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what does it mean when the news says" left the work force" or "stopped looking for work" in regards to unemployment numbers?	The workforce is the whole pie that includes everyone who is working or looking for work. Unemployment is the slice of pie that represents the work that the people looking for work could be doing. [See note below on underemployment.] "Leaving the work force" includes retiring - going from employed to not employed an...	[ "One kind of frictional unemployment is called wait unemployment: it refers to the effects of the existence of some sectors where employed workers are paid more than the market-clearing equilibrium wage. Not only does this restrict the amount of employment in the high-wage sector, but it attracts workers from other...
alan turing, turing complete, turing machine, lambda calculus, etc.	Okay, for a discussion of who Alan Turing is and a part of why he's important, see [here](_URL_1_). As is the case with ELI5 posts, errors will arise from simplification. But the man was not just a guy that designed and built machines. He was a theorist. But first, we need to back up and explain what that theory ...	[ "Alan Turing was an English mathematician, computer scientist, logician, cryptanalyst, philosopher and theoretical biologist. Turing was highly influential in the development of theoretical computer science, providing a formalisation of the concepts of algorithm and computation with the Turing machine, which can be...
How is the dental hygiene of the animal kingdom compared to ours?	The reasons that humans encounter more dental problems are: 1. Refined sugars in the diet. We eat a diet that highly favours the growth of bacteria in our oral cavity, mainly through energy-dense and easily metabolised sugars like sucrose. Sucrose is the worst substance that we know of for tooth decay - it is worse th...	[ "In the Western world, the primary approach to dental hygiene care consists of tooth-brushing and flossing. The purpose of oral hygiene is to remove and prevent the formation of plaque or dental biofilm, although studies have shown this effect on caries is limited. While there is no evidence that flossing prevents ...
Did a lingua franca develop in Hannibals army?	This is a really good question, and I'm kinda eager to hear an answer. As a somewhat related question, was it common for mercenary armies to stick together as a cohesive force for so long?	[ "Hannibal is generally regarded as one of the best military strategists and tacticians of all time, with the double envelopment at Cannae an enduring legacy of tactical brilliance. According to Appian, several years after the Second Punic War, Hannibal served as a political advisor in the Seleucid Kingdom and Scipi...
gas is dropping in price significantly, but airline ticket prices aren't changing.. why?	Several reasons: 1) They will always charge what the market will bear. 2) Many times they have long-term fuel contracts as a hedge against rising fuel prices - which is not such a good thing when prices are falling. 3) Fuel is only one of the expenses involved in flying airplanes. Airplanes themselves ain't cheap, a...	[ "As the airline market in the United States became deregulated, airlines began to compete by price. Airline ticket prices began to decrease, and airlines began to charge extra for services that were once included in the airfare.\n", "BULLET::::- Jet fuel prices have been cut in nearly in half in the previous 12 m...
For those that have read: Carthage Must Be Destroyed, by Richard Miles, is it worth buying?	I would recommend it for a general audience. Miles put together a pretty breezy history of Carthage but it lacks discussion of contrary views and scholarly research. That makes it a good introduction and general history but insufficient for a serious scholar. If you want something more scholarly, I would recommend The ...	[ "BULLET::::- Carthage – Initially a Phoenician city, destroyed and then rebuilt by Rome. Later served as the capital of the Vandal Kingdom of North Africa, before being destroyed by the Arabs after its capture in 697 CE. Now a UNESCO World Heritage site.\n", "He has directed archaeological digs in Carthage and Ro...
how and why does glass explode when placed in the freezer for an extended time?	Water is unusual in that it actually expands when it freezes, because on a molecular level water molecules form a sort of honeycomb lattice when frozen due to strong intramolecular forces (electromagnetic repulsion in this case). If you put a glass of water or another liquid that contains a lot of water (milk, orange j...	[ "A hot glass bulb may fracture on contact with cold objects. When the glass envelope breaks, the bulb implodes, exposing the filament to ambient air. The air then usually destroys the hot filament through oxidation.\n", "BULLET::::- Thermal stress: Sudden failures are most often caused by thermal stresses. When t...
how did super mario bros on the nes look blocky, have no detail, and lack a bunch of features; yet super mario bros 3, also on the nes, with the same hardware, have a fully fledged world map, siginificantly higher quality sprites, and more content? while on the same cartridge?	Memory hardware inside of cartridges advanced precipitously in the five years between the release of Super Mario Bros. & Super Mario Bros. 3. The limitations on the quality of graphics were almost entirely based on the amount of available storage in the carts.	[ "The Super 8 features three cartridge ports. Two of these ports connected to the onboard NOAC, and were designed to fit NES and Famicom cartridges, respectively: despite otherwise featuring exactly the same hardware, North American and European NES game cartridges used a 72-pin design, resulting in slightly larger ...
Is there an updated explanation for the progress of shipbuilding technology in Scandinavia from the 4th to 11th century?	Well who says they didn't know of sailing? I mean that literally, I've not seen it suggested. Scandinavia and north Germany enter the 'Roman Iron Age' around the first century BCE. This is marked by a cultural shift due to contact with the Romans, with Germanic peoples serving in the Roman armies and trading with the...	[ "The influence of Norse shipbuilding techniques, though plausible, is conjectural, since to date no substantial remnants of a birlinn have been found. Traditional boat-building techniques and terms, however, may furnish a guide as to the vessel's construction.\n", "The Scandinavians were building innovative boats...
Given that guns are not legal (and assault weapons are very uncommon) in the UK, where did the IRA get their weapons from during the troubles?	Whilst you are waiting for an answer to your question please have a look at [this](_URL_0_) answer from u/Eirebmac to a very similar question	[ "In the early stages of the Troubles, during the period 1969–1972, the Provisional IRA was poorly armed. They had access to weapons remaining from the IRA's failed Border Campaign between 1956 and 1962, but these weapons were outdated and unsuitable for a modern campaign.\n", "The Firearms Act, 1925 states that a...
how do multiple pulleys work to distribute the weight and allow someone to lift amounts much higher than they ordinarily would?	_URL_0_ ^ there ya go. Explains how a block-and-tackle setup works, which gets into how pulleys act as a force-multiplier (reducing the initial required effort). The super-short version is "less force, longer distance of pulling required".	[ "A differential pulley, also called \"Weston differential pulley\", sometimes \"chain hoist\" or colloquially \"chain fall\", is used to manually lift very heavy objects like car engines. It is operated by pulling upon the slack section of a continuous chain that wraps around pulleys. The relative size of two conne...
in what ways are doctors and nurse practitioners similar and in what ways are they different?	Nurse practitioners often have years of nursing experience and then return to get their masters degree and become a medical provider. Some work under a Physician guidance but some can work on their own. Physician assistants are similar to nurse practitioners in that they have clinic experience, get their masters and be...	[ "BULLET::::- Nurse practitioners – Most of these nurses obtain a minimum of a master's degree and a desired post grad certificate. They often perform roles similar to those of physicians and physician assistants. They can prescribe medications as independent or supplementary prescribers, although they are still leg...
how christians believing in evolution is not a contradiction?	Some Christians think that Genesis is metaphorical, and that God used evolution to create humans.	[ "Not all evangelicals believe that evolution is incompatible with Christianity. Prominent evangelicals such as B.B. Warfield and Billy Graham believed the theory could be reconciled with Christian teaching.\n", ", most Christians around the world accepted evolution as the most likely explanation for the origins o...
