question stringlengths 3 301 | answer stringlengths 9 26.1k | context list |
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When did males start growing beards and why don't great apes have them? | Orangutans have reasonably sized [beards](_URL_0_) and this one has a bit of a mustache too.
And I'm sure they aren't the only ones. | [
"In the second century AD the Emperor Hadrian, according to Dio Cassius, was the first of all the Caesars to grow a full beard; Plutarch says that he did it to hide scars on his face. This was a period in Rome of widespread imitation of Greek culture, and many other men grew beards in imitation of Hadrian and the G... |
When and where did people start using beds with legs, as opposed to some sort of mat for sleeping on the floor? | While you may get answers here, this question may be worth x-posting to our sister sub, /r/AskAnthropology | [
"The idea of adjustable beds has been around since the Roman Empire when the emperors, senators, and elite would gather for meals by laying on their sides. The structure of these beds looked like today's outdoor furniture, for example, lawn chairs. They did not have the adjustability that lawn furniture has, but th... |
Why did the dutch nationalist/fasists suport the german invasion instead of remaining loyal to the queen? | The position of the NSB (Dutch national-Socialist party) in regards to the German invasion was twofold. On one hand Anton Mussert (the leader of the NSB) welcomed the invasion, as he hoped that Hitler would install him as the leader of the Dutch territories but on the other hand he could not be seen as openly welcoming... | [
"The German population and troops generally disliked the idea of violating Dutch neutrality. German propaganda therefore justified the invasion as a reaction to a supposed Entente attempt to occupy the Low Countries, similar to the justification used by the German Empire to invade Belgium in World War I. Some Germa... |
Is there an underlying physical limitation of the bandwidth of wireless links? | There is no bandwidth limitation per se, but there is an underlying physical limitation on the amount of information that can be transmitted over a given channel (a channel being the mathematical abstraction of everything that happens to a signal in between the transmitter and receiver). In order to explain why such a ... | [
"The wireless spectrum is a limited resource and shared by all nodes in the range of its transmitters. Bandwidth allocation becomes complex with multiple participating users. Often users are not aware that advertised numbers (e.g., for IEEE 802.11 equipment or LTE networks) are not their capacity, but shared with a... |
if earth's inner layers are essentially super hot metal, and some sections are liquid, how does it keep from solidifying through loss of heat? | Heat generated by the decay of radioactive elements in the Earth's make-up helps keeps things warm but, overall, the Earth is losing the residual heat it started with, and will eventually cool off and solidify. So the end answer is "nothing" is keeping it from solidifying, the process is just a very long one that is be... | [
"Because of the temperature difference between the Earth's surface and outer core and the ability of the crystalline rocks at high pressure and temperature to undergo slow, creeping, viscous-like deformation over millions of years, there is a convective material circulation in the mantle. \n",
"Earth's internal h... |
Contemporary Bubonic Plague | There is a strong consensus that Yersinia Pestis was the pathogen responsible for the medieval Pandemic referred to as the "bubonic plague" or "Black Death." Twigg and various scholars (primarily in the 1970's) claimed that this particular pathogen was not responsible because the pandemic spread too quickly and blamed ... | [
"The best-known symptom of bubonic plague is one or more infected, enlarged, and painful lymph nodes, known as buboes. After being transmitted via the bite of an infected flea, the \"Y. pestis\" bacteria become localized in an inflamed lymph node, where they begin to colonize and reproduce. Buboes associated with t... |
Does you brain function differently when ketones are the main source of energy, than it does on glucose? | Google Scholar had a few references to ketogenic diets that predate Dr Newport's claim that extra virgin coconut oil cures Alzheimers, but the studies relate to epilepsy in children. Snopes said it was unproven.
Fast until your breath has that smell of nail polish remover and see for yourself if your brain is better.... | [
"Glucose is the preferred energy source for the brain, accounting for 25% of the body's glucose consumption, despite being only 2% of the body's total weight. Glucose, along with serotonin, have been found to have significant effects within the cingulate cortex, frontal lobe, temporal lobe, and parietal lobe region... |
Where do animals get water from in the winter in places where everything is frozen over, and there is no snow available to eat? | Funnily enough eating snow is actually very expensive in terms of metabolism. Meaning it's normally a waste of time! (Another reason to not eat the yellow snow)
Usually it varies from animal to animal. Polar bears for instance use a chemical process to help break down fat into water. That's why seals are the main cour... | [
"During the winter, onagers also eat snow as a substitute for water. When natural water sources are unavailable, the onager digs holes in dry riverbeds to access subsurface water. The water holes dug by the onagers are often subsequently visited by domestic livestock, as well as other wild animals. Water is also fo... |
different led types (led, oled, amoled, p-oled), their status (common in mobile devices, r & d only) | LED's are light emitting diodes. Diodes are a device made of semiconductors that only allows electrical current through one way. A light emitting diode is a diode that while allowing current through the one way emits light at the same time.
Organic scientifically means anything that contains the element carbon. A fe... | [
"The potential advantages of OLEDs include thin, low-cost displays with a low driving voltage, wide viewing angle, and high contrast and color gamut. Polymer LEDs have the added benefit of printable and flexible displays. OLEDs have been used to make visual displays for portable electronic devices such as cellphone... |
What actually happened to the Roman Ninth Legion that "vanished" from present day Scotland in the second century? | It's important to remeber that IX Hispana was always under strength since its near destruction during Boudicca's revolt (Annals 14.29) so that by the campaigns of Agricola, it numbered only 1000 under Lucius Roscius Aelianus (CIL 14, 3612). Because of this it almost saw destruction once again in Caledonia during 83/84A... | [
"At the time Sutcliff wrote, it was a plausible theory that the unit had been wiped out in Britain during a period of unrest early in the reign of the Emperor Hadrian (AD 117–138). Scholarly opinion now disputes this, for there are extant records that have been interpreted as indicating that detachments of the Nint... |
What is the optimal number of blades a plane's propeller could have? | It depends on the plane's function, attributes, specifications, etc. There's no one optimal size; if there was, every aircraft would use it. Generally, fewer blades are more efficient because as the blade turns, it at least partially passes through the disrupted airflow of the blade "ahead" of it. Additional blades can... | [
"For the highest possible speed the highest possible propeller efficiency is required at the high speed condition. As pitch corresponds to airspeed a coarse pitch is required. The variable pitch blades used on the Tupolev Tu-95 propel it at a speed exceeding the maximum once considered possible for a propeller-driv... |
Mansu Musa and gold in Europe | Emperor Musa went on hajj in 1324, and on his hajj he visited Cairo before continuing on to Mecca. He was not the first Malian monarch to make this hajj, nor was he the last. But, by the vagaries of fate, he is remembered for the particular wealth he brought with him on his pilgrimage.
