question stringlengths 3 301 | answer stringlengths 9 26.1k | context list |
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- curling | Archery is a sport and it's basically the same thing, with arrows. Golf is a sport and it's basically the same thing, with a stick. Croquet is a sport and it's basically the same thing, with wickets. Shotput, hammer, discus, and javelin throws are all sports, yet curling requires more precision as you're hitting a t... | [
"Curling is a sport in which players slide stones on a sheet of ice towards a target area which is segmented into four concentric circles. It is related to bowls, boules and shuffleboard. Two teams, each with four players, take turns sliding heavy, polished granite stones, also called \"rocks\", across the ice \"cu... |
Why did complex, increasingly centralized cultures seem to spring up almost simultaneously around the world? | I'm not sure if we're talking about neolithical, bronze age, or iron age cultures; or rather what exactly do you mean by 'great levels of centralization and organization'.In any case, given the neolithical transition from the hunter-gatherer society to an agrarian society, centralization and organization are a necessit... | [
"Even as early as the Prehistoric period, the roots of modern globalization could be found. Territorial expansion by our ancestors to all five continents was a critical component in establishing globalization. The development of agriculture furthered globalization by converting the vast majority of the world's popu... |
North-Western Europe today has some of the lowest corruption rates in the world. For how long has this been the case? | The short answer for Denmark would be since around the age og absolutism in Denmark. It wasn't as low as modern day Denmark but it was decreasing. This was due to a few new laws introduced to make sure the king held absolut power and that his authority was not to be doubted. It effectively removed many of the nobles wh... | [
"Political corruption levels are extremely low and previously Finland was annually named the least corrupted country for years. The number of notices of corruption related crimes were lower than the murder rate in 2007—there were about 15 reports of bribery or attempted bribery annually. In 2006, there were 115 rep... |
How do fuel tanks in spacecraft empty/pump effectively in zero G? | In rockets the fuel is kept at the bottom of the tank by the thrust of the engine. This obviously stops working once the engine is shut down, and as such most rocket stages cannot restart their engines. A few upper stages can, however, as do most satellites and spacecraft. They can use one of the following methods:
* ... | [
"The EDO tanks stored 368 pounds (167 kg) of liquid hydrogen at -418 degrees Fahrenheit (-250 °C), and 3,124 pounds (1,417 kg) of liquid oxygen at -285 degrees Fahrenheit (-176 °C). Total empty weight of the system was 3,571 pounds (1,620 kg). When filled with cryogens, the system weight was approximately 7,000 pou... |
Can birds fly backwards? | Only hummingbirds can, due to their unique method of flight and wing structure. Other birds can *propel* themselves backwards by pushing against the air with their wings, but they cannot fly in the sense of sustained, controlled aerial travel. | [
"A bird or bat flying through the air at a constant speed moves its wings up and down (usually with some fore-aft movement as well). Because the animal is in motion, there is some airflow relative to its body which, combined with the velocity of its wings, generates a faster airflow moving over the wing. This will ... |
railroad crossings don't seem to have sensors or something to warn conductors of a vehicle/object stuck on the track, why? | Small subway style trains might be able to stop within a .25 mile or so depending on their speed. A large freight train with hundreds of cars, some of of which maybe be carrying tankers of flammable or hazardous chemicals can not stop quickly.
It can easily take a mile or more for them to safely stop. An emergency sto... | [
"The inspection of railway equipment is essential for the safe movement of trains. Many types of defect detectors are in use on the world's railroads. These devices utilize technologies that vary from a simplistic paddle and switch to infrared and laser scanning, and even ultrasonic audio analysis. Their use has av... |
What is the processing speed of our brains? | Cells are covered in a lipid bilayer, which is not conductive like most metals. Instead, neuronal conductance relies on voltage-gated ion channels for propagation of electrochemical impulses. There is no traveling of electrons along a neuron like you would expect in metal and thus impulses travel much slower than the "... | [
"The rate of information processing in biological neural systems are constrained by the speed at which an action potential can propagate down a nerve fibre. This conduction velocity ranges from 1 m/s to over 100 m/s, and generally increases with the diameter of the neuronal process. Slow in the timescales of biolog... |
what is "individual mandate" and what does it mean for the u.s.? | It requires people to buy some kind of health insurance, or pay a tax penalty if they don't.
People think it's good because we want everyone to have medical care - but it is difficult to provide that care without everyone be required to pay into the system to spread both cost and risk. Other countries do the same t... | [
"The Mandate Model views representatives as less independent actors. This came about after the emergence of modern political parties; now constituents rarely vote for a representative based on their personal qualities but more broadly, they vote for their party to be elected into government. A mandate is an order o... |
How did Canada's cold war military spending compare to that of the United States? | Canada spent about two percent of GDP on defense during much of the Cold War. [See the chart on this page](_URL_0_).
For comparison, Canada had a GDP of about $700 billion (current dollars) in 1990, putting its defense budget at about $14 billion, while the US had a GDP of about $9 trillion and defense spending of $4... | [
"Immediately after the end of the Second World War, Canada, like many other countries, dramatically reduced its military expenditures. For the RCN, this meant large cuts to its personnel strength and number of commissioned ships. The emergence of the Cold War and the formation of the North Atlantic Treaty Organizat... |
why apple is switching to swift from objective c? | I do not code, but from what I've seen at the Keynote's, it is more efficient in terms of the amount of code you have to write, some things that used to take 5 lines can now be written in 1 line.
**EDIT**: [Here is a short article listing 10 reasons.](_URL_0_) | [
"Apple intended Swift to support many core concepts associated with Objective-C, notably dynamic dispatch, widespread late binding, extensible programming and similar features, but in a \"safer\" way, making it easier to catch software bugs; Swift has features addressing some common programming errors like null poi... |
if everyone uses wikipedia, but everyone says it is unreliable, why doesn't wikipedia stop third party edits and edit themselves? | The entire idea of Wikipedia is that it's a world wide, public collaboration. You might as well ask why Reddit doesn't stop letting people post links and just hire a team of professionals to post stuff instead. | [
"Throughout its history, Wikipedia has struggled to maintain a balance between allowing the freedom of open editing and protecting the accuracy of its information when false information can be potentially damaging to its subjects. Vandalism is easy to commit on Wikipedia because anyone can edit the site, with the e... |
Why does POV footage of running always seem so shaky whereas when I run, my vision remains quite steady? | > Does our brain automatically do the "stabilizing" for us?
Yes.
Your brain does a lot of processing of the visual signals your eyes produce - it fills in blind spots, for example, and as you've noticed, also steadies the image. The [visual cortex](_URL_1_) is the single largest system in the human brain.