Why do some people become more talkative and energetic when they're sleep-deprived?	Your sympathetic nervous system (fight-or-flight) response activates and increases levels of substances called catecholamines in your central nervous system. Catecholamines are things like dopamine, noradrenaline, and adrenaline. Your body does this so it can get through the stressful period of being sleep-deprived -- ...	[ "Sleep plays a vital role in regulating metabolism and appetite. When sleep deprived, the metabolic system will be out of balance, which will ultimately affect the dietary choices people make. Teens who are sleep deprived crave more carbohydrates. Sleep deprivation is a risk factor for obesity among young adults.\n...
why does it matter what order a player is picked in the draft as long as they are picked?	Rookie salaries and contracts are structured based on when you are picked. So someone going in the first round may get a guaranteed $10 million salary and a 4 year contract, while someone picked in the 5th may have a $1 million salary and 3 year contract. This is set based on when you are picked.	[ "Draft order is determined by a weighted system that is divided into three groupings. First come the teams that had six or fewer wins last season, followed by non-playoff teams that had more than six wins, followed by the 12 playoff teams. In the supplemental draft, a team is not required to use any picks. Instead,...
why do things look black and white for a while after you've been sunbathing?	You do know that you don't need to stare at the sun to absorb its rays, right?	[ "A black body at room temperature appears black, as most of the energy it radiates is in the infrared spectrum and cannot be perceived by the human eye. Since, by definition, the human eye cannot perceive light waves below the visible frequency, a black body, viewed in the dark at the lowest just faintly visible te...
if the eardrum detects vibrations, why can't we hear certain vibrations like moving your head or being punched as loud noises?	The brain. It does a remarkable job filtering our noise. Without it we'd be overwhelmed by the sound of our heartbeat and flowing blood and creaking parts. So...the ear as a sensor does not discern, but the brain as an interpreter certain does!	[ "Excessive vibrations that occur in the inner ear can result in structural damage that will affect hearing. These vibrations result in an increase in the metabolic demands of the auditory system. During exposure to sound, metabolic energy is needed to maintain the relevant electrochemical gradients used in the tran...
why is formic acid ( oxidized methanol) toxic? what causes blindness?	Methanol is a member of a class of chemicals called "alcohols," along with ethanol, the kind that you drink. Alcohols are broken down twice in the body -- once, from an alcohol to something called an aldehyde, and then again to a type of acid. In methanol's case, the first step is quick and produces formaldehyde -...	[ "Formic acid is readily metabolized and eliminated by the body. Nonetheless, it has specific toxic effects; the formic acid and formaldehyde produced as metabolites of methanol are responsible for the optic nerve damage, causing blindness seen in methanol poisoning. Some chronic effects of formic acid exposure have...
What does pre-modern grief look like? How did it change from times when mortality rates were much higher? Did the Black Death change how grief was expressed?	I actually asked a very similar question over at r/AskAnthropology Here is link to it with some wonderful answers with sources provided _URL_0_	[ "Although mourning was not completely new in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, Ariès argues that it became unregulated. It was less of a ritualized social obligation, and more of a spontaneous and often excessive display of emotions. Ariès maintains that survivors no long accepted the death of friends and lo...
How do people mentally and physically develop in a coma?	There is no reason why body wouldn't age, but it leads to muscle atrophy, so it wouldn't be exactly a body of a normally-developed 18-year old. Can't say anything about mental development, not being an expert, but I do not believe it advances as that person wouldn't be conscious, therefore not experiencing anything le...	[ "People in comas have \"presence of brain stem responses, spontaneous breathing or non-purposeful motor responses.\" However, comas can result in brain death, or recovery or even a persistent vegetative state.\n", "A brain-damaged man, trapped in a coma-like state for six years, was brought back to consciousness ...
Is it theoretically possible to change something into something else?	That is what our biosphere does all of the time. Objects are broken down into simpler forms, carbon dioxide and basic nutrients, and then built up again into different complex forms. This cycle is fundamental to maintaining life on Earth and needs to understood and maintained in smaller closed archologies such as...	[ "According to Deutsch, current theories of physics based on quantum mechanics do not adequately explain why some transformations between states of being are possible and some are not. For example, a drop of dye can dissolve in water but thermodynamics shows that the reverse transformation, of the dye clumping back ...
how do organs know at which part of the body they should develop (left or right)? are there people with 'flipped' organ arrangements?	There are certaian genes called hox genes that control where everything goes. All living things have the same ones just with slight variations of what is going where	[ "There are many differences between the left and right sides, including heart and lung positioning. Mutations in these genes cause incorrect positioning of these organs (e.g., situs inversus), or in the case of constitutively inactive lefty, the embryo becomes entirely mesoderm and fails to pattern or develop. Duri...
What is it about viruses that causes ongoing fatigue?	Viruses, by definition, do not replicate on their own. They must hijack cellular machinery in order to reproduce, often destroying the cell in the process. Thus, even if antibodies are being produced en masse to counteract them (which drains your body's resources in and of itself), there are still bajillions* of virus...	[ "Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS), a disease characterized by profound fatigue, sleep abnormalities, pain, and other symptoms that are made worse by exertion, is infamous for its confounding etiology. Studies have revealed the specific connection between infection-trigger and disease onset in a cohort of Chronic Fati...
In Europe, how does the socialist and anarchist terrorism of the late 19th and early 20th centuries differ from modern Islamic terrorism?	One aspect was that anarchist and socialist terrorism focuses on destroying the state and the current order of power. Therefore they mostly targeted heads of states, high military personnel or the nobility, as well as industry leaders etc. The ideology behind this being that the people were oppressed by the capitalist ...	[ "In the 20th century, terrorism continued to be associated with a vast array of anarchist, socialist, fascist and nationalist groups, many of them engaged in 'third world' anti-colonial struggles. Some scholars also labeled as terrorist the systematic internal violence and intimidation practiced by states such as t...
[Methodology/Personal Practice Question] How do you take and organize your notes?	I am working on a large essay right now, and my best method for arranging raw data so far has been a legal pad array with one pad per category, each a different colour, and several different colours of pen.	[ "Sentence note taking is simply writing down each topic as a short, simple sentence. This method works well for fast-paced lesson where a lot of information is being covered. Everyone should record every new thought, fact or topic on a separate line. All information is recorded but is not organized into major and m...