Our earliest source describing t... | [
"Mansa Musa, a leader from West Africa, impacted the Arab world with the vast amount of gold he transported to Mecca during a religious pilgrimage. During his trip, he proved extravagant with his gold. Although he is not said to have traded his gold, Mansa Musa proved his wealth to the Meccans by handing out the go... |
why can't kim dotcom be prosecuted for his new site? | He can't be persecuted because he is operating entirely within the domain of a country in which he is breaking no laws. He was able to be persecuted for the old one (illegally) because it was a .com, which falls under jurisdiction of the USA. | [
"Kim Dotcom denied the charges filed against him and retained the services of Ira P. Rothken, an attorney who has defended several copyright infringement cases. Ira Rothken stated that there is no criminal liability for secondary copyright infringement under US law, quoting a similar case involving YouTube as an ex... |
Whole, negative, and rational exponents all have intuitive meaning. What does it mean when raising a number to an irrational or transcendental number? | Since every real is defined (or can be defined) as a limit of a sequence of rational numbers, you can use continuity to define exponentiation to an irrational power as the limit of the power of the base to successively closer rational exponents.
That's how I interpret it, anyway. | [
"The number has not been proved algebraic or transcendental. In fact, it is not even known whether is irrational. Continued fraction analysis reveals that if is rational, its denominator must be greater than 10 . The ubiquity of revealed by the large number of equations below makes the irrationality of a major open... |
Which loses its fizz faster: A soda bottle standing upright or a bottle that's lying on its side? | Assuming both bottles are completely sealed there will be no difference in the long term as the volume of the head space should be same and thus the amount of CO2 that escapes into that space will be the same. In the very short term the sideways bottle will lose (a small amount of) carbonation faster as the gas-liquid... | [
"Prior to the invention of the crown cork bottle stopper, soda bottles had ordinary cork bottle stoppers and often had rounded bottoms so they could not be stored standing upright. The reason for this is corks have a tendency to dry out and shrink, which allows the gas pressure in the bottle to cause the cork to \"... |
could a hacker theoretically breach a bank and erase all the debt the banks have on file? | Technically, yes, but realistically, no.
Most companies have back up centers located in different physical locations.
They also have back up tapes (think VHS tapes, but the size of N64 cartridges) for storing computer data. These are take out of the backup machine and stored, so they cant be accessed virtually. | [
"Between October 2005 and November 2006, an experienced hacker broke into a university database containing approximately 800,000 files of personal information. Names, Social Security Numbers, and basic contact information was contained in these files, but banking numbers were not. On November 21, 2006, the system a... |
What Made the Nazi Military So Powerful? | The simple fact of the matter is that Germany was never in as bad a position after WWI as is commonly believed.
The Hyperinflation, which stemmed partially from wartime financial decisions of the German government and partly from deliberate attempts to sabotage reparations, was largely under control by 1924. Thanks to... | [
"The Nazis came to power in 1933 and began remilitarisation. Heavy military spending quickly restored the depression-ravaged economy, making Adolf Hitler popular with the people and the military. German armed forces were named the Wehrmacht from 1935 to 1945. The Army (Heer) was encouraged to experiment with tanks ... |
why can you still have gps and wifi on when you're on a plane but not standard cellular network connection | Well, GPS is a receive-only technology. A constant signal is broadcast from all of the GPS satellites. The signal contains a timestamp, all of the satellites have their times precisely synchronized, and the location of the satellites are known. So based on the delay between signals from multiple satellites, your GPS... | [
"For devices without GPS capability, and for computers unable to connect to GPS (either because they do not have a GPS receiver or because they are located indoors and, as such, beyond the reach of GPS satellite systems), if the device has a Wi-Fi interface, the device scans for Wi-Fi hotspots (it does not need to ... |
Why has the US seemingly always supported right-wing dictatorships in opposition to communist ones? | The wars and military operations to which you are referring were, for the most part, secondary to the larger 'conflict' which framed much of the later 20th Century known as **The Cold War**. (I'm sure you know this, just so we are on the same page). A significant European contingent of states were likewise party to mil... | [
"Accordingly, the Communist Party holds that right-wing policymakers such as the neoconservatives, steering the state away from working-class interests on behalf of a disproportionately powerful capitalist class, have \"demonized foreign opponents of the U.S., covertly funded the right-wing-initiated civil war in N... |
why do you hear yourself breath louder when you have headphones in with no music playing? | You are blocking your ears from hearing things outside your body, so your ears are hearing the sounds resonating within your body easier. That's why you hear your heart beat and stomach rumble easier with your ears covered. | [
"The World Health Organization warns that increasing use of headphones and earphones puts 1.1 billion teenagers and young adults at risk of hearing loss due to unsafe use of personal audio devices. Many smartphones and personal media players are sold with earphones that do a poor job of blocking ambient noise, lead... |
Anyone know any books about the Filipino-Spanish Society during the Spanish Colonization of the Philippines? | What aspects are you interested in? What do you mean by “Filipino-Spanish society”? Do you mean Filipino people under colonialism or do you mean the very small Spanish population running the colony? | [
"Ironically, the greatest portion of Spanish literature by native Filipinos was written during the American commonwealth period, because the Spanish language was still predominant among the Filipino intellectuals. One of the country's major writers, Claro Mayo Recto, continued writing in Spanish until 1960. Other w... |
what are the technological/physical limitations regarding smartphone camera advancements? will we ever see them match traditional ones? | Small lens size limits light entry, so no, will probably never match the quality of a traditional SLR | [
"The camera phone, like many complex systems, is the result of converging and enabling technologies. There are dozens of relevant patents dating back as far as 1956. Compared to digital cameras, a consumer-viable camera in a mobile phone would require far less power and a higher level of camera electronics integrat... |
How did the laws of war come to be? How did certain ways of killing others in war come to be seen as so inhumane it can't be allowed even in a war? | This is actually a somewhat broad question and you could get many possible answers. I'll only discuss one thing and allow others to pipe in.
In 1863, Abraham Lincoln signed a set of rules on wartime conduct that his troops were going to follow. This was called informally the Lieber Code.
It was named after a German-A... | [
"It has often been commented that creating laws for something as inherently lawless as war seems like a lesson in absurdity. But based on the adherence to what amounted to customary international law by warring parties through the ages, it was felt that codifying laws of war would be beneficial.\n",
"BULLET::::- ... |
What evolutionary pressure is there for people with good looking faces? | One theory is that more symmetric (but not perfectly symmetric) faces are seen as more attractive because asymmetric faces may indicate some prior injury or disease. For example, [Moller (1992)](_URL_4_) ( < - pdf!) suggests that parasitic infection leads to increased asymmetry. Body and facial symmetry may therefore a... | [
"Additionally current studies indicate that face preferences in adults can be predicted by the number of infections in childhood. People who had more infections as children prefer more sex-typical and symmetric faces because those faces indicate being healthy. Especially recent infections trigger this preference.\n... |
why the saudi government would have backed an attack on the us? | In a word, Wahabbism. That's the ultra-conservative sect of Sunni Islam that preaches seriously strict interpretations of the Quran, and intolerance for anybody or anything that isn't them. It has been the religion of the top members of the Saudi royal family for some time now, and since the 1960s or so, it's been spre... | [
"Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud said the U.S. military could not use Saudi Arabia's soil in any way to attack Iraq. After ten years of U.S. presence in Saudi Arabia, cited among reasons by Saudi-born Osama bin Laden for his al-Qaeda attacks on America on September 11, 2001, most of U.S. forces were withdrawn i... |
why do some blood tests need to be done from a specific arm, when blood in the body circulates so quickly? | They don't need to be done from a specific arm. The arm is usually just the easiest and most convenient way to draw blood with a minimal amount of fuss. | [
"Because this testing can take time, doctors will sometimes order a unit of blood transfused before it can be completed if the recipient is in critical condition. Typically two to four units of O negative blood are used in these situations, since they are unlikely to cause a reaction. A potentially fatal reaction i... |
Does a lightning bolt or strike have a thickness? Or is it one electron thick? | It has a thickness.
