Split (2)

train · 226k rows

question stringlengths 3 301	answer stringlengths 9 26.1k	context list
why don’t we see only perfect black when our eyes are closed?🙈	The visual processing apparatus in your brain won’t ever get zero signal unless you’re dead. There’s always some “noise” in the machine, which your pattern-matching devices will fall over themselves to “interpret” into a meaningful picture. You may note the visuals you do see inside your closed eyes are often rhythmi...	[ "If a Black group has two eyes, White can never capture it because White cannot remove both liberties simultaneously. If Black has only one eye, White can capture the Black group by playing in the single eye, removing Black's last liberty. Such a move is not suicide because the Black stones are removed first. In th...
why israel seems a lot more developed and rich than many other middle eastern countries	To begin with, Israel isn't much richer than most middle eastern countries, since (a lot of them) have oil. Israel is more developed than most of those countries, and has a higher GDP(The amount the country produces in American $) per person. The immediate cause of this is that the economies of the rich middle eas...	[ "Israel is considered the most advanced country in Southwest Asia and the Middle East in economic and industrial development. Israel's quality university education and the establishment of a highly motivated and educated populace is largely responsible for spurring the country's high technology boom and rapid econo...
Why communist countries produced some of the brutal totalitarian regimes of 20th century given that one of the core principles of the communism is shared ownership/ decentralisation ?	It was rather often that the Communist Parties that gained power weren't popular parties in modern and established economies choosing equality over the methods that developed them. Rather they were Vanguard Parties. The concept was something of a significant departure from earlier Communist Thought. Rather than socia...	[ "During the adoption of varying forms of market economy, there was a general decline in living standards for many former Communist countries. Political reforms were varied, but in only four countries were Communist parties able to retain a monopoly on power, namely China, Cuba, Laos and Vietnam (North Korea went th...
From 1945 to 1990, how much independence did the Eastern Bloc states have? Were they capable of determining their own national policies independently of the Soviet Union, or did the Soviet Union pull all the strings?	The message coming out of the Soviet Union regarding independent Eastern Bloc policies changed over time. When leaders first came to power in Moscow, they tended to announce that things were now different and that the Soviet Union would no longer interfere with the day to day business of its allies. Nikita Khrushchev...	[ "During the final stages of World War II, the Soviet Union began the creation of the Eastern Bloc by directly annexing several countries as Soviet Socialist Republics that were originally effectively ceded to it by Nazi Germany in the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact.\n", "In 1922, the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist ...
why does microsoft word sometimes reformat half my document just because i hit enter or delete a space?	The boring answer is that you've deleted a formatting character such as a section break, or you've caused an element in your document to get bumped to somewhere where it triggers a bunch of Word's other arrangement/formatting rules, potentially causing a cascade of fuckery. Some of the time it lets you do things that ...	[ "One artifact of this approach is that the system can easily be tricked into treating a file as a different format simply by renaming it—an HTML file can, for instance, be easily treated as plain text by renaming it from to . Although this strategy was useful to expert users who could easily understand and manipula...
How much did Communist regimes support/resist feminism and feminists within their own country?	The PRC is a case I can't tell you much about but as far as I am aware, of the socialist countries in Europe only one had a significant feminist movement that went beyond very small circles, produces an actual counterdiscourse, and had a significant literary and theoretical output: Yugoslavia. For background first: Co...	[ "The actions by governments of communist states have been subject to criticism. According to critics, the rule by Communist parties leads to totalitarianism, political repression, restrictions of human rights, poor economic performance and cultural and artistic censorship.\n", "Communist Party did not give up on ...
why english distinguish between fingers and toes unlike other languages and what about thumbs?	English has been a language that loves to get unique and specific names for everything, especially Old English. Finger, toe and thumb are all very old words. The main reason they have their own names is really because the language has placed an emphasis on finding a new word for something rather than mixing or combinin...	[ "In other languages, e.g. Russian, Polish, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Czech, Tagalog, Turkish, Bulgarian, and Persian, there are no specific one-word names for fingers and toes; these are called \"digit of the hand\" or \"digit of the foot\" instead.\n", "English dictionaries describe finger as meaning either ...
Subway fallout shelters?	The Moscow subway system was considered for use as bomb shelters as early as World War II (against conventional weapons). They were also extensively studied for use as nuclear blast shelters in the Cold War. It should be noted that by the Soviet's own estimations, the subways were not large enough to shelter the entire...	[ "Homeless shelters are usually operated by a non-profit agency or a municipal agency, or are associated with a church. They almost always have Section 501(c)3 corporate organization with a Board of Directors pulled from various sectors of the community. Often, such Boards include clergy, elected officials, and even...
air resistance and newton's second law	What's your question? Newton's 2nd Law states that the acceleration of an object is dependent on the net forces acting on the object & the mass of the object. Air resistance is part of those net force.	[ "Lastly, Newton attempts to extend the results to the case where there is atmospheric resistance, considering first (Problem 6) the effects of resistance on inertial motion in a straight line, and then (Problem 7) the combined effects of resistance and a uniform centripetal force on motion towards/away from the cen...
extra chromosomes	Extra chromosomes would cause problems when our DNA and cells replicate. It would cause misalignments of DNA during cell separation, causing one cell to get extra copies and others to acquire none, or even cause DNA breakage events. These may render DNA unusable and may break crucial sequences that are required for nor...	[ "The extra chromosome is retained because of a nondisjunction event during paternal or maternal meiosis I (gametogenesis). Nondisjunction occurs when homologous chromosomes, in this case the X and Y or two X sex chromosomes, fail to separate, producing a sperm with an X and a Y chromosome or an egg with two X chrom...
How did British civilians react to losing the Revolutionary War? How did they take the news? How was it broken to them?	Firstly, remember that there was no universal opinion in Britain at the time - many people supported the Amercian rebellion. As well as prominent Whig politicians like Charles James Fox, David Hartley, Thomas Brand Hollis, Sir George Savile, John Wiles and Edmund Burke, many ordinary people showed support as well. ...	[ "The official end to the American Revolutionary War did not occur until 1783 when the Treaty of Paris was signed. Until then, British troops, ships and Tories were present and active in New York City, and in fact, Britain would maintain a presence in the United States until 1815 when the War of 1812 ended.\n", "I...
why do tv shows use identical twins to portray one character?	There's a lot of laws around child labor. It's largely banned in many industries but exceptions are made where it's unavoidable, like child actors. Even there, there's a lot of requirements & regulations about working hours & conditions. There's no good way to deal with limited working hours & make a child a m...	[ "This production used editing and special effects to have each set of twins played by the same actors. However, this was not well received by critics, who argued that not only was it confusing for the audience as to which character was which, but much of the comedy was lost when the characters look identical.\n", ...
where does the bulk of our knowledge of ancient rome come from?	> I've heard that most of the historical records were lost during the Great Fire of Rome in 69AD I think you're confusing this with the loss of historical records during the [Gaulish sack of the city in the early 300s BC.](_URL_0_) Sources for the period before that disaster are, in fact, very scarce. Even secondary ...	[ "Ancient historians' accounts of the history of Rome before it was destroyed by the Gauls in 390 BC are regarded as highly unreliable by modern historians. Livy, the main surviving ancient source on the early period, himself admits that the earlier period is very obscure and that his own account is based on legend ...
why is it that when we first wake up, our eyes don't work very well? i don't mean the re-adaptation from darkness into the lit environment, i mean that our sight is really bad even moments after adapting to the light.	Film builds up on your eyeballs overnight. It has to be rinsed off by your tear ducts.	[ "Light is the strongest stimulus for realigning a person's sleep–wake schedule, and careful control of exposure to and avoidance of bright light to the eyes can speed adjustment to a new time zone. The hormone melatonin is produced in dim light and darkness in humans, and it is eliminated by light.\n", "A dark ar...
