question stringlengths 3 301 | answer stringlengths 9 26.1k | context list |
|---|---|---|
Do chickens have a limited supply of eggs throughout their life, or can they produce eggs as long as they have a functioning reproductive systema? | Birds, like humans, have a limited number of primary oocytes in their ovaries. But most of them don't live long enough to run out. [This Slate article](_URL_0_) that addresses your question says that some macaws, which are very long-lived, can run out of eggs, but the [study they cite](_URL_1_) is on humans, and I can'... | [
"Chickens and other egg-laying creatures are kept widely throughout the world and mass production of chicken eggs is a global industry. In 2009, an estimated 62.1 million metric tons of eggs were produced worldwide from a total laying flock of approximately 6.4 billion hens. There are issues of regional variation i... |
why do i get the chills when my temperature is above the normal range, say 101.3 fahrenheit? | When your get a fever, your body raises your internal thermostat. You shiver and get the chills in order to reach your new higher temperature setting. It's one way you can tell if you're getting a fever if you don't have a thermometer. Chills means a fever us coming on, sweating means the fever is breaking. | [
"Chills is a feeling of coldness occurring during a high fever, but sometimes is also a common symptom which occurs alone in specific people. It occurs during fever due to the release of cytokines and prostaglandins as part of the inflammatory response, which increases the set point for body temperature in the hypo... |
What was the majority of combat like during the allied invasion of Italy in WWII? | It was awful. You can read *The Day of Battle* by Rick Atkinson for a good overview of the campaign.
Basically, Italy is long and narrow and has mountains. The Germans created a series of fortified lines in those mountains, and the Allied armies assaulted them head on. It was a bloody, grinding slog.
They tried to... | [
"The Italian campaign of World War II consisted of Allied operations in and around Italy, from 1943 to 1945. The Joint Allied Forces Headquarters (AFHQ) was operationally responsible for all Allied land forces in the Mediterranean theatre and it planned and led the invasion of Sicily in July 1943, followed in Septe... |
why do realtors still exist? | Buying a house isn't like buying a sandwich. There's a lot of paperwork involved, inspections, negotiations, escrow, yada yada yada.
People pay real estate agents to take care of that stuff. | [
"Creative real estate investing is any non-traditional method of buying and selling real estate. Confidence tricks and pyramid schemes in the 20th and 21st century such as Nouveau Riche (real estate investment college) have embraced the term, leading contemporary usage of the term to be synonymous with unscrupulous... |
Is the carbon that makes up a tree the same actual molecules that are taken by the tree from airborne carbon dioxide? | Yes, the functional enzyme, called RuBisCo, is one of the only proteins which can take free CO2 and "fix" into a chemical that biological specimens (such as trees) can use. Once fixed, this carbon either goes into structural elements (such as plant tissue/cellulose) or into glucose that gives the plant energy when the ... | [
"She is biologist and has tested theories about how trees communicate with other trees. She used radioactive carbon to measure the flow and sharing of carbon between individual trees and species. She discovered that Birch and Douglas Fir share carbon. Birch trees receive extra carbon from Douglas Firs when the Birc... |
why are broadband companies spending so much energy and money pushing home phone service when less and less people are maintaining land lines in favor of mobile phones? | Money is the right answer. For companies that use DSL over your phone line to sell service, the equipment already exists to set up phone service; it costs them hardly anything to hook you up to it.
For companies that use cable connections, modern cable modems that use the DOCSIS 3.0 standard often have phone modems bu... | [
"Telecommunications equipment providers, convinced that the future economy would require ubiquitous broadband access, went deeply into debt to improve their networks with high-speed equipment and fiber optic cables. In many areas, such as the Dulles Technology Corridor in Virginia, governments funded technology inf... |
How does stadium layout affect noise level? | There actually is quite a bit of science behind it. There is a whole engineering field based on negating the affects of sound (acoustic engineering) [which you can read more about here.](_URL_0_) Basically sound is a wave and how that wave bounces off of walls and other obstacles will affect decibel level. [Here's a li... | [
"One of the major reasons is the stadium's design. Originally built in a shallow sinkhole, the playing surface is below ground level. Expansions have enclosed the playing area on all sides with steep stands, and the fans are within a few feet of the action. This traps crowd noise inside the stadium, which results i... |
what is a denial of service (dos) attack. | As some internet smartass once put it "Wanna DDoS a bar? Get a shitload of friends to all go in and keep asking for glasses of water."
The point of a distributed denial of service attack is to tie up one server with **so many** requests that ultimately aren't real that it has no time to service the actual users who wa... | [
"BULLET::::- Distributed Denial of Service attacks. A denial-of-service attack (DoS attack) or distributed denial-of-service attack (DDoS attack) is an attempt to make a computer or network resource unavailable to its intended users;\n",
"In computing, a denial-of-service attack (DoS attack) or distributed denial... |
what is a tax return? | You're correct. You get taxes withheld from your paycheck. But those taxes are just an estimate of what you will actually owe. When you started your job you filled out a W4 form which helped calculate how much taxes they would withhold, based on things like whether you have dependents, whether someone claims you as a d... | [
"A tax return is defined as “a return, declaration, statement, refund claim, or other document required to be made or filed in connection with state or federal income taxes or state bank and corporation franchise taxes.”\n",
"In the United Kingdom, a tax return is a document that must be filed with the HM Revenue... |
Do people frequently exposed to the sun as kids keep a darker skin colour throughout their lives? | UV light from the sun stimulates the release of melanin from the cells in your skin, which is partially responsible for the tan color of your skin. When that UV light is no longer present, that pigment can wear off. Functionally, the darker color of skin will come to reflect more wavelengths of light, serving as a sort... | [
"Cases have been reported in Britain in recent years of rickets in children of many social backgrounds caused by insufficient production in the body of vitamin D because the sun's ultraviolet light was not reaching the skin due to use of strong sunblock, too much \"covering up\" in sunlight, or not getting out into... |
Full Moon Tonight. What if any effect does the lunar phase have on the human body? | Layman here. The short answer is no. There's no reason to think the moon actually has any effect on the human body or human activity beyond the simple fact that it illuminates the night more than a crescent or new moon.