The lightning bolt is a channel of hot ionized gas created through an electrical discharge. Depending on the discharge this channel can be tiny (e.g. piezo sparks) and typcial thickness in real lightnings is 1-4 cm
_URL_0_ | [
"When the local electric field exceeds the dielectric strength of damp air (about 3 million volts per meter), electrical discharge results in a \"strike\", often followed by commensurate discharges branching from the same path. (See image, right.) Mechanisms that cause the charges to build up to lightning are still... |
clean energy and electric cars are great and all, but crude is refined into many many other things. how are those other industries preparing for the day that there isn't enough oil in the world to meet demand? | There will always be enough oil to meet demand, thats the fun part about supply and demand.
As we deplete the easy oil reserves the price of oil will increase and we'll tap into the more expensive to drill reserves. As those run low, we'll tap into even more expensive reserves increasing the price more, and the cycle... | [
"Cleaner production is a preventive, company-specific environmental protection initiative. It is intended to minimize waste and emissions and maximize product output. By analysing the flow of materials and energy in a company, one tries to identify options to minimize waste and emissions out of industrial processes... |
did cocaine for the first time a couple of days ago. i was wondering how does cocaine get into your brain and how is it that it takes so little time. | Cocaine is water soluble meaning that it can be absorbed very easily into your body. It is also extremely easy to develop a dependency on it to the point where trying it once could get you hooked. Be wary. | [
"\"Cocaine in My Brain\" (stylized as \"Cokane In My Brain\") is a song written and performed by the Jamaican musician Dillinger. It was released as a single from his second studio album \"CB 200\" in 1976 by Island Records. The song was produced by Joseph \"Jo Jo\" Hoo Kim, who used samples of People's Choice's \"... |
what's the point of a gated community if they just open the gates at night? | I don't think they *normally* open the gates at night. I have a friend who lives in one of these and in his gated community they have on site security who patrol around, and the front gates are opened by a wireless key every resident has.
For things like Pizza there is a special code or something.
Interestingly I bel... | [
"Gate-towns are settlements which are built around a permanent portal to a certain Outer Plane on the Great Wheel. Gate-towns are important strategically because they provide a (relatively) stable way to enter a desired Outer Plane. The gate-towns reflect the plane that they lead to, for example, Xaos (or aXos, soa... |
how do satellites communicate with thousands of individual devices at once? | Satellites are just big radio stations in the sky, its a one-way communication just like when you listen to the radio in your car, and everyone else on the radio does too. Your GPS is just a listening device, pretty much everything any consumer would ever use regarding satellites is just a listening device, you don't ... | [
"The satellites can communicate with each other using a 916.5 MHz, 16kbit/s radio link. Communication with the control station (a laptop computer) is done using an 868.35 MHz, 16kbit/s radio link. SPHERES satellites are able to connect to the International Space Station's on-board Wi-Fi network for tasks that requi... |
Why did medieval european chroniclers and clerks write in intricate and flourished calligraphy? | > I can not discern any of the words from the calligraphy. Was this intentional? Is this just my modern ignorance? Or did the literate person of the day simply learn throughout their whole life that that was how letters were written.
I had to do paleography during my PhD, and this kind of text *is* readable, it just ... | [
"Monasteries carried on the Latin writing tradition in the Western Roman Empire. Cassiodorus, in the monastery of Vivarium (established around 540), stressed the importance of copying texts. St. Benedict of Nursia, in his \"Rule of Saint Benedict\" (completed around the middle of the 6th century) later also promote... |
Are there any uncommon forms of bacteria or an organism that once enters your body, increases physiologically functioning rather than cause disease? | I cant find the link. But there are indeed bacteria that help in increasing metabolic functions there are studies that even show that there is a correlation between amount of a specific bacteria and Kwarishokers or Krohns disease but trick is finding which caused which. Some bacteria help prevent harmful bacteria to be... | [
"Only a minority of bacteria species cause disease in humans; and many species colonize in the human body to create an ecosystem known as bacterial flora. Bacterial flora is endogenous bacteria, which is defined as bacteria that naturally reside in a closed system. Disease can occur when microbes included in normal... |
Relative (adjusted) cost of paper in 17th century England? | In the incunable age, i.e. from the inventing of the printing press to ca. 1500, a book printed on paper without a binding sold (in Venice) for a price approximately equivalent to the daily salary of a skilled laborer, so say $100-200 modern dollars. Napkin math: 300 page text gives us somewhere between 20 to 75 sheets... | [
"Initially the paper cost 3\"d\", but a change in the newspaper tax in 1797 brought the price up to 6\"d\".; and the circulation dropped, on the paper's own figures, from about 2,700 to the region of 1,800. In 1798 the paper still claimed it could be bought in 45 market towns. There was a significant market in Scot... |
why can large files like video games be stored and used on a single disc while presumably much smaller things like seasons of shows take multiple discs | You could actually fit more than 3 episodes of Seinfeld on a DVD if you wanted - they can easily take a full 4 hours of video.
It's just that the companies selling the DVDs would rather place them on more discs so that customers don't feel like they're getting ripped off spending $60 on content that had already aired ... | [
"Home console video games come packaged inside of a DVD-style case. Portables use a smaller format, but both are usually larger than the actual game media. Therefore, one may find cases made to hold only the game media, thus saving space and protecting the disks or cartridges from the open environment or improper s... |
how does akinator and other genie games really operate? i get it's based on narrowing it down but it has guessed obscure characters in less than ten questions. | It has a large database of characters and answers that are true for them (contributed by users of the website) and by asking questions that roughly split the possible characters into equal groups (50/50 split), means that it only takes ten questions to narrow down 1024 into one character and twenty questions to narrow ... | [
". Anarky is not actually a part of the main story of the game, but is rather featured in several other respects. As part of the \"Most Wanted\" game feature, which encourages the player to track down side missions at their leisure, apprehending Anarky unlocks the \"Anarky\" character trophy. An \"Anarky tag\" coll... |
How progressive and democratic were pirates, really? | This is a huge question and the answer to it formed a large part of my [doctoral thesis](_URL_0_), particularly chapter 2.
In legitimate early-modern seafaring there existed two distinct chains of command: within the ship (the *internal* chain) the captain held sway, with command passing down through the ship's office... | [
"Another appeal of piracy came in the limiting of the captain’s power over the crew. Pirate Francis Kennedy puts it succinctly: “most pirates, ‘having suffered formerly from the ill-treatment of their officers, provided carefully against such evil’ once they arranged their own command.” Thus, pirate democracy came ... |
iambic pentameter | When we speak, there's usually a natural rhythm to how we say the words. Some syllables get more emphasis and some get less.
An *iamb* is just a non-emphasized syllable followed by an emphasized syllable.