Can bright IR/UV light blind us?	Yes, it can easily damage the cells of your eyes. Especially if it's high intensity or prolonged exposure. There are very few situations where you should get enough UV radiation to do that, but it's definitely possible. UV is more damaging than visible, though it's possible that it would damage different parts at diffe...	[ "Short-wave UV light is harmful to humans. In addition to causing sunburn and (over time) skin cancer, this light can produce extremely painful inflammation of the cornea of the eye, which may lead to temporary or permanent vision impairment. It can also damage the retina of the eye. For this reason, the light prod...
During reentry into Earth's atmosphere, could a spacecraft use retro-rockets to descend slowly and not have to rely on a heat shield?	Absolutely. And as you correctly inferred, it is a matter of money. To have retrorockets you need fuel, and as it turns out it's expensive to send things into space. The bigger the payload, the more expensive it is, so carrying all this fuel for the retrorockets is expensive when you could simply just put a shield on t...	[ "Spacecraft that land on a planet with an atmosphere, such as Earth, Mars, and Venus, currently do so by entering the atmosphere at high speeds, depending on air resistance rather than rocket power to slow them down. A side effect of this method of atmospheric re-entry is aerodynamic heating, which can be highly de...
Did army branches other than the infantry suffer significant casualties in WWI?	In terms of raw numbers, it's as follows for battle deaths Infantry: 8,778 officers, 134,174 enlisted Air Force 22,022 officers, 28,999 enlisted Artillery 1,330 officers, 8,255 enlisted Engineers 601 officers, 7,090 enlisted Armored Force 1,581 enlisted (AF did not have officers) Cavalry, 610 officers, 4,525 enlisted ...	[ "The United States Army Air Forces incurred 12% of the Army's 936,000 battle casualties in World War II. 88,119 airmen died in service. 52,173 were battle casualty deaths: 45,520 killed in action, 1,140 died of wounds, 3,603 were missing in action and declared dead, and 1,910 were non-hostile battle deaths. Of the ...
what is black matter? is it the stuff that is displaced when regular matter is clumped together?	You mean [Dark Matter](_URL_0_)? We don't know. We've never seen it, only observed it's effects. Basically, our observations of the universe seem to suggest that there's a whole lot more mass out there, hidden, because it has gravitational effects on galaxies and whatnot, but there's nothing we can see out there. ...	[ "In the process, a lump of matter entering the ergosphere is triggered to split into two parts. For example, the matter might be made of two parts that separate by firing an explosive or rocket which pushes its halves apart. The momentum of the two pieces of matter when they separate can be arranged so that one pie...
what are logarithms actually doing? when would we display data using a log scale and why?	When you multiply a number by itself a few times, you can express that number in terms of an "exponent" - the exponent is a little number to the upper right of the number that says, "this is how many times the number has been multiplied by itself". So, 2 x 2 x 2 = 2^3 Here, we multiplied 2 by itself 3 times, so the n...	[ "Logarithmic scales are useful for quantifying the relative change of a value as opposed to its absolute difference. Moreover, because the logarithmic function grows very slowly for large , logarithmic scales are used to compress large-scale scientific data. Logarithms also occur in numerous scientific formulas, su...
Which would experience more brain trauma when shot in the head: a normal human skull, or a bulletproof human skull?	Thank you for your submission! Unfortunately, your submission has been removed for the following reason(s): * It is hypothetical or speculative in nature. We do not allow hypothetical questions because questions that cannot be confidently answered with any available data often invite non-scientific speculation. For m...	[ "Injuries to the brain can be life-threatening. Normally the skull protects the brain from damage through its hard unyieldingness; the skull is one of the least deformable structures found in nature with it needing the force of about 1 ton to reduce the diameter of the skull by 1 cm. In some cases, however, of head...
why does sound quality drop when the volume is too high? what causes it to sometimes sound 'grainy'?	A [typical speaker](_URL_0_) is a cone of paper that's attached to a magnetic system, with the magnetic force moving the paper up and down, according to the frequency of the music or sounds that are played. To make louder sounds, the speaker cone has to vibrate more vigorously, and as explained above, at some point ...	[ "It is difficult, but very important, to match sound levels before comparing systems, as minute increases in loudness—more than 0.15 dB or 0.1 dB—have been demonstrated to cause perceived improvements in sound quality.\n", "Adding some dithering noise to the input signal can actually improve the final result beca...
if i could travel to the edge of our universe, could i go past the border? what would happen if i tried?	[There is likely no edge, but there is a "time horizon" to the observable universe.](_URL_0_)	[ "Humanity's first attempt at interstellar space travel ends in disaster as the ship is destroyed near the edge of the Solar System by a transparent barrier. They come to realize that Sol and every other Earth-like solar system are surrounded by \"crystal spheres\", while uninhabitable systems are not. Every attempt...
slam poetry	As poetry, it's basically just free verse -- rhythm and sound are emphasized, totally unlike normal prose, but there is no strict meter or rhyme scheme. Topically, it deals with social issues and difficult personal problems -- a personal experience of social injustice or lack of respect for certain roles, or gender and...	[ "A poetry slam is a competition in which poets of all ages perform spoken word poetry. Poetry slams began in Chicago in 1984 with its first competition designed to move poetry recitals from academia to a popular audience when American poet Marc Smith began experimenting with existing open microphone venues for poet...
why can a city zoning board tell me what i can do with land that i own?	The system is intended to prevent people from (a) building unsafe things that could fall and hurt somebody, and (b) reducing the property value of nearby homes. For example, I shouldn't be allowed to build a factory in my backyard, since that reduces the value of my neighor's homes and therefore in some sense I'm "stea...	[ "Local governments often pass zoning laws which control what buildings can be built on a lot and what they can be used for. For example, certain areas are zoned for residential buildings such as houses. Other areas can be commercially, agriculturally, or industrially zoned. Sometimes zoning laws establish other res...
We hear about the Napoleonic Era revolutionizing warfare, but what specific innovations are noteworthy?	[This older answer](_URL_0_) by /u/dandan_noodles will be a reasonable starting point.	[ "Napoleonic tactics describe certain battlefield strategies used by national armies from the late 18th century until the invention and adoption of the rifled musket in the mid 19th century. Napoleonic tactics are characterized by intense drilling of the soldiers, speedy battlefield movement, combined arms assaults ...
What are some important events to know about in the 1900's?	Sorry, we don't allow ["trivia seeking" questions](_URL_0_). These tend to produce threads which are collections of disjointed, partial responses, and not the in-depth discussions about a particular topic we're looking for. If you have a specific question about an historical event, period, or person, please feel free...	[ "The drama of one of the most significant decades in America's history unfolded in this unique look at the Jazz Age. Few decades have been filled with so much yet ended so quickly as the 1920s. Businesses boomed, the stock market soared, and heroes were abundant. Before the 1920s ended in the worst stock market cra...
If lightning strikes a car, does it fry the radio? What about a charging phone?	It can, but it might not. Anything that is connected to the outer metal shell of the car, in any way, can suffer from the effects of the strike. The radio and the charging phone are a part of the system that is grounded to the frame of the car. They might get fried. However, the lightning wants to find the least re...	[ "Telephones, modems, computers and other electronic devices can be damaged by lightning, as harmful overcurrent can reach them through the phone jack, Ethernet cable, or electricity outlet. Close strikes can also generate electromagnetic pulses (EMPs) – especially during \"positive\" lightning discharges.\n", "To...