[Here's](_URL_2_) a short Scientific American article and [here's](_URL_1_) a sourced wikipedia art... | [
"Full moons are traditionally associated with insomnia (inability to sleep), insanity (hence the terms \"lunacy\" and \"lunatic\") and various \"magical phenomena\" such as lycanthropy. Psychologists, however, have found that there is no strong evidence for effects on human behavior around the time of a full moon. ... |
how do you figure out a time signature in a song? | I'll try to use some examples:
3/4 is mostly used in waltz. It has a very easily recognized "hum-pa-pa" rhytm. [The first seconds make it clear!](_URL_1_)
2/4 is mostly used in marches. It's steady, marching tempo, and goes a bit up and down every beat. [From 15s you should recognize it](_URL_2_).
6/8 may look li... | [
"Time signatures define the meter of the music. Music is \"marked off\" in uniform sections called bars or measures, and time signatures establish the number of beats in each. This does not necessarily indicate which beats to emphasize, however, so a time signature that conveys information about the way the piece a... |
why are concrete driveways and sidewalks made in squares instead of one giant patch like roads and asphalt driveways? | The squares are there to help stop cracks from spreading across the whole slab. If you're talking about the stamped grid marks.
Or they are heat expansion joints if you're talking about the individual blocks that are sometimes poured with thin strips of wood in between. | [
"Contemporary sidewalks are most often made of concrete in North America, while tarmac, asphalt, brick, stone, slab and (increasingly) rubber are more common in Europe. Different materials are more or less friendly environmentally: pumice-based trass, for example, when used as an extender is less energy-intensive t... |
ted talks? | TED talks were created to explain complex ideas as if you were 5 years old. Huh. What a concept. | [
"TED Conferences LLC (Technology, Entertainment, Design) is a media organization that posts talks online for free distribution under the slogan \"ideas worth spreading\". TED was conceived by Richard Saul Wurman in February 1984 as a conference; it has been held annually since 1990. TED's early emphasis was on tech... |
how do live youtube streams of tv shows get away with it? | Because streams cannot be easily automatically processed by Youtube's ContentID system. Someone would have to report the stream to the copyright holder, then they would have to contact Youtube to shut down the stream. | [
"Live stream services encompass a wide variety of topics, from social media to video games. Platforms such as Facebook Live, Periscope, Kuaishou, and 17 include the streaming of scheduled promotions and celebrity events as well as streaming between users, as in videotelephony. Sites such as Twitch.tv have become po... |
How did the Cold War change the way that historians study history? | I've touched on this before in regards to how historians look at the various nationalities that were included in the Soviet Union ([here's a recent answer](_URL_0_)). But to summarize that part, during the Cold War historians largely had to rely on emigre information (in the form of memoirs or interviews), official sou... | [
"Since the 2000s, benefiting largely from the opening of Cold War-era archives in the Soviet Union and elsewhere in the world, Cold War historians have begun to move on from questions of blame and inevitability to consider the Cold War in the \"longue durée\" of the 20th century, alongside questions of culture, tec... |
how does thermo-pads work? i'm impressed how with the flex of the disk the liquid crystalizes and generates heat. | It takes energy to change something from a solid to a liquid - this heat is called the [Latent Heat of Fusion.](_URL_2_)
The material in the Thermo-pad is a [SuperSaturated](_URL_0_) solution of water and sodium diacetate - SDA. (Fun Fact: - This stuff is the same chemical used to flavour Salt-and-Vinegar potato chips... | [
"The most common reusable heat pads contain a supersaturated solution of sodium acetate in water. Crystallization is triggered by flexing a small flat disc of notched ferrous metal embedded in the liquid. Pressing the disc releases very tiny adhered crystals of sodium acetate into the solution which then act as nuc... |
organic vs natural foods, and their pros/cons? | [I found a neat little picture for ya :)))](_URL_0_) | [
"Organic food are foods that are produced using methods involving no agricultural synthetic inputs, for instance, synthetic pesticides, chemical fertilizers, genetically modified organisms (GMO), and are not processed using irradiation, industrial solvents, or chemical food additives. Currently, the United States, ... |
why do i hear so many radio ads for companies hiring truck drivers? | It's because truckers spend a lot of time on the radio
The marketing ppl did a study and found out that truckers spend a lot of time on the radio so they put their ads targeting truckers on the radio
The problem is that truckers don't listen to the radio, the radio they spend so much time on is their CB radios.
Sin... | [
"Truck drivers provide an essential service to industrialized societies by transporting finished goods and raw materials over land, typically to and from manufacturing plants, retail and distribution centers. Truck drivers are also responsible for inspecting all their vehicles for mechanical items or issues relatin... |
after waterloo,napoleon was merely exiled;marshal ney(a subordinate) was executed. | Ney was a traitor since he defected from the monarchy side.
Napoleon was "only" exiled because he was the head of a state, it was unseemly for the royals of Europe to execute one that had equal rank | [
"On 12 June 1815 Napoleon left Paris for modern day Belgium, where the two Coalition armies, an allied one commanded by the Duke of Wellington and a Prussian one under Prince Blücher were assembling. Napoleon was defeated at the Battle of Waterloo on 18 June 1815. He returned to Paris and abdicated for the second t... |
why does the fanta in turkey taste so much better and the color is more orange too. | because the ingredients available in turkey are different than the ones in the states.
it is well known that in mexico the cocacola tastes the best because it is served in a glass bottle and uses real sugar not splenda | [
"Many Peruvians believe that ceviche is an aphrodisiac and hangover cure, the latter possibly due to the fact that it is traditionally consumed with beer. Unlike ceviche from Mexico and Ecuador, in Peru it does not have tomatoes. Also popular is Leche de tigre (tiger's milk), which is the Peruvian colloquial name f... |
As a poor peasant entering the Roman Army, what was the highest rank one could potentially get promoted to through merit alone? | Great question!
Theoretically... as long as one was a Roman citizen, one could end up Emperor. In *theory*. That was very rare, and only occurred during the rebellions and usurpations of the 3rd century crisis, and those usurpations were almost always very short lived.
