge corporations have such a long interview process (i mean ... months and months)?	they are investing a huge amount of money and faith in you that they are very cautious over who they are going to invest in. Don't be surprised if you pass the senior manager you may be interviewed by the group before possibly being hired.	[ "Advancements in technology along with increased usage has led to interviews becoming more common through a telephone interview and through videoconferencing than face-to-face. Companies utilize technology in interviews due to their cheap costs, time-saving benefits, and their ease of use.\n", "Although the descr...
Did WWII Soldiers have a preference between the Pacific and European front?	The 2/1st battalion of the 6th division Australia fought in both North Africa, Crete and Kokoda in the South Pacific. Veterans of both have said that the pacific was far worse. They suffered greatly in the hot humid conditions. With the large amount of rain malaria and dysentery were common. The other thing was in such...	[ "Major air combat during the war in the Pacific began with the entry of the Western Allies following Japan's attack against Pearl Harbor. The Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service primarily operated the Mitsubishi A6M Zero, and the Imperial Japanese Army Air Service flew the Nakajima Ki-27 and the Nakajima Ki-43, init...
how china transfers power from one leader to another	Consensus among Politburo Standing Committee Members. Publicly, at the end of each Party Congress, the new lineup of PSCM suddenly appears on TV in a big showy event. In reality, there is a lot of horsetrading going on among the Politburo members, making sure that someone from their own faction gets a seat or blockin...	[ "The succession of power in China takes place in the context of a single party system. Despite the guarantee of universal franchise in the constitution, the appointment of the Paramount Leader lies largely in the hands of his predecessor and the powerful factions that control the Central Committee of the Communist ...
why do people buy sports video games every year despite them roughly being the same game as the previous year?	First of all the team lineup changes and so do the player stats. Second they put in enough new features for it to be worth the $60 they are asking. Third because people usually want the newest and best stuff, if they released a newer version of a game you enjoy and play a lot, odds are you will buy it even if it’s been...	[ "In statistics collected by The ESA for the year 2013, a reported 58% of Americans play video games and the average American household now owns at least one dedicated game console, PC or smartphone. The households that own these items play games most commonly on their Console or PC. 36% of U.S. gamers play on their...
why is there a difference in voltage between america and pretty much the rest of the world (240v vs 120v i believe) and what are the impacts of this in terms of energy transport/conservation and usage.	Every country developed their basic infrastructures independently with different scientists and during an era that communication between countries took days at best, weeks on average, and sometimes months if conditions were bad. As time progressed infrastructures and communications were improved and those countries tha...	[ "BULLET::::- Not inquiring about the voltage when traveling abroad for those residing in the Americas, Japan, and Taiwan (countries with 110-125 volts). This includes inter-American travel, as a few countries commonly use 220-240 volts. A matching electrical socket (power mains) does \"not\" necessarily mean the vo...
What are some major disagreements among historians today?	In Biblical Archaeology, there are issues debating the chronology of certain digs dated to the Iron I-IIa ages. Some dates simply don't match up, and Archaeologists are proposing their own explanations. Israel Finkelstein, proponent of the "Low Chronology", says that some sites traditionally dated to the 11th-century ...	[ "Previous historians had focused on cyclical events of the rise and decline of rulers and nations. Process of nationalization of history, as part of national revivals in the 19th century, resulted with separation of \"one's own\" history from common universal history by such way of perceiving, understanding and tre...
Do humans have skin inside their bodies?	Skin is only on the outside. During embryonic development, you go from a single cell, to a ball of cells (blastocyst), which then gastrulates or, folds inwards to form a sort of donut which contains three "germ layers" [[image](_URL_1_)]. The cells around the outside of the donut are the [ectoderm](_URL_3_), which d...	[ "The human skin is the outer covering of the body and is the largest organ of the integumentary system. The skin has up to seven layers of ectodermal tissue and guards the underlying muscles, bones, ligaments and internal organs. Human skin is similar to most of the other\n", "In humans, skin pigmentation varies ...
what does the pancreas do exactly?	It helps digest food and also regulates the concentration of key molecules in the body - for example, blood glucose. That's why when the pancreas stops working properly, you can get diseases like diabetes.	[ "Pancreas is both an endocrine and an exocrine gland, in that it functions to produce endocrinic hormones released into the circulatory system (such as insulin, and glucagon), to control glucose metabolism, and also to secrete digestive/exocrinic pancreatic juice, which is secreted eventually via the pancreatic duc...
