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The Confusing History of Bible Translations. Is there a definitive reference for this subject?	Hi, hopefully you'll get some help here, but do also consider x-posting to /r/AcademicBiblical for their input.	[ "The Greek translation of the Hebrew Scriptures (the \"Septuagint\") was the dominant translation, including the biblical apocrypha. The books of the canon of the New Testament, which includes the Canonical Gospels, Acts, letters of the Apostles, and Revelation were written before 120 AD, but not defined as \"canon...
Was speed and violence of action during World War 2 a large contributing factor as to why it did not stabilize into nasty trench warfare like WWI?	Mobile warfare of WW2 was inevitable. Multiple factors contributed to this. To name some: - Military thought has matured enough to utilize the technological advances needed to implement [Blitzkrieg style warfare](_URL_0_) - Improved communication and organization afforded to concentrate, coordinate and operate large ...	[ "During the First World War, the increasing lethality of more modern weapons, such as artillery and machine guns, forced a shift in infantry tactics to trench warfare. Massed infantry charges were now essentially suicidal, and the Western Front ground to a standstill.\n", "The immobility of the trench warfare cha...
why do some people hear noises prior to falling asleep.	It could be [hypnagogia](_URL_0_) As you fall asleep, there's a brief period where you're effectively half-awake. Similar to being in an altered state from sedative medication, your brain can't handle its shit, so you hallucinate.	[ "Noise can make sleeping difficult on occasions, whether from snoring, talking and social activities in the lounge, people staying up to read with the light on, someone either returning late from bars, or leaving early, or the proximity of so many people. To mitigate this, some wear earplugs or eye-covering sleepin...
how am i supposed to analyze the double toilet flusher buttons?	ELI5: You make peepee = press small button You make poopoo = press big button	[ "Text explaining the controls of these toilets tends to be in Japanese only. Although many of the buttons often have pictograms, the flush button is often written only in Kanji, meaning that non-Japanese users may initially find it difficult to locate the correct button.\n", "Some flushometer models require the u...
Is there a particular reason why there are few islands in the Arctic Ocean?	The short answer is that it has to do with the way plate tectonics force continental basalt, which is the stuff that forms terrestrial topography like islands and continents, away from divergent boundaries in the ocean floor. Look at [this diagram of global continental geology](_URL_1_), and imagine a soup slowly broil...	[ "Because it is open towards the Arctic Ocean in the north, the main gulfs of the East Siberian Sea, like the Kolyma Bay, the Kolyma Gulf and the Chaunskaya Bay, are all located in its southern limits. There are no islands in the middle of the East Siberian Sea, but there are a few islands and island groups in its c...
how are the child/baby pictures of grown up actors in movies made?	All of the above and make-up. Sometimes with hilarious results. In Star Trek, they've shown how Wesley Crusher would look at 25. [Here's](_URL_0_) how he would look like and [here's a picture of him then/now](_URL_1_)	[ "Movies and/or TV series they appeared in are mentioned only if they were still a child at the time of filming. For a list of current child actors from the UK see List of current child actors from the United Kingdom.\n", "Many child actors find themselves struggling to adapt as they become adults. Lindsay Lohan a...
How much of the uranium gets converted to energy in a nuclear bomb?	I don't quite know enough to give you a complete answer... "Uranium" doesn't get converted to energy, precisely. If you calculate the mass of an atom and then calculate the mass of all the protons, neutrons, and electrons that make up the same atom, you will find that the atom somehow has more mass. The reason is that...	[ "When a uranium nucleus fissions into two daughter nuclei fragments, about 0.1 percent of the mass of the uranium nucleus appears as the fission energy of ~200 MeV. For uranium-235 (total mean fission energy 202.79 MeV), typically ~169 MeV appears as the kinetic energy of the daughter nuclei, which fly apart at abo...
source of streaming videos	Most all movies are cataloged digitally. For older vcr and film movies they use special converters	[ "The streaming media company provides online video through live and on-demand services to severals companies, which includes Major League Gaming, The Associated Press, Jamie Oliver, MSN, the International Court of Justice and the United Nations.\n", "Data streaming can also be explained as a technology used to de...
Has there ever been a push to ban libraries by the book publishing industry?	This answer applies to America only, because I am An American Librarian (™) and I only know the historical, professional, and legal situation for libraries here. The answer is kinda yes: publishers routinely oppose some of the work of librarians, [and others](_URL_4_), in this day and age. The modern [problems and rest...	[ "Many libraries are considering offering publishing services to academics under an open access model. The growing demand for publishing services suggests new roles and responsibilities for academic libraries in the future. The establishment or reestablishment of academic and university presses may offer a new econo...
When was the last time there was a single world power?	While the British Empire had it's rivals, it was by far the single global power in the latter half of the 19th century. When the term "superpower" was first described, it was used to describe not only the United States and USSR, but also the British Empire, though due to strains of WWII, and anti-colonial uprisings in ...	[ "Shifts of international power have most notably occurred through major conflicts. The conclusion of the Great War and the resulting treaties of Versailles, St-Germain, Neuilly, Trianon and Sèvres witnessed the United Kingdom, France, Italy, Japan, and the United States as the chief arbiters of the new world order....
why do some restaurants add an automatic gratuity for groups of a certain size even if the patrons ask for separate bills?	Because not everybody tips, simple as that. Make sure a tax is added so now everybody has “to tip” and no one is tipping more than the other.	[ "As a means of attracting customers at less busy times, many restaurants have promotional periods on certain days, usually in the early morning or late afternoon. This typically involves charging a fixed price for certain dishes. Typically, the \"small\", \"medium\" and \"large\" items are all charged at the usual ...
How many words does an average person memorize in their lifetime?	An important thing to consider is that this will be highly dependent on the language under consideration. Isolating languages like English tend to have simple words -- that is, words with little internal "morphological" structure. Such languages will tend to have relatively fewer words. This contrasts with agglutinativ...	[ "Experiments in memory span have found that the more familiar a person is with the type of subject matter presented to them, the more they will remember it in a novel setting. For example, a person will better remember a sequence in their first-language than their second-language; a person will also remember a sequ...
Historical accuracy in popular media. Does it annoy you?	We have removed this question because it is an open-ended question that isn't suited to our normal q-and-a format and rules. But we encourage you to post your question again in our Free-Form Friday thread.	[ "The \"Journal of American History\" said: \"Gordon has done historians a service by recognizing the importance of popular visual sources as important clues to understanding American culture. And the book is not only informative but fun to read.\" \n", "BULLET::::- \"... nothing is more spectacular than this kind...
how do wetsuits/diving suits keep your body warm?	A wet suit traps a pool of water between you and the ocean. Your own body heat warms that water. The thickness of the neoprene insulated that inner layer of water from ocean. Edit there are also dry suits, which keep you from getting wet in the first place, or mostly keep you dry.	[ "Wetsuits heated by a flow of hot water piped from the surface are standard equipment for commercial diving in cold water, particularly where the heat loss from the diver is increased by use of helium based breathing gases. Hot water suits are a loose fit as there is a constant supply of heated water piped into the...