In actuality, how did promotion in the first cen... | [
"Soldiers in the Roman army were classified on the basis of the amount of property that they owned, and as such, soldiers with more property outranked soldiers with less property. Since the wealthy soldiers were divided into more Centuries in the early Roman army, with a greater military burden, the wealthy soldier... |
If you ordered a whiskey from a saloon back in the old west, like in Tombstone or Deadwood in the ~1870's, what was the likely origin and quality of what you'd be drinking? | Even before the transcontinental railroad (1869), the West was connected with the international marketplace. Products from all over the world were available, although clearly, it took a bit longer for the supply lines to reach newly-founded and/or remote settlements. Primary sources attest to how quickly whiskey and be... | [
"Archaeologists from Mount Vernon visited Whiskey Hill in 2004 while conducting research for the reconstruction of George Washington's distillery; they confirmed that the house dates to the late 18th century. However, no signs of the distillery operation remain, though a spring on the property features stone walls ... |
why do video games still have a childlike or an unproductive stigma to them? | Let me preface: I play video-games alot, i have 300 games in my steam library and within the last year i ranked up to Diamond in star-craft 2. But i make sure not to let the games interfere with my personal life.
The main problem with gaming is the secluding nature of the hobby. Its really easy to blow off your relati... | [
"From time to time, video games have been criticized by parents' groups, psychologists, politicians, and some religious organizations for allegedly glorifying violence, cruelty and crime, and exposing children to these elements. It is particularly disturbing to some that some video games allow children to act out c... |
static in the dark | It's always there, you just notice it more in the dark because there isn't as much other visual information for your brain to be distracted by. | [
"Static electricity is an imbalance of electric charges within or on the surface of a material. The charge remains until it is able to move away by means of an electric current or electrical discharge. Static electricity is named in contrast with current electricity, which flows through wires or other conductors an... |
Does viewing a computer screen before bed disrupt sleep? | Yes, according to The Endocrine Society (2011, January 13) - Room light before bedtime may impact sleep quality, blood pressure and diabetes risk:
> Melatonin is a hormone produced at night by the pineal gland in the brain. In addition to its role in regulating the sleep-wake cycle, melatonin has been shown to lower... | [
"Some research suggests that screen time close to bedtime prevents children from getting adequate sleep. Research suggests that social media and internet use, 30 minutes before bed, is associated with disturbances in sleep patterns of children. Use within two hours of bedtime is associated with less total sleep and... |
How old are particles? Could the same proton exist since the beginning of the universe? | Yes, the same proton could exist since the quarks condensed into baryons. In fact quite a lot of them probably have-- the diffuse intergalactic hydrogen gas that makes up so much of the baryonic matter has pretty much been sitting there quiescently for ~14 billion years. | [
"In the beginnings of particle physics (first half of the 20th century), hadrons such as protons, neutrons and pions were thought to be elementary particles. However, new hadrons were discovered and the 'particle zoo' grew from a few particles in the early 1930s and 1940s to several dozens of them in the 1950s. Som... |
Does dark matter accumulate into dark objects (planets, stars, etc.)? Why? | One of the explanations for dark matter was Massive Compact Halo Objects, or MACHOs. These are things like stellar remnants and brown dwarfs that have mass but radiate very little light. If these existed, they would count as dark matter accumulations. However, it is now thought that, while they do exist, MACHOs are inc... | [
"Baryonic dark matter may occur in non-luminous gas or in Massive Astrophysical Compact Halo Objects (MACHOs) - condensed objects such as black holes, neutron stars, white dwarfs, very faint stars, or non-luminous objects like planets and brown dwarfs.\n",
"If dark matter is composed of weakly-interacting particl... |
if matter cannot be created or destroyed, why doesn't carbon dating always date back to the big bang? | Matter cannot be created or destroyed - but chemical and nuclear reactions happen all the time which *rearrange* matter into new elements and compounds.
Carbon-14 in particular is an unstable radioactive isotope which is generated in the atmosphere by radiation from space - it exists in a known concentration in the ... | [
"Because the triple-alpha process is unlikely, it normally needs a long time to produce much carbon. One consequence of this is that no significant amount of carbon was produced in the Big Bang because, within minutes after the Big Bang, the temperature fell below the critical point for nuclear fusion.\n",
"Some ... |
why are vw busses/beetles stereotypically "hippy" even though vw has a lot of negative connotations with nazi germany? | In the states, there is almost no association of VW with Nazi Germany. The only association i've ever seen to that effect is here on reddit | [
"Like the Beetle, from the beginning, the Type 2 earned many nicknames from its fans. Among the most popular at least in Germany, are VW-Bus and Bulli (or Bully) or Hippie-van or the bus. The Type 2 was meant to be officially named the Bully, but Heinrich Lanz, producer of the Lanz Bulldog farm tractor, intervened.... |
why wouldn't prop planes require counter torque when helicopters do? does it have to do with the plane's mass? | Look into trim tabs and what they do. Prop planes will typically have a little tab that sticks out of an aileron and one side of the rudder. These are there to make fine adjustments to trimmed flight. These also offset the torque created by the motion of the prop. Also, when a single engine prop plate increases power, ... | [
"Some helicopters use other anti-torque controls instead of the tail rotor, such as the ducted fan (called \"Fenestron\" or \"FANTAIL\") and NOTAR. NOTAR provides anti-torque similar to the way a wing develops lift through the use of the Coandă effect on the tail boom.\n",
"In helicopters, the result of the torqu... |
. why do not all chicken eggs produce baby chicks | If a rooster (male chicken) does not inseminate the female, the eggs will not produce a chick because you need both sperm and an egg to procreate. So it's pretty important to keep roosters away from the henhouse. | [
"Different segments of the poultry industry sex chickens for various reasons. In farms that produce eggs, males are unwanted; for meat production, separate male and female lines for breeding are maintained to produce the hybrid birds that are sold for the table, and chicks of the wrong sex in either line are unwant... |
can a person move in space? if superman could fly, would such ability work in space? | You can flap your arms and legs around but since there's nothing to push against, you can't propel yourself that way.
If you shoot projectiles out of you (pee, poop, spit, throw things) you can propel yourself a little bit! That's sort of like pushing against something that's smaller than you are.
It doesn't look lik... | [
"Each Superman has the ability to fly and can thereby avoid certain characters or obstacles using this ability. There are also characters that have the ability to fly and are thereby easier to defeat if confronted in the air. There are also certain areas and levels where flying is mandatory. Also, many obstacles ca... |
why do some national armies seem to have more autonomy than others, to the point of being able to instigate coups? | A coup is made more likely in a country where the army is more loyal to the 'leadership' of the army than the government.