For example, say the sentence "I ate the food" out loud. If you speak like most English speakers, you put the emp... | [
"Pentamorphone (14β-pentylaminomorphinone, RX-77989) is a semi-synthetic opiate derivative related to compounds such as morphine, hydromorphone and oxymorphone. Developed in 1984, it is a potent opioid analgesic several times stronger than fentanyl, and with a similarly fast onset of effects and short duration of a... |
Has a presidential candidate ever selected a Vice President from a different party? | The only one I can recall off the top of my head is when Lincoln (Republican) chose Andrew Johnson (Democrat). Johnson was a Democrat who supported the war effort. Other folks will likely give more detailed responses, and other possible cross-party tickets. | [
"The first presidential candidate to choose his vice presidential candidate was Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1940. The last not to name a vice presidential choice, leaving the matter up to the convention, was Democrat Adlai Stevenson in 1956. The convention chose Tennessee Senator Estes Kefauver over Massachusetts Sena... |
If a hotter object has higher average energy and emit more light, where do LEDs, for instance, fit in? | Black body is a continuous emission of energy based on heat. But things like LEDs are materials that allow for specific transitions between energy levels for electrons. And as the electrons drop between those levels they emit specific (or at least a fairly small band around a specific) frequency of light.
Different me... | [
"Sources that depend on thermal emission from a solid filament, such as incandescent light bulbs, tend to have low overall efficacy because, as explained by Donald L. Klipstein, \"An ideal thermal radiator produces visible light most efficiently at temperatures around 6300 °C (6600 K or 11,500 °F). Even at this hig... |
why does everyone here hate emojis so much, when they seem to be proliferating on all other platforms? | Reddit has an entirely unique culture compared to most other popular platforms, which gains it popularity with some and hatred with others, the ELI5 answer is that emojis are seen as a lesser form of meme on reddit.
Reddit culture is fairly conservative with memes, preferring lennys and simple ":)" to emojis. | [
"However, others have said that the use of emojis in digital conversation has helped to give more clarity to a conversation. Since the ability to read another person's facial expressions, nonverbal cues or tone of voice isn’t possible in a typed message, emojis allow a communicator to convey attitudes and emotions ... |
Why did Dutch become a separate language but Swiss German didn't? | I am afraid the reason is linguistic. According to [Pijnenburg](_URL_0_) (pdf in dutch, the second chapter) the reason why Dutch diverted from German is twofold, the [high German consonant shift](_URL_1_) didn't happen in dutch and the dutch dialectcontinuum was influenced by oldfrankish. High german did follow the con... | [
"During World War II, both Belgium and the Netherlands were occupied by Nazi Germany. It was believed in nationalist circles that a Greater Dutch state could be created through collaboration with the German occupiers. The Nazis however did not value this idea, and desired either a Pan-Germanist fusion of the racial... |
What are your opinions on Hagarism and Patricia Crone's work? | Crone wrote Hagarism when she was a grad student, which was extremely gutsy since the book essentially refuted the whole of Islamic studies at that period. Crone herself has repudiated the book's central premise but it is still very important and useful. Crone advocated that we should not trust Islamic sources from the... | [
"Despite the popularity of Hofstede's model, some critics have argued that his conceptualization of culture and its impact on people's behavior might be incorrect. The most cited criticism of his work is by Professor Brendan McSweeney (Royal Holloway, University of London and Stockholm University), who argues that ... |
Did the stranglehold the Soviet Union had on Eastern Europe hinder its ability to compete economically with the Western nations today, or are their economic shortcomings merely a result of a historically unstable region? (X-post, was told to post here) | First, Eastern Europe is huge. Although there's no consistent definition, it's quite a bit larger than Western Europe. So when you refer to it as a "historically unstable region," it's not clear which part you mean. It's not at all clear to me that Eastern Europe is any more historically unstable than Western Europe.
... | [
"The Soviet Union remains a comprehensive example of an aggressive nation which expanded its empire through covert infiltration and direct military involvement. Following World War II, the Soviet Union believed European economies would disintegrate, leaving social and economic chaos and allowing for Soviet expansio... |
what is the precise biological mechanism that leads to teething | Evolution. The human jaw used to be more than large enough to hold all those teeth, but as our jaw size shrank, things got crowded. I've had all four of my wisdom teeth pulled, as well as four other molars and four bicuspids. Only 20 teeth in my mouth, but they fill all of the available space. | [
"The muscle fibers in the jaw are responsible for opening and closing of the mouth. They initially allow the organism to open the jaw, then contract to bring the teeth together, resulting in a bite. This behavior has many implications and is exhibited by many different types of organisms, typically dangerous specie... |
Are we "smarter" than our ancestors or is this an artefact of bias towards the current zeitgiest? | You partly touched on your answer - its not that were smarter, and in any case its notoriously hard to define 'smartness' or 'intelligence'. Its that we are the result of an accumulation of knowledge. The general consensus is that while other animals have culture (learning, customs, traditions etc.) that are past down ... | [
"BULLET::::2. the intelligence paradox - the Flynn effect shows significant improvements in IQ over a short time scale, yet we do not notice in everyday life that young people are significantly smarter than their parents or grandparents.\n",
"We Are Smarter Than Me is a collaborative-writing project using wiki so... |
How effective would strapping dry ice to a fan be at cooling down an area? | Air conditioners work so well because they take all of the heat from the air and put it outside. You need to put a lot of work into the system(the room you're in) in order to remove all the energy that is in the room with you(the hot air). Dry ice strapped to a fan would give you a nice cool breeze if you were standi... | [
"A difficulty with forced air fan cooling in rack equipment is that fans can fail due to age or dust. The fans themselves can be difficult to replace. In the case of network equipment, it may be necessary to unplug 50 or more cables from the device, remove the device from the rack, and then disassemble the device c... |
What was life really like in Japanese-occupied Taiwan and Korea? How did they differ? | Hello! Taiwanese person here. While I'm not a true historian, I've been recently getting into my country's history during the occupation. Certainly, I can say that many Taiwanese will regard Japan's rule in a much higher regard than the Chinese's after the Kuomintang fled to Taiwan in 1949.
As for life during the occ... | [
"In the immediate aftermath of the war, the legal status of Koreans and Taiwanese was not clear. The occupying American force enjoyed an immunity from the Japanese legal system. Some Koreans and Taiwanese came to insist that, since they were from a liberated country, they were no longer under the jurisdiction of th... |
I just read that Homo erectus used and controlled fire. How do we know that? | The most commonly used evidence of fire is remnants of charcoal, burned earth, or burned bone, that can either be dated directly, or dated in relation to objects of known age nearby. The chief issue with the extremely early dates for fire use ( > 600,000 years ago) often associated the *H. erectus* is that the evidence... | [
"The control of fire by \"Homo erectus\" is generally accepted by archaeologists to have begun some 400,000 years ago, with claims regarding earlier evidence finding increasing scientific support. Burned wood has been found in layers that carried the Java Man fossils in Trinil, dating to around from 500,000 to 830,... |
what is the difference between a "culture" and a "subculture" | A subculture resides within a dominant culture.
The simplest example is probably the African-American subculture existing within the larger North American culture.