What quickens the drying of blood when compared to water?	Blood is composed of red and white blood cells, platelets and plasma, which itself is composed of mostly water and dissolved nutrients. What you call the "drying" of blood is not the same process as water "drying", water will dry through evaporation. When exposed to the air blood will quickly clot due to aggregation of...	[ "Differences in moisture content between the surface and the centre (gradient, the chemical potential difference between interface and bulk) move the bound water through the small passageways in the cell wall by diffusion. In comparison with capillary movement, diffusion is a slow process. Diffusion is the generall...
what does a misspelled word or bad grammar look like in chinese?	I kind of get what you're asking. Well, first thing is, you can't "misspell" Chinese per se. Maybe you can get the strokes wrong or have missing strokes (Like writing 日 or 由 when you actually wanna write 田), they can be two totally separate characters. Or, you can just use the wrong character (since Chinese has limit...	[ "Aside from its use as a diminutive, erhua in the Beijing dialect also serves to differentiate words; for example, (\"báimiàn\" \"flour\") and (\"báimiànr\" \"heroin\", literally \"little white powder\"). Additionally, some words may sound unnatural without rhotacization, as is the case with / (\"huā\"/\"huār\" \"f...
The United States was founded, populated and developed by people who were not originally from America. How did anti-immigration sentiment arise from a literal nation of immigrants? How did the idea of America as a melting pot of different cultures develop in spite anti-immigrant sentiment?	I cannot answer your first question, but I can provide insights on the second. The idea that America was built on multiculturalism appeared very early. By the 1780s, the term "melting together" was a widespread metaphor in use that was meant to positively portray incoming immigrants. Of course, America had just ousted...	[ "The United States became more anti-immigration in outlook during this period. The American Immigration Act of 1924 limited immigration from countries where 2% of the total U.S. population, per the 1890 census, were immigrants from that country. Thus, the massive influx of Europeans that had come to America during ...
web 3.0?	Web 2.0 was just a catchphrase that some journalist came up with. It's just a vague, handwavey term that can be used to talk about whatever a speaker wants. Nobody spoke of "Web 1.0" prior to it becoming widely used. I hope we can avoid using "Web 3.0" in the future. The people that are actually creating and innovatin...	[ "According to Curtis, Web 3.0 will be \"something called Good Editing.\" Speaking at a media conference in Washington, DC hosted by the Poynter Institute, Curtis stated, \"The 'wisdom of the crowds' is the most ridiculous statement I've heard in my life. Crowds are dumb. It takes people to move crowds in the right ...
why does mostly the top of our feet hurt when our feet land on something hard?	If you look at a human skeleton, you will see that there are long bones at the top of our feet. Those are called metatarsal bones. The force of the impact of landing hard on your feet will travel through those bones, which is painful.	[ "As the feet are the only body part with near permanent contact to the environment, their lack of protection can have a victimizing effect and make the person feel physically defeated, helpless or vulnerable which adds to the shaming effect.\n", "Turf toe is named from the injury being associated with playing spo...
what's the difference between the different types of anti-aliasing?	There's different methods involved to get rid of the jaggies with varying levels of effectiveness and performance penalties. The most brute force one being super sampling. The image is rendered much higher than the target resolution and then shrunk down to the target resolution. This is very effective at getting rid o...	[ "In digital signal processing, spatial anti-aliasing is a technique for minimizing the distortion artifacts known as aliasing when representing a high-resolution image at a lower resolution. Anti-aliasing is used in digital photography, computer graphics, digital audio, and many other applications.\n", "In realti...
what do people mean when they say that all birds are dinosaurs?	65 million years ago a comet wiped out all the dinosaurs on earth. Well, almost all of them. A small group of feathered dinosaurs survived, and eventually evolved into all the birds of today.	[ "Based on fossil and biological evidence, most scientists accept that birds are a specialised subgroup of theropod dinosaurs, and more specifically, they are members of Maniraptora, a group of theropods which includes dromaeosaurs and oviraptorids, among others. As scientists have discovered more theropods closely ...
Is there any connection between Cossaks and Kazakhs? Or is the name similarity just a coincidence?	Adding to /u/snakeskinjim's brief and clear post, here's the etymology of Cossack: Cossack (n.) 1590s, from Russian kozak, from Turkish kazak "adventurer, guerilla, nomad," from qaz "to wander." The same Turkic root is the source of the people-name Kazakh and the nation of Kazakhstan. So they share the same root wor...	[ "However some Turkologists argue that Cumania's Cossacks are descendants of Kipchaks, who partly originated near the Chinese borders and soon moved to Western Siberia. Afterwards they migrated further west into the trans-Volga region (now western Kazakhstan). In the 11th century, they finally arrived the steppe are...
why china has both an overcrowding/pollution problem and ghost towns.	The non-myth ghost towns are in the middle of nowhere and usually lack essential services. Nobody wants to move to a city with no grocery stores, no running water, and no fire department that's 100 miles from anywhere, no matter how cheap the apartments are.	[ "Since the 1990s there has been an increasing number of apartment built in China which remain empty. In 2010 approximately 65 million apartments, capable of housing some 250 million people, were unoccupied, due to there being too expensive for the majority of Chinese to purchase or rent. At the same time many milli...
How does a virus like Ebola lay dormant of long periods of time and then reappear again?	I don't believe that the Ebola virus is thought to have a latent state, as some viruses do (herpes and HIV). Instead, there is the appearance of occasional outbreaks in populations which could give that idea. It is believed that the virus has an animal reservoir where it is alive and well and will make zoonotic transf...	[ "A dormant virus moves into this phase when it is activated, and will now perform the function for which it was intended. The triggering phase can be caused by a variety of system events, including a count of the number of times that this copy of the virus has made copies of itself.\n", "In an infectious disease,...
What happened to Liberia during the American Civil War?	I'll sketch the history of Liberia to 1860 out; the idea of resettling freed American slaves in Africa had its seed in the 1787 establishment of the British colony at Freetown, in what is now Sierra Leone. In 1817, the American Colonization Society was founded; this group was an alliance of free blacks and whites that ...	[ "Civil war in Liberia claimed the lives of more than 150,000 people - mostly civilians - and led to a complete breakdown of law and order. It displaced scores of thousands of people, both internally and beyond the borders, resulting in some 850,000 refugees in the neighboring countries. Fighting began in late 1989,...