Is gravity negative energy?	The final value of energy is arbitrary. We can only measure energy differences, so if we offset the energy of everything by a constant value, nothing will change.	[ "Gravitational energy is the potential energy associated with gravitational force, as work is required to elevate objects against Earth's gravity. The potential energy due to elevated positions is called gravitational potential energy, and is evidenced by water in an elevated reservoir or kept behind a dam. If an o...
What does the content of radioactive waste Disposal Containers (The yellow ones) look like?	Depends on where they are coming from. Could be low level solid waste from hospitals or research labs. That'll mostly be bags of used gloves, paper towels and the like. Could be contaminated construction waste from renovation or decommissioning of a facility. That'll be hunks of wood, plaster and the like. Could b...	[ "Disposal of low-level radioactive waste is in concrete containers buried 45 to 100 feet below the surface in concrete-lined cells in the red bed clay formations. Space between the containers is filled to help prevent shifting. As the cells are filled, they will be covered by more than 300 feet of liner material an...
why do carnivores seem to prey mostly on herbivores and omnivores, and not on other carnivores?	Safety plays a major concern. Prey typically has a flight instinct and predators typically have a fight instinct. If you attack a Gazelle, it may kick you, but then it's going to run. If you attack a Lion, it's turning around to kill you. Obviously not always the case, but it's the majority. The type of offense each b...	[ "Characteristics commonly associated with carnivores include strength, speed, and keen senses for hunting, as well as teeth and claws for capturing and tearing prey. However, some carnivores do not hunt and are scavengers, lacking the physical characteristics to bring down prey; in addition, most hunting carnivores...
How do you figure out what neuroreceptors a chemical activates? Do we know how many neuroreceptors there are?	> Do we know how many neuroreceptors there are? well, yes and no. We have a basic guess of how many different types of receptors are in the brain or on neurons, but we don't know what they all do, and there are always new things coming up. > How do you figure out what neuroreceptors a chemical activates? There a...	[ "A neuron affects other neurons by releasing a neurotransmitter that binds to chemical receptors. The effect upon the postsynaptic neuron is determined by the type of receptor that is activated, not by the presynaptic neuron or by the neurotransmitter. A neurotransmitter can be thought of as a key, and a receptor a...
why do we feel nauseous when dehydrated	I am no physiologist, but I would hazard a guess that it has something to do with the ion concentration raising up and causing problems in the head, blood, and GI tract. Water also helps calm the stomach down while you are sick.	[ "Dehydration occurs when water intake is not enough to replace free water lost due to normal physiologic processes, including breathing, urination, and perspiration, or other causes, including diarrhea and vomiting. Dehydration can be life-threatening when severe and lead to seizures or respiratory arrest, and also...
Did Salieri actually hate Mozart and vice versa?	u/DGBD answered a [similar question about the film](_URL_0_).	[ "Shaffer used artistic licence in his portrayals of both Mozart and Salieri. Documentary evidence suggests that there may have been some occasional antipathy between the two men, but the idea that Salieri was the instigator of Mozart's demise is not taken seriously by scholars of the men's lives and careers. While ...
What sources did medieval doctors use? Do we have copies of what books they studied?	In the early centuries of the modern university in the west, medicine was one of just three advanced (PhD-level) faculties: law, theology, and medicine. In addition to the university-trained physician tradition, there were numerous levels of medical practitioner from royal surgeon to urban apothecary and battlefield ba...	[ "The medieval Muslim world also used a method of reproducing reliable copies of a book in large quantities known as check reading, in contrast to the traditional method of a single scribe producing only a single copy of a single manuscript. In the check reading method, only \"authors could authorize copies, and thi...
Who was Homer?	Simply put, we don't know. The only relevant texts that survive in writing from the period the Homeric epics were composed are the Homeric epics themselves. Since these poems do not feature any autobiographical details, they tell us nothing about Homer as a person. From the roughly contemporary epic poems of Hesiod, w...	[ "Homer is a city in Kenai Peninsula Borough in the U.S. state of Alaska. It is 218 miles southwest of Anchorage. According to the 2010 Census, the population is 5,003, up from 3,946 in 2000. Long known as The \"Halibut Fishing Capital of the World.\" Homer is also nicknamed \"the end of the road,\" and more recentl...
why is the gap in pay between genders a prominent political issue, when the gap in life expectancy between genders is not?	At the end of the day we may be able to influence our mortality, but some people live longer and some live shorter and that's life. No person or groups of people are actively making women live longer. On the other hand, wages are something that is 100% in the control of us as a population. It's something that is regula...	[ "The gender pay gap can be a problem from a public policy perspective even when the reason for the gap is entirely voluntary, because it reduces economic output and means that women are more likely to be dependent upon welfare payments, especially in old age.\n", "The gender pay gap can be a problem from a public...