[Physics] if I peeled off two random stickers on a rubix cube and replaced them with each other, will the cube still be solveable?	One obvious case where the answer would be "no" is if you randomly swap a center square for a differently colored corner. In that case, you'd end up with two faces that would need to be solved for the same color, which is impossible.	[ "The original Rubik's Cube had no orientation markings on the centre faces (although some carried the words \"Rubik's Cube\" on the centre square of the white face), and therefore solving it does not require any attention to orienting those faces correctly. However, with marker pens, one could, for example, mark th...
; why is the qwerty keyboard configuration slower than the alphabetical form?	It isn't that they specifically typed faster. It is that certain letters that are used frequently in combination were typed too fast...causing them to lock together in typewriters. They needed to move the letters that go together often to places on the keyboard that won't cross and get stuck. We type just as fast with...	[ "Contrary to popular belief, the QWERTY layout was not designed to slow the typist down, but rather to speed up typing by preventing jams. Indeed, there is evidence that, aside from the issue of jamming, placing often-used keys farther apart increases typing speed, because it encourages alternation between the hand...
What can you tell me about the Allied counterinsurgency operations against the Nazis after the end of WW2?	I'm not quite I understand what you mean. The "counterinsurgency" that was carried out was nothing more than conventional mopping up operations, sometimes not being more than a platoon of soldiers facing off against a lone sniper. The Nazi "insurgency" that existed after the war was nothing more than a bunch of uncoor...	[ "The Combined Bomber Offensive (CBO) was an Allied offensive of strategic bombing during World War II in Europe. The primary portion of the CBO was against Luftwaffe targets which was the highest priority from June 1943 to 1 April 1944. The subsequent highest priority campaigns were against V-weapon installations (...
why don't the jehovah's witnesses churches have any windows?	As far as I know, historically vandalism of JW Kingdom Halls has been decreasing over the years. Starting at the end of WWII it was quite bad, and gradually has reduced to where it is today. The older the structure, the greater the probability that it has no windows to reduce the likelihood of vandals breaking in and ...	[ "The original stained glass windows in the church building were composed of religious symbols and geometric designs. Some of these can still be found in stairways, the choir loft, the sacristy, and in the vestibule. The original windows along the north and south walls of the nave have been replaced with windows dep...
if water has no nutrional information how does it support life to function?	Water is an excellent solvent. Our body chemistry depends on thousands and thousands of different molecules being able to interact freely in a liquid; and water is both common and effective. As humans, we have evolved with the assumption that a certain amount of fresh water would be available to take in each day; so ...	[ "In addition to carbon compounds, all currently known terrestrial life also requires water as a solvent. This has led to discussions about whether water is the only liquid capable of filling that role. The idea that an extraterrestrial life-form might be based on a solvent other than water has been taken seriously ...
salt lamps??	They provide some light, and they look sort of cool. There is absolutely no evidence they have any effect on your health.	[ "A SALt lamp is an LED lamp powered by the galvanic reaction of an anode with saline water. It also has a USB port to charge low-power mobile devices such as cellphones, smartphones, and mp3 players. The anode must be replaced approximately every six months and the saline water daily; sea water is usable. The SALt ...
why did slavery in the 1800s only exist in the agricultural economies of the south and not the industrial economies of the north in the us?	Because oddly enough holding slaves was pretty expensive and in the north there were hordes of immigrants that would work themselves almost to death for almost no money at all. Also, tradition.	[ "As the North industrialized at a more rapid rate than the largely agrarian South during the 19th Century, unions organizing industrial workers were gradually established throughout New England and the Northeast as well as the emerging industrial mecca of Chicago. Development of the slavery-based Southern plantatio...
How accurate is the portrayal of Italian colonial activities in Libya in “The Lion of the Desert”?	Hello, I apologize for the late answer, I hadn't seen this post until now. This film does actually have a lot of accurate aspects to it, and the uniforms are portrayed surprisingly well (in some aspects, which I'll get more into later). It's interesting to note that this film was banned from Italian viewers until 2009....	[ "Back in Denmark, he produced a book in 1931 based on these travel experiences, entitled \"Desert Encounter\" () condemning the colonial overseers. The book was published both in Denmark, in many other European countries and in the USA, but immediately banned in Italy. The Italian colonial powers were outraged at t...
What are the differences between Fiberglass and Refractory Ceramic Fibers?	You are correct, the manufacture of the two is only slightly different and causes fiberglass to have long fibers and RCF's to have short fibers. [Source](_URL_1_) As far as health risks go, I scoured the literature and there really isn't much on RCF and fiberglass is known to cause mild irritation to skin and respirat...	[ "Glass fiber has roughly comparable mechanical properties to other fibers such as polymers and carbon fiber. Although not as rigid as carbon fiber, it is much cheaper and significantly less brittle when used in composites. Glass fibers are therefore used as a reinforcing agent for many polymer products; to form a v...
How is it that we can smell heat?	What you're smelling is not "heat", but the effects of heat (Burning, Cooking Melting, etc.). There are multiple things that can cause the "smell of heat". * When a heater is not is use for a long period of time, dust collects inside the vents. When the heater is turned on, the dust burns off and emits an odor. * ...	[ "Thermoception is the sense of heat and the absence of heat (cold) by the skin and internal skin passages, or, rather, the heat flux (the rate of heat flow) in these areas. There are specialized receptors for cold (declining temperature) and for heat (increasing temperature). The cold receptors play an important pa...
how does advertisements actually profit? i find it hard to believe that they actually cover the cost that it took to run.	Yeah they do. There are metrics they run. Some ads work and some don't. That is where an agency comes in. They do all the market research on what should bring new customers in your door. So lets take Holiday Inn for example. Not every ad is big budget. Some are small low cost and some are high dollar budget. Ea...	[ "Advertising can be seen as a component of the revenue model, however, when the business is advertising its own products, this would result as a cost for the business which is the exact opposite of revenue. On the other hand, advertising can lead to an increase in sales thus revenue over a period of time. For the m...
how and why do some substances stay in our body 'forever', like heavy metals?	Every metal has what is called a biological half life. IF you up take it though ingestion, absorption or inhalation, it takes some amount of time to move through your system. The concept is used quite a bit for body burden determinations when exposed to radioactive materials. The body does not differentiate between r...	[ "When gold and jade are inserted into the nine orifices, corpses do not decay. When salt and brine are absorbed into flesh and marrow, dried meats do not spoil. So when men ingest substances which are able to benefit their bodies and lengthen their days, why should it be strange that (some of these) should confer l...