This could happen for a number of reasons, for example if there is a military 'class'. Or if the army is small enough that a single charismatic person could gain influence.
In the 'west' armies ar... | [
"A 2018 study in the \"Journal of Peace Research\" found that coup attempts were less likely in states where the militaries derived significant incomes from peacekeeping missions. The study argued that militaries were dissuaded from staging coups because they feared that the UN would no longer enlist the military i... |
what causes petrification in trees and forests? what is it? | The wood gets replaced by minerals dissolved in the water it is exposed to.
There are no lignins left. Lignins are what makes wood "woody".
| [
"The petrifaction process occurs underground, when wood becomes buried under sediment or volcanic ash and is initially preserved due to a lack of oxygen which inhibits aerobic decomposition. Mineral-laden water flowing through the covering material deposits minerals in the plant's cells; as the plant's lignin and c... |
What happened to the Vandals who lived in North Africa? How much do we know about their language? | Add-on question: why don't we see any Germanic looking descendants in north Africa? | [
"The Vandals, under their new king Gaiseric (also known as Genseric or Geiseric), crossed to Africa in 429. Although numbers are unknown and some historians debate the validity of estimates, based on Procopius' assertion that the Vandals and Alans numbered 80,000 when they moved to North Africa, Peter Heather estim... |
when you buy a used vehicle and have to pay tax on it. | > Is this not double dipping?
More like triple, quadruple, quintuple, etc dipping.
You were also taxed when you were paid by your employer. And your employer was taxed when they earned the money. And the person who paid them the money was taxed when they spent the money, etc.
Every dollar is taxed over and over... | [
"BULLET::::- Vehicle tax – replacing the Automobile Tax in 2007, vehicle tax is paid by the car-owners in the case of purchasing or importing a car. This tax is aimed to make the car owners responsible for the costs caused by road infrastructure, environmental impact and road accidents. This type of tax covers pass... |
are there any advantages to having a cell phone with the same area code as where i'm living? | when you call your neighbors, they might not pick up the phone cause it's not local area code.
i don't pick up any calls i don't recognize the area code. | [
"There is no difference between mobile phone numbers and land-line or VoIP. Total number portability and the nonexistence of area codes make mobile phone numbers no different than other technology's numbers.\n",
"The introduction of overlay plans as a means to reduce the need for phone numbers to change as a resu... |
what do the dow jones industrial average and s & p 500's points stand for? why does the dow have so many more than the s & p? | The Dow is a kind of average of the price of stocks for 30 large companies. They aren't all industrial companies anymore, that's just an old name.
The S & P 500 is a different average of the 500 largest companies that sell stock publically (anyone with money can try and buy their stock).
Both of them work pretty muc... | [
"The Dow Jones Industrial Average was first published on February 16, 1885. According to records, the Dow reached a peak of 78.38 on June 4, 1890. This means that the following record closing values fall below the June 1890 peak, and thus, may not be formally recognized by some sources.\n",
"BULLET::::- October 2... |
At the hardware level, how do computers multiply numbers together? | A simple algorithm works by using the binary representation of one of the numbers (which is easy because numbers are already stored in binary inside the computer). For example, if b is 00100011 in binary then:
a * b = a * 00100011 = a * 00100000 + a * 00000010 + a * 00000001
Now, multiplying binary number a by a bina... | [
"The most common way of implementing large-integer multiplication in hardware is to express the multiplier in binary and enumerate its bits, one bit at a time, starting with the most significant bit, perform the following operations on an accumulator:\n",
"Some chips implement this algorithm for various integer a... |
Leap seconds, why do they matter so much? | Leap seconds occur much more frequently than once per 30 years. You can see a [graph](_URL_8_) of the difference between [UTC](_URL_5_) and [UT1](_URL_4_), which I'll get to in a bit. Every vertical spike is the introduction of a leap second and you can see they've happened many times over the years.
Time standards in... | [
"Leap seconds are irregularly spaced because the Earth's rotation speed changes irregularly. Indeed, the Earth's rotation is quite unpredictable in the long term, which explains why leap seconds are announced only six months in advance.\n",
"A leap second is a one-second adjustment that is occasionally applied to... |
how do they fill a cavity? | [very carefully](_URL_0_)
hope the video helps! | [
"The amount of resin required to fill the sprue, runner and cavities of a mould comprises a \"shot\". Trapped air in the mould can escape through air vents that are ground into the parting line of the mould, or around ejector pins and slides that are slightly smaller than the holes retaining them. If the trapped ai... |
what is the differnce between likelihood and probability? | In non-mathematics, they're synonyms.
In math, a likelihood is weaker than a probability. | [
"Odds and probability can be expressed in prose via the prepositions \"to\" and \"in:\" \"odds of so many \"to\" so many on (or against) [some event]\" refers to \"odds\" – the ratio of numbers of (equally likely) outcomes in favor and against (or vice versa); \"chances of so many [outcomes], \"in\" so many [outcom... |
why can humans go crazy? | In severe mental illnesses such as schizophrenia and some forms of depression/bipolar disorder the mind actually breaks, losing touch with reality. This is called psychosis. The mind can't allow or prevent it from happening because the mind is actually involved in the process.
The brain is an extremely complex organ,... | [
"I think (short of documentary evidence to the contrary) that if people are not crazy, they get themselves out of crazy situations, so I have never been able to buy the notion that it was my father's drinking which led her to the sanitarium. Nor do I think she led him to the drinking.\n",
"...when I say everyone ... |
center of gravity | Here are some shitty examples for you:
Numbers represent mass, * means the approx. center of mass, --- and __ are inflexible beams.
Take note that we will neglect the weight of the beams for these examples.
Straight bars:
1--------*--5
The CoM is closer to the heavy side, because it's an average.