Howev... | [
"Vestibulo-ocular reflexes (VORs): VORs are enabled by muscles in the eye, which sense angular accelerations of the head and adjust eye movements to stabilize these images. This was an important adaptation for running because it allowed \"Homo\" to see more clearly during the rough pitching motion that occurs durin... |
what causes heart palpitations to actually be felt? what makes them different from regular heart beats that you can't feel at all? | For "skipped" heart beats, which is one type of palpitation, typically what happens is part of your heart beats out of sync. This causes your heart to beat inefficiently; it can't properly get all the blood out. So the *next* heart beat is extra hard - its pumping more blood than normal. That heart beat after is what y... | [
"Chest pain can be the result of multiple issues, including respiratory problems, digestive issues, and musculoskeletal complications. The pain can trigger cardiac issues as well. Not all pain that is felt is associated with the heart, but it should not be taken lightly either. Symptoms can be different depending o... |
Before the discovery of DNA and Genes, how did people explain heritable traits passed down from mothers and fathers? | These two answers by u/restricteddata may be of some interest while you await a specific answer to your question:
* [Before Gregor Mendel's work on heredity, how was the scenario of two dark haired parents producing a child with blonde hair viewed?](_URL_1_)
* [What were people in ancient societies explanation of “gen... | [
"The inventors realized that the fetus had DNA derived from the father as well as the mother, and that paternal DNA was not native to the mother's blood. So they wanted to focus on genetic fragments containing paternally inherited sequences the mother did not share, but had traveled from the fetal blood into the ma... |
How do you convert a more million C degree plasma into electricity (ITER)? | They won't convert the heat of the plasma directly. Much of the energy from the reaction ends up in high-energy neutrons, which, because they're not electrically charged, aren't contained by the magnetic field which contains the plasma. They'll go straight through the reactor walls, and into a lithium "blanket". The bl... | [
"In the pioneering experiment, Los Alamos National Laboratory's FRX-L, a plasma is first created at low density by transformer-coupling an electric current through a gas inside a quartz tube (generally a non-fuel gas for testing purposes). This heats the plasma to about (~2.3 million degrees). External magnets conf... |
why are other stocks effected so much when one stock crashes? | There are multiple reasons.
1. Problems in one stock may indicate a problem in the entire industry. If all cows suddenly got sick, the milk company’s stocks suffer and also the cow leather company would have lower future income and investors would sell.
2. Investors who lose their money in the crash may overreact and... | [
"A stock market crash is often defined as a sharp dip in share prices of stocks listed on the stock exchanges. In parallel with various economic factors, a reason for stock market crashes is also due to panic and investing public's loss of confidence. Often, stock market crashes end speculative economic bubbles.\n"... |
I've been told that the banjo is an African instrument. How did it make it from Africa to the U.S., Ireland, etc.? And how was it traditionally played? | hi! more input is always welcome, but do check out this post from a few months ago
* [How did the banjo, an instrument of African descent, become a staple of Anglo folk music?](_URL_0_)
also, you may want to keep an eye out for a music documentary film that did the festival circuit a few years ago, *Throw Down Your H... | [
"The banjo was a feature of slave life in America, mentioned by Thomas Jefferson, for example, in his \"Notes on the State of Virginia\", which refers to it as a \"banjar\", and notes that the instrument came from Africa. Other names included \"bangoe\", \"banshaw\", \"bangelo\", \"banza\", \"bangil\" and \"banjer\... |
How much do we know about a Dog's brain? |
This has been removed because the question is too broad or too vague. If you’re still curious, please conduct some basic research and resubmit a more specific question.
For more information regarding this and similar issues, please see the [FAQ.](_URL_1_.)
This has been removed because questions based on personal a... | [
"Dogs have demonstrated episodic-like memory by recalling past events that included the complex actions of humans. In a 2019 study, a correlation has been shown between the size of the dog and the functions of memory and self-control, with larger dogs performing significantly better than smaller dogs in these funct... |
what is the difference between fuel economy and fuel efficiency? | Although if you are having a conversation with a regular person, they are basically interchangeable, I think the difference is that while fuel economy means your cars mile per gallon, fuel efficiency is the percent of potential energy in the fuel a vehicle can turn into mechanical energy if that makes sense. | [
"Fuel efficiency is a form of thermal efficiency, meaning the efficiency of a process that converts chemical potential energy contained in a carrier fuel into kinetic energy or work. The fuel economy is the energy efficiency of a particular vehicle, is given as a ratio of distance travelled per unit of fuel consume... |
how the government can/does seize a website? | The way website names work is basically a phone book. When you type in "_URL_0_", your computer goes to a Domain Name Server and asks it for the website's IP address (the equivalent of a phone number). Your computer then calls up that IP address, where the website's computers pick up and transmit the website data.
The... | [
"Operation In Our Sites is an ongoing effort by the National Intellectual Property Rights Coordination Center in the U.S. government, to detect and hinder intellectual property violations on the Internet. Pursuant to this operation, governmental agencies arrest suspects affiliated with the targeted websites and sei... |
how does the canadian government and economy function compared to america's? | We don't elect our Prime Minister directly. We vote for a member of parliament, and the leader of the party with the most members after all the votes are counted gets appointed Prime Minister by the Governor General. The GG is appointed by the Queen (but she always appoints the person that the current Prime Minister ... | [
"With the exception of a few island nations in the Caribbean, Canada is the only major Parliamentary system in the Western Hemisphere. As a result, Canada has developed its own social and political institutions, distinct from most other countries in the world. Though the Canadian economy is closely integrated with ... |
Do air-breathing animals born underwater ever drown at birth? | There is no air inside the egg during gestation. Just like humans in the amniotic sac, they "breathe" fluid. They only begin to breathe air once they are born and the air and atmospheric pressure drains the fluids to allow breathing. | [
"Breath-hold diving by an air-breathing animal is limited to the physiological capacity to perform the dive on the oxygen available until it returns to a source of fresh breathing gas, usually the air at the surface. As this internal oxygen supply reduces, the animal experiences an increasing urge to breathe caused... |
why is reddit just coming out with an app and why did it take so long | Did I miss something? A new app? Is it better than "reddit is fun"? | [
"In 2010, Reddit released its first mobile web interface for easier reading and navigating the website on touch screen devices. For several years, redditors relied on third-party apps to access Reddit on mobile devices. In October 2014, Reddit acquired one of them, Alien Blue, which became the official iOS Reddit a... |
How vital was the Allied victory in North Africa during WWII? | The Allied victory in North Africa was very significant for quite a few reasons, the men fighting in North Africa were battle hardened veterans with years of experience, they had had resounding successes with limited resources, as Hitler didn’t accept North Africa as a primary theatre of war despite Rommel’s insistence... | [
"In November 1942, American and British forces landed in North Africa under Operation \"Torch\". Allied thrusts overran Vichy French Morocco and Algeria and advanced into Tunisia. The danger for the Axis Powers was now apparent. The Allied forces advancing eastward and the British 8th Army advancing westward after ... |
Considering the planetary changes that Earth will be going through due to climate change, where will the most temperate and desirable places to live in the world be in, say, 50-100 years? Geographically and climate-wise, not politically of course. | Here is a picture new scientist published.
_URL_1_
and the blog it was stolen from (not read it yet, but thought i would add it anyways.)