Is there a tidal effect on our atmosphere?	You are asking yourself a question that Newton and Laplace thought about several centuries ago and is still under [study](_URL_0_). Not everyone can say that. So: congratulations for looking at the world through a scientific mind! Sure, there are atmospheric tides. There are solar tides although not in a gravitational...	[ "Tidal effects become particularly pronounced near small bodies of high mass, such as neutron stars or black holes, where they are responsible for the \"spaghettification\" of infalling matter. Tidal forces create the oceanic tide of Earth's oceans, where the attracting bodies are the Moon and, to a lesser extent, ...
how does _url_0_ work? i find it is very accurate; the thunder projection is almost always spot on, but i don't get how they can detect lightning.	There are lots of antennas that are registered with _URL_0_ Those antennas detect lightning by means of picking up their electromagnetic waves they create when lightning occurs. If you get an AM radio, you can do the same by tuning it to the lowest frequency and listen for the static that happens when lightning strike...	[ "When an RF lightning signal is detected at a single location, one can determine its direction using a but it is difficult to determine its distance. Attempts have been made using the amplitude of the signal but this does not work very well because lightning signals greatly vary in their intensity. Thus, using ampl...
why did the term milliard (now billion) seemingly vanish in the english language while it still exists in many other lanuages?	I was going to take a wild guess and say that in English, million and milliard are too close to each other phonetically, but that doesn't seem to be the right explanation. It looks like in Europe billion originally meant a million million, until the French had the bright idea to change that to 1000 million, so 'milli...	[ "\"Milliard\", another term for one thousand million, is still found occasionally in English, and is very common in most other European languages. For example, Bulgarian, Catalan, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French, Georgian, German, Hungarian, Italian, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian,...
what is super symmetry and how does breaking it create new universes?	Supersymmetry is the idea that every particle has a heavier "superpartner." Each particle come in two flavors, the lighter regular particle (like an electron) and the very heavy big brother (let's call it a selectron). The electron is a fermion: it can't share states with other electrons. The selectron is a boson: it ...	[ "In particle physics, supersymmetry breaking is the process to obtain a seemingly non-supersymmetric physics from a supersymmetric theory which is a necessary step to reconcile supersymmetry with actual experiments. It is an example of spontaneous symmetry breaking. In supergravity, this results in a slightly modif...
why don't oreos absorb almond milk as fast as cow's milk?	I don't want to be the bearer of bad news, but oreos have changed their recipe. They're using cheaper fats. They do not act the same in cow's milk, either.	[ "The digestive system of water buffaloes permits them to turn low grade vegetation into rich milk which, due to its higher percentage of solids, provides higher levels of protein, fat and minerals than cow milk.\n", "Almonds can be processed into a milk substitute called almond milk; the nut's soft texture, mild ...
How famous were Edwin and John Wilkes Booth before, say, the spring of 1865 or so? What celebrities today have a roughly similar level of fame?	Edwin was very famous. I'm currently looking through Brooklyn and NYC newspapers during the war years. Edwin was doing a run of shows in Brooklyn--they were HEAVILY reported. I think it's hard to compare them to current actors, but I would say compare them to sports teams. The way we follow and are "aware" of sport...	[ "Edwin Thomas Booth (November 13, 1833 – June 7, 1893) was an American actor who toured throughout the United States and the major capitals of Europe, performing Shakespearean plays. In 1869, he founded Booth's Theatre in New York. Some theatrical historians consider him the greatest American actor, and the greates...
why can't our mind just shut up?	Our mind's "job" is to keep us alive, so it uses its spare capacity to think about things that might harm us (and what to do about it), or opportunities to improve our situation. You can learn to control it somewhat. See /r/mindfulness or (more advanced) /r/meditation.	[ "• Silencing the mind. When the mind is silenced, there are fewer things to distract attention. For example, by creating an awareness of the whole body. Involved in this process is the right hemisphere, which represents whole-body processing. By initiating activities as such that the right hemisphere specializes in...
Is it a coincidence that Reagan and Thatcher both came to power with similar ideologies at almost the same time? What brought on their surge in popularity?	I would say it's not a coincidence at all, and there would have to be a global cause which would likely be the OPEC oil embargo and subsequent economic shock on the Western countries it was leveled against. Prior to this, there was a relative consensus around Keynesian economic policies that had been formed in the afte...	[ "Even prior to becoming president, Reagan was the leader of a dramatic conservative shift that undercut many of the domestic and foreign policies that had dominated the national agenda for decades. A major factor in the rise of conservatism was the growing distrust of government in the aftermath of the Watergate sc...
when a whale dives to depths of thousands of feet, why does the extreme pressure not force seawater through its anus into its colon?	By having colon muscles strong enough to prevent that. Also they have eyes, mouths, blowholes... why would you single out their anus?	[ "The high pressures associated with deep dives cause gases such as nitrogen to build up in tissues which are then released upon surfacing, possibly causing death. One of the ways sea lions deal with the extreme pressures is by limiting the amount of gas exchange that occurs when diving. The sea lion allows the alve...
why are neo-nazis even a thing?	The logic is fear. Neo-nazis see themselves as surrounded by other people that have things they don't. So, they subscribe to a philosophy that allows them to tear those people down and negate their achievements. Thus, they are able to feel better about themselves because their entire belief system places them at the to...	[ "Neo-Nazism consists of post-World War II militant social or political movements seeking to revive and implement the ideology of Nazism. Neo-Nazis seek to employ their ideology to promote hatred and attack minorities, or in some cases to create a fascist political state. It is a global phenomenon, with organized re...
Is a superfluid a Bose-Einstein condensate ?	It's uncertain at this time. They share a lot of properties.	[ "Fermionic condensates are attained at temperatures lower than Bose–Einstein condensates. Fermionic condensates are a type of superfluid. As the name suggests, a superfluid possesses fluid properties similar to those possessed by ordinary liquids and gases, such as the lack of a definite shape and the ability to fl...