3----*----3... | [
"The center of gravity, as the name indicates, is a notion that arose in mechanics, most likely in connection with building activities. When, where, and by whom it was invented is not known, as it is a concept that likely occurred to many people individually with minor differences.\n",
"In the book \"The Fourth W... |
For a country that had a huge Empire and access to all kinds of seasonings and spices, why is traditional British food so bland? | If one looks back to older recipes such as those presented in *The English Huswife* by G. Markham through to *The Scots Kitchen,* by F. McNeill we see a breadth of ingredients and cuisines available in our history. Additionally, British baking history is brimming with historical recipes. Plum cakes spring to mind, but ... | [
"In ancient times Celtic agriculture and animal breeding produced a wide variety of foodstuffs for the indigenous Celts and Britons. Anglo-Saxon England developed meat and savoury herb stewing techniques before the practice became common in Europe. The Norman conquest introduced exotic spices into England in the Mi... |
why do "no shirt, no shoes, no service" signs not include pants? | If you aren't wearing pants you are getting arrested. It's necessary, of course, so much so that including would be overkill. | [
"No Pants Day is an annual event held in various Western countries, where people publicly wear only underwear and leave their legs exposed. No Pants Subway Ride is a similar event to promote public wearing of underwear on subway trains. Another such event is Undie Run, where people run on street wearing only underw... |
what is happening to a person's body during a seizure? how and why are mouth foam produced? | Epileptic seizure (which I asume you are talking about) happens when your brain "short circuits" and starts acting chaotically. This can be result of some head trauma, it can be congenital, it can even be caused by a brain tumor.
When the seizure starts (the point where it starts is called focus) it quickly spreads th... | [
"The main sign of a gelastic seizure is a sudden outburst of laughter or crying with no apparent cause. The laughter may sound unpleasant and sardonic rather than joyful. The outburst usually lasts for less than a minute. During or shortly after a seizure, an individual might display some twitching, strange eye mov... |
why do some emergency vehicles not run their sirens consistently and instead have the "remix" effect? | I always thought when a police car has a siren on like WEEEOOOOWEEEOOOOO and then they need to beep the horn because people are in the way, instead of making a horn noise, it just goes WOOPWOOP. That was how I understood it, anyway.
Same thing for firetrucks: normal siren like WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO, horn siren like ERHE... | [
"BULLET::::- Sirens - These can be fully electronic, electric, or manual, but are all designed to create changing sound patterns. These patterns vary by model of siren. Emergency drivers are often trained to use different siren tones in different conditions, to achieve maximum effectiveness through traffic. A long-... |
why can't we just use magnets to remove bullets from the body? | Bullets are mostly lead with a metal jacket in a lot of cases, of either copper or steel | [
"BULLET::::- Magnets can pick up magnetic items (iron nails, staples, tacks, paper clips) that are either too small, too hard to reach, or too thin for fingers to hold. Some screwdrivers are magnetized for this purpose.\n",
"Magnets that get too near each other can strike each other with enough force to chip and ... |
At what point did Germany stop paying WWI debts and at what point did they start again? | Reparations were postponed indefinitely by the Lausanne Conference in 1932, and resumed to the tone of 16 billion after WWII; they were completed in 2010. | [
"In the case of Germany, there also were 16 billion marks of debts from the 1920s which had defaulted in the 1930s, but which Germany decided to repay to restore its reputation. This money was owed to government and private banks in the US, France, and Britain. Another 16 billion marks represented postwar loans by ... |
Dark-matter, expansion of the universe, Wimp and quantum mechanics | First off, dark matter is in our universe, and isn't separated in any special way - it's actually mixed in quite happily with normal matter most of the time. Saying the universe is 80% DM, 20% normal matter is just like a cake which has 250g flour, 250g sugar and 3 eggs - they're all in there, but they're mixed togethe... | [
"In cosmology, \"dark energy\" is the name given to source of the repelling influence that is accelerating the rate of expansion of the universe. Its precise nature is currently a mystery, although its effects can reasonably be modeled by assigning matter-like properties such as energy density and pressure to the v... |
in a court of law, how is the amount of money paid for "emotional distress" measured? | Old lawyer here. If the case is tried to a jury, the jury decides the amount, not the judge. The judge provides instructions that explain the applicable rules and standards, but the rest is up to the jury. The instructions are necessarily subjective because pain and suffering are subjective experiences. In my state... | [
"The amount of money damages a claimant gets for pain and suffering will also depend upon the amount claimed in a lawsuit if such is filed or the amount demanded to the responsible party in the underlying claim if it is an insurance claim. Even though a lawyer representing a client in an injury negligence-based law... |
How did Magellan communicate with the natives when he arrived at the Philippines? | Magellan was lucky enough to have an interpreter with him when he landed in the Philippines. Back in 1511, Magellan had taken part in the siege of Malacca, a very influential port in the Asian Pacific. During the siege, Magellan acquired slaves like most conquerors do. One of these, was a man named Enrique of Malacca w... | [
"Ferdinand Magellan sailed into the Philippine Archipelago, reaching the island of Homonhon in an epic voyage of discovery and eventual circumnavigation of the world in 1521. Magellan's fleet proceeded to Limasawa through Surigao Strait, a notch north-west of the city's pelagic boundaries, before dropping anchor on... |
Why doesn't kinetic energy increase heat? (Disregarding friction of course) | Heat comes from the disorganized motion of the molecules. To take a simplified example, lets pretend you had solid cube at absolute zero. This means that *relative to itself*, the molecules are not moving. Even if you move the entire cube at some velocity, the molecules are still not moving relative to itself. | [
"When surfaces in contact move relative to each other, the friction between the two surfaces converts kinetic energy into thermal energy (that is, it converts work to heat). This property can have dramatic consequences, as illustrated by the use of friction created by rubbing pieces of wood together to start a fire... |
How accurately did ancient sculptures/busts depict their subjects? | It really depends on the period. The Greeks valued naturalism and attempted to crate more and more realistic proportions in their sculpture (although the subject matter was often mythological, so the accuracy of the depictions doesn't really come into play). Once they had gotten a handle on naturalistic proportions, ... | [
"From a stylistic point of view, they are based on ancient models, particularly Hellenistic sculpture, like the statue group of \"Laocoön and His Sons\", discovered in 1506 and at that time in Michelangelo's possession, but also the sculptural friezes on the triumphal arches of Rome and depictions of Saint Sebastia... |
An ancient Greek city called Rope? | The book you read is called "soldier of the Mist" by Gene Wolfe. Its central conceit involves a Latin speaking soldier travelling through the Greek world but not really understanding what he sees or hears. (As you mentioned, he has no short term memory)
Often, he will interpret the things he hears in an over-literal f... | [
"Knotted cords were used by many ancient cultures. The Greek schoenus is referred to as a rope used to measure land. Ropes generally became cables and chains with Pythagoras making the Greek agros a chain of 10 stadia equal to a nautical mile c 540 BC. The Romans used a waxed cord for measuring distances. \n",
"T... |
What gas is inside a sealed coconut? | [This paper](_URL_0_) might be what you’re looking for. Essentially it’s a mix of various volatile organic compounds. | [
"Coconut water, less commonly coconut juice, is the clear liquid inside coconuts (fruits of the coconut palm). In early development, it serves as a suspension for the endosperm of the coconut during the nuclear phase of development. As growth continues, the endosperm matures into its cellular phase and deposits int... |
what the federal reserve bank is? a us nationalized system that oversees the american economy? is that right? | I wanted to make some analogy to a father giving a mother money for the grocery store (creating money) and then taking money from the mother when they needed to save (pulling money out), but I anticipated a lot of dribble about how it was offensive that the father was financially caring for the household and how that m... | [
"A Federal Reserve Bank is a regional bank of the Federal Reserve System, the central banking system of the United States. There are twelve in total, one for each of the twelve Federal Reserve Districts that were created by the Federal Reserve Act of 1913. The banks are jointly responsible for implementing the mone... |
aside from metabolism, why can my skinny friend eat mcdonald's 6-7 times a week and not gain a pound and i have to diet on fruit, vegetables, and lean proteins to lose weight? | Obviously we don't have all the information, and you or him might have a legitimate abnormality.