_URL_0_ | [
"\"The geopolitical world is changing beyond recognition. The challenge of ensuring that in the future people can live better than today, while doing so within the Planetary Boundaries has yet to be met. Markets and the environment are increasingly globalized. Social protection and the search for equity are not, th... |
Is there any evolutionary evidence of other animals heating their food prior to eating it, or is the cooking of food an entirely human construct? | Not cooking, but this [video](_URL_0_) shows Japanese macaques washing their sweet potatoes in salt water. Scientists believe this behavior is done to alter the flavor of the sweet potatoes.
edit: spelling | [
"Humans (species in the genus \"homo\") are the only animals that cook their food and Wrangham argues Homo erectus emerged about two million years ago as a result of this unique trait. Cooking had profound evolutionary effect because it increased food efficiency which allowed human ancestors to spend less time fora... |
Why, with a sinus infection, does pressure in your sinuses/head build up whether you blow mucus put or suck it in? | The paranasal sinuses are poorly innervated - pain tends to be vague and poorly localizable in the sinuses because the brain has a difficult time precisely interpreting what little sensory input it receives from the sinuses.
When an acute bacterial sinusitis occurs, with all the inflammation and mucus production that ... | [
"The pressure difference causes the mucosal lining of the sinuses to become swollen and submucosal bleeding follows with further difficulties ventilating the sinus, especially if the orifices are involved. Ultimately fluid or blood will fill the space.\n",
"When pus forms, the pressure increases, with increasing ... |
why does sleeping in a particular direction unblock a blocked nose? | Stuffed noses are caused by mucous but also blood congestion in vessels in your nose due to inflammation. You'll notices that sleeping on your belly might cause congestion and thenoving to your back gets rid of it. Gravity rules all! | [
"Paroxysmal sneezing in morning, especially in morning while getting out of the bed. Excessive rhinorrhea - watering discharge from the nose when patient bends forward. Nasal obstruction - bilateral nasal stuffiness alternates from one site to other; this is more marked at night, when the dependent side of nose is ... |
Time dilation due to gravity AND due to velocity (are they multiplicative?) | If you are slow and not close to a black hole you can treat them as separate effects and multiply. If these things are not true you need the [full formula from general relativity](_URL_0_). | [
"That is, the stronger the gravitational field (and, thus, the larger the acceleration), the more slowly time runs. The predictions of time dilation are confirmed by particle acceleration experiments and cosmic ray evidence, where moving particles decay more slowly than their less energetic counterparts. Gravitatio... |
what are a few of the most elementary financial scams, and how exactly do they work (e.g. exit scam, ponzi scheme, etc.)? | An exit scam is basically just selling things to people but not actually delivering once you got the money. More relevant in less-legitimate markets where trust is a factor in the transaction (since you won't be using a credit card/paypal/etc that could reverse the charge and you don't really want to bring attention to... | [
"Another form of scam involves the selling of \"systems\" which purport to improve a player's chances of selecting the winning numbers in a Lotto game. These scams are generally based on the buyer's (and perhaps the seller's) misunderstanding of probability and random numbers. Sale of these systems or software is l... |
Wikipedia states that the Nazis often 'promoted premarital and extramarital sexual relations', what are some examples of this? | > "From its early days, the Nazi Party made a show of raw virility. 'I have seen the sex instinct deliberately aroused in many ways... At mass meetings, speeches dwelling on the copulative process of the Nazi male would send the Storm Troopers marching out of the hall all set for a demonstration. They never had to wai... | [
"In early 1938, Hitler used blackmail to consolidate his hold over the military by instigating the Blomberg–Fritsch affair. Hitler forced his War Minister, Field Marshal Werner von Blomberg, to resign by using a police dossier that showed that Blomberg's new wife had a record for prostitution. Army commander Colone... |
interstellar and the science involved | Normally you think of moving as going from point A to point B in a physical sense within our 3-dimensional world.
But many believe that we "move" through time in a similar way, that that's the 4th dimension. The only difference being that we're stuck going in one direction on this line (the future), and strangely, on... | [
"Intergalactic travel involves spaceflight between galaxies, and is considered much more technologically demanding than even interstellar travel and, by current engineering terms, is considered science fiction.\n",
"The group that became Interstellar Technologies was created as a hobbyist organization in 1997. In... |
why does having noise in the background (tv, music, etc.) make me feel safer when i'm home alone? | Your ears are sensitive through a wide ride of volumes. When it is very quiet, you hear faint noises you are unaccustomed to, which can be disconcerting. Background noise hides those sounds with ones more familiar to you, restoring your comfort level. | [
"BULLET::::1. Noise: Because participants gather in the streets and other public areas, the noise can disturb surrounding residents and citizens. Also, loud music contributes to the amount of noise, which is one reason why participants have begun moving to less populated areas in cities.\n",
"In most cases, the g... |
Is it possible to get eye damage, or even a sunburn, from the moon's light? | No, the intensity of the reflected moonlight from a full moon is about 300,000 times weaker than that of direct sunlight (the exact number depends on various conditions such as location on Earth, where the moon is in its orbit, etc...).
So in order to get the same amount of UV radiation as you'd get from 15 minutes of... | [
"For human beings, skin exposure to germicidal wavelengths of UV light can produce rapid sunburn and skin cancer. Exposure of the eyes to this UV radiation can produce extremely painful inflammation of the cornea and temporary or permanent vision impairment, up to and including blindness in some cases. UV can damag... |
Why are speed of light and phase velocity used interchangeably in wave equations? | The letter we use to represent something is arbitrary.
What matters are the concepts.
The speed of light is the speed at which light travels in vacuum; it is a special speed of the universe, such that if something is traveling at that speed relative to one observer, it is traveling at that speed relative to every obs... | [
"The phase velocity is the speed at which the crests or the phase of the wave moves, which may be different from the group velocity, the speed at which the pulse of light or the envelope of the wave moves.\n",
"The relevant wave speed in the discussion above is the phase velocity of the wave. This is typically cl... |
how can certain areas of the world be so dominant in online gaming? | It's just popularity. Like if you grow up in Canada dang near everyone grows up playing at least a little hockey. If you're good you practice against other good locals. Go up a few levels and you're playing playing with the best of the best.
If you grow up in Florida maybe one in a few hundred plays hockey. The best o... | [
"Games with open or free-roaming worlds typically lack the invisible walls and loading screens common in linear level designs. Generally, open-world games still enforce many restrictions in the game environment, either because of absolute technical limitations or in-game limitations imposed by a game's linearity. E... |
What are your favorite recurring, blatantly inaccurate portrayals/themes in contemporary movies about ancient civilizations? | Most of the world has proved incompetent at distinguishing anything in Latin America before 1650. It's all just one giant cultural chimera that manages to be everywhere at once on one and a half continents. I've got a stock set of answers for the frequent question, "The Inca? They were like the Aztecs, right?" Often, w... | [
"In one of Dongyang's towns, Hengdian, there is a famous movie studio, where many films and TV shows about ancient China are made. Considered the Hollywood of the East, this vast movie set is a great day trip that is usually very quiet and empty. The movie set is home to a recreation of the Summer Palace, the Great... |
So what was Mother Theresa really like. Was she a the charitable saint many Christians claim she is, or was she the monster that Hitchens described? | I appreciate /u/searocksandtrees citing me. That gets a lot of the work out of the way so I can just speak frankly:
From everything I've seen surrounding her character it seems she is just the charitable person people claim of her and did so in the worst of conditions. However the scale of her work is heavily embellis... | [
"Arundel, with much of his family, remained Catholic recusants during the reign of Queen Elizabeth. He was himself suspected of disloyalty, and was regarded by the discontented Roman Catholics as the centre of the plots against the queen’s government, and even as a possible successor. \n",
"Charlotte Amalie are a... |
How much information would a pre-modern army commander have about an opposing force (strength, composition, leadership, location, etc.)? | As I've mentioned in [other threads](_URL_0_), Wessex during the period in which *The Last Kingdom* is set was actually studded by a fairly extensive and sophisticated network of look-out posts and signalling beacons connected with garisson forces at local *burh* fortifications. This network was also then extended into... | [
"The of dense woods between Krinkelt-Rocherath and Wahlerscheid made accurate estimations of enemy strength difficult. The U.S. infantry were supported by a battalion of 105 mm howitzers, another of 4.5 inch rockets, a battery of 155 mm self-propelled guns, a company of chemical mortars, a medium tank battalion, an... |
besides the battery, what is keeping us from creating a full artificial permanent heart that can replace the organic one? | I think we still lack the material or coating material that is not rejected by the body.