Is it possible to harness the gamma radiation from nuclear reactions in the same way we harness solar radiation using solar panels?	From: _URL_0_ > Spent fuels and high level radioactive wastes which emit high doze of gamma rays could be a promising and long-lasting power source, if the gamma ray energy was effectively converted other forms of energy. In the present study, we have tried to convert gamma ray to electricity directly, with using sil...	[ "Hf is a particularly attractive candidate for induced gamma emission (IGE) experiments, because of its high density of stored energy, 2.5 MeV per nucleus, and long 31-year half life for storing that energy. If radiation from some agent could \"trigger\" a release of that stored energy, the resulting cascade of gam...
why does rubbing your finger across your lips make them softer?	Anyone else try rubbing their lips with their finger after reading the title?	[ "The navel and the region below when touched by the finger or the tip of the tongue result in the production of erotic sensations. Madonna has told in an interview to the SPIN magazine (May 1985 issue), \"When I stick my finger in my belly button, I feel a nerve in the center of my body shoot up my spine.\"\n", "...
Why must we use radians (and not degrees) in calculus?	Have a look at [this gif](_URL_0_). A radian is just a way of measuring such that : The length of each turn around the circle = is exactly equal to the length of the radius. You could use any units you want. Of course, the distance between the centre and the edge (the radius), is a bit smaller than the overall distan...	[ "When using trigonometric function in calculus, their argument is generally not an angle, but rather a real number. In this case, it is more suitable to express the argument of the trigonometric as the length of the arc of the unit circle delimited by an angle with the center of the circle as vertex. Therefore, one...
why do video game discs have loading screens but nintendo cartridges don't?	Video game cartridges are like the solid state drives (SSDs) of the past. They had much faster data transfer rates but data capacity is much more expensive since the data is stored on computer chips. Disks are the opposite and are similar to hard drive disks (HDDs). They have slow transfer rates because they require r...	[ "Discs became popular as the storage medium for console games during the fifth generation due to the ability to store large amounts of data and be produced cheaply. The increase in space provided developers with a medium to store higher quality assets but means they had to take into account that you could not write...
rfid protection	At a high level, the wallets that offer RFID protection are very small [Faraday cages](_URL_0_) which block all EM radiation from coming in or going out. The ID window is a hole in the cage, which allows the RFID signal to pass through.	[ "RFID is synonymous with track-and-trace solutions, and has a critical role to play in supply chains. RFID is a code-carrying technology, and can be used in place of a barcode to enable non-line of sight-reading. Deployment of RFID was earlier inhibited by cost limitations but the usage is now increasing.\n", "RF...
how do drug companies decide what the dosage should be for different over the counter medication?	Extensive testing, through a bunch of different phases, starting with animals and, when it’s deemed safe enough and worth the effort to move into the market, on humans	[ "Prescription drug dosage is based typically on body weight. Drugs come with a recommended dose in milligrams or micrograms per kilogram of body weight, and that is used in conjunction with the patient's body weight to determine a safe dosage. In single dosage scenarios, the patient's body weight and the drug's rec...
why is it that we don't know much about ancient civilizations? shouldn't the information get passed across generations?	But if Civilization gets slaughtered or decimated by illness who are they going to tell their history? Our knowledge of history is based mainly on documents. If we don't have them or can't decipher them (as was long the case with hieroglyphics) we won't know much. Also do WE document our history for future civilizatio...	[ "Understanding the past appears to be a universal human need, and the telling of history has emerged independently in civilizations around the world. What constitutes history is a philosophical question (see philosophy of history). The earliest chronologies date back to Mesopotamia and ancient Egypt, though no hist...
British naval doctrine	It is called the “two-power standard”. The times of naval superiority at low cost was at an end by growing naval competition from old rivals, such as the French, and new ones such as Imperial Germany and the Japanese. These challenges were reflected by the Naval Defence act of 1889, which received the Royal Assent on M...	[ "At the turn of the 20th century, Britain adhered to the \"Two-Power Standard\": the Royal Navy had to be equal in strength to that of the next two naval powers combined. The standard, long accepted unofficially, was made official by the Naval Defence Act 1889, and designated the French and Russian navies as the mo...
"Great Game" narratives usually describe a British Empire deeply anxious about Russian expansion into Asia. How much was the opposite also true?	can i tack on a book request for overviews of "the great game"?	[ "From 1813 to 1907 Great Britain and the Russian Empire were engaged in a strategic competition for domination of Central Asia, known in Britain as \"The Great Game\", and in Russia as the \"Tournament of Shadows.\" The British sea power and base in the Indian subcontinent served as the platform for a push Northwes...
what makes some glass surfaces reflective while others are transparent?	Light. If an object behind glass repels photons, it reflects. If it doesnt, it appears transparent as the photons continue passed it. That's how mirrors work.	[ "Glass may also be used as a protective layer to protect the other layers from abrasion and corrosion. Although glass is brittle, it is a good material for this purpose, because it is highly transparent (low optical losses), resistant to ultraviolet light (UV), fairly hard (abrasion resistant), chemically inert, an...
what causes that "old" metallic-like smell in antique typewriters/cameras/sewing machines?	It's actually a kind of body odor. When you touch the metal, it catalyzes the decomposition of oils on your skin and makes smaller, more volatile compounds that make up the "metal smell."	[ "Iron and copper coins have a characteristic metallic smell that is produced upon contact with oils in the skin. Perspiration is chemically reduced upon contact with these metals, which causes the skin oils to decompose, forming with iron the volatile molecule 1-octen-3-one.\n", "BULLET::::- Pyranol/Pyrenol, Chlo...
Origin of the honorable Wehrmacht reputation	While there be more to add, I think this answer to an older question by u/commiespaceinvader may be what you are looking for. _URL_0_	[ "Soon after the war ended, former \"Wehrmacht\" officers, veterans' groups and various far-right authors began to state that the \"Wehrmacht\" was an apolitical organization which was largely innocent of Nazi Germany's war crimes and crimes against humanity. Attempting to benefit from the clean \"Wehrmacht\" myth, ...
What can we use bronze for today and why?	Bronze type alloys are often used in places where you want low friction with steel parts. The most common example are oil infused bronze bushings for rotating parts. They are cheaper and take less space than roller bearings.	[ "Bronze is an alloy consisting primarily of copper, commonly with about 12–12.5% tin and often with the addition of other metals (such as aluminium, manganese, nickel or zinc) and sometimes non-metals or metalloids such as arsenic, phosphorus or silicon. These additions produce a range of alloys that may be harder ...
what happens in your skin when you get calluses.	Your skin gets tired of repairing the damage, so it over-does the repair operation - thickening the outer protective layer.	[ "Biologically, calluses are formed by the accumulation of terminally undifferentiated keratinocytes in the outermost layer of skin. Though the cells of calluses are dead, they are quite resistant to mechanical and chemical insults due to extensive networks of cross-linked proteins and hydrophobic keratin intermedia...