However, people tend to be pretty bad at judging how much they eat and how much other people eat. If you ignore what you think is healthy or unhealthy and just look at total calories, I bet he doesn't eat more than you.
F... | [
"Spurlock ate at McDonald's restaurants three times per day, eating every item on the chain's menu at least once. Spurlock consumed an average of 20.9 megajoules or 5,000 kcal (the equivalent of 9.26 Big Macs) per day during the experiment. An intake of around 2,500 kcal within a healthy balanced diet is more gener... |
What caused the Balkan Wars of 1912 and 1913 to be over so quickly compared to the First World War? | At first, the absence of direct military intervention from the great european powers. The first Balkan War was concluded rapidly as the Ottoman army was busy fighting the Italians for Libya. The Second Balkan War, that started merely a month after the end of the first, opposed the former winners against Bulgaria. ... | [
"In 1912 and 1913, the First Balkan War was fought between the Balkan League and the fracturing Ottoman Empire. The resulting Treaty of London further shrank the Ottoman Empire, creating an independent Albanian state while enlarging the territorial holdings of Bulgaria, Serbia, Montenegro, and Greece. When Bulgaria... |
Did the popularity of baseball in the United States influence American grenade design or tactics in WW2? | Not to discourage further responses, but I answered a similar question some time ago [here](_URL_0_). | [
"Chapter 1. The Baseball Grenade. Rushin discusses the link between the military and baseball and describes how the military endeavored to design a hand grenade shaped like a baseball which they believed would give American soldiers a natural advantage over the enemy because of the soldier's prowess in throwing bal... |
why is the state of california the state mentioned in all the warning labels? | California has a substantial history of setting its own consumer safety and environmental rules above what the USA federal government requires. Since California is such a huge market and it is expensive to make different products for different places, companies will often just put the California labels on everything si... | [
"The state is named after the peninsula on which it is found, Baja (Lower) California, with the term “Sur” meaning “south.” The name California applied to this peninsula along with the area now known as the state of California in the United States. The coat of arms emphasizes the state's connection to the sea, incl... |
What creates the space-time warp of a black hole? | If we are talking about the familiar black hole solutions (Schwarzschild, Kerr, Newman, etc.), then it's important to understand that these are *vacuum* solutions to the field equations. That is, there is no matter, no energy, nothing, except the gravitational field itself. GR is a fully non-linear theory, which means ... | [
"By Mach's principle, spacetime is dragged along with mass-energy, with the distant stars on cosmological scales or with a black hole in close proximity. Thus, matter tends to spin-up around rotating black holes, for the same reason that pulsars spin down by shedding angular momentum in radiation to infinity. A maj... |
Was there "dating" in medieval and Renaissance Europe? | It varied among classes. Most high-ranking nobles and royals were married through arranged marriage. In one rather shocking example, Richard II agreed to marry the 7 year old daughter of the French king as part of a peace treaty. However, among peasants there was much more freedom to do as you pleased. The church had a... | [
"Generally, during much of recorded history of humans in civilization, and into the Middle Ages in Europe, weddings were seen as business arrangements between families, while romance was something that happened outside of marriage discreetly, such as covert meetings. The 12th-century book \"The Art of Courtly Love\... |
how come damaged headphone cords give the impression of an instrumental track when the audio itself doesn't separate vocals and music? | You can get that effect if one channel of the audio has ended up connected where the ground connection should be. The sound produced by the headphones will then be the difference between the two channels, since one of the channels is effectively being used as the "zero" reference point. Vocals will usually be quite "ce... | [
"Stereophonic sound attempts to create an illusion of location for various sound sources (voices, instruments, etc.) within the original recording. The recording engineer's goal is usually to create a stereo \"image\" with localization information. When a stereophonic recording is heard through loudspeaker systems ... |
What's the actual story of Bloody Mary? | Bloody Mary was a sobriquet given to Mary I (1516-1558), the first queen regnant of England from 1553 to 1558. The daughter of Henry VIII and his first wife Catherine of Aragon, Mary inherited her mother's (and her father's, early in his life) staunch Catholicism.
Her predecessor was her younger brother, Edward VI (st... | [
"Bloody Mary is a folklore legend consisting of a ghost, phantom, or spirit conjured to reveal the future. She is said to appear in a mirror when her name is chanted repeatedly. The Bloody Mary apparition may be benign or malevolent, depending on historic variations of the legend. Bloody Mary appearances are mostly... |
why do some fruits taste 'dry'? | Do you mean dry like wine (dry in fruit means lack of sweetness. Or do you mean dry like not juicy, low moisture? | [
"Traditional or conventional dried fruits are types of dried fruits that are either sun-dried such as raisins and dried figs or dehydrated in wind tunnels and other dryers such as dried plums (prunes), apricots (kuraga), peaches, and persimmons (gotgam). It also includes dates, which are considered to be dried frui... |
Sound waves destroying speakers, is this possible? | Theoretically, yes.