Nowdays you would have to take Immunosuppressive medication and similar stuff to make your body hopefully accept the organ.
That reminds me of a documentary about the first time spider silk was synthesized in the lab and one appl... | [
"Researchers have constructed a heart out of foam. The heart is made out of flexible silicone and works with an external pump to push air and fluids through the heart. It currently cannot be implanted into humans, but it is a promising start for artificial hearts.\n",
"In 2016, trials for the Carmat \"fully artif... |
why do people hate thomas edison so much? | While Edison did create many things, he was also at the head of the Edison Corporation, or whatever it was called. When someone had an idea, he'd push it through until it was perfect, but then take ownership for the company. So many things that have Edison's name were not exactly his.
He also conned people into thinki... | [
"BULLET::::- \"When asked if he felt like a failure after his 'ten thousandth' unsuccessful attempt to create a working electric light bulb, Thomas Alva Edison said: 'Why? I have not failed. I've just found ten thousand ways that won't work.' What an asshole. Smart guy, but also a patent thief that had an ego to al... |
why does our body sometimes moves or shakes when we remember a cringy situation from the past? | If the situation triggers a flight or flight response, the body's first impulse is movement.
A loud noise behind them will cause most people to start. This is your brain telling your body to fire up its muscles and get ready for whatever is about to happen.
Remembering a sufficiently unpleasant situation could trigg... | [
"Emotionally unpleasant experiences have the tendency to come back and haunt us, even after frequent suppression. Such memories can be recovered gradually, through active search and reconstruction, or they can come to mind spontaneously, without active search.\n",
"The person may not remember what actually happen... |
Shield wall primary sources | The sagas describe shield walls a couple of times - the only ones I can think of off the top of my head are *Egils saga*, during the Battle of Brunanburh, and *Sverris saga konungs*. You're not going to get a whole lot of detail, though, as the sagas weren't written like modern novels describing the push of the wall et... | [
"A shield wall, also shield-wall or Schildmauer, refers to the highest and strongest curtain wall, or tower of a castle that defends the only practicable line of approach to a castle built on a mountain, hill or headland. German sources may refer to a shield wall that protects two or more sides as a \"Hoher Mantel\... |
Why does food smell better/stronger when being cooked? | There are two things going on here: one, the heat of cooking catalyzes reactions that produce those tasty-smelling compounds; and two, heat makes all the molecules in whatever you're cooking move around faster, making them more likely to evaporate and reach your nose.
There are many different kinds of new compounds th... | [
"Some odors are sought after, such as from perfumes and flowers, some of which command high prices. Whole industries have developed around products to remove unpleasant odors (see deodorant). The perception of odors is also very much dependent upon circumstance and culture. Cooking smells may be pleasant while one ... |
"American Chinese food" originates only from one city in China, Toisan. What was so important about this city that it influenced nearly all American Chinese culture? | American Chinese food actually has a lot of influences beyond Toisan (or Taishan) and could be more properly encapsulated by looking at the 4 areas of Sze Yup (Toisan, Xinhui, Enping, and Kaiping), which refers to a specific region in Guangdong where many of the Cantonese speaking immigrants that originally came to Ame... | [
"In 2011, the Smithsonian National Museum of American History displayed some of the historical background and cultural artefacts of American Chinese cuisine in its exhibit entitled, \"Sweet & Sour: A Look at the History of Chinese Food in the United States\".\n",
"San Francisco Chinatown restaurants are considere... |
magnetic door locks. how do they work? | The magnet is a simple electromagnet. There is an iron block welded or bolted to the door on one side, and there's a mounted system with more iron bars on the frame of the door. When it's active, (you can't open the door) there is electricity going through the part mounted on the frame, which holds that part and the pa... | [
"The magnetic lock relies upon some of the basic concepts of electromagnetism. Essentially it consists of an electromagnet attracting a conductor with a force large enough to prevent the door from being opened. In a more detailed examination, the device makes use of the fact that a current through one or more loops... |
If a giant tube from Earth's crust to outer space were made, would our air be sucked out? | No... the pressure differential would be balanced by the gravitational force, which is what holds the atmosphere in place in the first place. | [
"A 2008 study by Fabrizio De Gregorio and Giuseppe Fraioli at CIRA and the University of Rome in Italy tried this out. The model aerofoils used in their wind tunnel tests were equipped with numerous small holes through which air could be blown or sucked in an active way.\n",
"Because of the problems posed by the ... |
How to best teach someone about history? | Hi there, I'm just an undergraduate so I don't have a lot of expertise on teaching (mods please remove this if this post isn't up to standards). But I am taking a course about Public History and as a result have spoken to numerous professionals, including historians, musuem curators, and National and State Park interp... | [
"CHNM and the Stanford History Education Group have worked on other projects together, including Historical Thinking Matters, a website focused on key topics in U.S. history that is designed to teach students how to critically read primary sources and how to critique and construct historical narratives.\n",
"BULL... |
why are forests cut in square shapes in the us? | In that particular example, various areas are designated scheduled to be and sold off to logging companies who come harvest the trees on a in certain areas while leaving other areas untouched to reduce impact on the ecosystem and ensure the forest remains renewable.
In other locations, there could be a other reasons. ... | [
"BULLET::::- Forest fragmentation – occurring when forests are cut down in a manner that leaves relatively small, isolated patches of forest, resulting in high amounts of edges and subsequent loss in wildlife habitat and biodiversity\n",
"Natural forest stands may also be harvested solely for pulpwood where, for ... |
Is it possible to overdose testosterone? What will happen then? | Depends on the administration route. Generaly there is no acute toxicity levels for testosterone.
If you take it orally (in the form of methyl testosterone) you will have acute hepatitis at a few grams.