So you can see both are characterized by larger patterns: both eat at McDonald's, shop at Walmart, and watch the NFL on Sundays.
But then there are thi... | [
"A subculture is a group of people within a culture that differentiates itself from the parent culture to which it belongs, often maintaining some of its founding principles. Subcultures develop their own norms and values regarding cultural, political and sexual matters. Subcultures are part of society while keepin... |
why big banks are considered evil. | Imagine your parents are saving up money to buy a house. The house is very expensive and your parents don't have all the money that is needed at the moment to pay for the house. The bank says, oh thats ok, you just pay us a little bit every month until you make the full payment and you can move in right now. You don... | [
"A bad bank is a corporate structure which isolates illiquid and high risk assets held by a bank or a financial organisation, or perhaps a group of banks or financial organisations. A bank may accumulate a large portfolio of debts or other financial instruments which unexpectedly increase in risk, making it difficu... |
Japan usually had an isolationist policy towards foreigners, but what did they think of Europeans when they first made contact, and how has that viewpoint evolved since then? | Here is the earliest known Japanese account of the Portuguese:
"They eat with their fingers instead of with the chopsticks such as we use. They show their feelings without any self control. They cannot understand the meaning of written characters... They have no fixed abode, and barter things which they have for those... | [
"(Note: In 1639, the Japanese government promulgated the Sakoku policy, which prohibited foreigners from entering Japanese territory. The only exceptions were Dutch traders and associated workers permitted to live on Dejima Island. This policy lasted until 1854.)\n",
"From 1641 to 1853, the Tokugawa shogunate of ... |
tort reform | "Tort" is when a person who has a responsibility to you screws it up really badly. For example, let's say your doctor accidentally cuts off your leg. That's a tort.
Now, when there's a tort, you compute "actual damages." For example, let's say that after he cuts off your leg, another doctor shoves him aside and sew... | [
"Critics of tort reform also contend that the real purpose of the proposed changes is to shield businesses, especially large corporations, from having to pay just compensation to consumers, patients and clients for the harm incurred from fraud, negligence, medical malpractice, product liability or other legitimate ... |
What kind of dances did Romans have? Were there dances that the higher classes were expected to know like ballroom dancing in the 18th and 19th centuries? | Upper-class Romans were typically spectators, not performers, of dance.
At least some elite Romans, in fact, considered participating in a dance nothing less than shameful. Cicero, for example, is at pains to explain why one of his clients - accused of being a dancer - would never stoop or shimmy so low:
"Cato calls ... | [
"Ancient Greek dance in classical antiquity was originally held to have educational value, as Plato's dialogues on this point evidence in the \"Laws\". However, as Greek culture gradually conquered Rome, dancing had less educational value and was more for entertainment purposes. At this time dancers were given a lo... |
What group of people determined the constellations we use today, were there different constellations for different groups of people? | > What group of people determined the constellations we use today
Assuming you mean the constellations used by the scientific community, I'll let someone else handle the development of the International Astronomical Union's official constellations, and their largely Mediterranean and Middle Eastern origins. Those ar... | [
"In many early civilizations, it was already common to associate groups of stars in connect-the-dots stick-figure patterns; some of the earliest records are those of the Babylonians. This process was essentially arbitrary, and different cultures have identified different constellations, although a few of the more o... |
when disconnecting a circuit (i.e. a car battery), why is it better to pull the negative side before the positive? | Basically, if you take power off first and it touches any part of the engine / body it will complete the circuit (all parts are earthed) and it’ll spark like a mo’fucker. Take the earth off first and you remove that problem. | [
"When a semiconductor device is reverse biased it should not conduct any current, however, due to an increased barrier potential, the free electrons on the p side are dragged to the battery's positive terminal, while holes on the n side are dragged to the battery's negative terminal.\n",
"Where devices are vulner... |
in space, it always seems that we are shown traveling on a 2d plane. what happens if you leave earth and go straight "up" or "down"? | Our planets are all mostly on the same plane, which is nicely convenient for illustration purposes. If you go any other direction, it's pretty darn empty. And it will take a while to run into the [Oort cloud](_URL_0_). Beyond that is way more empty before another solar system. | [
"When viewed from a stationary point in space directly above the north pole, any land feature in the Northern Hemisphere turns anticlockwise—and, fixing our gaze on that location, any other location in that hemisphere rotates around it the same way. The traced ground path of a freely moving body in ballistic flight... |
How can sexual selection work at species which have a 50:50 ratio of genders? | Lets look at more obvious cases before humans.
Take [Cock-of-the-rocks](_URL_0_), for instance. These are highly dimorphic birds with elaborate courtship rituals in S American rainforests. In their specific case, males endlessly parade and court females in leks. Despite this enormous investment in time and resources, ... | [
"Sexual selection is a mode of natural selection in which members of one biological sex choose mates of the other sex to mate with (intersexual selection), and compete with members of the same sex for access to members of the opposite sex (intrasexual selection). These two forms of selection mean that some individu... |
what did locke mean by 'property' in life, liberty, property? | Locke had this idea that you own your property by creating it. There are resources in the commons, like flowers in the meadow, trees in the forest, water in the rivers. And you can appropriate things from the commons by mixing your labor with them. So no one owns the water in the river. But if you go and fetch a bucket... | [
"Locke uses the word \"property\" in both broad and narrow senses. In a broad sense, it covers a wide range of human interests and aspirations; more narrowly, it refers to material goods. He argues that property is a natural right and it is derived from labour. In Chapter V of his \"Second Treatise\", Locke argues ... |
The collapse of the Western Roman Empire is perieved as the end of an era and the beginning of another, but how did life for the average European farmer change after the fall of the Roman Empire? | Although there's certainly more to say, especially with regards to agricultural productivity in late antiquity and the fall of the Empire's impact on the mediterranean "common market" for agricultural goods, we've actually gotten a number of questions about the end of Rome recently that might give you a cleared idea ab... | [
"The popular view is that the fall of the Western Roman Empire caused a \"dark age\" in western Europe in which \"knowledge and civility\", the \"arts of elegance,\" and \"many of the useful arts\" were neglected or lost. Conversely, however, the lot of the farmers who made up 80 percent or more of the total popula... |
Why do Chinese cash coins have square holes? | So the best answer i could find on the webs states that the real reason was likely practical: Ancient Chinese coins were cast/poured into moulds, not stamped or milled. If you've ever casted, you know that you get flash, which is material that overflows through the casting molds' joining space. In order to make a unif... | [
"Although Chinese cash coins kept their round shape with a square hole from the Warring States period until the early years of the Republic of China, under the various regimes that ruled during the long history of China the square hole in the middle experienced only minor modifications such as being slightly bigger... |
How enthusiastically did “ordinary” Germans join Nazis in antisemitic discrimination and violence before 1939? | While I can't exactly answer how enthusiastic they were about it but I can write something about ordinary Germans joining in active measures of discrimination and violence before 1939.