If a proton and anti-proton come close to each other and annihilate, how much energy will be released?	If they annihilate each other, there will be no particles afterwards, all the protons and the anti protons energy will be turned to photons. To calculate the energy released in such a reaction, you'll need two formulas, one for the rest energy (e=mc^2) and one for the kinetic energi they had before the reaction, that w...	[ "Only antineutrinos with energies above the kinematic threshold of 1.804 MeV—the difference between rest mass energies of neutron plus positron and proton—can participate in this interaction. After depositing its kinetic energy, the positron promptly annihilates with an electron:\n", "When electrons and positrons...
why is smoking so common amongst the asian population at my college?	Smoking is socially acceptable in Asia (for men, not women). For example, around 70% of Chinese men are smokers. Furthermore, cigarettes are cheap. Cigarette companies bank on volume, and rising prices are usually a result of government pressure as a disincentive to smoking.	[ "High rates of smoking also contribute to high rates of lung cancer. Lung cancer rates for Southeast Asians are 18 percent higher than for White Americans. 28.9% of all Asian Americans smoked at one point in their lives. Current rates of smoking stand at 14.8%. Smokers are more likely males (22.6%) than females (7....
what does interpol really do? does the organisation actually wield any power?	It's basically an information exchange and allows police forces to quickly exchange intelligence and get warrants to facilitate extradition, etc. It is not a Police Force in and on itself. It enables say, the French Police to go and arrest someone in France on behalf of the Spanish authorities based either on a Europe...	[ "INTERPOL provides investigative support, expertise, and training to law enforcement worldwide in battling three major areas of transnational crime: terrorism, cybercrime, and organized crime. Its broad mandate covers virtually every kind of crime, including crimes against humanity, child pornography, drug traffick...
When a patient has their artery tapped, why is no local anesthetic administered?	If you are referring to an arterial blood gas (ABG) there are a few reasons not to administer local anesthetic: 1) The procedure is extremely short, so any discomfort caused by the needle will be momentary. 2) Using a local anesthetic administered by needle would involve being stuck by one needle without anesthetic s...	[ "After local anesthesia is placed, an interventional radiologist obtains access to the arterial system by piercing the femoral or radial artery, usually under ultrasound guidance, with a hollow needle known as a trocar. Through the needle a guidewire is threaded and subsequently the trocar is removed. A cannula is ...
why does my laptop still have a huge box on the power cord? every other part has gotten smaller but i still have to carry around a big chunky box of a power cable.	This is because it's an adapter that reduces the voltage from the power source to the voltage required by the laptop. To do this, a small transformer is required (the chunky box) and this has to contain two coils of wire of certain sizes to convert the voltage from X to Y. Until transformer technology is re-invented to...	[ "The laptop has a notable lack of expansion ports, consisting of a RS-232 port, a printer port, and the docking connector. The computer used the docking connector to connect to a Toshiba DeskStation II, giving it extra capabilities.\n", "In keeping with its goals of robustness and low power consumption, the desig...
Is there a limit to expansion of the International Space Station?	Although spacecraft could be almost arbitrarily large, the ISS is also part aircraft, and limitations apply there. The ISS operates at an altitude where there is still a thin atmosphere to contend with, and the main cause of orbital decay for the ISS is atmospheric drag. To counter this, the ISS enters [Night Glider ...	[ "The Bigelow Expandable Activity Module (BEAM) is an experimental expandable space station module developed by Bigelow Aerospace, under contract to NASA, for testing as a temporary module on the International Space Station (ISS) from 2016 to at least 2020. It arrived at the ISS on April 10, 2016, was berthed to the...
how does a hacking group like "derptrolling" ddos huge gaming servers (lol,minecraft, wow) without getting detected...	They get access to a giant bot net of hacked regular computers and send out attach commands for those random computers to carry out. Very hard to trace unless they screw up the methods of sending the commands	[ "A DDoS attack attempts to flood an information gateway with data exceeding its bandwidth. The \"distributed\" element of a Distributed Denial of Service means that it involves PCs spread all over the world. These enslaved computers, called \"botnets,\" are usually home computers that have been hijacked and comprom...
why is it so hard to learn what letters come before and after another letter in the alphabet	Because the sequence is arbitrary rather than intuitive or easily predicted. Knowing what comes immediately before or after the number "31" is easy because numbers aren't arbitrary in sequence. Most of us learn the alphabet as a memorized sequence and trigger sequential playback starting with the first item. It's si...	[ "Each word in the spelling alphabet typically replaces the name of the letter with which it starts (acrophony). It is used to spell out words when speaking to someone not able to see the speaker, or when the audio channel is not clear. The lack of high frequencies on standard telephones makes it hard to distinguish...
What did people in the middle ages carry with them?	A really interesting question. There are two preliminary questions here, I think. First, and not entirely germane, what were things carried in? Second, who carried what? Regarding the first, sewn-in pockets appear to be an innovation of the 17th century. Before then, by around the 1200s there were pocket slits made ...	[ "Throughout the Middle Ages, the common clothing amongst the Gaelic Irish consisted of a \"brat\" (a woollen semi circular cloak) worn over a \"léine\" (a loose-fitting, long-sleeved tunic made of linen). For men the \"léine\" reached to their ankles but was hitched up by means of a crios (pronounced 'kriss') which...
A question about common ancestors and to some extent, abiogenesis.	> Does this chain of common ancestors continue through all mammals and on a far enough back in the past, through all life on earth? In evolutionary biology there is a hypothetical creature called [LUCA](_URL_0_) (last universal common ancestor). This organism is the most recent common ancestor of all present life ...	[ "Mitochondrial Eve is the most recent common matrilineal ancestor for all modern humans. Whenever one of the two most ancient branch lines dies out, the MRCA will move to a more recent female ancestor, always the most recent mother to have more than one daughter with living maternal line descendants alive today. Th...
could self isolation/full lockdowns like we are seeing be a possible way to rid the common cold from being common?	No. Because despite other endemic,pandemic,and plagues we’ve never gotten rid of it. Because it is a huge family of fast mutating, adapting, and hearty viruses. It’s not a singular, like the flu there’s a lot of em.	[ "The American Civil Liberties Union, while recognizing that ICE implemented important standards and regulations, publicized criticisms, including that ICE does not require the latest PBNDS standards at all detention facilities. The ACLU also condemns ICE's practice of allowing immigrants to be held in \"short term\...
why does notebook power supplies have no vents? would`t it be more efficient if present?	I mean the "brick" itself like this one _URL_0_ *Sorry english is not my native language	[ "The conductive cooling pads are not advisable for laptops that have fan vents built into the bottom as the cooling pad blocks the vents leading to overheating or premature system failure. The best way to determine if a cooling pad would be suitable for a particular laptop would be to take a look at the bottom of t...