Speakers generate sound from simply moving backwards and forwards to generate propagating regions of high or low air pressure. In order to blow the speaker, the machine in the comic generates a signal such that it causes an area of low pressure to reach the car's speaker at the precise moment the... | [
"Noise cancellation generators for active noise control are a relatively modern innovation. A microphone is used to pick up the sound that is then analyzed by a computer; then, sound waves with opposite polarity (180° phase at all frequencies) are output through a speaker, causing destructive interference and cance... |
the difference between children's glue and normal glue. | What are you thinking of when you say "normal glue"? | [
"Most glue sticks are designed to glue paper and card together, and are not as strong as some liquid based variants. They can be used for craft and design, office use and at school. There are now permanent, washable, acid-free, non-toxic, solvent free, and dyed (e.g. to see where the glue is being applied easier) v... |
Historians of r/AskHistorians, what ethnic groups or minorities were most persecuted in your area of expertise? | The Mayan people of Guatemala and the Moskito people around the Caribbean coastline in Nicaragua are among a number of indigenous minorities that remain largely discriminated against. During the Contra war for example, the Moskito people suffered from discrimination by the Sandinista regime in which they attempted to f... | [
"Ethnic minorities are underrepresented in the political process and in public life, especially the civil service. There were some cases of attacks on minorities in the country by right-wing groups, although Germany is—especially because of its past—very considered on tolerance and integration. In 2010 the US State... |
why do they always the need to change up the ui of a big social media app? | It’s so they can tell their shareholders/stockholders that they are adding value and keeping their product “relevant” | [
"Due to its different screen layout, iOS developers are required to update their apps to make full use of the additional screen real estate. Such changes include rounded corners, sensor \"notch\" at the top of the screen, and an indicator area at the bottom for accessing the home screen. Apple published a \"Human I... |
How can Hubble observe the necklace nebula from a distance of 15,000 light years if it's only 10,000 years old? | That's somewhat poorly worded by the NASA site, though it's very common to put things in these terms. They mean 10,000 years ago *as observed by us*, meaning 25,000 years ago.
I almost always refer to things that I observe in the present tense though technically they did of course happen a long time ago. Nearly all o... | [
"The nebula was discovered by the Spitzer Space Telescope. The segment seen so far is thought to be 80 light years long, 300 light years from the supermassive black hole thought to be at the galaxy's center, and 25,000 light years from Earth.\n",
"The Necklace Nebula (PN G054.2-03.4) is a 19-trillion-kilometre-wi... |
why has game graphics "stalled" and doesn't seem to get much better every year anymore? | It's a sign of computer graphics maturing. We've gotten all of the low-hanging fruit already. The advancements that are left all require dramatically more computing power than what we are currently doing. This is pretty much expected in any field. At first you'll grow and get better in leaps and bounds but eventually t... | [
"GameSpot's Walton thought the graphics improvements made the open world \"even more spectacular\", especially because of improved spatial anti-aliasing. Of the first-person view, he said that \"at ground level everything looks bigger and more imposing\" because of the improved graphics. IGN's Stapleton favoured th... |
What is the smallest something can be and still be magnetic? Can an individual iron atom be magnetic? | There are actually many forms of magnetism, so we can start picking and choosing as to which magnetism we want to consider to give the "smalelst size".
* The first one is that due to a moving charge, this causes a magnetic field and is utilized in electromagnets. This can be explained via [Maxwell's equations](_URL_... | [
"In the absence of an external source of magnetic field, the atoms get spontaneously partitioned into magnetic domains, about 10 micrometers across, such that the atoms in each domain have parallel spins, but different domains have other orientations. Thus a macroscopic piece of iron will have a nearly zero overall... |
Can Mosquitoes Carry Rabies? | Nope. Cases of rabies are almost always attributable to the bite of a rabid animal. Old cases from a twenty year period between 1927 and 1946 showed that 99.8% of rabies cases came from bites from a rabid animal. Rabies is caused by a rhabdovirus that is transmitted only through saliva. Rare non-bite exposures include ... | [
"Cryptic bat rabies refers to infection from unrecognized exposure to rabies virus that can be phylogenetically traced to bats. It is most often seen in the southern United States. Silver-haired bats (\"Lasionycteris noctivagans\") and tricolored bats (\"Perimyotis subflavus\") are the two most common bat species a... |
What would've happened to Eva Braun if she didn't commit suicide? | /u/commiespaceinvader has a [good answer here](_URL_0_) to this question. The long and the short of it is that the postwar denazification procedures did not really consider wives as major accessories to their husbands' misdeeds. While this meant that wives of the Nazi elite certainly would lose property and other valu... | [
"BULLET::::- British intelligence officers announced that exhaustive investigation indicated that Adolf Hitler and Eva Braun had married on April 29 and then committed suicide in a Berlin bunker the following day.\n",
"Officially described as a suicide, it was theorised that she took her own life when her relatio... |
what can be done to make sears brick and mortar stores live on? | In the present configuration, it can't.
There may be an opportunity for a handful of the still-strong stores to emerge again following the impending bankruptcy and, hopefully, selection of new leadership. But whatever that will look like, it will be very different from what Sears was in its heyday or what it is prese... | [
"Fireclay partnered with the oldest continually operating brick manufacturer in the United States (since 1868), McNear Brick and Block in 2012, which lead to the 2012 launch of the Glazed Thin Brick line. The collaboration has already resulted in an improved brick product; the material has progressed from being mad... |
Is there any science/genetics behind traits "skipping a generation"? | For some of these things that "skip a generation" you may be looking at different patterns of inheritance. If a phenotype is decided by the combination of alleles the individual possesses, there can be some different situations.