Generally, people higher up in the Nazi party were not fond of spontaneous pogroms. People like Hitler, Himmler, and Werner Best saw t... | [
"Racism and antisemitism were basic tenets of the Nazi Party and the Nazi government. Discrimination and violent attacks against Jews began immediately after the seizure of power in 1933. Violence and economic pressure were used by the Nazis to encourage Jews to voluntarily leave the country. By 1939, around 250,00... |
what are the differences between regionalized, decentralized, and centralized states? | Centralised vs decentralised (I'm using British spelling) is about how much power the central government is vs how much power the parts of the country have.
In a highly centralised country, there is one government for the whole country that makes nearly all the decisions. In a decentralised country, the different part... | [
"North-western and south-eastern states are divided into small numbers of large municipalities (e.g. Baja California is divided into only five municipalities), and therefore they cover large areas incorporating several separated cities or towns that do not necessarily conform to one single conurbation. Central and ... |
The extent of the Jewish involvement in the October Bolshevik Revolution, and in Government in the period immediately following it. | I've attempted to answer here:
_URL_2_
/what_was_the_role_of_the_jews_in_the_bolshevik/
I would add that many jews, holding top-level offices in Soviet government have tended to de-emphasize their nationality, as per Marxism and Bolshevism class is much more important than nationality.
To the point that [Lazar' Kaga... | [
"The 1917 Bolshevik Revolution ended official discrimination against the Jews but was followed, however, by massive anti-Jewish violence by the anti-Bolshevik White Army and the forces of the Ukrainian People's Republic in the Russian Civil War. From 1918–21, between 100,000 and 150,000 Jews were slaughtered during... |
Why isn't the Ummayad Caliphate talked about like the Roman and Persian Empires? | If you mean the Umayyad period specifically (661–750 CE), keep in mind that it was relatively short-lived. And it can be overshadowed by what came before it (the initial rise of Islam) and what followed (the ‘Abbasid “golden age”). | [
"After the Umayyad campaigns in India and the conquest on small territories of the western part of the Indian peninsula, early Indian Muslim dynasties founded by the Ghurid dynasty Ghaznavids did not extensively strive for a caliphate since the Ottoman Empire was already observing the caliphate. Although the Mughal... |
Any counter arguments to the "evolution doesn't make sense mathematically" argument? | I think that I know what you are talking about. People make arguments that the chances of randomly getting the right DNA sequence to make a viable cell are so astronomically small that evolution would take trillions of years or more.
The essential problem with this argument is that evolution is driven by natural selec... | [
"Arguments against evolution's reliability are thus often based on analyzing the history of evolutionary thought or the history of science in general. Creationists point out that in the past, major scientific revolutions have overturned theories that were at the time considered near-certain. They thus claim that cu... |
why do smart people "look smart"? | The eyes that follow a person's movements and respond to speech and show engagement are my first clue. I once knew a lady and didn't like her very much, but the first thing I noticed about her was her intelligent eyes. From that point on, I regarded her with caution and tried to consider what she was trying to achi... | [
"Smartest Guy In The Room is an entertainment documentary series that tests the problem solving capabilities of three individuals: Guy Messenger, Randy Rice and Terry Myers. These people are termed as having blue collar jobs but being geniuses with an IQ higher than 140. The tasks presented in the program tests the... |
What are some small events in the American Revolution that Historians still disagree on? | Perhaps the most interesting is the mysterious death of Jane McCrea. Jane was the daughter of a Presbyterian minister from New Jersey, and in July 1777 was living with her older brother outside Saratoga, New York.
Her brother was called up by the local militia, and her fiance was a loyalist posted at the recently re-... | [
"Timeline of the American Revolution — timeline of the political upheaval culminating in the 18th century in which Thirteen Colonies in North America joined together for independence from the British Empire, and after victory in the Revolutionary War combined to form the United States of America. The American Revol... |
Are there animals that nurse or feed each others young? | Plenty of examples in domestic animals like dogs and also some found in wild animals too. Some examples:
_URL_1_
_URL_0_ | [
"Some fish species use internal fertilization and then disperse the developing eggs or give birth to live offspring. Fish that have live-bearing offspring include the guppy and mollies or \"Poecilia\". Fishes that give birth to live young can be ovoviviparous, where the eggs are fertilized within the female and the... |
monsanto's patent on broccoli | They patented a specific strain of broccoli. It doesn't mean anything to us or to farmers, since it's just that strain; the broccoli you buy at the grocery store isn't affected.
Some people thought that they patented *all* kinds of broccoli, but this isn't the case. | [
"The application that resulted in the '280 patent was the third of three successive applications, the first two of which were unsuccessful. In the first application, filed in 1957, Monsanto sought a patent on some 100 \"compounds, including 3,4-DCPA and 3,4-DCAA (3,4-dichloroacetanilide), a chemical with some simil... |
why does plaque feel fuzzy on my tongue? | Do you mean bacteria on teeth plaque or trophy and medal plaques? | [
"Plaque accumulation causes the gingiva to become irritated and inflamed, and this is referred to as gingivitis. When the gingiva become so irritated that there is a loss of the connective tissue fibers that attach the gums to the teeth and bone that surrounds the tooth, this is known as periodontitis. Dental plaqu... |
Why is there no Asian Sahara? | Air and ocean currents in the Indian Ocean supply South Asia with vast amounts of rainfall. There is a desert to the Northeast of the Himalayas when those clouds run into the mountains and dump their moisture on the Southern and Western slopes. | [
"Only the Sahara Desert in Africa has a higher rate of desertification than that of Central Asian deserts. Of these, the Karakum Desert and Kyzyl Kum Desert in Turkmenistan grow by hundreds of thousands of acres annually. These conditions persist due to inefficient agricultural irrigation and cattle grazing practic... |
How did Europe go from slavery to serfdom in Late Antiquity / Early Middle Ages? | It's been about a year since I did anything on this topic so forgive me for any mistakes I make in terms of the Historiography or nuances on the topic. The shift away from systems of slavery occurs far later than one might expect, it is around the year 1000 Pierre Bonnaisse (**1**) identities slavery as having ended in... | [
"By the end of the Medieval period, enslavement of Christians had been largely abolished throughout Europe although enslavement of non-Christians remained permissible. Serfdom had almost entirely replaced agricultural slavery, and by then was itself largely dying out in Western Europe. Labour shortages after the mi... |
why do many people get easily spooked by small animals that don't actually pose a thread? | a)They are not life threatening but they can still hurt you. And no one wants to get hurt.