When a large nucleus absorbs a neutron, why does it undergo fission and not just emit the neutron?	In a nucleus, it's a competition between the nuclear strong force and electromagnetic repulsion to hold the nucleus together or split it apart. In a large nucleus like U-235, the nuclear strong force barely edges over the electromagnetic repulsion. You have to note that the nuclear strong force falls off rapidly wit...	[ "When a free neutron hits the nucleus of a fissile atom like uranium-235 (U), the uranium nucleus splits into two smaller nuclei called fission fragments, plus more neutrons. Fission can be self-sustaining because it produces more neutrons of the speed required to cause new fissions.\n", "When a large fissile ato...
how come computer hardware is getting better and better, but at the same power cost?	It's not always about the NUMBER of circuits they can fit onto a board, but also about the efficiency of those circuits, and building a physical electrical layout that will provide better computational processes. Think about the switch from HDD to SSDs - the increase in complexity and efficiency made a huge leap, but ...	[ "Computer manufacturers frequently bring out new models, often with higher performance. Software costs can be quite high, so in some cases the simplest and cheapest way of getting higher performance might be to just buy a faster computer, provided it is compatible with an existing computer.\n", "For mass-market p...
if we could farm lightning and did so, would there be any negative consequences?	I dont think so... they're more or less seperate; ground and live are relatively isolated systems. Source: none, I'm basing this on nothing	[ "Several studies conducted in South Asia and Africa suggest that the dangers of lightning are not taken sufficiently seriously there. A research team from the University of Colombo found that even in neighborhoods which had experienced deaths from lightning, no precautions were taken against future storms. An exper...
Did Pagan religions have definite names?	Our modern conception of a religion as a distinct group that you belong to exclusively is something that has developed rather recently in the history of religious belief and actually coincides with the rise of Christianity and Islam in the West. In fact, in countries like China, such a distinction still doesn't readily...	[ "There are many signs of pagan practices being carried over first into Christianity and later into Islam in Bosnia and Herzegovina – for example, the use of the mountain tops as a place of worship, and the name of pagan gods, such as Perun and Thor, that survived in oral tradition until the twentieth century. Slavi...
Why is e an irrational number if it is the sum of rational numbers?	The property that sums of rational numbers are rational only holds for finite sums. As a matter of fact every irrational number can be expressed as an infinite sum of rational numbers, that sum being it's decimal expansion. Namely an irrational number (between 0 and 1 for simplicity) can be written out as 0.a_1 a_2 ......	[ "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...
why aren't time zone borders straight and equidistant from each other like longitude/latitude lines?	Time zone borders are roughly drawn 15 degrees apart, but move do to the convenience of commerce. It would be really bad, for example, for a time zone boundary to cross in the middle of a city. It would help nothing, and cause a lot of problems. So, whereever possible, the time zone boundaries are in rural areas wher...	[ "Ideal time zones, such as nautical time zones, are based on the mean solar time of a particular meridian located in the middle of that zone with boundaries located 7.5 degrees east and west of the meridian. In practice, zone boundaries are often drawn much farther to the west with often irregular boundaries, and s...
What do we know historically about the events of the Book of Exodus?	There is no physical evidence of the Israelites bondage in Egypt nor their 40 years of wandering through the desert. If the biblical numbers are to be believed then a group of 600,000 people wandering the desert would certainly leave some physical trace like pottery or waste or mass graves. When you compare the traces ...	[ "The book accepts the biblical story as factual and supports an \"early\" Exodus hypothesis, prior to a biblical date posited as ca. 1440 BCE. According to the author, \"The Exodus was in fact two separate exoduses. The first exodus followed a 1628 BCE. Minoan eruption that produced all but one of the first nine pl...
why do some cars make springing, popping noises when parked after a long drive?	The noises come from the exhaust components and heat shield. As they cool off, they contract and create the noises. It happens to all cars, but some cars may create more of these noises than others.	[ "One problem with this system is that once the spring or the top plate becomes worn, the driver of a car with this system may hear a loud \"clonk\" noise at full lock (i.e. steering wheel turned to the extreme left or extreme right positions), as the strut's spring jumps back into place. This noise is often confuse...
if humans are multitasking capable, why is it not possible to count 2 different things in our head at the same time? (for example, heartbeat and seconds).	We don't actually actively multitask. We shift our concentration from one idea/action to another. We can passively multitask however. Example: walking and chewing bubble gum.	[ "The reason why multicommunicating is possible from a physiological and cognitive perspective is because humans, or presence allocators, are typically able to think faster than they are able to talk or type. Nonetheless, most neuroscience studies imply that we are not truly cognitively capable of multitasking; we a...
In WWII, did Canada have a contingency plan to shelter the British monarchy if the UK was overrun?	I've never commented on this sub before though I'm a big fan. I don't have any flair and am not an expert or anything, BUT I happen to know the answer to this question and can document it. Please forgive me mods if I break any rules or need to change anything. In a nutshell, the British did in fact make plans for the ...	[ "At the outbreak of World War II, contingency plans were made for King George VI, his wife Queen Elizabeth, and their two daughters, princesses Elizabeth and Margaret, to reside in Canada. The federal Crown-in-Council purchased Hatley Castle in 1940 for use as the King's royal residence. The Royal Family and govern...
So this is kind of a broad question, but in your opinion what has been the most peaceful society in human history?	On a macro scale: ours, modern Western society. (Source: Pinker's Better Angels of our Nature.) On a micro scale: various pacifist cults and intentional communities (e.g. the Shakers) have dedicated themselves to complete non-violence, and would probably win. This seems to me to be a [poll-type question](_URL_...	[ "In \"War in Human Civilization\" (2006) and following up in \"Victorious and Vulnerable: Why Democracy won in the 20th Century and How it is Still Imperiled\", Gat argues that the world has been becoming steadily more peaceful for thousands of years. He finds that there are two major steps to this process. The fir...
Gravitational time dilation: what exactly slows?	Actually, _nothing _slows. You are by definition at rest with respect to your own frame of reference, so there is no time dilation to experience, regardless of brain function "rate". Effects like time dlation only affect what you observe, never you yourself. This is a very commonly misunderstood point in relativity.	[ "Gravitational time dilation is a phenomenon predicted by the theory of General Relativity whereby time passes more slowly in regions of lower gravitational potential. Scientists used the lander to test this hypothesis, by sending radio signals to the lander on Mars, and instructing the lander to send back signals,...
Could US soldiers come home temporarily from Vietnam war?	No, they could not. Considering that a US soldier normally served for 12 months, they were given a one-week Rest and Recuperation leave after six months and were only permitted to visit either nearby destinations such as Thailand and Japan or destinations within South Vietnam itself. There was however one destination t...	[ "During the Vietnam War of Christmas 1969, a group of fresh young American soldiers who arrive at an army camp in Vietnam are sent to patrol in a nearby jungle. Once they have killed a few Viet Cong soldiers and losing a couple of their comrades in the battle, they return to camp. They are now sent on a mission, wh...
acid vs. base?	This might get a little tricky to try to explain to a five year old, and I'm certainly no university level scientist, but I'll give it my best shot in layman's terms: Acids and bases are two groups of chemical substances. They have different 'chemical properties': this means that when you put something into an acid, l...	[ "A substance can often be classified as an acid or a base. There are several different theories which explain acid-base behavior. The simplest is Arrhenius theory, which states that acid is a substance that produces hydronium ions when it is dissolved in water, and a base is one that produces hydroxide ions when di...