Can entangled qubits be stored?	Yes, you can store qubits for later, though it is definitely a technical challenge to keep them isolated enough that they remain entangled. No, they cannot be used for instant communication. > Why couldn't this be harnessed into something like subspace communication in Star Trek? Because of this: > I understand ...	[ "BULLET::::- Classical bits can be encoded into and subsequently retrieved from configurations of qubits, through the use of quantum gates. By itself, a single qubit can convey no more than one bit of accessible classical information about its preparation. This is Holevo's theorem. However, in superdense coding a s...
why do college football teams that are not eligible for bowl games get to be ranked?	They're ranked in the human polls (e.g., the AP poll), because those aren't the final determiners of bowl game qualification - the purpose is just to rank everyone. They're not given ranks in the BCS standings, though, which does determine bowl placement. I know ESPN uses the BCS rankings on air - if you look at the [...	[ "Occasionally, there will be more bowl eligible teams than there are spots in the NCAA football bowl games in the season. In these cases, some bowl eligible teams will not be invited to play in any NCAA football bowl game. Typically, teams with seven or more wins will not be left out of bowl games, although there a...
- salvage law - if i find a ship floating abandoned in the ocean, dibs? if so, why is a sunken ship still considered property of the country of origin?	Laws of salvage are actually incredibly complicated, like most international law. As an example, the law draws a distinction between types of wreck. You've heard the expression flotsam and jetsam? Those are types of wreckage: flotsam is the floating debris after a wreck, jetsam is jettisoned to lighten the load and i...	[ "The act has come under fire due to its ambiguous wording. States make the claim that all shipwrecks that lay embedded in their waters are abandoned and under their jurisdiction. Some people claim that only the 10% most historic of all wrecks belong to states. The confusion has resulted in numerous court cases over...
Are there any situations where Freudian slips are more common than others?	Try /r/asksocialscience - they're mind experts over there and may be able to help you out.	[ "A Freudian slip, also called parapraxis, is an error in speech, memory, or physical action that occurs due to the interference of an unconscious subdued wish or internal train of thought. The concept is part of classical psychoanalysis. Classical examples involve slips of the tongue, but psychoanalytic theory also...
what made mlk a great leader? eli5	In my opinion, MLK (Jr.) was a great leader because he was highly intelligent, he was very well-spoken, he advocated non-violence, he had noble ideals, and was incredibly charismatic. If you read some of his letters or listen to some of these speeches, there really is no question that he fit all of the above. Peopl...	[ "Kevin Keaton, professionally known by his stage name Special K, in an American old-school hip hop emcee from the Bronx, New York. He was prominent in the late 1970s, throughout the 1980s and early 1990s, and best known as member of the Treacherous Three. He is the younger brother of T La Rock.\n", "Billy (voiced...
Is our Moon unique?	This sounds like an excerpt from Rare Earth theory, but the answer is yes and no. None of the other inner, rocky planets have a large moon like ours, and astrophysicists think the mechanism by which it happened has a low probability. First, the most accepted answer to "how we got our moon" is the giant impact theory....	[ "Astrologically speaking, the Moon is associated with a person's emotional make-up, unconscious habits, rhythms, memories, moods and their ability to react and adapt to those around them. It is also associated with the mother, maternal instincts or the urge to nurture, the home, the need for security and the past, ...
Why was Ancient Athens able to have so much power over many of the other city-states in Greece?	In about 483 B.C. the Athenians found new reserves of silver at the mines of Laurion. The Athenian general Themistocles persuded the Athenian assembly to allocate the expected income from the new mines to expanding the Athenian fleet. The fleet was expanded to 200 ships which served as the base for their Naval hegemony...	[ "The most powerful city-states were Athens, Sparta, Thebes, Corinth, and Syracuse. Athens was a powerful Hellenic city-state and governed itself with an early form of direct democracy invented by Cleisthenes; the citizens of Athens voted on legislation and executive bills themselves. Athens was the home of Socrates...
the debt / currency swap between the u.s. and mexico in the 80s	* Currency swap: Mexico couldn't pay its debts so to avoid a default, US first accepted worthless Mexican pesos and gave Mexico dollars with which it can pay its debts. * Debt swap: Mexico bought about $500 million in US bonds which long time after would be worth several billion. Mexico then used these US bonds to is...	[ "In August 1982, Mexico was one of the first of various Latin American countries to default on foreign debt. As a result of this, the IMF approved a 4 billion loan (in USD) to the Mexican government. However, conditions applied that worked to reform the Mexican economy. The programs and conditions that applied to t...
why does dropping heavy objects on the floor not kill the bacteria there?	Neither the floor or the weight are perfectly smooth. Microscopically they are quite jagged. Bacteria slip into all these edges and don't get squished.	[ "Microplasma that is sustained near room temperature can destroy bacteria, viruses, and fungi deposited on the surfaces of surgical instruments and medical devices. Researchers discovered that bacteria cannot survive in the harsh environment created by microplasmas. They consist of chemically reactive species such ...
why/how do some people become sick more than other people?	This is a tough one to answer as there are many factors. Look at it as a tank (your immune system). There are several types of defenses and weapons built in and a lot of factors that influence his good your tank is at protecting you and how good it is at killing the enemy. Let's pretend everyone starts with the *same t...	[ "Other researchers have found that observers judge sick people as responsible for their illnesses. One experiment showed that persons suffering from a variety of illnesses were derogated on a measure of attractiveness more than healthy individuals were. In comparison to healthy people, victim derogation was found f...
why are the lungs so sensitive to water?	ELI5: Within the lungs, the surfaces where our breath meets the blood stream have to be at a near-perfect moisture balance in order for the oxygen and other gases/chemicals to be exchanged from air to blood efficiently. When they get too wet, they lose efficiency and cannot take in as much air, and when they get too ...	[ "For solid and liquid tissues like bone, muscle and blood, the high ambient pressure is not much of a problem; but it is a problem for any gas-filled spaces like the mouth, ears, paranasal sinuses and lungs. This is because the gas in those spaces is much more compressible than the solids and liquids, and reduces i...
Is the energy released by burning wood equivalent to the amount of energy it took to create that piece of wood?	No, more energy is required to create the compounds than is stored in the compounds, because the production of them also required the metabolic maintenance of the plant which was constructing them. Imagine the fat cells in your own body - an adequate analogy despite the vastly different purposes. A pound of fat has ~3...	[ "The energy content of a measure of wood depends on the tree species. For example, it can range from per cord. The higher the moisture content, the more energy that must be used to evaporate (boil) the water in the wood before it will burn. Dry wood delivers more energy for heating than green wood of the same speci...
why did they close so many insane asylums and what did they do with the people who were institutionalized there?	Because they were often horrible places where conditions and treatment of patients was inhumane. Many people were supported to live out in the community, with the money that would have been spent keeping them in an asylum spent on secure, assisted housing and appropriate care instead. Source (used to work for a mental ...	[ "In 1911, it became possible for people to admit themselves to asylums (now called Mental Hospitals) and patients were referred to as inmates instead of lunatics. This reduced some of the public stigma around mental illness. Separate parts of the hospitals were also reserved for diagnosis and early treatment. Hospi...