b)People get startled because they're not expecting. Jump scare doesn't need a scary object. A gust of wind blowing a door shut can still startle you when you're not expecting. And animals aren't predictable when you're not fami... | [
"Mimicry and camouflage enable animals to appear to be other than they are. Prey animals may appear as predators, or \"vice versa\"; both predators and prey may be hard to see (crypsis), or may be mistaken for other objects (mimesis). In Batesian mimicry, harmless animals may appear to be distasteful or poisonous. ... |
Today is the 80th anniversary of the introduction of tighty-whities. What were mens undergarments like before 1935? | I did a quick run-down of the [history of men's and women's underwear](_URL_0_) in a previous post, but there's definitely room for someone more versed in 19th century fashion to expand! | [
"Another common undergarment of the late 19th century for men, women, and children was the union suit. Invented in Utica, New York and patented in 1868, this was a one-piece front-buttoning garment usually made of knitted material with sleeves extending to the wrists and legs down to the ankles. It had a buttoned f... |
Why does our Sun have so many planets compared to other stars/solar systems? | It's mostly B. With our techniques we can mostly detect planets that are massive enough to make their stars wobble, or big enough to make a dent in their brightness AND do so fast enough for us to detect the pattern. This is why most exosystems found so far are so similar, yet so different to ours. Detecting planets li... | [
"Observations of exo-planets have shown that arrangements of planets similar to our Solar System are rare. Most planetary systems have super Earths, several times larger than Earth, close to their star, whereas our Solar System's inner region has only a few small rocky planets and none inside Mercury's orbit. Only ... |
How is my daily life affected by quantum mechanics? Is it? | Computers, microchips, transistors, lasers, Solid-State harddrives, flash memory, DVD/CD/Blu-ray players, LED lights, LED monitors, modern chemistry, nuclear power (and weapons), cancer radiation therapy, X-rays, MRIs, PET scans, etc. (and this is a real etc, I could keep listing all day) are quantum technologies. The... | [
"The idea that quantum physics might play an important role in living systems has long been considered by physicists. Niels Bohr for example believed that his principle of complementarity extended into both biology and psychology, while Erwin Schrödinger wrote in his 1944 book What is Life? of a “quantum theory of ... |
How often did lower nobles within the same kingdom wage war against each other? | Follow up: Did the structure of the Holy Roman Empire help or hinder member states going to war with other members? | [
"Many of the most powerful nobles began to make their own truces and disarmament agreements, signing treaties between one another that typically promised an end to bilateral hostilities, limited the building of new castles, or agreed limits to the size of armies sent against one another. Typically these treaties in... |
What happened to dukes, counts and barons in England? Do they still own vast tracts of land? | While precise estimates are hard to come by- the simple answer to your question is yes.
The primary reason we do not know for sure is the UK Land Registry (wherein land owners are named) does not cover the whole of Britain. Ownership of land only needs be declared if the land is sold and a new buyer takes it, so land... | [
"The history of the Crown lands in England and Wales begins with the Norman conquest. When William I died, the land he had acquired by right of conquest was still largely intact. His successors, however, granted large estates to the nobles and barons who supplied them with men and arms. The monarch's remaining land... |
If all the clouds across the globe condensed into the ocean, how much liquid water would be produced? | According to [this website](_URL_0_):
"One estimate of the volume of water in the atmosphere at any one time is about 3,100 cubic miles (mi^3 ) or 12,900 cubic kilometers (km^3 ). That may sound like a lot, but it is only about 0.001 percent of the total Earth's water volume of about 332,500,000 mi^3 (1,385,000,000 km... | [
"The total mass of the Earth's hydrosphere is about 1.4 × 10 tonnes, which is about 0.023% of Earth's total mass. At any given time, about 20 × 10 tonnes of this is in the form of water vapor in the Earth's atmosphere (for practical purposes, 1 cubic meter of water weighs one tonne). Approximately 71% of Earth's su... |
Is there a particular reason why the America’s were so much less developed compared to Europe & Asia? What caused Europe to develop empires, explore, advance technology, and all those things, whereas those in America were distinctly tribal and not up to par with their European counterparts? | Hi! While more can always be said on the subject, you should check out the ["Technology and Civilization in the Americas"](_URL_0_) section of the FAQ, where your specific question has previously been discussed. | [
"The early relationship between Europe and America was based on colonialism and merchantilism. The majority of modern states in the Americas can be traced back to colonial states that were founded by European nations, states that were very different from the pre-Columbian civilizations and cultures that had existed... |
i watched a video about a girl who survives being hit by a car because she can't feel pain, therefore, not bracing for impact. if it's more ideal to relax, why do humans automatically tense up/brace for impact? what is the most optimal way to survive a crash? | I was hit from the side by a van that ran through a red light, thank god i didnt see it coming and brace. Bracing readies your muscles for either fight or flight, which is useful for if there is a threat. However tense muscles are obviously less flexible and therefore are injured far easier | [
"Following collisions, long-lasting psychological trauma may occur. These issues may make those who have been in a crash afraid to drive again. In some cases, the psychological trauma may affect individuals' life can cause difficulty to go to work, attend school, or perform family responsibilities.\n",
"Sometimes... |
Energy can be converted into matter and vice-versa. Can energy be converted into antimatter? | The terms "matter" and "antimatter" here are a bit misleading, because what we call "matter" in this context is just *ordinary* matter. Antimatter comprises the complementary antiparticles of ordinary matter, but antimatter is itself a form of matter. So converting energy into matter could mean converting it into antim... | [
"In theory, it should be possible to destroy matter and convert all of the rest-energy associated with matter into heat and light (which would of course have the same mass), but none of the theoretically known methods are practical. One way to convert all the energy within matter into usable energy is to annihilate... |
Is it actually possible to set the atmosphere on fire? | There isn't anything in the atmosphere that would serve as a fuel. For a fire to occur, you need at least two chemicals, an oxidizer and a fuel, that form a product that is at a lower energy state than the fuel and oxidizer had previously been. So, for example, hydrogen will burn in oxygen because the product of their ... | [
"In a zero-gravity environment, there can be no buoyancy forces, and thus no natural (free) convection possible, so flames in many circumstances without gravity smother in their own waste gases. However, flames may be maintained with any type of forced convection (breeze); or (in high oxygen environments in \"still... |
Why was the WWI Armistice on 11/11 at 11:11? | It's not a secret society... Conspiracy theorists love to claim that secret societies such as the illuminati have influenced major events in history.
This would likely be a question for one of the experts like Panzerkampfwagon or NMW to answer. However, until they do, I would suggest that 11:00 was chosen because ... | [
"Armistice Day is commemorated every year on 11 November to mark the armistice signed between the Allies of World War I and Germany at Compiègne, France at 5:45 am, for the cessation of hostilities on the Western Front of World War I, which took effect at eleven o'clock in the morning—the \"eleventh hour of the ele... |
what is an aneurysm | dictionary [dik-shuh-ner-ee]
noun, plural dictionaries.
1. a book, containing a selection of the words of a language, giving information about their meanings, pronunciations, etymologies, inflected forms, derived forms, etc., | [
"An aneurysm is an outward bulging, likened to a bubble or balloon, caused by a localized, abnormal, weak spot on a blood vessel wall. Aneurysms are a result of a weakened blood vessel wall, and may be a result of a hereditary condition or an acquired disease. Aneurysms can also be a nidus (starting point) for clot... |
When did Harvard become the most prestigious university in America (and maybe the world)? | I'm going to go on a limb and actually attempt to answer this question despite people's objections over the definition of prestigious.