What do we actually know about human sacrifice among the ancient Maya?	> Given how little we know about the ancient Maya Aaah, but we know so much. In fact, the Maya may be one of the most well understood cultures of Mesoamerica with the Aztec at a very close second (sorry /u/400-rabbits). I put the Aztec second because we have to rely on post-Contact produced documents to get insight ...	[ "Human sacrifice among the Maya is evident from at least the Classic period (c. AD 250–900) right through to the final stages of the Spanish conquest in the 17th century. Human sacrifice is depicted in Classic Maya art, is mentioned in Classic period hieroglyphic texts and has been verified archaeologically by anal...
why is it so common to dream you are flying?	I want to know why I have never had such a dream, but it seems everyone else has.	[ "During most dreams, the person dreaming is not aware that they are dreaming, no matter how absurd or eccentric the dream is. The reason for this may be that the prefrontal cortex, the region of the brain responsible for logic and planning, exhibits decreased activity during dreams. This allows the dreamer to more ...
why is virginity something you “lose”, or else “take” from someone else? where did this idea originate?	Because historically female virginity was something quite valuable and losing it or having it taken from you was a major thing with all sorts of implication beyond just sex. People put a lot of worth into virginity because the physical aspect of it was something that could be actually verified. It being the first time...	[ "Until their first act of sexual intercourse, adolescents generally see virginity in one of the following ways: as a gift, a stigma, or a normal step in development. Girls typically think of virginity as a gift, while boys think of virginity as a stigma. In interviews, girls said that they viewed giving someone the...
why is getting water in the car engine bad?	A car engine will compress air to about a tenth of it's volume before firing. If it sucks water in it cannot compress it. The momentum in the engine will cause the crankshaft to twist or the cylinderhead to fail.	[ "Most modern consumer vehicle engines are pre-programmed with specific fuel-to-air ratios, so introducing water without re-programming the car's computer or otherwise changing these ratios will most likely provide no benefit, and may likely reduce performance or damage the engine. In addition, most modern fuel syst...
why is the un often accused of being corrupt?	Because the UN board has permanent members and rotating members. The permanent members (US, russia, etc.) can veto involvement in places where it isn't in their best interest (also why Taiwan can't claim sovereignty).	[ "According to Transparency International, Judicial corruption in India is attributable to factors such as \"delays in the disposal of cases, shortage of judges and complex procedures, all of which are exacerbated by a preponderance of new laws\". Over the years there have been numerous allegations against judges, a...
what would happen if a plane tried taking off in an extremely hot atmosphere? like surrounded by fire	Taking off when it's hot requires a faster takeoff speed, because hot air is less dense than cold air. Fireballs usually travel much faster than an aircraft, so no, that wouldn't work.	[ "There were initially no visible flames, and after attempts to extinguish the fire were unsuccessful, smoke filled the cabin. Upon landing, the plane's doors were opened, allowing the five crew and 18 of the passengers to escape, but approximately 60 to 90 seconds into the evacuation the oxygen rushing in from outs...
what happens in your brain when you are reliving a memory and stop paying attention to your sight.	If you've ever seen the Tim Burton Batman, there's a scene where the Joker breaks into a news broadcast, disrupting the programming that was originally playing. (There are other movies that have done this, but this is the first one that I remember.) The same thing happens in your brain, because memory isn't stored in...	[ "This form of memory breakdown involves problems at the point where attention and memory interface. Common errors of this type include misplacing keys or eyeglasses, or forgetting appointments, because at the time of encoding sufficient attention was not paid to what would later need to be recalled.\n", "The effe...
how would this (cost effective 3d printed houses) affect the economy and housing prices in america's future when america starts doing it?	A house is not just walls and roof. When you buy a house, you buy insulation, pipes, wires, air conditioning/furnace, windows, doors etc etc etc - it can't be 3d printed and cost tons of money. So nothing's going to change.	[ "Glaeser and Gyourko (2002) argued that while the price of housing was significantly higher than construction costs in Boston, Massachusetts and San Francisco and California, in most of the United States, the price of housing remained \"close to the marginal, physical costs of new construction.\" They argued that d...
if diet alternatives to sodas are so common, why aren't there more "diet candy"? is it harder to produce?	Most non-nutritive sweeteners ("artificial sweetener" doesn't include things like stevia which are natural) are vastly sweeter than sugar so you don't need near as much to get the same amount of sweetening power. Aspartame, for example, is 200x stronger than table sugar by weight. Regular soda is water + sugar + fl...	[ "From an opposing standpoint, Professor Robert Lustig of the University of California, San Francisco School of Medicine, has argued that the UK tax measure may not go far enough and that, \"juice should be taxed the same way as soda because from a metabolic standpoint juice is the same as soda.\" Campaigners have s...
How does the eyepiece on Google Glass work?	I imagine it would use technology similar to [aircraft Heads Up Displays](_URL_0_).	[ "Google Glass is a brand of smart glasses—an optical head-mounted display designed in the shape of a pair of eyeglasses. It was developed by X (previously Google X) with the mission of producing a ubiquitous computer. Google Glass displayed information in a smartphone-like, hands-free format. Wearers communicated w...
Why are lions and tigers considered separate species if they can produce fertile offspring?	No, ~~dogs and wolves~~, for example, can produce fertile offspring but are different species. Same with domestic cats and several species of jungle cats. (I stand corrected, indeed, dogs are a subpecies. The cat example is still good though) Some of the ways speciation can happen is through geographic separation (e...	[ "Likewise, lions and tigers have historically overlapped in a portion of their range and can theoretically produce wild hybrids: ligers, which are a cross between a male lion and female tiger, and tigons, which are a cross between a male tiger and a female lion; however, tigers and lions have thus far only hybridiz...
; in the event of a global disaster/disease etc like wwz or resident evil, how long would the internet be functioning? is there anything that would stop it at this point if you could reach an access point?	The internet would only function for as long as the computers that make it up are running. For example, if the webservers running reddit shut down for whatever reason, then reddit is no longer available to the internet, and the same applies to everything else connected. If your ISP's routing network is offline, then yo...	[ "BULLET::::- 16 July – A study by the University of Wisconsin-Madison concludes that thousands of miles of buried Internet infrastructure could be damaged or destroyed by rising sea levels within 15 years.\n", "Natural disasters disrupt internet access in profound ways. This is important—not only for telecommunic...
how does bone cancer occur	Bones are alive! They are indeed connected to the blood stream and actually play an important role in the development of the immune system. But they also contain living cells, wich can sadly become cancerous with various consequences.	[ "Bone tissue that is destroyed or altered as a result of cancers is distorted, weakened, and more prone to fracture. This may lead to compression of the spinal cord, destruction of the marrow resulting in bruising, bleeding and immunosuppression, and is one cause of bone pain. If the cancer is metastatic, then ther...