Already asked this question to /r/askhistory a while ago and I got some great answers but I want more info. What allowed the U.S. and Canada to be more successful than the rest of the American continent.	Someone will answer this better than I can, but Spanish and Portuguese colonialism in the rest of the Americas was based around producing only one or two plantation crops or mining a couple of mineral resources. In British North America, the economy was more centered on production and trade and didn't suffer from the m...	[ "Canadian intellectuals who wrote about the U.S. in the first half of the 20th century identified America as the world center of modernity, and deplored it. Imperialists (who admired the British Empire) explained that Canadians had narrowly escaped American conquest with its rejection of tradition, its worship of \...
how do we know that statistics works?	Two levels. On a high level, it works because a ton of people have tested it prospectively, i.e. developed the theory, did the calculations, and did some super boring stuff that is foundational to every field. Stuff like flipping a (virtual) coin 500,000 times, tallying the results. Counting pea colors, tallying the...	[ "Statistics is a mathematical body of science that pertains to the collection, analysis, interpretation or explanation, and presentation of data, or as a branch of mathematics. Some consider statistics to be a distinct mathematical science rather than a branch of mathematics. While many scientific investigations ma...
Did any US Presidents come close to 3 terms before FDR?	Teddy Roosevelt, with his Bull Moose Part in 1912 was probably the closest - I believe he garnered almost 30% of the vote as a third party. George Washington certainly could have stayed if he had wanted, but he was reluctant to serve his second term, and definitely declined to go for a third. An Americanist should have...	[ "Four years later, Roosevelt faced Republican Thomas E. Dewey in the 1944 election. Near the end of the campaign, Thomas Dewey announced his support of a constitutional amendment that would limit future presidents to two terms. According to Dewey, \"four terms, or sixteen years (a direct reference to the president'...
What makes a chemical dangerous to smell?	If it's going to react with your mucus membranes you probably don't want to smell it. Further, if it is generally a toxin or mutegen, giving it almost direct access to your blood stream is probably a bad idea. (Sorry for the club awnser but your question is very general and has many awnser. Which awnser depends on whic...	[ "In addition, chemicals, such as lead, that could instigate toxic encephalopathy are sometimes found in everyday products such as cleaning products, building materials, pesticides, air fresheners, and even perfumes. These harmful chemicals can be inhaled (in the case of air fresheners) or applied (in the case of pe...
Why did Euopeans settle the Americas, instead of just "managing" them like with Africa, India and SE Asia?	While you wait for an answer to your specific question, you may be interested in these prior answers, especially the first: * [What are the main differences between the colonization styles of European colonial powers](_URL_0_), answer by /u/drylaw * [What defines a colony](_URL_1_), answer by /u/b1uepenguin * [This s...	[ "From the time that Christopher Columbus discovered America there was a significant Iberian challenge facing large parts of the world for Spain and Portugal in conquering the Americas and many other territories around the world. In the east, Portugal held territories not only in Ceylon but in India, in the Persian ...
why are there side effects from taking antibiotics?	The simplest explanation is: antibiotics kill all bacteria. Antibiotics are used when your disease is caused by bacteria, but your body also has lots of beneficial bacteria, especially in your digestive system. Killing all of the "good" bacteria can cause side effects - but they're eventually replaced.	[ "While antibiotics are beneficial in certain types of acute diarrhea, they are usually not used except in specific situations. There are concerns that antibiotics may increase the risk of hemolytic uremic syndrome in people infected with . In resource-poor countries, treatment with antibiotics may be beneficial. Ho...
If antimatter had 'won out' at the origin of the universe, could we hypothetically have wound up with a universe just like ours, but made of antimatter?	Well, from antimatter's perspective, we are the antimatter.	[ "In October 2017, scientists reported further evidence that matter and antimatter, equally produced at the Big Bang, are identical, should completely annihilate each other and, as a result, the universe should not exist. This implies that there must be something, as yet unknown to scientists, that either stopped th...
what would be the mass of a black hole the size of a proton or electron, compared to the actual mass of those elements ?	An electron doesn't have a "size" per se. A proton, since it's made up of other stuff, does have a size, about 1fm (fermi or femtometer, 10^-15 m). Which is a black hole of about [6.73x10^11 kg](_URL_0_). Let's just call that an even 10^12 kg, and a proton has (again approximating) 10^-27 kg. So a black hole with t...	[ "The mass of the black hole in GRO J0422+32 falls in the range 3.66 to 4.97 solar masses. This is the smallest yet found for any stellar black hole, and near the theoretical upper mass limit (~2.7 ) for a neutron star. Further analysis in 2012 calculated a mass of , which raises questions as to what the object actu...
what determines a helicopters top speed?	The top speed of your everyday Helicopter is proportional to its rotor blade design, weight and rotor speed, pretty much everything you would assume. However, there are physical limits to just how fast you can go with your helicopter, even if your engine would provide power to go even faster. One of these things is c...	[ "A helicopter with a conventional rotor layout has a theoretical top speed of , after which it suffers from dissymmetry of lift. Some designs have successfully created hovering and high-speed aircraft, including the Bell Boeing V-22 Osprey tiltrotor that can fly at and the Sikorsky X2 compound helicopter that flew ...
Do humans have the ability to throw off or alter the earth's rotation?	Conservation of Angular Momentum requires that any redistribution of mass in the vertical (radial) direction will have a direct impact on the rotation rate of the earth. So for example, if you were to pump a large reservoir of water from a lower basin up to the top of a mountain, Conservation of Angular Momentum requi...	[ "Humans are altering the planet's biogeochemical cycles in a largely unregulated way with limited knowledge of the consequences. Without steps to effectively manage the Earth system – the planet's physical, chemical, biological and social components – it is likely there will be severe impacts on people and ecosyste...
what is happening between russia and the us with syria and isis?	so Syria's government has been fighting in a brutal civil war with many different factions composed of the 70% of Syrians who are Sunni Muslims. Russia is allied with Syria's government and has been supporting them with supplies and arms since the beginning of the civil war. Russia argues that other countries should ...	[ "On 30 September 2015, with permission of the upper house of the Russian Parliament, Russia started a direct military intervention in Syria consisting of air strikes against ISIL, the Al-Nusra Front, and other perceived enemies of the Syrian government. The Russian Orthodox Church official spokesman called the inte...
ayn rand's objectivist philosophy	Ayn Rand's theory of morality is primarily based on what's known as egoism. This means that your moral values, the standards you use to determine right and wrong, are based solely on what is good for you. This doesn't mean you can't help other people, but you have to either directly benefit or get satisfaction from...	[ "Ayn Rand's philosophy of Objectivism has been and continues to be a major influence on the right-libertarian movement, particularly libertarianism in the United States. Many right-libertarians justify their political views using aspects of Objectivism. However, the views of Rand and her philosophy among prominent ...