Fairly inane question about microwaves (the cooking kind)	Non-scientist here, but I'll try to answer your question. Yes, your father is right. For different amounts of food, cooking times varies. This has to do with the way microwaves work. When cooking in a regular oven, the amount of food doesn't influence cooking time (at least, not in a sensible way - unless we are talk...	[ "Microwave ovens produce heat directly within the food, but despite the common misconception that microwaved food cooks from the inside out, 2.45 GHz microwaves can only penetrate approximately into most foods. The inside portions of thicker foods are mainly heated by heat conducted from the outer .\n", "A microw...
i get told beer is bad because it is all carbs and soda is bad because it is all sugar. which one is worse on my gut and why?	Water. You're supposed to drink water	[ "However, the most striking feature of \"Beer Bad\" is the twin moral: Beer and casual sex are bad. In a BBC interview, Petrie states: \"Well, very young people get unlimited access to alcohol and become horrible! We all do it — or most of us do it — and live to regret it, and we wanted to explore that.\"\n", "It...
selling short in stocks, mutual funds, and margins	Short selling: You have 100 stocks in a company that you plan on keeping regardless of what happens to its price. Lets say they're worth 100$ a piece. Now I think that the price is going to take a shit-kicking. So I tell you, 'Hey, if you let me borrow your 100 stocks for a month, I'll give them back to you and g...	[ "Short selling is sometimes referred to as a \"negative income investment strategy\" because there is no potential for dividend income or interest income. Stock is held only long enough to be sold pursuant to the contract, and one's return is therefore limited to short term capital gains, which are taxed as ordinar...
why does the pitch of an emergency siren change when it has gone past you?	The sound waves bunch up ahead of the vehicle, making out sound higher, and as it passes you, they spread out behind out, lowering the frequency. Google "Doppler effect"	[ "A siren on a passing emergency vehicle will start out higher than its stationary pitch, slide down as it passes, and continue lower than its stationary pitch as it recedes from the observer. Astronomer John Dobson explained the effect thus:\n", "whistle or by sirens. The sirens shall be located at uniform distan...
why do we clinch our teeth while applying force?	Imagine force as pressure, like the pressure of soda in a bottle. We feel the pressure because the soda is pushing against the walls of the bottle. If the cap is off the bottle, there is no pressure: the walls of the bottle are squishable. When the cap is on the bottle becomes stiff. Our bodies are the same way. In ...	[ "BULLET::::- The clinch – Clinching is a form of trapping or a rough form of grappling and occurs when the distance between both fighters has closed and straight punches cannot be employed. In this situation, the boxer attempts to hold or \"tie up\" the opponent's hands so he is unable to throw hooks or uppercuts. ...
How did people on the dole pass their days in ancient Rome?	The Roman grain dole was not really a "poor relief"--[this paper](_URL_0_) does a really good job covering the basics. Furthermore, I don't believe that the dole would be able to cover the full subsistence of a family. So, that said, they would probably be working. The idea of a slave based urban economy has rapidly fa...	[ "Since local habits varied across the empire, local Roman habits also varied. In particular, whether the day started from sunrise, or later midnight (as Romans), or from sunset as Athenians and Jews. The Romans also divided the day into other periods, such as \"media noctis inclinatio\" \"midnight,\" \"gallicinium\...
nasa's latest announcement about mars' atmosphere	EDIT: More ELI5 answer: A long time ago Mars had plenty of water flowing on its surface. Shortly after the flowing water was there Mars lost its magnetic field. The magnetic field is caused by melted metal inside of Mars moving around; the same way Earth gets its magnetic field. The metal cooled and became solid faste...	[ "Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN) is a spacecraft developed by NASA that went into orbit around Mars to study the planet's atmosphere. Mission goals include determining how the atmosphere and water, presumed to have once been substantial, were lost over time.\n", "On July 19, 2013, NASA scientists p...
What did economics classes look like in communist countries, particularly in the USSR?	Economics classes in communist countries were generally focused much more on microeconomics and industrial planning, while U.S. courses focused on macroeconomic theory and market forces. For example, compare U.S. based microeconomics courses(both graduate and undergraduate levels) to Eastern European microeconomic co...	[ "The Soviet working class was, according to Marxist–Leninist theory, supposed to be the Soviet Union's ruling class during its transition from the socialist stage of development to full communism. However, it's commonly argued that its influence over production and policies diminished as the USSR's existence progre...
What makes the whirl pool in a sink?	If you fill up your sink with the drain plugged, the water will be moving around in a more or less random way. This random motion most likely has some nonzero angular momentum about the drain. When you pull the plug, water rushes down the drain, pulling more water down behind it (by cohesive forces, water is also pushe...	[ "Water is typically drawn from the pool via a rectangular aperture in the wall, connected through to a device fitted into one (or more) wall/s of the pool. The internals of the skimmer are accessed from the pool deck through a circular or rectangle lid, about one foot in diameter. If the pool's water pump is operat...
why do restaurants offer and promote "healthy options" and then give you a tiny water glass?	The most expensive part of a fountain drink is the cup itself so many fast food restaurants is to hand out the cheapest container they have.	[ "Water. It's necessary to sustain life, but to many Casual Dining restaurant chains it contributes to a dull dining experience for the customer. Many customers choose tap water not because they enjoy it, but because it is what they always have drunk in the past. In response, some restaurant chains are implementing ...
In the Multiple-Universe Theory, how would some universes that have different laws of Physics look compared to our universe's laws?	A pretty simple example would be different values for the fundamental forces. Say for example there existed a universe where the gravitational force was many magnitudes weaker than our own universe. Perhaps no stars or planets of galaxies would ever form. That would be a pretty boring place.	[ "Since the current laws of physics are only known to be valid in this universe, it is possible that the laws of physics are different in parallel universes, giving a God-like entity more power. If the number of universes is unlimited, then the power of a certain God-like entity is also unlimited, since the laws of ...
why was the recent eclipse scientifically important?	The result would not be the same. The sun's light is being blocked from outside the atmosphere. There is only one way to do that, that being with a celestial body with the same apparent diameter. It's also remarkable because of the relative rarity with which these events happen in a given location.	[ "The concept of eclipse suggests that Darwinian research paused, implying in turn that there had been a preceding period of vigorously Darwinian activity among biologists. However, historians of science such as Mark Largent have argued that while biologists broadly accepted the extensive evidence for evolution pres...