What's the best way to finding information on Confederate soldiers who fought in the American Civil War?	Fortunately you have all the information you need to find the man and his military records. You might get lucky and find him in the [Soldiers and Sailors database](_URL_1_) which is administered by the National Parks Service. You can also make an account at [_URL_5_](_URL_2_) and run a search on their databases, but I...	[ "The library has electronic access to the National Archives Compiled Service Records of all Union and Confederate soldiers. The library also has published rosters giving basic information on all Civil War soldiers.\n", "The \"MSHWR\" included numerous statistical summaries relating to diseases, wounds, and deaths...
how did i just drive normally for 20 minutes while lost in thought?	Your brain is really, really good at following routines. Things you do all the time, like driving a specific route, it can do on autopilot. There was actually a study done where they took rats and measured how busy their brains were while they ran the same maze several times. After the first couple of runs, the rats h...	[ "In 2000, a 70-year-old man presented with akinetopsia. He had stopped driving two years prior because he could no longer \"see movement while driving\". His wife noted that he could not judge the speed of another car or how far away it was. He had difficulty watching television with significant action or movement,...
Why did more Jews in France survive the Holocaust then in Belgium and the Netherlands?	There is a seeming paradox concerning Vichy and the fate of France's Jewish population during the occupation. On one hand, the survival rate of Jews in France was far higher than that of the Low Countries. Only a quarter of the Jews in France were deported, compared approximately 78% of the Netherlands and 45% of Belgi...	[ "In mid-1940, nearly 57,000 Jews were living in Belgium out of a population of roughly 8 million. Many had fled to Belgium to escape recent persecution in Germany and elsewhere, meaning that only a minority were Belgian citizens. Most of the Jewish population was focused in communities in the towns of Brussels and ...
how does a bank adjust its accounts after a robbery.	A bank will file for their insurance benefits that they have for this very scenario. Maybe some banks just write it off as an expense in small cases of petty theft.	[ "The bank makes a payment out of the company's account in accordance with a valid payment instruction - there is no disposition in favour of the bank. As a result, banks traditionally freeze accounts and force insolvent parties to open new accounts.\n", "When cashier’s checks took weeks to clear the banks, they w...
How are new starts formed from the remains of an exploded star? Aren't they mostly Helium/Oxygen/Carbon dust? Don't new stars require Hydrogen?	Two things here. First, when a star explodes at the end of it's life, it's still mostly hydrogen. The only part that has been transmuted to helium and heavier elements is the core, where the pressures and temperatues are the highest. Second, new stars get most of their material from the clouds of hydrogen already in...	[ "When a main-sequence star has consumed the hydrogen at its core, the loss of energy generation causes its gravitational collapse to resume and the star evolves off the main sequence. The path which the star follows across the HR diagram is called an evolutionary track.\n", "A star remains near its initial positi...
why does the rain make plants and stuff look more green?	It does indeed wash off the dust. It also coats over the rough surfaces, which contain tiny hairs (and other rough materials) that make the colors look a bit more grayish.	[ "Green is common in nature, as many plants are green because of a complex chemical known as chlorophyll, which is involved in photosynthesis. Chlorophyll absorbs the long wavelengths of light (red) and short wavelengths of light (blue) much more efficiently than the wavelengths that appear green to the human eye, s...
For how long did pre-Civil War South Carolina restrict its citizens from partaking in national elections?	Having the legislature appoint electors for the presidency was the done thing in South Carolina for every presidential election up through 1860. It used to be more common elsewhere, but the increasing acceptance of the white man's popular democracy as the nineteenth century went on made legislative appointments seem in...	[ "South Carolina entered 1876 having had eight years of Radical Republican rule. Whites had resisted social and political changes after the war, and believed that the Reconstruction programs set up by the Republicans were used by corrupt politicians and carpetbaggers to their financial benefit. At the same time, man...
If pieces of my hair fall into open wounds (like during brain surgery) what happen to them? How do they get out of my body?	Ideally it should never happen- everyone is wearing some sort of hair cover, whether it is a bouffant, surgeon's hat, or a custom cap. However, if it did happen, and the hair fell into a surgical wound, ideally it should be spotted by someone at the table and it would be carefully removed. There are protocols for if th...	[ "BULLET::::1. the part beneath the skin, called the hair follicle, or, when pulled from the skin, the bulb. This organ is located in the dermis and maintains stem cells, which not only re-grow the hair after it falls out, but also are recruited to regrow skin after a wound.\n", "When healthy hair is pulled out, a...
how sat's are supposedly "slanted against african-americans"	Like Graendal said, stereotype threat is one example. The other is that the SATs are written in a way that assumes a very specific kind of knowledge, one that is most often found in middle-or-upper class contexts and among European-Americans. By which I mean--asking questions that presume a certain way of thinking, o...	[ "Conservative African American scholars such as Thomas Sowell observe that while SAT scores are lower for students with less parental education and income. Asian Americans who took the SAT with incomes below $10,000 score 482 in math in 1995, comparable to whites earning $30–40,000 and higher and blacks over $70,00...
why are there restrictions on liquid containers for planes? i know an attempted terror attack caused it, but how does it make sense?	The reason for the ban on containers of liquid is due to the possible use of liquid binary explosives. When you are getting ready to board a plane alot of times you will be subject to scanners and bomb sniffers. Because binary explosives aren't detectable until they are mixed in a lot of cases they can slip through the...	[ "Similar emergency restrictions were placed on airline passengers traveling within and from the United States. Initially, all liquids were forbidden, including beverages, hair gels, toothpaste, lipstick, sunscreen, and hand lotions, due to the suspicion that liquid chemicals were planned to be used in the attacks. ...
are there any species that are both sexually and asexually reproductive?	Well, many flowering plants are. They have both male and female parts, they can pollinate themselves, or others. And they fare pretty well.	[ "Many species can use both asexual and sexual reproduction. Most of the triclads are hermaphrodites, the same individual has both male and female sexual organs at the same time. In most of the cases the sexual reproduction involve two individuals, autofecundation has been rarely reported (e.g. in \"Cura foremanii\"...