how are about 1000 books the #1 best selling in new york?	I assume you are referring to the New York Times bestseller list. Those are for everywhere, not just New York. The list goes out every week, so if a book is #1 for even a single week, it can call itself a #1 bestseller. So technically there could be 52 #1 bestsellers a year in each category (fiction, nonfiction, hardc...	[ "The book was met with critical acclaim and became the first book to hit the number one spot on both Amazon’s hip hop and economics bestseller lists at the same time. Wired gave the book 9 out of 10, and BusinessWeek named Mason ‘Pirate of the Year.\n", "According to \"The Huffington Post\", this book is the nint...
how does being out in the cold increase your chance of catching a cold? if it doesn't, where does this misconception come from?	Not fully the answer, but when you're cold you tend to touch your hands to your face/mouth/nose more often, introducing more germs into your body.	[ "Cold sensitivity may be a symptom of hypothyroidism, anemia, fibromyalgia or vasoconstriction. There may also be differences in people in the expression of uncoupling proteins, thus affecting their amount of thermogenesis. Mental activity may also play a factor in perceived temperature.\n", "The apparent seasona...
In the show 'Deadwood' there is whiskey being drunk in, it seems, more than half the scenes in the show. Was frontier whiskey watered down?	In the 19th century, "whiskey" was nothing like the whiskey we know. Very few distilleries actually sold directly to the public and there were many home distillers, usually farmers who realized that the surplus corn and rye they couldn't afford to ship to the market would be a lot more profitable if they turned it into...	[ "\"Whiskey\" premiered Off-Broadway at Theater at Saint Clements's Church on April 29, 1973 and closed on May 6, 1973. Directed by Kevin O'Connor, it starred Tom Rosqui (as I. W. Harper), Charlotte Rae (as Tia Maria), Beeson Carroll (as Johnny Walker), Susan Browning (as Southern Comfort), Michael Sacks (as Jack Da...
What is the relationship between (tensile) strength and hardness?	Usually strength and hardness show positive correlation. > It is said that when glass shatters, it is not because of its poor strength, but because of a powerful shockwave passing through it. Not really. Glass breaks when it's strength is exceeded, just like any other material. > But then, why doesn't the same hap...	[ "Tensile strength is defined as a stress, which is measured as force per unit area. For some non-homogeneous materials (or for assembled components) it can be reported just as a force or as a force per unit width. In the International System of Units (SI), the unit is the pascal (Pa) (or a multiple thereof, often m...
does it matter what time i brush my teeth?	Brushing is about killing bacteria, hardening enamel and reducing plaque. You should concentrate on massaging gums though. You shouldn't brush after eating, because acidity of your mouth is high, which makes it easier to damage enamel.	[ "Brushing teeth properly helps prevent cavities, and periodontal, or gum disease, which causes at least one-third of adult tooth loss. If teeth are not brushed correctly and frequently, it could lead to the calcification of saliva minerals, forming tartar. Tartar hardens (then referred to as 'calculus') if not remo...
why when we look to a thing or a photo long enough we see the negative version of it after stop looking it or after closing eyes?	Because the rods and cones and photoreceptors in your eyes have become over stimulated and desensitized to the image. Basically the specific receptors, out of the many in your eyes, that are used to process the colors and shapes of the image get over worked and shut down. Their being “off” causes an after image in th...	[ "A stimulus which elicits a positive image will usually trigger a negative afterimage quickly via the adaptation process. To experience this phenomenon, one can look at a bright source of light and then look away to a dark area, such as by closing the eyes. At first one should see a fading positive afterimage, like...
how does strong duct tape and other adhesives bind easily and permanently with almost anything, but easily detached from it's roll/container?	Most rolled tape has what's known as Release Coating on the top layer (the non-adhesive side) that prevents it from being adhered to easily. Double-sided tapes have a liner that will need to be removed, as well.	[ "The tape consists of a pressure-sensitive adhesive coated onto a backing material such as paper, plastic film, cloth, or metal foil. Some have a removable release liner which protects the adhesive until the liner is removed. Some have layers of adhesives, primers, release agents, filaments, printing, etc. made for...
is it technically possible for countries to 'build' a nuclear bomb, even if not given the technology by another nuclear country?	All the theory is well known, you can search it online right now. Nations are usually limited by the availability of weapons grade fissile material for the bomb itself and the elaborate detonators required, which are much harder to obtain or construct. To make the bomb useful they also need a delivery system, which r...	[ "There are many countries capable of producing nuclear weapons, or at least enriching uranium and / or plutonium. Among the most notable are Canada, Germany, and Australia. Other countries include Mexico, Brazil, South Korea, the Republic of China, and more. In addition, South Africa has successfully developed its ...
how do pharmaceuticals decide which of their medications will be available as a generic? what percentage do they make off them?	A drug patent lasts about 20 years. After that anyone can snag the ingredient list and make a generic. The only money the original patent holder makes after that is if doctors still prescribe the brand name and pharmacists actually fill it instead of the generic.	[ "Before a company can market a generic drug, it needs to file an Abbreviated New Drug Application (ANDA) with the Food and Drug Administration, seeking to demonstrate therapeutic equivalence to a previously approved \"reference-listed drug\" and proving that it can manufacture the drug safely and consistently. For ...