What is it about Malaria that is making a vaccine so difficult to complete?	Money is an issue. However Plasmodium falciparum, the parasite that cause malaria is very good at evading the immune system. Traditional vaccines "teach" the immune system to recognize and attack pathogens it has never seen before. This is based in the recognition of unique characteristics of the pathogen (like certain...	[ "Currently, there is no malaria vaccine. It is a very perplexing vaccine to make. According to the World Health Organization, \"the complexity of the malaria parasite has made the creation of a malaria vaccine difficult.\" Malaria is caused by a variety of species of the Plasmodium protozoan and the virus of the an...
What was the first example of a major/widely recognized brand?	In the 16th century Albrecht Dürer, one of the most celebrated artists of his time, marked his prints with a specifically designed logo of his initials. The logo quickly became internationally synonymous with his name (Dürer was one of the first artists to achieve substantial fame across Europe during his lifetime), ...	[ "Some brands still in existence date from the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries' period of mass-production. Bass & Company, the British brewery founded in 1777, became a pioneer in international brand marketing. Many years before 1855 Bass applied a red triangle to casks of its Pale Ale. In 1876 its red-triangle brand ...
if you flew a spacecraft into a gas planet, would you go straight through it or would you hit some form of ground?	It's believed that most, if not all, gas giants have solid cores. However, the pressure of the atmosphere (not the gravity) would crush your craft LONG before you got to the core. We did send the Galileo probe down into Jupiter's atmosphere, it lasted about 78 minutes before it got crushed like a bug.	[ "To make a powered landing from orbit on a celestial body without an atmosphere requires the same mass reduction as reaching orbit from its surface, if the speed at which the surface is reached is zero.\n", "Once in orbit, their speed keeps them in orbit above the atmosphere. If e.g., an elliptical orbit dips int...
Why can't we create artificial eyes? We're very good at optics and signalprocessing. Where is the complexity in making a "camera" and connecting it to the optic nerve?	The optic nerve is a bundle of neuron axons - the bodies of those neurons are the [retinal ganglion cells] (_URL_1_), which are spread out in a sheet across the inner surface of the retina. So a bionic eye needs to make contact with the nerve via those cell bodies (or their dendritic inputs, or via prior layers of th...	[ "Various researchers have demonstrated that the retina performs strategic image preprocessing for the brain. The problem of creating a completely functional artificial electronic eye is even more complex. Advances towards tackling the complexity of the artificial connection to the retina, optic nerve, or related br...
Why are solar panels typically blue and shiny?	This is because silicon is best at absorbing light in the redder end of the spectrum, including infrared. Smaller wavelengths, on the blue end of the visible spectrum, are reflected more. So when the sunlight hits the solar cell, silicon likes to absorb the red and reflect the blue. This changes with different material...	[ "Single crystal solar panel are used in solar power assemblies which provide maximum efficiency in the smallest size available. The solar panel backs are covered by vented aluminum panel pans to protect against weather, vandalism, and other types of damage.\n", "BULLET::::1. Solar Panels produce carbon free elect...
What Gives Brass That Distinctive Smell?	Not exactly your question, but people are able to smell iron after touching it with a finger, according to [this ScienceDaily article](_URL_0_). Perspiration on the skin reduces the metal into Fe^2+ ions. The Fe^2+ ions decompose oil on your skin (or a byproduct, lipid peroxides) into a bouquet of different organic com...	[ "The study of odors is complicated by the complex chemistry taking place at the moment of a smell sensation. For example, iron-containing metallic objects are perceived to have a distinctive odor when touched, although iron's vapor pressure is negligible. According to a 2006 study, this smell is the result of aldeh...
how does old and worn money get out of the circulation?	One thing that banks do is when they see a bill that's getting too worn out is they send it back to the treasury department and get a replacement. The treasury department destroys them.	[ "The central bank, or other competent, state authorities (such as the Treasury), are typically empowered to create new, physical currency, i.e. paper notes and coins, in order to meet the needs of commercial banks for cash withdrawals, and to replace worn and/or destroyed currency. The process does not increase the...
why do large scale fires take so long to be put out?	Thats happens because of how the fire works. In order for fire to burn, you need fuel, heat, and oxygen. Now, its not enough to just locally remove oxygen or energy for a moment. You need an orchestrated effort to keep situation controlled until its all extinguished. If you dont, dangerous things happen (like, for ...	[ "Fire plays a main role in the \"Stronghold\" storyline, as in certain missions, igniting pitch is almost necessary for survival. Also, there are certain trigger events that start fires. Fires spread very quickly, and a flaming building can ignite people or other buildings. Fires will only go out if all sources of ...
i'm making hot dogs in the microwave. the packaging says "1 hot dog is 30 sec but 2 or more are a minute and 10 sec" why do i have to increase time when making more than one? won't they cook the same for the time of 1 hot dog?	Your microwave oven outputs microwaves (pretty self-explanatory), for regular cooking (not defrost or simar functions), the microwave oven outputs a fixed rate of microwaves. Since there is a fixed amount, more things to cook means less microwaves for each. Think of it like putting a splitter on a garden hose to f...	[ "Creating a long hot dog is not much of a feat. This is because the hot dog is structurally quite sound, and remarkably flexible. In the August 2006 record breaking attempt, the hot dog was manufactured by Shizuoka Meat Producers, and wound into a large plastic barrel which was easily transported inside a delivery ...
How do fish and other marine vertebrates prevent their digestive fluids from flowing out of their mouth?	Many fish do not have stomachs. An example that comes to mind are seahorses, which must eat small amounts very often because of this. However, for the fish that do have stomachs, which is admittedly the majority, they have a sphincter at the junction of the stomach and esophagus, just as people do. The sphincter is k...	[ "The mouths of these fish have developed into a suckermouth, which allows the fish to cling onto objects in the fast-moving water of their habitat. They therefore stay close to the bottom, where their primary food, algae, is more readily available. Uniquely among fish, members of this family have gill slits with tw...
how exactly does one "evade" taxes? kinda curious how ~100 billion euros could be missed. (assuming story truth)	When you work at a company, they keep track of how much you are being paid, and then tell the tax authority that number - so when you file your taxes, the number you say you earned had better match the number your employer told them. But... if your income isn't coming directly from a company - say you are a waitress w...	[ "In Mazzei v. Commissioner, 61 T.C. 497 (1974), the United States Tax Court ruled that a taxpayer could not consider $20,000 lost to a fraudulent counterfeiting scheme as a basis for a deduction under section 165(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code (\"Code\").\n", "Tax evaders typically are either involved in acti...