Why did China not have a warrior class and code (like samurai/bushido, knights/chivalry, etc)?	Why do you expect there to be? Is there any reason having a "warrior class" is the norm, and deviations need to be explained? That aside, comparing China to Medieval Europe and Japan, which were both fractured into non centralized polities, isn't very helpful. When Japan centralized during the Edo period, for example,...	[ "Class distinctions were mostly eliminated during modernization to create a representative democracy. The samurai lost their status as the only class with military privileges. However, during the Meiji period, most leaders in Japanese society (politics, business and military) were ex-samurai or descendants of samur...
why is it so hard for our body to handle a cold?	The way I understand it, kiddo, is that 'the cold' is just a name for a seemingly endless array of different but very very similar viruses. Our body suffers from one, recovers, learns from the blow, but then contracts a slightly different cold the next season and can't use what it learned previously to fight it off. T...	[ "Cold has numerous physiological and pathological effects on the human body, as well as on other organisms. Cold environments may promote certain psychological traits, as well as having direct effects on the ability to move. Shivering is one of the first physiological responses to cold. Extreme cold temperatures ma...
How do historians cope when they see inaccurate in "historical films"?	There are many different ways historical films 'manipulate' events for entertainment value. Some of these are ostentatious, while others are so subtle you might not immediately understand WHY the manipulations are considered important/problematic. One very recent example from my area has to do with two made for televi...	[ "The resurgent interest in these films is due to their rich value as cultural and historical artifacts. Documentarians, filmmakers, historians, curators, collectors and scholars have joined forces with archivists because they deem orphans not only historical documents, but also evidence of alternative, suppressed, ...
How do rocket scientists calculate the trajectories of rockets/satelites?	I am an Aerospace Engineer by schooling, and you are talking about control theory. Very well understood [orbital mechanics](_URL_0_) and [aerodynamics](_URL_2_) give the engineer very well exactly what is expected. The engineer can configure the machine to put the right forces in the right directions at the right time...	[ "This simplification is sufficient to compute rough estimates of fuel requirements, and rough time-of-flight estimates, but it is not generally accurate enough to guide a spacecraft to its destination. For that, numerical methods are required.\n", "The Tsiolkovsky rocket equation shows that the delta-v of a rocke...
What is responsible for the high directionality of stimulated emission in LASER devices?	A laser is made from two basic optical components: the lasing medium (sometimes called the gain medium), and the resonant optical cavity (constructed of two mirrors facing each other). The gain medium is excited to provoke spontaneous emission of light, which doesn't have any preferential angle of emission. Spontane...	[ "The two-photon laser-induced fluorescence (TALIF) is a modification of the laser-induced fluorescence technique. In this approach the upper level is excited by absorbing two photons and registering the resulting emission from the excited state. The advantage of this approach is that the registered light from the f...
where did the stereotype of the stupid/gun toting american come from?	TLDR: People remember things that they see or hear and are too quick to take it as fact, then they act on the information by stereotyping. ELI5: Some think all US people are [Yosemite Sam](_URL_0_) People tend to put complex issues into a box that is smaller and easy to quickly understand, in doing this they uninten...	[ "A common stereotype of Americans is that of economic materialism and capitalism. They may be seen as caring about nothing but money, judging all things by their economic value, and scorning those of lower socioeconomic status.\n", "However, anti-Americanism came of age in the 1920s, as many French traditionalist...
How could ancient Persia sustain a world-beating Empire when modern day Iran appears to be so hostile to agriculture?	I'm not sure I understand the premise of your question. The present population of Iran, which is not (and has never been) under particular threat of famine is 80 million people. Nor was it under such threat before the discovery of oil. There are credible reasons to believe that Persia underwent permanent desertificati...	[ "A boom in the production and export of cotton made Iran the richest region of the Islamic caliphate in the ninth and tenth centuries. Yet in the eleventh century, because of colder temperatures, Iran's impressive agricultural economy entered a steep decline, bringing the country's primacy to an end.\n", "The gro...
When faced with collapse, why could the Roman Empire not simply fall back and defend Italy?	I suppose the last question I have is what happened to the Romans manpower over time that prevented them from responding to the tribes? For example, in the Punic Wars, Rome lost tens of thousands of men, but could field more and keep up the fight, all mainly from Italy. Was the economic decline of the West over the c...	[ "The sack was a culmination of many terminal problems facing the Western Roman Empire. Domestic rebellions and usurpations weakened the Empire in the face of external invasions. These factors would permanently harm the stability of the Roman Empire in the west. The Roman army meanwhile became increasingly barbarian...
what is a real feminist?	Technically, what you are encountering are individuals practicing misandry under the guise of feminism. Feminism itself is supposed to seek equality for all genders, but in particular for women. I tend to prefer the term humanist, as it holds no perceived gender bias, and also covers a more broad movement for equalit...	[ "Feminist pornography refers to a genre of film developed by and/or for those dedicated to gender equality. It was created for the purposes of encouraging women and their self-beliefs of freedom through sexuality, equality, and pleasure. Many third-wave feminists are open to seeking freedom and rights of sexual equ...
Pike and Shot - How did it work?	> 1) Cold steel must have been common enough to justify arming a chunk of your men with weapons to stand around and get shot at. I do know that this eventually led to the development of the bayonet and early bayonet fencing was based on pike drill. I don't mean to be rude, but is there a question in here? > 2) Gu...	[ "Pike and shot is a historical infantry combat formation that evolved during the Italian Wars before the late seventeenth century evolution of the bayonet. The infantry formations of the period were a mix of pike and early firearms (\"shot\"), either arquebusiers or musketeers.\n", "Pike and shot became a militar...
what is a concept album?	An album where all the songs follow a storyline or a general theme throughout, for example Rush - 2112 follows a world without music, Marilyn Mansons - Mechanical Animals is about the life of a successful music star whereas like Queens of the Stone Age - Songs for the Deaf was inspired by Josh Homme driving through the...	[ "A concept album is an album in which its tracks hold a larger purpose or meaning collectively than they do individually. This is typically achieved through a single central narrative or theme, which can be instrumental, compositional, or lyrical. Sometimes the term is applied to albums considered to be of \"unifor...
What are your favorite humorous/absurd scientific papers?	Recently from another subreddit: an article in the Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis: [The unsuccessful self-treatment of a case of "writer's block"](_URL_0_). And the follow up case study in 2007: [A multisite cross-cultural replication of Upper's (1974) unsuccessful self-treatment of writer's block](_URL_1_).	[ "Pickover is author of hundreds of technical papers in diverse fields, ranging from the creative visualizations of fossil seashells, genetic sequences, cardiac and speech sounds, and virtual caverns and lava lamps, to fractal and mathematically based studies. He also has published articles in the areas of skepticis...
why does our tongue get stuck to a pole when it’s cold?	When the tongue contacts the pole heat flows out of the tongue and into the pole. Since the metal pole can conduct heat well this can cool the surface of the tongue dramatically, freezing the saliva on the surface and grabbing onto the surface of the tongue. Left in place longer it will start to freeze the tissue as we...	[ "Fissured tongue is a benign condition characterized by deep grooves (fissures) in the dorsum of the tongue. Although these grooves may look unsettling, the condition is usually painless. Some individuals may complain of an associated burning sensation.\n", "Transient surface discoloration of the tongue and other...