What are these lines?	What lines? I assume you don't mean the scratches on the bottom of the pan.	[ "A line group is a mathematical way of describing symmetries associated with moving along a line. These symmetries include repeating along that line, making that line a one-dimensional lattice. However, line groups may have more than one dimension, and they may involve those dimensions in its isometries or symmetry...
i recently got into a physical altercation where afterwards i had to explain the situation and my voice was shaky and words wasn’t forming at all. no matter how hard i tried to slow down . and i tried to sit down and but my leg shook uncontrollably, why did those two things occur ?	Adrenaline dump. Your body reacted to a dangerous situation by dumping adrenaline and other hormones into your system, so that you could fight or fly. It can take an hour or more to clear. Your trying to calm a fire your body just poured gas on. You're also shunting blood from your brain, which you don't need right now...	[ "\"There was a free speech fight on, but of it I knew nothing. Suddenly a policeman’s hand shook my shoulder, and when, insulted, I resisted, I was slammed in the jaw; completely subdued, I was brought before the police sergeant, absolutely in the dark as to what was the cause.\n", "\"It all began ten years ago w...
How were native Americans able to survive in the Sonoran desert with such little water?	Since you're in the literary area, as something of an aside please allow me to recommend [Gary Paul Nabhan](_URL_0_)'s ["Gathering The Desert."](_URL_1_) It's beautifully written and illustrated, and goes deeply into the lifeways of the Tohono O'odham people. If you haven't read it already I'm certain you'll find it en...	[ "Before European settlers came to America, tenajas were a valuable source of water for early Native Americans traveling in the desert areas of the Southwest. Today, tenajas are an integral part of sustaining life in the arid Southwest. For example, tenajas at the Santa Rosa Plateau in southern California allow west...
cold welding in space	So, you've probably heard of covalent and ionic bonds. In covalent bonds, the force of attraction that shared electrons cause binds atoms together. In ionic bonds, the positive charge of one atom attracts it to the negative charge of another. However, there's a third kind of bond: metallic. In metallic bonds, metal at...	[ "In 2009 the European Space Agency published a peer reviewed paper detailing why cold welding is a significant issue that spacecraft designers need to carefully consider. The paper also cites a documented example from 1991 with the Galileo spacecraft high-gain antenna.\n", "In 2009 the European Space Agency publi...
Were there significant amounts of refugees as a result of the American Revolutionary War, War of 1812, and Civil War?	To come at this from a slightly different angle: Did the Civil War significantly drive westward migration after the war? I'm thinking freed slaves, Confederate veterans, or people who got uprooted by the fighting.	[ "Following the end of the Revolution and the signing of the Treaty of Paris in 1783, Loyalist soldiers and civilians were evacuated from New York and resettled in other colonies of the British Empire, most notably in the future Canada. The two colonies of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick received about 33,000 Loyalist...
How representative is the composition of our solar system versus the composition of known exoplanets?	The solar system is quite different from the "typical" exoplanet systems we've seen so far, but that's because our methods for detecting exoplanets don't work well for systems like ours. Odds are good that our solar system is pretty typical of solar systems throughout the galaxy, but our exoplanet detection technology...	[ "The predicted sizes of coreless and cored planets are similar within a few percent, which makes it difficult to interpret the interior composition of exoplanets based on measured planetary masses and radii.\n", "The first exoplanet whose atmospheric composition was determined is HD 209458b, a gas giant with a cl...
why do city birds sing at night? do the city lights prevent them from ever sleeping?	Birds in/around large human populations usually adapted "singing" before humans wake up, simply due to the fact that their shouts will not be overwhelmed by the sounds of the cities... a Bird is much easier to hear at 5am than at 12pm or during rush hour... not only can WE hear them more, but they can hear EACHOTHER	[ "European robins living in urban environments are more likely to sing at night in places with high levels of noise pollution during the day, suggesting that they sing at night because it is quieter, and their message can propagate through the environment more clearly. The same study showed that daytime noise was a ...
why dont humans replace teeth more than once like animals such as sharks do?	Humans have bred all the children before their second set of teeth wears out. That means there is no evolutionary pressure to have more sets. Other long-lived mammals do have multiple sets of teeth, elephants for example have 6 sets, but the infinite regeneration seen in fish are not present in mammals, as far as I k...	[ "The cookiecutter sharks, or cigar sharks, are unusual in the manner in which they replace their teeth. Instead of replacing teeth singly as they get damaged or lost, for example in hunting, such sharks replace the whole set. They can repeat such replacement throughout their lifetimes.\n", "However, sharks contin...
When, and how, did mint become the universal "fresh" flavouring for mouth hygiene products?	While I can't answer that question from a historic point of view (which might get this answer deleted, I'm aware of that), I'd like to say a few things about the biochemical/neuroscientific basis of mint flavor. TL;DR: We are not "conditioned" to perceive mint flavor as fresh. The responsible molecules in mint act...	[ "The production of mints as a discrete food item can be traced back to the 18th Century. The popularity of mints took off in the early 20th Century, with the advent of mass urbanization and mass marketing. Advertising for mints focused on their convenience, and on the socially isolating effects of bad breath. These...
Jobs in the American Industrial Age	I want to note from the outset that my answer, due to gaps in my own knowledge as well as a general tendency in the scholarship, is pretty focused on the Northeast, and is entirely focused on the White working class. There are important parts of this story that are about Southern Whites as well as Blacks, both before a...	[ "From 1865 to about 1913, the U.S. grew to become the world's leading industrial nation. Land and labor, the diversity of climate, the ample presence of railroads (as well as navigable rivers), and the natural resources all fostered the cheap extraction of energy, fast transport, and the availability of capital tha...
why are tobacco products behind the counter, while alcohol is on shelves in stores?	It's easier to steal a small package than a large bottle	[ "At some Sobeys locations tobacco products are sold in a separate Sobeys-owned store, called Griffins. These outlets are a part of the Sobeys store but are only accessible from the outside due to provincial laws prohibiting stores with pharmacies from selling tobacco products.\n", "Various types exist, for exampl...
how can this guy drink this much alcohol at once at not die?	I have to assume he immediately went and threw it all up. It would probably kill him if he didn't.	[ "In May 2013, members of the Arizona State chapter allegedly left an underage member outside a hospital with a note saying \"Ive been drinking and I need some help.\" The 20-year-old survived after nearly 20 shots of tequila resulting in a near lethal blood alcohol content of 0.47%, according to doctors.\n", "The...