If you take it IM you are restricted by the amount of oil your muscle can take. | [
"Adverse effects of testosterone supplementation may include increased cardiovascular (CV) events (including strokes and heart attacks) and deaths, especially in men over 65 and men with pre-existing heart conditions. The potential for CV risks from testosterone therapy led the FDA to issue a requirement in 2015 th... |
why is that so many people appear to be unaffected by a huge knife sticking directly into their brain, but almost always, a knife to the neck or chest will more than likely result in a fatality? | I suspect its more that people who survive shocking injuries to the brain are relatively rare and thus noteworthy. | [
"BULLET::::- \"When a man picks up a knife, there's an old memory from the collective unconscious that surfaces. A knife is an atavistic experience. It was man's first tool and weapon. Man was chipping flint into cutting edges before he invented the wheel. No matter how sophisticated we become, a knife takes us bac... |
The Sound from Krakatoa's explosion traveled around the Planet Seven Times. Would the sound be particularly loud at the exact opposite side of the World? | I don't believe the sound from Krakatoa went around the world 7 times. At least not audibly. The time it would take for sound to travel through air would be 1 day and 8 hours.
_URL_0_
Perhaps you're referencing the seismic waves?
As to the second part of your question. If the sound did make it around, and the wav... | [
"In 1883, the eruption of the Indonesian volcano Krakatoa was heard at Rodrigues Island and it remains the furthest point at almost , at which the explosion was heard. The sound was described as \"the roar of heavy guns\". Naval ships were ordered to investigate as it was feared the sound was due to a ship in distr... |
why is my smoke detector so sensitive to burned toasts but not to a burning towel left on the stove? | Smoke detectors detect smoke particulate, not the presence of fire (usually they also have system that detects excessive heat). Burning toast tends to produce a nice cloud of smoke while a burning towel tends to burn more cleanly (not very much smoke), leading to less particulate for the detector to detect. You could h... | [
"An ionization chamber type smoke detector is technically a product of combustion detector, not a smoke detector. Ionization chamber type smoke detectors detect particles of combustion that are invisible to the naked eye. This explains why they may frequently false alarm from the fumes emitted from the red-hot heat... |
how were the japanese warned of the dprk missile? | They can send text messages to anyone but modern cellphones have options like AMBER.
In Japan especially, a lot of people have iPhones, and if you're american, they're an option in Settings > Notifications , scroll all the way down and you'll see "AMBER alerts" and "Emergency alerts".
It works the same way in Japa... | [
"Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe called this test \"a reckless act of launching a missile that flies over our country is an unprecedented, serious and important threat.\" North Korea had previously carefully avoided sending test missiles over Japan by using highly lofted trajectories, and had sent more recent sa... |
What's the history behind the development of quarantine practices worldwide? | To my knowledge, during Tudor England, every time the "sweating sickness" (an epidemic that swept the cities every summer, probably brought over from France by Henry VII's army) came, there were methods similar to quarantining. They would tie some mark (I think it was a bundle of straw) to the door of the house to warn... | [
"Members of the English colonies as well as English officials were proactive in establishing quarantine guidelines in order to protect the public. One of the earliest recorded examples of this was a quarantine established in 1647 by Puritans in order to prevent the spread of disease from ships coming from the Carib... |
what's going on when we have a bad headache/migraine? is the brain telling itself that it feels pain or is the brain itself actually in pain? | It's never your brain. The brain doesn't have pain receptors and can't actually feel pain. The membrane around your brain can feel pain, but the brain itself cannot.
The pain you feel is not your brain - it's usually blood vessels being either dilated or constricted in your head. | [
"Headache, back pain, or stomach pain are some of the most common types of psychogenic pain. It may occur, rarely, in persons with a mental disorder, but more commonly it accompanies or is induced by social rejection, broken heart, grief, lovesickness, or other such emotional events. \n",
"Headaches as a result o... |
What is happening molecularly when bleach gets on a dark cotton shirt? | Organic dyes are strongly coloured because they contain large networks of [conjugated double bonds](_URL_0_). One such example is [anthocyanin](_URL_1_), the molecule responsible for the colour of many plants. In general, the larger the conjugated system, the higher the wavelength of light the molecule will absorb.
Be... | [
"Bleaching improves whiteness by removing natural coloration and remaining trace impurities from the cotton; the degree of bleaching necessary is determined by the required whiteness and absorbency. Being a vegetable fiber, cotton will be bleached using an oxidizing agent, such as dilute sodium hypochlorite or dilu... |
If we were to travel to a star 1 ly away, what is the earliest time we could arrive at there? | Time is relative. From the travelers' perspective, you could get the time arbitrarily close to zero, but from Earth's perspective the time could never be less than a year. | [
"The nearest star to the Earth, apart from the Sun, is Proxima Centauri, which is 39.9 trillion kilometres, or 4.2 light-years. Travelling at the orbital speed of the Space Shuttle (8 kilometres per second—almost 30,000 kilometres per hour), it would take about 150,000 years to arrive. This is typical of stellar se... |
Are our internal organs sexed so the differences between men and women are noticeable? | In regards to the liver, no. However, the cardiovascular system of a male is naturally larger than a females, but you couldn’t make more than a slightly educated guess as to whether a set of lungs belonged to a male or female. A completely average males lungs compared to a completely average females lungs will appear t... | [
"The same process of sex differentiation concerns other male and female reproductive organs (see List of related male and female reproductive organs), with some organs of both sexes developing similar, yet not identical, structure and functions (like the gonads - male testicles and female ovaries, like male and fem... |
why do most nerve tracts crossover so that neurons in the brain's cortex innervate muscles on the opposite side of the body? | Asking this question in this manner rather obfuscates it. Perhaps to a community like the ELI5 it would be better to say: "Why do the brain's hemispheres control the opposite side of the body?"
Or something to that extend.
One interesting theory I saw in [_URL_0_] is that it contributes to the flight response in limb... | [
"The central nervous system consists of a brain and paired ventral nerve cords that connect to the brain and run along the length of the body. The brain is a ring of four ganglia, masses of nerve cells, positioned round the rhynchocoel near its front end – while the brains of most protostome invertebrates encircle ... |
Why did pikes fall out of popular use in the ancient period, and why did they not return to popularity until the late middle ages? | Organised formations of pikemen were first used by the Macedonians in the second half of the 4th century BC, and were in use until some time in the 2nd century BC. During this period of less than 2 centuries, they were seen as the ultimate weapon on Mediterranean battlefields. Alexander's successes against the Persians... | [
"Pike and shot became a military standard in the 16th and 17th century. With the development of the bayonet the last major use of pike was the early 18th century with the weapon rapidly disappearing in Western European armies by the time of the Battle of Blenheim. A few pikes or half pikes and a few halberds were r... |
What did the Spanish want the Canary island for? | In 1402, French adventurers Jean de Bethencourt and Gadifer de la Salle, who were nobles who owed allegiance to King Henry III of Castille, started conquering the islands. They wanted land. They got it. Bethencourt got the title "King of the Canary Islands", though he was still an under-king to Henry.
It took the C... | [
"The Canary Islands are an archipelago of thirteen islands located off the coast of Morocco. The islands were originally inhabited by the Guanche people, but were colonized by Queen Catherine of Castile. During the fifteenth century, they were controlled by Prince Henry the Navigator of Portugal, but Spain regained... |
Can black lights cause eye damage? | > Can black lights cause eye damage?