Was Mozart wealthy during his own lifetime? Would he have had riches comparable to today's celebrated musicians and what kind of lifestyle do we know Mozart had? Was it extravagant? Starving artist? Or somewhere inbetween?	Mozart made a lot of money, and lived a somewhat extravagant life. But he was also swimming in debt as a result of poor money management and various circumstances somewhat out of his control. I answered [a similar question about his finances](_URL_0_) about a year ago, the gist of which is that while he had some period...	[ "Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart died after a short illness on 5 December 1791, aged 35. His reputation as a composer, already strong during his lifetime, rose rapidly in the years after his death, and he became (as he has remained to this day) one of the most celebrated of all composers.\n", "With substantial returns fr...
How did the 30years war influence trade (routes)?	There was a commercial crisis extending from central to north-western Europe as early as 1620, during the conflict's initial Bohemian phase, though the slowing of silver shipments from the New World may also have contributed. Without questioning estimates of human loss, Schulze & Volckart consider the longer-term com...	[ "The close links between war and trade meant conflict extended beyond Europe, particularly in North America, where it is known as Queen Anne's War and the West Indies, which produced sugar, then hugely profitable. In addition, there were minor trade conflicts in South America, India and Asia; the financial strains ...
How did dogs become man's best friend in western culture?	“Man’s best friend” is a colloquialism, so it sort of depends on what you mean and how seriously you take it. In a very real sense, dogs have been man’s “best friend” since their domestication, about 30,000 years ago. There are arguments that hunting with dogs increased efficiency to give humans surplus time for the fl...	[ "The dogs' value to early human hunter-gatherers led to them quickly becoming ubiquitous across world cultures. Dogs perform many roles for people, such as hunting, herding, pulling loads, protection, assisting police and military, companionship, and, more recently, aiding handicapped individuals. This influence on...
Why do presidents have the power to pardon? What were the founding fathers arguments for giving this power vs not?	It is effectively a check on the judiciary branch in practice, and a means by which the framers sought to allow the government to show mercy. That said, this was a controversial inclusion into the Constitution at the time. There was a deep disagreement among the Founding Fathers on whether the power should be unlimit...	[ "Adam Liptak, attorney and Supreme Court correspondent, questioned the wisdom of the pardon but not its legitimacy: \"It was the first act of outright defiance against the judiciary by a president who has not been shy about criticizing federal judges who ruled against his businesses and policies. But while the move...
how do people get caught for illegal downloads and prosecuted?	The overwhelming majority of people do not get caught. Piracy is treated in a similar manner to drug dealing. They let the little guys operate and go after the boss, i.e. they let you, the downloader, pirate and go after the guy who uploaded it instead. There was a story about a guy who uploaded the new Fast & fur...	[ "BULLET::::- Downloading illegal copies on the Internet will be prohibited. Downloading for personal use won't be punished, but it may lead to claims for damages, if the copier knows or should have known that the source is illegal.\n", "Law No. 3064/2002, passed in 2002, states that trafficking for the purpose of...
Could an instrument be played in space?	Yes, but what would be the medium for sound? A taut string or drum surface will vibrate when tapped, stroked or hammered, but to transmit sound takes a medium such as an atmosphere or fluid through which those vibrations can be carried to a listener. Think of how Whedon handled sounds in space for Firefly: There sim...	[ "Music in space is music played in or broadcast from a spacecraft in outer space. According to the Smithsonian Institution, the first musical instruments played in outer space were an 8-note Hohner \"Little Lady\" harmonica and a handful of small bells carried by American astronauts Wally Schirra and Thomas P. Staf...
what laws in europen union is uniform throughout? what kind of laws can vary between the member countries?	There are EU directives, decisions and EU regulations Directives aim to achieve a specific outcome but it's up to the member state how to implement it Regulations are binding laws throughout every Member State and enter into force on a set date. Decisions are EU laws relating to specific cases and directed to indiv...	[ "BULLET::::- European Union law is the first and, so far, only example of an internationally accepted legal system other than the UN and the World Trade Organization. Given the trend of increasing global economic integration, many regional agreements—especially the Union of South American Nations—are on track to fo...
if anything is moving away with constant speed from each other, why distant objects appear faster?	In what context does that happen? If you stand and look at moving objects the closer they are the faster they appear because the angular size changes faster. Angular size there size in your field of view. The size of a object approximate half in size at twine the distance so something that move from 200m to 100m aw...	[ "The rate at which two objects in motion in a single frame of reference get closer together is called the mutual or closing speed. This may approach twice the speed of light, as in the case of two particles travelling at close to the speed of light in opposite directions with respect to the reference frame.\n", "...
cherenkov effect: how can something travel faster than the speed of light?	The particles that cause Cerenkov radiation don't actually travel faster than c, the speed of light in a vacuum, they travel faster than the speed of light in the medium in which that light is propagating. You can kind of think of it like a sonic boom, light in water doesn't travel at its maximum speed, but rather a...	[ "Moving at a speed close to the speed of light and encountering even a tiny stationary object like a grain of sand will have fatal consequences. For example, a gram of matter moving at 90% of the speed of light contains a kinetic energy corresponding to a small nuclear bomb (around 30kt TNT).\n", "According to th...
Why did Latin-based languages stay dominant in France, Spain and Italy after they were invaded by Germanic peoples?	There are at least two important points. First of all, Germanic incomers were few in numbers. It is usually thought that Frankish settlement in Gaul must have been in the range of the tens of thousands, on a Latin speaking population of several million (common estimations propose 5 to 6 millions in Gaul). These settler...	[ "The vulgar Latin language that continued to evolve after the establishment of the successor kingdoms of the Roman State incorporated Germanic vocabulary, but with minimal influences from Germanic grammar (Germanic languages did not displace Latin except in northern Belgium, England, the Rhineland Moselle region an...
why do humans have a natural tendency to seek approval? what makes humans social beings?	We evolved as such. We cannot survive well on our own, and our survival is tied to the herd. The dynamics of the herd, what we consider being social, are thus very important to our survival.	[ "Humans are fundamentally motivated by the need to belong—the need for social approval through the maintenance of meaningful social relationships. This need motivates people to engage in behavior that will induce the approval of their peers. People are more likely to take actions to cultivate relationships with ind...
how to properly use articles in english?	"a" is for a non-specific noun. If you're talking about "a dog" its usually just any dog. The concept of a dog. Or some random dog. "an" is the same as "a" but you use it if the following word starts with a vowel. "I want to eat an apple" means that I'll eat any apple you give me. "the" is for a specific noun. "I fed...	[ "BULLET::::- Articles – English has two forms of article: \"the\" (the definite article) and \"a\" and \"an\" (the indefinite article). In addition, at times English nouns can or indeed must be used without an article; this is called the zero article. Some of the differences between definite, indefinite and zero ar...