What happened in the Cretaceous-Paleogene Extinction?	Both appear to be real effects. The "flash & burn", however, was at most local in its effects and seems to have been previously overestimated (See: [Belcher, C. M., Collinson, M. E., Sweet, A. R., Hildebrand, A. R., & Scott, A. C. (2003). Fireball passes and nothing burns—The role of thermal radiation in the Cretac...	[ "At the end of this period, there was a mass extinction known as the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event (formerly known as the Cretaceous–Tertiary extinction event). In this extinction event, many commonly recognized groups such as non-avian dinosaurs, plesiosaurs and mosasaurs, as well as many other lesser-know...
If someone quits smoking without having contracted cancer, do their odds of getting cancer eventually return to those of non-smoker?	Smoking cessation will decrease your risk of smoking-related illness compared to continuing to smoke. However, your risk may not universally return to baseline. For example: An average of 27 studies shows that your risk of COPD-related morbidity and mortality ("illness" and "death") probably decreases after smoking c...	[ "The US Surgeon General, in his 2006 report, estimated that living or working in a place where smoking is permitted increases the non-smokers' risk of developing heart disease by 25–30% and lung cancer by 20–30%. In the U.S., smokers that have not quit successfully have a risk of lung cancer about 20 times higher t...
Why don't you feel an electric shock while touching a 9V battery but feel one with the fake pen and gum toys with button cells?	Toys that shock you contain (typically) a capacitor that is charged by the battery, and then discharged, releasing the accumulated charge. Although all the current coming from the toy comes from the battery, it has been used to build up charge in the cap that can release at a higher voltage and current than the batter...	[ "Most battery voltage testers and chargers that can also test nine-volt need another snap clip to hold the battery, while cylindrical batteries often share a holder that may be adjustable in size. Because of the proximity of the positive and negative terminals at the top of the battery and relatively low current of...
Did Hitler ever give any thought to choosing a successor?	Yes. The original successor Hitler named at the beginning of the war was Herman Goering. However, Goering fell out of favor toward the end of the war when Hitler perceived him as being too eager to take power, and Karl Donitz was appointed instead in Hitler's last will. Donitz was commander of the Kriegsmarine (the ...	[ "Rather than designate one person to succeed him as \"Führer\", Hitler reverted to the old arrangement in the Weimar Constitution. He believed the leaders of the air force (\"Luftwaffe\") and SS (\"Schutzstaffel\") had betrayed him. As far as Hitler was concerned, since the \"Kriegsmarine\" had been too small to af...
chip sealing of roads- taking a layer of asphalt covered in lose gravel that uses traffic to finishing smoothing out the gravel? why?	A few reasons dealing with traction and the underlying soils. Some roads need more traction than asphalt for various reasons, some are laid on ground that moves with the weather, so asphalt is prone to cracking or potholes. Also, in the right conditions, a hot day can heat up the tar mix, allowing material to flow, and...	[ "Although chipseal is an effective low-cost way to repair road, it has some drawbacks. Loose crushed stone is often left on the surface, owing to underapplication of bitumen or overapplication of stone. If not removed, this can cause safety and environmental problems such as cracked windshields, chipped paint, loss...
apparently glass never fully breaks down? if this is the case, then why aren't most deserts just filled with lightning glass, instead of sand?	Sand is glass... Its primarily silicate. Glass never fully breaks down but it does break, and gets smoothed, and gets smaller and smaller. So deserts are filled with tiny broken pieces of lightning glass, which is sand.	[ "Glass-ceramic from the LAS-System is a mechanically strong material and can sustain repeated and quick temperature changes. However, it is not totally unbreakable. Because it is still a brittle material as glass and ceramics are, it can be broken. There have been instances where users reported damage to their cook...