[Black light : Safety](_URL_0_) -- basically, not much risk of any kind.
EDIT: The above only applies to "Black lights", not tanning lights and other kinds of UV lights which are dangerous to the eyes and skin.
| [
"Optical radiation of any kind with enough intensity can cause damage to the eyes and skin including photoconjunctivitis and photokeratitis. Researchers have questioned whether limiting blue light exposure could reduce the risk of age-related macular degeneration. It is reported that bright light therapy may activa... |
Can anyone tell me about the history of humans using weed? | “[PAGE 380] [description of a funeral] . . . And this is the Manner of the King’s Funeral. But when any other Scythian dies, his nearest Relations carry him about in a Chariot among his Friends; who receive and entertain the whole Company, in their Turn, setting the fame things before the dead Man as before the rest. I... | [
"The use of \"Cannabis\" as a mind-altering drug has been documented by archaeological finds in prehistoric societies in Eurasia and Africa. The oldest written record of cannabis usage is the Greek historian Herodotus's reference to the central Eurasian Scythians taking cannabis steam baths. His (c. 440 BCE) \"Hist... |
AMA: The Library of Congress Veterans History Project – 15 years, and 99,000 Collections of Veterans’ Voices from WWI to the Present | This sounds like a pretty amazing project! I'm sure that each of you have come across tons of amazing stories and recollections while working on it, but are there any particular ones that really resonated with you that you could share with us here? | [
"The Veterans History Project of the Library of Congress American Folklife Center (commonly known as the Veterans History Project) was created by the United States Congress in 2000 to collect and preserve the firsthand remembrances of U.S. wartime veterans. Its mandate ensures future generations may hear directly f... |
Kennedy assassination records may be fully declassified by the end of this month. Has anything significant come from previous releases of records, such as in July 2017, which impacted previously held views on the event? | Can anybody recommend a solid, well researched book on Kennedy assassination ? | [
"On October 26, 1992, then-U.S. President George H. W. Bush signed into law the President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection Act (the \"JFK Act\"), which sought to preserve for historical and governmental purposes all records related to President Kennedy's assassination. The Act also created the Presi... |
what happens if you defend yourself against a bounty hunter? | Bounty Hunters aren't supposed to attack with deadly force in the first place. In theory, they're supposed to approach peacefully and ask the guy to comply, and can make it clear they're armed if necessary.
This way, the perp isn't in the "defending himself" position. If he attacks, he's the one who started the fight.... | [
"The bounty hunter first fights against a group of bandits attacking a fort commanded by a United States Army general, Clinton Briggs. With each scenario, the bounty hunter fights his way to the final enemy, one of the four outlaws, each of whom can either be wounded and apprehended or shot dead. The ending sequenc... |
how fast would a santa have to be to deliver all the presents to everyone in the world? | Data is incomplete, so we'll do some fast and loose maths.
There are [about 1.23 billion children under 10](_URL_2_). Obviously, we shouldn't count all of them since Santa only visits children who actually believe in him, not just metaphorically or as a holiday spectacle. But we *do* count both good and bad children s... | [
"Santa sees that he only has an hour until morning to complete delivering presents, so the kids agree to help him, with Teddy driving the sleigh and Kate tossing presents to Santa so he can move faster than usual. With additional help from the elves, Santa delivers the final present with milliseconds to spare. Sant... |
will someone please eli5 "dues ex machina" | In ancient Greek plays, tragedies often ended with a God descending from heaven (lowered by a machine, of course) and bringing closure to the plot.
Hence the saying Deus ex Machina (*or* *God from the machine*). It is usually used when someone or something out of the blue brings a storyline to an end which would not h... | [
"The machiavelic Altiva convinces Pedro Afonso that his sister hated him and betrayed him for fifteen years. Hurt, her husband refuses to hold Eulalia's wake in his home. Theobalds finds it out and decides to take action: he buys all the notes of Pedro Afonso, becoming his sole creditor and therefore owner of all h... |
How do eye drops work? | There are multiple types of eye drops.
First, there are ophthalmic formulations of various medications, including antibiotics, antivirals, and corticosteroids. These are used for specific problems and require a prescription in the US.
As acj21 mentioned, many eye drops designed to reduce 'red eye' contain vasoconstr... | [
"Eye drops are saline-containing drops used as an ocular route to administer. Depending on the condition being treated, they may contain steroids, antihistamines, sympathomimetics, beta receptor blockers, parasympathomimetics, parasympatholytics, prostaglandins, nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), antibi... |
How were the internal borders of the USSR decided? | The internal borders of the USSR fall into two different categories: those that largely existed prior to the USSR/joining the USSR (so the South Caucasus states, the Baltics, arguably Ukraine); and those created within the USSR (Central Asia is the main example here), with some exceptions. I'll try and answer the speci... | [
"During the opening stages of World War II, the Soviet Union laid the foundation for the Eastern Bloc by invading and then annexing several countries as Soviet Socialist Republics, by agreement with Germany in the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact. These included eastern Poland (incorporated into the Byelorussian SSR and the... |
Can birds taste things? Does their sense of taste work the same way as ours? | "Birds do have a sense of taste, but it is not well refined. Depending on the species, birds may have fewer than 50 or up to roughly 500 taste buds, while humans have 9,000-10,000 taste buds. Birds can taste sweet, sour and bitter flavors, however, and they learn which of those tastes are the most suitable food sources... | [
"The nervous system is large relative to the bird's size. The most developed part of the brain is the one that controls the flight-related functions, while the cerebellum coordinates movement and the cerebrum controls behaviour patterns, navigation, mating and nest building. Most birds have a poor sense of smell wi... |
I'm watching the show "Peaky Blinders" .. Is their depiction of English attitudes towards Northern Irishmen with regard to WWI conscription correct? | Phillip is pretty wrong and obviously biased, both nationalists and unionists did not officially exist at the the time, those terms came about to describe those in Northern Ireland after its creation, the terms used would have been Republicans/rebels and Loyalists, both denominations fought in WW1, and were not discrim... | [
"A 2004 report by the Irish Department of Foreign Affairs stated that Irish soldiers in World War I were treated more harshly in courts-martial because British officers had \"a racist bias against Irish soldiers\".\n",
"Despite Northern Ireland not being subject to conscription like the rest of the United Kingdom... |
how can weather forecasting website show so much detail of the weather, even for small cities? | Well, most of those things you mention are really not gathered by satellite, but instead through LOTS of weather stations scattered around the country/earth. Especially at airports. Those little weather stations measure lots of different things like temperature, humidity, wind speed, air pressure, cloud cover, etc... a... | [
"In some areas, a major city featured within the regional observations would always provide weather conditions; if a condition report is unavailable, the message \"the weather conditions were not available\" would precede the city. In addition, the regional portion of the segment may be condensed to a roundup forma... |
How can planet hunters distinguish between a solar maximum/minimum and an actual planet transiting the star disc? | The transit method of detecting exoplanets actually yields a significant number of false positives. [Here](_URL_0_), for example, is a paper discussing this problem.