How is penicillin G different from ampicillin and methicillin?	All three of those antibiotics are beta-lactam antibiotics. They each contain an identical region in their molecular structure that includes a beta lactam ring. Stemming from this core structure each antibiotic varies slightly. These modifications were made to the antibiotic partly so that they may avoid recognition by...	[ "Penicillin (PCN or pen) is a group of antibiotics which include penicillin G (intravenous use), penicillin V (use by mouth), procaine penicillin, and benzathine penicillin (intramuscular use). Penicillin antibiotics were among the first medications to be effective against many bacterial infections caused by staphy...
Why was segregation in the South the most talked about? Did it exist in the North?	The main difference in segregation in the south and north is de jure and de facto segregation. This means that in the south segregation was enforced by law while in the north it was enforced by practice or standard.	[ "With the migration to the North of many black workers at the turn of the 20th century, and the friction that occurred between white and black workers during this time, segregation was and continues to be a phenomenon in northern cities as well as in the South. Whites generally allocate tenements as housing to the ...
Interstellar travel: Could electricity be provided by solar panels between solar systems?	The power from photo-voltaic panels is roughly proportional to light intensity, so they're unlikely to be used outside of solar systems. It's more likely that [radioisotope thermonuclear generators](_URL_0_) would be used, since they are capable of reliable power output for decades. This is the same power source that...	[ "Most interstellar travel concepts require a developed space logistics system capable of moving millions of tons to a construction / operating location, and most would require gigawatt-scale power for construction or power (such as Star Wisp or Light Sail type concepts). Such a system could grow organically if spac...
Does temperature have momentum?	No, there is no quantity like thermal inertia that I'm aware of. The amount the temperature of something changes as a function of time will rely on how much energy you are putting into it as a function of time. There is no path dependence, rate dependence or hysteresis to this quantity.	[ "John Herapath later independently formulated a kinetic theory in 1820, but mistakenly associated temperature with momentum rather than \"vis viva\" or kinetic energy. His work ultimately failed peer review and was neglected. John James Waterston in 1843 provided a largely accurate account, again independently, but...
why can't we see living cells through electron microscope?	Mostly because an electron microscope has to operate in a vacuum. Living cells don't care much for those. & #x200B; Also, sometimes what you're looking at under a scanning electron microscope has to be covered with a very very very very thin layer of a metal (known as sputter coating) to make the image come out bet...	[ "The development of the electron microscope revealed important distinctions between those unicellular organisms whose cells do not have a distinct nucleus (prokaryotes) and those unicellular and multicellular organisms whose cells do have a distinct nucleus (eukaryotes). In 1938, Herbert F. Copeland proposed a four...
Was Caesar murdered for selfless reasons (genuine worry about tyranny), or were the assassins seeking to advance themselves?	Apparently they were genuinely worried about tyranny and thought they would be praised for their deed. _URL_0_	[ "Caesar was assassinated on 15 March 44. The assassination was led by Gaius Cassius and Marcus Brutus. Most of the conspirators were senators, who had a variety of economic, political, or personal motivations for carrying out the assassination. Many were afraid that Caesar would soon resurrect the monarchy and decl...
how does someone die by swallowing his tongue?	Almost 100% certain this is a myth your tounge is attached to the bottom of your mouth making swallowing it impossible.	[ "Swallowing, sometimes called deglutition in scientific contexts, is the process in the human or animal body that allows for a substance to pass from the mouth, to the pharynx, and into the esophagus, while shutting the epiglottis. Swallowing is an important part of eating and drinking. If the process fails and the...
what is the current role of the national guard?	To send you mail asking you to join.	[ "The National Guard of the United States is the largest of the organized federal reserve military forces in the United States. The National Guard of the United States is classified (under title 10, United States Code (\"see above\")) as the organized federal reserve military force. Under federal control, the Nation...
What were "urban warfare" tactics like before guns?	They didn't really exist. Towns and cities were besieged, they were not battle zones. Once town/city walls were breached, what ensued was pretty much slaughter, rape, and pillage.	[ "Urban warfare draws roots from a variety of tactics and strategies. Typically fought in towns and cities, Urban combatants would encounter problems such as bystanders, buildings, and restricted mobility. Unlike the battles of Napoleon, a modern military would be restricted by narrow alleys and roads. This allows a...
If Microwaves have larger wave lengths than those of Visible light, why do Microwaves heat up a food faster than visible light?	The process of heating with a microwave has nothing to do with the energy level of microwaves. Microwave ovens work under the principle of ocillation. Basically, given the right frequency of radiation, you can vibrate certain materials which in turn gives them kinetic energy, increasing their temperature. Microwave...	[ "Microwave ovens produce heat directly within the food, but despite the common misconception that microwaved food cooks from the inside out, 2.45 GHz microwaves can only penetrate approximately into most foods. The inside portions of thicker foods are mainly heated by heat conducted from the outer .\n", "Microwav...
why can a defibrillator help reset abnormal cardiac rhythms but can’t restart a heart?	A defibrillator effectively stops an abnormal rhythm by briefly stopping the heart's activity, interrupting the irregularity and allowing the normal rhythm to resume. In a stopped heart, "stopping the heart more" doesn't help anything. Whatever root cause that resulted in it stopping needs to be corrected, be that a la...	[ "CPR can prolong the survival of the brain in the lack of a normal pulse, but defibrillation is the only intervention that can restore a healthy heart rhythm. Defibrillation is performed by applying an electric shock to the heart, which resets the cells, permitting a normal beat to re-establish itself.\n", "An au...
Why do many life forms expel waste?	An organism reaches a point where it has extracted all of the easy energy and materials from a substance and it is no longer efficient to keep going. It is more cost effective to just get rid of the leftovers and bring on more easy to get resources. It's the dirty little secret of biology: we are all as lazy as our res...	[ "Organisms that subsist on dead organic matter or \"detritus\" are known as detritivores, and play an important role in ecosystems by recycling organic matter back into a simpler form that plants and other autotrophs may absorb once again. This cycling of matter is known as the biogeochemical cycle. To maintain nut...
why can we control body functions like are hands and feet, or even when we have to pee, but we can’t control the inside of our body?	Because during evolution it didnt provide people with statistically significant advantage. The way evolution works is, random mutations happen, and if these mutations help the creature survive, that creature can produce more children, passing on the mutation. Eventually, if it helps more and more creatures survive, ma...	[ "When not urinating into a toilet, squatting is the easiest way for a female to direct the urine stream (although many women find that they can do so standing up). If done this way, the urine will go forward. Some females use one or both hands to focus the direction of the urine stream, which is more easily achieve...