Would a black hole just look like a (fading, redshifting) collapsing star frozen in time?	[This](_URL_1_) black hole from interstellar was said to be the most realistic rendering of a black hole to date. You can see the accretion disk caused by the black holes massive gravitational field. An accretion disk is formed by diffuse materials orbiting a large central mass. Inside the orbit of the accretion disk,...	[ "If the mass of the remnant exceeds about (the Tolman–Oppenheimer–Volkoff limit), either because the original star was very heavy or because the remnant collected additional mass through accretion of matter, even the degeneracy pressure of neutrons is insufficient to stop the collapse. No known mechanism (except po...
Why does the Lorentz force act in the direction of the cross product?	Just to start of, the Lorentz force generally refers to the electric and magnetic force. The magnetic force is given by q(v x B), but the electric force is not given in terms of a cross product. So considering the magnetic force, you could just say that it is an empirical observation, that the force is always in t...	[ "The above equation illustrates that the Lorentz force is the sum of two vectors. One is the cross product of the velocity and magnetic field vectors. Based on the properties of the cross product, this produces a vector that is perpendicular to both the velocity and magnetic field vectors. The other vector is in th...
why do snipers open their mouth when shooting?	They don't. Precision rifle shooters pull the trigger during their natural respiratory pause. Some people breathe through their mouths while shooting, some through their noses, but they don't 'open their mouths' while shooting.	[ "Snipers are trained to squeeze the trigger straight back with the ball of their finger, to avoid jerking the gun sideways. The most accurate position is prone, with a sandbag supporting the stock, and the stock's cheek-piece against the cheek. In the field, a bipod can be used instead. Sometimes a sling is wrapped...
is the recent outbreak of deadly tornadoes a result of climate change? if so, can we expect to see a higher volume of them this spring when tornadoes are more prevalent?	Perhaps indirectly. The exceptionally strong El Nino this year is helping to create conditions that can cause tornadoes. Tornadoes form when warm air from the Gulf of Mexico flows North and meets colder air in the Great Plains. Usually, that pattern forms in the spring, but if the conditions are met, tornadoes can f...	[ "Tornadoes can form in any month, providing the conditions are favorable. For example, a freak tornado hit South St. Louis County Missouri on 31 December 2010, causing pockets of heavy damage to a modest area before dissipating. The temperature was unseasonably warm that day. They are least common during the winter...
Currently doing some reading on U.S history, can anyone recommend some films set in 19thC USA (except for Gangs of NY and Westerns) please?	La Amistad is a great film about the slave ship of the same name that landed on America's eastern seaboard. It is based on the true story and while sporting some historical exaggerations is very entertaining.	[ "The film series was created, written and produced by MacMahon, Allison McGourty and Duke Erikson. It was first broadcast on May 16, 2017 in the United States and was narrated by Robert Redford. The film was the result of ten years of intensive field research and postulated a radically new take on American history,...
Where do we get will power from? Is there a brain region or a chemical associated with increased or diminished will power?	As you say, the willpower you're describing is not, strictly physiologically speaking, a "brain vs body" issue. Your body (including the brain) sends chemical and neuronal signals to your conscious mind to indicate a need to eat, sleep, etc. Unless those signals are unusually strong--eg you haven't slept in days, and a...	[ "There's conflicting evidence about whether will power is finite, infinite or self-reinforcing resource, a phenomenon sometimes termed ego depletion or reverse ego depletion. However, belief that will-power is infinite or self-reinforcing is associated with greater will power, voluntary executive function.\n", "K...
why do celebrities do random photoshoots that are not a collaboration with a large brand?	They get paid enough to make it worthwhile. It's a job. A job where everyone kisses their ass and pretends to care about them, but it is just a job. Unless they have some particular reason to refuse good money, they do jobs that offer it.	[ "Celebrity endorsements are effective due to their high profile presence in the media. Their physical attractiveness is central to their ability to sell products to an impressionable audience. Celebrities are also effective because they are what many people aspire to be or look like. Celebrities act as symbols of p...
why would a video of a still image take up less space than a video with moving frames?	Videos use something called [inter-frame compression](_URL_0_) to shrink the videos. Instead of storing each frame in full, they store only some frames in full, and between them they store inter frames which only contain the difference from the last frame. Since a lot of videos have shots where the next frame is very s...	[ "Conversely, extra motion blur can unavoidably occur on displays when it is not desired. This occurs with some video displays (especially LCD) that exhibits motion blur during fast motion. This can lead to more perceived motion blurring above and beyond the preexisting motion blur in the video material. See display...
electrocution and circuits - if a electric circuit needs to be complete for current to flow, why do you get electrocuted (or shocked, if you don't die) when you touch a wire and then touch ground?	you are completing the circuit... the ground is always a ground, the earth is a big place and will accept all the voltage you offer it. So if your holding something hot and offer it a path to the earth, you will get zapped.	[ "Electrical transmission and distribution lines for electric power typically use voltages between tens and hundreds of kilovolts, so contact with or close approach to the line conductors presents a danger of electrocution. Contact with overhead wires is a frequent cause of injury or death. Metal ladders, farm equip...
how does _url_0_ direct me to the correct domain every time even though they change so frequently?	DNS lookups make the world go round. I could change my physical server and location every day, as long as I keep a DNS server updated with the correct information traffic will get there	[ "The main differences in the concepts are about domain name and time scale: \"PURL\" uses an independent (preserved) domain name, and is about decades; \"permalink\" is about years, and usually does not change the URL's domain.\n", "When a computer on the Internet needs to resolve a domain name, it uses resolver ...
why do players in the nfl get penalized for doing a touchdown celebration?	It's like saying "neener neener I got a td. You suck." And apparently that upsets some people. Personally I think they should be able to. It's a good feeling getting a td.	[ "After scoring a touchdown, players at the professional level often celebrate by spiking the football. In NCAA football, the scoring player is immediately obligated to either leave the ball or return the ball to an official – spiking the ball in this circumstance is illegal and will result in a penalty for unsports...
Why might a mouse survive a fall from a large height while a human would probably die?	It's the square-cube law. Mass increases as (size)^3, and bone strength only increases as (size)^2. So the bones of a mouse are much stronger relative to its mass than the bones of a human. You can get around that to a certain extent by making your bones larger proportionally to your body, which is why big animals l...	[ "Jumping mice live in wooded areas, grassy fields and alpine meadows. When disturbed, they start off with enormous bounds of eight or ten feet in length, which soon diminish to three or four; and in leaping the feet scarcely seem to touch the ground. They are nocturnal and generally live alone. The nest is placed i...

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