If the transit method reveals a possible exoplanet, a standard next step is to apply the radial velocity method, to see if one can detect the slight Dop... | [
"The only known planet transits the star; this means that the planet's orbit appear to cross in front of their star as viewed from the Earth's perspective. Its inclination relative to Earth's line of sight, or how far above or below the plane of sight they are, vary by less than one degree. This allows direct measu... |
What was the difference between mandates, protectorates, dominions and colonies in the context of the 20th Century? | Generally speaking the four terms could be defined as follows.
Mandates - These were awarded to victorious powers after WW1 by the League of Nations (forerunner of the United Nations), for example France in Syria, Britain in what was then called the Mandate of Palestine. Ostensibly these were territories that had brok... | [
"BULLET::::- Protectorates had no preexisting government and were territories where the British had administrative jurisdiction as well control over foreign affairs and defence. There was practically no distinction between a colony and protectorate, except that protectorates were not formally governed within Britis... |
What was the extent of glacio-isostatic depression in the last ice age? | Are you talking about vertical displacement? | [
"Major isostatic adjustments of the lithosphere during the Quaternary glaciation were caused by the weight of the ice, which depressed the continents. In Canada, a large area around Hudson Bay was depressed below (modern) sea level, as was the area in Europe around the Baltic Sea. The land has been rebounding from ... |
what's stopping us from drilling to the center of the earth (other than economical reasons) | To put it simply, it gets too hot. The deeper you go the hotter it gets. Once you reach about 10 km (6 miles) down temperatures are already as high as 482F (250C). Once you're through the crust (about 30 miles down)and into the upper mantle, which consists of partially molten rock, you’re talking about temperatures in ... | [
"BULLET::::- Earth Connections: Deep Processes and Their Impact on Earth's Surface Environment concentrates on the links between surface, lithospheric and deep Earth processes. Drilling is an essential tool for unravelling and understanding the geologic, tectonic, geochemical, magmatic and hydrological processes re... |
A couple questions about the second Persian invasion of Greece (480 BC) | Both your questions are asking the same thing. The Persian sea route was the route by which the fleet advanced parallel to the army. Thermopylae was not an action that took place in a vacuum, there was a naval battle at Cape Artemisium occurring simultaneously with the action at Thermopylae. ~~Most scholars would consi... | [
"The second Persian invasion of Greece (480–479 BC) occurred during the Greco-Persian Wars, as King Xerxes I of Persia sought to conquer all of Greece. The invasion was a direct, if delayed, response to the defeat of the first Persian invasion of Greece (492–490 BC) at the Battle of Marathon, which ended Darius I's... |
Were There Witches in the Old West? | The problem - as you hint - is one of terminology, namely, at what point do we call a practitioner of magic a "witch." It is a difficult question to address, as expertly considered by [Monty Python](_URL_1_): throughout European history, practitioners of magic did not generally claim to be witches, nor did they look li... | [
"A Community of Witches: Contemporary Neo-Paganism and Witchcraft in the United States is a sociological study of the Wiccan and wider Pagan community in the Northeastern United States. It was written by American sociologist Helen A. Berger of the West Chester University of Pennsylvania and first published in 1999 ... |
I see the "no shirt, no shoes, no service" signs everywhere but I don't actually see anyone in public without shirts or shoes. Are these signs a relic? Were people more shirtless in the past? | Followup question(s): is there a reason why pants are never included in this list of items? Is it because nobody would dream of going out without pants on so it wasn't even thought of, or is it because it didn't fit the alliteration? Or both? Also, what about no "shorts?" Some places surely had rules against wearing sh... | [
"BULLET::::- Brian Stableford's 2009 \"Exotic Encounters\" states that \"many years ago\" during a fad for wearing ACAB shirts, a British youth was arrested for incitement to riot for wearing one, and ineffectively claimed the shirt stood for \"All Canadians Are Bastards\".\n",
"\"No Shoes, No Shirt, No Problems\... |
why do i need to drink water more often than eat food? | We use water for all sorts of things in our body, food is pretty simple, broken down and used or stored. food can be stored in different forms, water cannot be stored as easily. so we have to replenish more often because we cant store it as easily. | [
"The weight loss effects of water have been little studied, but it is plausible that consuming water with meals may reduce total energy intake and aid weight loss, particularly if water is taken instead of calorific drinks.\n",
"The report's authors forecast that the need for water would double within 50 years, d... |
How did the various 60s experimental bands in Germany react to the rather unflattering term "krautrock"? | Well, suffice to say that they were not flattered by the term. According to David Stubbs' book *Future Days: Krautrock And The Building Of Modern Germany*, 'no German musician of that generation accepts the word 'Krautrock''.
Stubbs prefaces the book itself by claiming that the term was invented either by the British ... | [
"Krautrock is a broad label encompassing diverse sounds and artists that emerged in West Germany during the 1960s and early 1970s. The music was partially inspired by broad cultural developments such as the revolutionary 1968 German student movement, with many young people having both political and aesthetic concer... |
how is code converted to software, how is graphics and code linked together? | Code is a human readable set of computer instructions. You can for instance say that "x = 1 + (2 / y)" which is very easy for humans to understand. However computers are made up of billions of transistors and resistors that change currents in wires so to make it easier for computers to understand we compile the code in... | [
"Software components often take the form of objects (not classes) or collections of objects (from object-oriented programming), in some binary or textual form, adhering to some interface description language (IDL) so that the component may exist autonomously from other components in a computer. In other words, a co... |
If we stopped launching new satellites and servicing the existing ones, how long would it take for them all to eventually become non-functional? | This is definitely an interesting question! But not so much a science question. /r/AskEngineers or another subreddit would be perfect for it. | [
"Since the first generation satellites operated for three years each, to keep the system at full capacity, two launches per year would have been necessary to maintain the full network of 24 satellites. However, in the financially difficult period of 1989–1999, the space program's funding was cut by 80% and Russia c... |
Can someone tell me if this national park's ruins could have welsh origin rather than Cherokee Indian? | It's actually unlikely that Fort Mountain was built by either the Cherokee or, especially, the Welsh. I've discussed [the alleged Welsh discovery of America](_URL_0_) before, with emphasis on their supposedly connection to the Mandan, but Fort Mountain gets a brief mention as well. The short of it is that the Welsh dis... | [
"The Cherokee tradition may have been influenced by contemporary European-American legends of the \"Welsh Indians\". These legends attributed ancient ruins to a Welsh pre-Columbian voyage; some versions specifically connect this voyage to a prince named Madoc. In an 1810 letter, former Tennessee governor John Sevie... |
Plutarch: Parallel Lives | It should certainly be easy to find full copies -- most or all of the Loeb Classical Library's pre-1923 editions [are available for download here.](_URL_0_)
But summaries? I'm not aware of any that have been made, I'm afraid. There's no Cliffs Notes nor SparkNotes for Plutarch. | [
"Plutarch's Lives of the Noble Greeks and Romans, commonly called Parallel Lives or Plutarch's Lives, is a series of 48 biographies of famous men, arranged in tandem to illuminate their common moral virtues or failings, probably written at the beginning of the second century AD. The surviving \"Parallel Lives\" (Gr... |
Do you think the Occupy Wall Street movements will be mentioned in the history books of the future? | Yes just like the Populist movement, prohibitionists, nativists etc. The tea party will probably be mentioned as well. | [
"In 2011, Occupy Wall Street protests demanding accountability for the financial crisis of 2007 and against inequality started in Manhattan, New York and soon spread to other cities around the country, becoming known more broadly as the Occupy Movement.\n",
"In 2011, Occupy Wall Street protests demanding accounta... |
why does watching a movie on a projector instead of a computer screen feel like a more satisfying cinematic experience? | The way that things are presented to you has a strong influence on how you feel about what is being presented. For example, companies go through extraordinary lengths to brand themselves in a certain way, have their stores look a certain way, and engage with the public in a certain way. They want you to associate their... | [
"A number of films that use computer-generated imagery to show characters have been described by reviewers as giving a feeling of revulsion or \"creepiness\" as a result of the characters looking too realistic. Examples include the following:\n",
"These experiences blur the line between recreations and cinema ver... |
all light we see is a mix of three colors with our rods. is how we hear sound the same? | Sound is perceived by hair cells in the cochlea. Each hair cell is sensitive to a specific frequency. There are thousands of hair cells. So yes, there are similarities, but sound is perceived by a much more high-dimensional system.