If I place two glasses, one 30C and the other 10C into a room that is 20C, which one will match the room's temperature first?	To first order approximation, both would approach 20 C at the same time. From there you need to put a correction on how the thermal conductivity and heat capacity changes. There's a tiny effect that higher temperatures conduct heat better, so the 30 C glass will conduct heat a little bit quicker, but more heat needs...	[ "The value ranges between 1.00 to 0.00, but experiments show that the value of the SC is typically between 0.98~0.10. The lower the rating, the less solar heat is transmitted through the glass, and the greater its shading ability.\n", "A pane of heated glass can achieve temperatures up to 350 degrees Fahrenheit (...
- who are corrupt bankers and why are they so evil?	From an article on island > > Their crimes include market manipulation, embezzlement, and breach of fiduciary duties. Their market manipulation destroyed the country’s economy and to this day Iceland is still having to repay the global loan sharks at the IMF, as well as governments of other countries, which kept t...	[ "Grand corruption is defined as corruption occurring at the highest levels of government in a way that requires significant subversion of the political, legal and economic systems. Such corruption is commonly found in countries with authoritarian or dictatorial governments but also in those without adequate policin...
what is the difference between belarus and belarussia?	The country is Belarus, the demonym for people from Belarus is belarusian. In Russian the country is called Byelorussia. Either of those possible?	[ "Belarus (; , ), officially the Republic of Belarus (, ), formerly known by its Russian name Byelorussia or Belorussia (), is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe bordered by Russia to the northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. Its capital and most populous...
why the trend toward "sleek" and "smooth", luxurious cars?	They are better on gas, and we have better construction techniques that use more fluid forming techniques out of single pieces of metal. In addition to what you said.	[ "For \"Motor\",There are faster sports cars, although very few, and there are more refined and luxurious saloons, but it is difficult to think of a more remarkable combination of these rather conflicting qualities. ... its unique combination of qualities left the most vivid impression on everyone who drove it. In p...
how does the army national guard work?	I'm not sure about the requirements such as diploma / GED, but it works like this. I'm going to assume we are talking about an enlisted person, not an officer. When you decide to enlist in the military, you go to a recruiter and tell them that you want to enlist. You have 3 choices. Active duty, Reserves or Nationa...	[ "The Army National Guard (ARNG), in conjunction with the Air National Guard, is a militia force and a federal military reserve force of the United States. They are simultaneously part of two different organizations, the Army National Guard of the several states, territories and the District of Columbia (also referr...
why does a scalp feel bruised/sensitive after being in a ponytail for a long time?	Hairdos that pull tightly on hair, particularly in a lateral direction along the scalp, actually hurt hair follicles. If you do it too tight for too long, the ones being tugged on the most will actually die, which leads to a receding hairline.	[ "Only a few studies have been conducted on this condition. A theory behind the condition is that nerves innervating scalp hair follicles send pain messages back to the brain when the follicle no longer has a hair in it, in a similar way to phantom limb pain. Another theory is that people who have this condition (so...
Are people Tourettes Syndrome capable of lying?	That's a fundamental misunderstanding of what Tourette's actually is. Tourette's disorder is one of a class of neurodevelopmental disorders called "tic disorders." A tic is defined in the DSM-5 as a sudden, rapid, recurrent, nonrhythmic motor movement or vocalization. For Tourette's to be diagnosed, an individual must...	[ "Tourette syndrome (TS or simply Tourette's) is a common neurodevelopmental disorder with onset in childhood, characterized by multiple motor tics and at least one vocal (phonic) tic. These tics characteristically wax and wane, can be suppressed temporarily, and are typically preceded by an unwanted urge or sensati...
What are the advantages or lower/higher engine displacement?	Higher displacement usually translates to greater torque, since there's generally an upper limit to the volumetric efficiency of a normally aspirated engine. F1 engines are small because of regulations, but they also rev roughly twice as high as the engine in most street cars. Since power is a direct relationship betwe...	[ "Thus, a high-powered, large-displacement engine is highly inefficient and wasteful when being used for normal driving conditions. This is the motivation for cylinder deactivation, to effectively spread the work load of the engine over fewer active cylinders which then operate under higher individual loads and ther...
Besides energy consumption, is there a reason why spacecraft don't land vertically like old science fiction?	In space jargon engineers usually talk about "active" or "passive" techniques. In the case of the atmosphere, as you said, the main issue is propellant (in rocketry usually mass matters more than energy). But from a more general point of view, passive techniques are usually more reliable. They're far less likely to ...	[ "The flight dynamics of spacecraft differ from those of aircraft in that the aerodynamic forces are of very small, or vanishingly small effect for most of the vehicle's flight, and cannot be used for attitude control during that time. Also, most of a spacecraft's flight time is usually unpowered, leaving gravity as...
Was the failure of central planning in Soviet Russia due to the inherent fallacies of the system, or corruption within the government?	I think this is an interesting question that I don't have a simple answer for. I would break it down into time periods though to get a more comprehensive view. I'm not really an expert in pre-Soviet history but a lot of the ideas behind state planning were born or proposed in that time. They were radical and they wer...	[ "The volume of decisions facing planners in Moscow became overwhelming. The cumbersome procedures for bureaucratic administration foreclosed the free communication and flexible response required at the enterprise level for dealing with worker alienation, innovation, customers, and suppliers. During 1975–1985, corru...
In World War One there were examples of spontaneous truces forming along the trenches, were there any examples of this in World War II?	> the Christmas Truce has that was apparently a top-down decision Just asking for a bit of clarification here as this is exactly the opposite of my understanding -- from what I understand the high-ranking officers on both sides were fairly horrified when they heard about the Christmas truces and they planned artiller...	[ "One famous truce was the Christmas truce between British and German soldiers in the winter of 1914, on the front near Armentières. German soldiers began singing Christmas carols and soon soldiers left their trenches. The soldiers exchanged gifts and stories, and played several games of football. The commanders of ...
Is it pure coincidence that the Spanish, who were from a warm climate themselves, managed to avoid colonizing any regions of the Americas with a cold climate?	Yes, it is a coincidence. Spanish colonies were initially geared towards resource extraction, which did well in places with wealthy, established civiliations already, or in places that had the proper climate for the cash crop of the day (sugar). Bourbon Spain did eventually pursue more settler oriented colonies in pla...	[ "Nonetheless, they could not handle the cold weather of the Peruvian highlands, and Spaniards took them to the coast for agricultural and domestic labors. For that reason, their songs narrate their customs, happiness, pains, and suffering.\n", "These figures show that there was never the mass emigration from Iber...
- where does the carbon that trees store, go?	It becomes part of the wood (the tree's own body). Trees are made largely of carbon.	[ "Scientific studies show that coarse woody debris can be a significant contributor to biological carbon sequestration. Trees store atmospheric carbon in their wood using photosynthesis. Once the trees die, fungi and other saprotrophs transfer some of that carbon from CWD into the soil. This sequestration can contin...

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