Harvard's prestige may have a large part to do with how old it is. For much of colonial New England's history, if someone of means wanted to get a higher education, the only options we... | [
"Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, with about 6,700 undergraduate students and about 15,250 postgraduate students. Established in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, clergyman John Harvard, Harvard is the United States' oldest institution of higher lear... |
Was there any notable resistance by white people against Apartheid in South Africa? | Yes, and, to my knowledge, most of the prominent resisters (rather than the everyday resisters) were communists. Among the most prominent white resisters will always be [Joe Slovo](_URL_6_) (head of the South African Communist party 1984–1991, and a minister in Mandela's first government). He started his political ca... | [
"Passive resistance to apartheid was initiated by the African National Congress (ANC) with its Defiance Campaign in the early 1950s. Subsequent civil disobedience protests targeted curfews, pass laws, and \"petty apartheid\" segregation in public facilities. Some anti-apartheid demonstrations resulted in widespread... |
why can some people smoke and never get addicted, while other are addicted for life? | Not everyone is equally susceptible to addiction to cigarettes. I can chain smoke for a few weeks and then just stop for a few weeks without it being an issue. I'm not sure why that is true for me but its possible it may be because I was around second hand smoke a lot as a child. | [
"Some claim the existence of “addictive beliefs” in people more likely to develop addictions, such as “I cannot make an impact on my world” or “I am not good enough”, which may lead to developing traits associated with addiction, such as depression and emotional insecurity. People who strongly believe that they con... |
why are electric cars and hybrids, which have more powerful motors, quieter than power drills and blenders? | The power tools and such might be using brushed motors which are notoriously louder than the brushless design I would imagine a serious car would use. | [
"Plug-in hybrids have the potential to be even more efficient than conventional hybrids because a more limited use of the PHEV's internal combustion engine may allow the engine to be used at closer to its maximum efficiency. While a Prius is likely to convert fuel to motive energy on average at about 30% efficiency... |
If I had eyespots instead of eyes, what would I see? | It seems you have access to most of the things to be able to run some experiments and answer some of these questions yourself. I'm sure your teacher/prof would support you in such a project.
How about modifying the experiment you did by shining lights of different wavelengths at different areas of the dish? That way y... | [
"Eyespots are a form of automimicry in which an organism displays false eyes on a different part of its body, considered to be an aversion to predators who believe the prey animal has spotted them or is behaving aggressively, even when they are actually facing the other direction and unaware. In the case of attack,... |
When I rub my hands with hand-sanitizer, how do germs leave my hands? | They don't leave your hands (immediately). The alcohol just kills them and breaks them open.
They fall off at a later point through friction or when your actually wash your hands in water. | [
"The Center for Disease Control and Prevention in the USA recommends hand washing over hand sanitizer rubs, particularly when hands are visibly dirty. The increasing use of these agents is based on their ease of use and rapid killing activity against micro-organisms; however, they should not serve as a replacement ... |
Without mass production, how did Rome supply it's vast armies with weapons and armor? | By the use of production en masse of course.
Dedicated assembly line production with individual workers and work teams focussed on repetitive single tasks didn't really originate with Henry Ford.
The [Flavian Amphitheatre](_URL_0_) (aka *the* Colosseum) took nearly a decade of continuous labour to design and ... | [
"Roman military equipment was mass-produced in state-run \"fabricae\" (\"factories\") which brought together advanced forging technology and skilled artisans. Roman weapons were mostly made of internally produced steel such as \"chalybs Noricus\" which was superior to unhardened iron. In contrast, forging technolog... |
how are our phones so resistant to bugs, viruses, and crashing, when compared to a computer? | Bugs because the hardware combinations are more limited ~~then~~ than PCs
Viruses? They're still vulnerable, less so because the O/S is very locked down always. The user *almost* never has "root" control of anything, unlike a windows system where if you have the password you can force through risky things to install i... | [
"As more complex features are added to phones, they become more vulnerable to viruses which exploit weaknesses in these features. Even text messages can be used in attacks by worms and viruses. Advanced phones capable of e-mail can be susceptible to viruses that can multiply by sending messages through a phone's ad... |
what exactly are laminar and turbulent flows and how are they utilized by swimmers? | The swimmer doesn't control the pool, of course, they only control their body. The water in the pool isn't flowing, if you take the people out it becomes quite still.
Rather, the swimmer is moving through the water, and water is flowing around their body. Good technique tries to keep that flow laminar, watch particu... | [
"In fluid dynamics, laminar flow is characterized by fluid particles following smooth paths in layers, with each layer moving smoothly past the adjacent layers with little or no mixing. At low velocities, the fluid tends to flow without lateral mixing, and adjacent layers slide past one another like playing cards. ... |
Has there ever been an offensive or invasion in which both armies left, and couldn't find the other? | Sort of. Ancient armies used to keep screens a lot closer in than modern armies, usually within line of sitght of the main forces. this meant they had a very small footprint, maybe 4-5 miles wide while traveling, and sometimes they had to meander around a bit to find each other. The best example I can think of this is ... | [
"The invasion began in spring 480 BC, when the Persian army crossed the Hellespont and marched through Thrace and Macedon to Thessaly. The Persian advance was blocked at the pass of Thermopylae by a small Allied force under King Leonidas I of Sparta; simultaneously, the Persian fleet was blocked by an Allied fleet ... |
Why do Serotonin-Norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors reduce anxiety when Norepinephrine is an excitatory neurotransmitter? | You're not the only one to be confused. This phenomenon has been called [the Noradrenergic Paradox](_URL_3_). However, I will argue that it just looks like a paradox.
[Noradrenaline doesn't cause anxiety](_URL_8_). Libet and Gleason had the chance to electrically stimulate the locus coeruleus (LC) in awake patients. T... | [
"Drugs that selectively block the reuptake of serotonin and norepinephrine effectively treat depression and are better tolerated than TCAs. TCAs have comprehensive effects on various neurotransmitters receptors, which leads to lack of tolerability and increased risk of toxicity.\n",
"Monoamines are connected to t... |
Does turning your heat on in your car while driving waste gas? | It is almost "free". Your engine normally has to rid itself of excess heat by transferring the heat to the environment. In the case of using the car heater, a fraction of that excess heat is funneled through the passenger compartment on its way out into the world.
There is a tiny bit of excess energy used when you... | [
"In order to minimise battery usage, a petrol driven heater is fully integrated to vehicle. It typically takes 5 to 10 minutes to warm and provides excellent cabin heating. It takes several minutes for the heater to run down and will therefore continue to operate after the ignition is turned off.\n",
"The idea wa... |
Combining magnets: Stack or spread? | To clamp heavy paper to the fridge? Or glue the magnet(s) to your heavy object, then stick it on the fridge with nothing between the steel surface and the magnets?
If gluing magnets to your object ...we can take a hint from rubberized magnet sheet, the kind which plummers and real estate companies give out as ads.... | [
"Bonded Nd-magnets are prepared by melt spinning a thin ribbon of the NdFeB alloy. The ribbon contains randomly oriented NdFeB nano-scale grains. This ribbon is then pulverized into particles, mixed with a polymer, and either compression- or injection-molded into bonded magnets. Bonded magnets offer less flux inten... |
concerning infinite temporal regress | The biggest problem with gravity since it was first understood all the way up to the modern era is the fact that *the universe exists.* By all rights, it *shouldn't.* All matter and energy should have collapsed into gravitational singularity aeons ago.
Of course, now we know that gravitation is not the only mechanism ... | [
"Temporal encroachment is an action that affects the perception of time or that affects the ability to take action in the future. Temporal means \"related to the measurement or passing of time\" and encroachment is \"an intrusion, usually unwelcome, into the space of another\".\n",
"Eternal recurrence is a theory... |
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