Did a "closed state" like North Korea ever exist in pre-modern times?	People are going to mention Joseon Korea and Tokugawa Japan. In fact, two people (/u/Shawn_Spenstar and /u/Das_Orakel_vom_Berge) have already: > This isnt my subject of expertise but it seems like Japan under the Tokugawa shogunate would have been pretty close to what you referring to. Their foreign policy of the ti...	[ "Prior to World War I and Japan's annexation of Korea, all of Korea was unified as a single state for centuries, known previously as the Goryeo and Joseon dynasties, and the last unified state, the Korean Empire. After World War II and beginning in the Cold War, Korea was divided into two countries along the 38th p...
eye color	Well, it isn't just a matter of what you and your partner have. There's a chance that there are some recessive genes that simply aren't showing up in either of you. To get a better idea of the actual chances you have to go back at least one generation to both of your parents. Here's a handy calculator that should help:...	[ "Eye color, specifically the color of the irises, is determined primarily by the concentration and distribution of melanin. The affected eye may be hyperpigmented (hyperchromic) or hypopigmented (hypochromic). In humans, an increase of melanin production in the eyes indicates hyperplasia of the iris tissues, wherea...
what set apart google from yahoo, facebook from myspace (etc.) such that one failed where the other succeeded?	For me both were based on the lack of clutter. I never joined myspace because it was a cluster fuck and google was very simple and always gave me results without spamming the page full of non-sense. A lot of it has to do with how it was managed by the top level directors but for me this was a very important factor whic...	[ "On April 19, 2008, Facebook overtook Myspace in the Alexa rankings. Since then, Myspace has seen a continuing loss of membership. There are several suggested explanations for its decline, including the fact that it stuck to a \"portal strategy\" of building an audience around entertainment and music, whereas Faceb...
What are the 'reset' and 'test' buttons for on a blowdryer?	It's a built-in GFCI (_URL_0_). It's basically a sensitive circuit breaker to detect a short and kill power before you electrocute yourself.	[ "System tests could be conducted in one of two ways: In a coded pull station, there is either a test hole on the front (usually activated with an Allen wrench) or a test switch on the inside. Turning the switch one way causes the notification appliances to sound continuously (or in the case of single-stroke bells, ...
For how long after the Norman conquest of England can we find a distinction between Saxons and Normans	Follow up question: William the conqueror quickly distributed fiefs and lands to the Norman noblemen who followed him to England. For how long were these new landowners seen as intruding foreigners until they were accepted?	[ "The Anglo-Normans were the medieval ruling class in England, composed mainly of a combination of ethnic Anglo-Saxons, Normans and French, following the Norman conquest. A small number of Normans had earlier befriended future Anglo-Saxon King of England, Edward the Confessor, during his exile in his mother's homela...
how do manufacturers of vehicles make car keys that are unique such that not 1 car key is identical to the other?	Certainly with normal keys, it's more than possible that there do exist keys that will open more than one lock, but the whole security of a lock and key is that you don't know that. Or put another way, if you were to find a random key at the side of the path one day and pick it up, would that make you any more likely...	[ "A simpler version of the smart key system is the engine immobiliser, involving a security key system embedded into most modern vehicle's keys. A small chip rests on the vehicle's key or under the plastic key cover. When any key is inserted into the ignition, the ignition is coded. The key sends its security code t...
If the nature of sexual attraction comes from natural selection and the desire to create healthy babies, why am I more attracted to a skinny woman than a muscly woman?	There are two different questions you are asking. One is why you are more attracted to feminine looking women (without huge bulky muscles). The second, which is implied, is that the bulky muscle women are better suited to create healthy babies. This second assumption is wrong. Women with large muscles often have highe...	[ "The Multiple Fitness Model proposes that the qualities that make babies appear cute to adults additionally look \"desirable\" to adults when they see other adults. Neotenous features in adult females may help elicit more resource investment and nurturing from adult males. Likewise, neotenous features in adult male...
does having more blades on a helicopter make a difference?	It would make a difference. But what difference? That extremely complex to answer. More blades would be capable of lifting more weight. But after that, you need to know the exact details of the blades and the helicopters to know what effect it will have. It will almost certainly affect the noise of the helicopter. It...	[ "The blades of a helicopter are long, narrow airfoils with a high aspect ratio, a shape that minimizes drag from tip vortices (see the wings of a glider for comparison). They generally contain a degree of washout that reduces the lift generated at the tips, where the airflow is fastest and vortex generation would b...
why is heaven most commonly referred to as being up above the earth while hell is most commonly referred to as being down below the earth or in the ground? when did this tradition come about?	It's really old. The ancient Egyptians had this notion, 5000 years ago. The Jews, and then the Christians, and then Dante colorized them as we think about them today, but the idea goes way back.	[ "\"Heaven Is a Place on Earth\" is a song recorded by American singer Belinda Carlisle for her second studio album \"Heaven on Earth\" (1987). Written by Rick Nowels and Ellen Shipley, the song was released as the lead single from the \"Heaven on Earth\" album on September 18, 1987, and it hit number one on the US ...
given that life has existed far longer in our oceans than on land, why hasn't there been species that evolved with the same intelligence level has higher primates?	Evolution doesn't have a specific goal. It isn't like "Human Level Intelligence" is the goal that everything is working towards. Everything adapts in such a way as to be specialized for the environment in which it lives; those which are better adapted to the environment tend to live, while those which are less adapte...	[ "A study published in 2017 suggests that due to how complexity evolved in species on Earth, the level of predictability for alien evolution elsewhere would make them look similar to life on our planet. One of the study authors, Sam Levin, notes \"Like humans, we predict that they are made-up of a hierarchy of entit...
What was the highest number of Frenchmen to ever live in French Algeria? With said territory being considered an integral part of France, how realistic would it be for French Algeria to remain a part of France?	Hey! Unfortunately, we've had to remove your question--"how realistic would it have been" demands a speculative answer, which doesn't work. However, you have a real question here! Could you please resubmit it as "How many native French people were in French Algeria? If it was so integrated into France, why did Alg...	[ "BULLET::::- Algerian-French residents make up an estimated 5 to 8 percent of the ethnic makeup of France's population, despite the French government does not keep data records on race and ethnicity. Algerians resided in France for over 150 years as a result of the French colonial period in Algeria from 1830 to 196...
Everything in space orbits something, right?	No, not everything orbits something else. The largest orbits in the universe are those of galaxies within galaxy clusters, but those take such a long time (billions of years) that they aren't consistent or stable. At the supercluster scale, things stop being gravitationally bound to each other. We're not bound to the V...	[ "In astronomy, and in particular in astrodynamics, the osculating orbit of an object in space at a given moment in time is the gravitational Kepler orbit (i.e. an elliptic or other conic one) that it would have around its central body if perturbations were absent. That is, it is the orbit that coincides with the cu...
The last caliphate ended with the Ottoman Empire in the 1920s. Why has it taken until 2014 for the Muslim world to declare a new one?	It should be pointed out that this is a unilateral declaration by a group seeking greater cachet among fervent [Sunni] believers, not a declaration by "the Muslim world" as a whole. If you do not control the Holy Places, you can't make much of a claim to Caliphate in the broadest sense; if you are a tiny fraction of t...	[ "The abolition of the Caliphate was the abolishment the world's last widely recognized caliphate on 3 March 1924, decreed by the Grand National Assembly of Turkey as one of reforms following the replacement of the Ottoman Empire with the Republic of Turkey. Abdulmejid II was deposed as the last Ottoman Caliph and a...

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