Are there any plausible alternatives to the Big Bang Theory?	As I understand it, the steady-state model of the universe was largely dropped in the early 1980s. Penzias and Wilson's observation of CMB radiation put the Big Bang model in the scientific mainstream and the steady-state model ended up with too many things it couldn't explain to remain relevant. That being said, I do...	[ "One of the major successes of the Big Bang theory has been to provide a prediction that corresponds to the observations of the abundance of light elements in the universe. Along with the explanation provided for the Hubble's law and for the cosmic microwave background, this observation has proved very difficult fo...
how i can tell if someone is black simply by just hearing their voice no matter how proper they speak?	Think about it, different races look different. This goes beyond skin colour, facial features (and by extension the features of the vocal tract) are also race-influenced. One race may tend to have larger noses and nasal cavities than another, or a bigger mouth. These things affect the acoustics and articulations of a p...	[ "In addition to this he talks about the way white men talk to African Americans and how it contributes to this problem of double consciousness. He says that when a white man talks to an African American man he is changing his language to a way in which a stereotypical black man would talk, similarly to how one woul...
why do american schools favor a 9 month school system that inhibits age-appropriate sleep over a more conducive full year schedule?	The duration of the school year has no bearing on the duration of the school day and therefore no bearing on sleep. The school day is chosen based on the work day. It is structured such that parents can drop their kids off before work and then pick them up after their after school extra curricular.	[ "In 1997, University of Minnesota research compared students who started school at 7:15 am with those who started at 8:40 am. They found that students who started at 8:40 got higher grades and more sleep on weekday nights than those who started earlier. One in four U.S. high school students admits to falling asleep...
in the olden days before gyms were a thing how did people gain large amounts of muscle mass?	Ever wonder where the term "Dumbbell" comes from? People noticed that bell-ringers were pretty ripped, an unusual thing back in the day. Lots of people were strong from manual labor, but the muscles would hardly be bulging. Bell ringers though, were yoked. Someone realized that yanking on ropes connected to a few t...	[ "This period also saw the rise of anabolic steroids in bodybuilding and many other sports. In bodybuilding lore, this is partly attributed to the rise of \"mass monsters\", beginning with Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sergio Oliva, and Lou Ferrigno in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and continuing through the 1980s with L...
Humans in arctic climates (such as parts of Canada and Greenland) traditionally eat a diet consisting of almost exclusively meat. Would a person of different ancestry (aka me, a white American) be able to thrive on such a diet or are genetics a factor?	There are relatively well documented instances where groups of Europeans subsisted on an Inuit-style diet for long stretches of time. One such instance is sir Ernest Shackleton's voyage on the Endurance, which left from the island of South Georgia on December the 5^th 1914 to the Weddell Sea in Antarctica. They rapid...	[ "In the Arctic, Inuit traditionally survived on a diet consisting of land and marine mammals, fish, and foraged plant products. Meats were consumed fresh but also often prepared, cached, and allowed to ferment into \"igunaq\" or \"kiviak\". These fermented meats have the consistency and smell of certain soft aged c...
Did the bizarre practice of turning men into eunuchs (and then giving these men substantial responsibilities) emerge independently in many places, or do we have some evidence of it starting in one place and then spreading through cultural diffusion?	Sorry for the delay… I’d have gotten this last night but it appears IFTTT is down, and that’s how I get summoned to the subreddit! Well first let me spoil the ending here: we don’t know, you can definitely argue for a single-eunuch-creationism theory or a multiple-convergent-evolution theory, and historians certainly...	[ "The earliest records for intentional castration to produce eunuchs are from the Sumerian city of Lagash in the 21st century BC. Over the millennia since, they have performed a wide variety of functions in many different cultures: courtiers or equivalent domestics, treble singers, religious specialists, soldiers, r...
Was Nazism considered a form of socialism? At the time or now?	I am not looking to limit conversation here but /u/G0dwinslawyer provided an excellent answer to this previously. I would add that dictatorship isn’t a specific philosophy per se and that both Hitler and Stalin were dictators within their relative political frameworks. _URL_0_	[ "The term \"National Socialism\" arose out of attempts to create a nationalist redefinition of \"socialism\", as an alternative to both Marxist international socialism and free market capitalism. Nazism rejected the Marxist concepts of class conflict and universal equality, opposed cosmopolitan internationalism, an...
Did anyone ever figure out what caused the massive bird and fish deaths last year?	I am slightly involved with research on some of the die-offs that involve marine mammals, or UMEs as they are known in the trade. (Unusual Mortality Events) Basically there are always die-offs, every single year, in every group of animals, somewhere in the world. That list for last year doesn't actually look unusual, a...	[ "Large die offs of animals are not unusual in nature, and happen for a variety of reasons including bad weather, disease, and poisonings, with pollution and climate change adding to the stresses on wildlife. According to the USGS National Wildlife Health Center in the US over the past 10 years 175 mass deaths event...

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