Also our perception of sound has far higher time resolution and much lower spatial re... | [
"The color names for these different types of sounds are derived from a loose analogy between the spectrum of frequencies of sound wave present in the sound (as shown in the blue diagrams) and the equivalent spectrum of light wave frequencies. That is, if the sound wave pattern of \"blue noise\" were translated int... |
Why are so many organic molecules carcinogens/toxic? | There's a saying in toxicology, "the dose makes the poison". That is to say that almost anything is toxic at high enough concentrations, while anything eventually can be diluted enough that there's no toxicity any more.
But there is some truth to your comment, there are quite a few organic molecules that are toxic or ... | [
"A variety of compounds are considered as epigenetic carcinogens—they result in an increased incidence of tumors, but they do not show mutagen activity (toxic compounds or pathogens that cause tumors incident to increased regeneration should also be excluded). Examples include diethylstilbestrol, arsenite, hexachlo... |
Why did tricolours became the most common type of flag used by nations? | The Dutch were the first to use the tricolour during their revolution, making themselves a republic. The tricolour then became a symbol of republicanism and became very popular during the French Revolution which shook the ground of Europe, inspiring republicanism in other countries to use the tricolour, for example the... | [
"A tricolour or tricolor is a type of flag or banner design with a triband design which originated in the 16th century as a symbol of republicanism, liberty or indeed revolution. The flags of France, Italy, Romania, Mexico, and Ireland were all first adopted with the formation of an independent republic in the peri... |
why aren't charger/data ports in phones shaped more like a headphone jack? | Headphone jacks aren't really a great design, but they usually work OK if you only have a small number of signals. If you want to use a bunch of signals, making sure that each of them has a solid connection can get tricky. It's just not a great system from a mechanical point of view, and that can result in cruddy ele... | [
"A connector in a fixed location is a jack and a moveable connector is a plug. The distinction is relative, so a portable radio is considered stationary compared to the cable from the headphones; the radio has a jack, and the headphone cable has a plug. Where the relationship is equal, such as when two flexible cab... |
What is the origin of adenosine to create cAMP and ADP/ATP in the body? | Your body has a constant supply of nucleosides, of which adenosine is one. You get most from the food you eat, but the body also [synthesizes its own, either through _de novo_ or salvage pathways](_URL_0_). | [
"Adenine forms adenosine, a nucleoside, when attached to ribose, and deoxyadenosine when attached to deoxyribose. It forms adenosine triphosphate (ATP), a nucleoside triphosphate, when three phosphate groups are added to adenosine. Adenosine triphosphate is used in cellular metabolism as one of the basic methods of... |
why do all currencies undergo inflation over time? | This is a very broad topic to talk about, however I shall do my best, I've included a tl;dr at the bottom if you want to skip. I've tried to keep it brief but I could literally talk for days about this all in detail. Please let me know if you have questions or disagree with anything I wrote, I love talking about this s... | [
"Conceptually, inflation refers to the general trend of prices, not changes in any specific price. For example, if people choose to buy more cucumbers than tomatoes, cucumbers consequently become more expensive and tomatoes cheaper. These changes are not related to inflation; they reflect a shift in tastes. Inflati... |
Can we have lenses for sound? | You could, but if it's a solid, the index of refraction will be huge, and almost all of the sound will be reflected. And if it's a gas, then it will just dissipate. You could use a heater to make sure the closer air is warmer, and therefore has a higher speed of sound, but any air currents will mess it up.
Although ap... | [
"These 'hearing glasses' incorporate a directional microphone capability: four microphones on each side of the frame effectively work as two directional microphones, which are able to discern between sound coming from the front and sound coming from the sides or back of the user. This improves the signal-to-noise r... |
if you were to rip out a person's eyeball without snapping the optical nerve, and then made it face the other eyeball (aside from pain and whatnot) how would your brain put together the image? | I assume it would try its best to make "sense" out of the information.
You might get two superimposed images and just see a "single" eye.
You can definitely do this with mirrors and some plywood. | [
"The standard lobotomy/leucotomy involved drilling burr holes in the skull on the side of the head and inserting a cutting instrument; it was thus a \"closed\" operation, with the surgeon unable to see exactly what he was cutting. In 1937 J.G. Lyerly at the Florida State Hospital developed a similar operation but r... |
Why do so many people seem to have insomnia to some degree? | Insomnia is extremely common today, and [yes it is common worldwide](_URL_2_). When talking about this, it is important to draw the distinction between the [different types of insomnia](_URL_7_).
* *Transient insomnia* is for a period of up to a week. This is experienced by virtually *everyone* at some point in life, ... | [
"Some cases of insomnia are not really insomnia in the traditional sense, because people experiencing sleep state misperception often sleep for a normal amount of time. The problem is that, despite sleeping for multiple hours each night and typically not experiencing significant daytime sleepiness or other symptoms... |
how can factories that use specialized machinery to produce a certain thing quickly change production to a completely different thing. (i.e. automobiles to ventilators) | It is never quick as you are thinking. You need to set up an assembly line for different components in a spare space and you need to order any needed assembly machines and you need to order the raw components going into the finished product and you need to assemble and train staff. You need te develop relationships w... | [
"Mechanical engineers design and oversee the manufacturing of many products ranging from medical devices to new batteries. They also design power-producing machines such as electric generators, internal combustion engines, and steam and gas turbines as well as power-using machines, such as refrigeration and air-con... |
What happens to the vitamins and minerals in an avocado as it ripens? (or similar fruits) | Well considering that fruits taste sweeter as they ripen, the complex carbs in the fruit must be converting into sugars. So, less carbs more sugar. | [
"\"Arbutus unedo\"'s fruits have a high content of sugars (40%), and antioxidant vitamins such as vitamin C, beta-carotene, niacin, tocopherols, and organic acids that are precursors to omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids (nearly 9%). They are edible fresh, but that is an uncommon consumption, especially because the ma... |
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