Let's say capital A is one allele, and lowercase a is the other possibility. So an indiv... | [
"Noam Chomsky, a prominent proponent of discontinuity theory, argues that a single chance mutation occurred in one individual in the order of 100,000 years ago, installing the language faculty (a component of the mid-brain) in \"perfect\" or \"near-perfect\" form. \n",
"Under conditions of genetic drift alone, ev... |
Does anyone have scientific knowledge about "The
Bloop" or other unknown sounds? All hype aside,
what do professionals think the sounds are? | [Check out Brian Dunning's article on the issue](_URL_0_) if you haven't already. I'd also love to hear more about this. | [
"According to the NOAA description, it \"rises rapidly in frequency over about one minute and was of sufficient amplitude to be heard on multiple sensors, at a range of over .\" The NOAA's Dr. Christopher Fox did not believe its origin was man-made, such as a submarine or bomb, nor familiar geological events such a... |
what exactly do physicists mean when they say the universe in expanding | Over time, any two (significantly) distant points in the universe are increasingly far apart. There's more 'space' between them.
This occurs at very large scales. For instance, our local galaxy cluster is gravitationally bound, and not expanding apart. To the contrary, we will eventually collide with another galaxy, A... | [
"At a fundamental level, the expansion of the universe is a property of spatial measurement on the largest measurable scales of our universe. The distances between cosmologically relevant points increases as time passes leading to observable effects outlined below. This feature of the universe can be characterized ... |
why isn't the formula that determines a credit score public? | Because that would put the power in the hands of the public, not the three companies that generate the number(s) which define the limits of your happiness. | [
"In the United States, a credit score is a number based on a statistical analysis of a person's credit files, that in theory represents the creditworthiness of that person, which is the likelihood that people will pay their bills. A credit score is primarily based on credit report information, typically from one of... |
Monday Methods: "You're gonna need a bigger boat." Grad School Admissions part 4: Strategizing and a Plan B and part 5: What happens when I am in? | I applied to PhD programs twice, the first to study the history of the United States and the second to study art history. In between I completed an interdisciplinary MA, specifically NYU's John W. Draper program. It is my understanding that this program specifically recruits from unsuccessful applicants to NYU's PhD pr... | [
"Admission is based on a competitive entrance exam after high school (lycée), though candidates may also apply after two or three years of university studies in the subjects of history, classics, literature, geography, philosophy and art. The school offers an undergraduate program, a master's program and a doctoral... |
if i use the same amount of coffee grounds but more water, does my caffeine content change? | Caffeine comes out of the grounds. If you reduce the grounds, you reduce caffeine. If you steep too long, the flavor sours.
For good-tasting, strong coffee, you increase the amount of grounds you use.
For good-tasting, weaker coffee, you decrease the amount of grounds you use. | [
"Depending on the type of coffee and method of preparation, the caffeine content of a single serving can vary greatly. The caffeine content of a cup of coffee varies depending mainly on the brewing method, and also on the coffee variety. According to the USDA National Nutrient Database, an 8-ounce (237 ml) cup of \... |
street gangs | Well I would assume that like anything they would work like a business. Its just what they do is considered illegal and or is based on harming others. Its all about the profits.
depending on the nature of the gang what they do on a daily basis can be very different. but the basic motions are the same. just think of i... | [
"There are street gangs, with members of similar background and motivations. The term \"street gang\" is commonly used interchangeably with \"youth gang\", referring to neighborhood or street-based youth groups that meet \"gang\" criteria. Miller (1992) defines a street gang as \"a self-formed association of peers,... |
Do mobile/cell phones really interfere with medical equipment? | In general - no. However the problem is that none of the equipment manufacturers are willing to guarantee that. For example - if equipment is installed incorrectly (such as missing a ground connection) there could be some interference. If you had the option between guaranteeing that it wouldn't cause a problem and... | [
"Many medical devices have either been successfully attacked or had potentially deadly vulnerabilities demonstrated, including both in-hospital diagnostic equipment and implanted devices including pacemakers and insulin pumps. On 28 December 2016 the US Food and Drug Administration released its recommendations that... |
Do THC metabolites stay in your system longer when ingested vs inhaling? | Either way, the THC gets to the same place (the bloodstream/liver), which is where it is metabolized (through the enzyme CYP2C). Ingesting THC will cause about 6-20% of it to be absorbed, while inhalation causes 10-35% of it to be absorbed. So, since you will have less of it in your body in the first place, THC that is... | [
"Due to substantial metabolism of THC and CBD, their metabolites are excreted mostly via feces, rather than by urine. After delta-9-THC is hydroxylated into 11-OH-THC via CYP2C9, CYP2C19, and CYP3A4, it undergoes phase II metabolism into more than 30 metabolites, a majority of which are products of glucuronidation.... |
Congress of Vienna questions | I hate to come off as annoying, and maybe our local Francophile /u/DonaldFDraper would be more willing to play 20 questions, but I find it much easier to answer a series of questions if I know where the questions are leading and can tackle it in one big post so I can build everything off of each other and know how to a... | [
"BULLET::::- Congress of Vienna – The Congress of Vienna was a conference of ambassadors of European states chaired by Austrian statesman Klemens Wenzel von Metternich, and held in Vienna from September 1814 to June 1815.\n",
"The Congress of Vienna (, ), meeting of ambassadors of European states chaired by Austr... |
How do satellites travel into deep space without getting hit by or running into anything? | There's almost nothing to run into. Deep space is incredibly, spectacularly empty. You can go right through the asteroid belt without being at any serious risk of a collision.
Earth orbit is a bit more crowded, enough so that we track thousands of pieces of space junk in orbit so that if they happen to be on a collisi... | [
"Small satellites are difficult to track with ground-based radar, so it is difficult to predict if they will collide with other satellites or human-occupied spacecraft. The U.S. Federal Communications Commission has rejected at least one small satellite launch request on these safety grounds.\n",
"Accidents can o... |
When did the concept of a "legal" versus "illegal" war replace the idea of a "just" versus "unjust war"? | The terms "just" or "unjust" are still widely in use. The terms "legal" or "illegal" wars have really just come out of the establishment of international legal institutions (League of Nations and the United Nations) in the 20th century. The distinction of "just" war usually refers to the qualities that make a war "lega... | [
"During the European Middle Ages, international law was concerned primarily with the purpose and legitimacy of war, seeking to determine what constituted a \"just war\". For example, the theory of armistice held the nation that caused unwarranted war could not enjoy the right to obtain or conquer trophies that were... |
A book on ancient empires? | [The Dynamics of Ancient Empires](_URL_0_) is a fantastic choice. Ian Morris' section on the Athenian "Empire" is a classic, and there are also interesting treatments by other contributors like Scheidel. | [
"The 96-page booklet is wrapped in a removable cover. The book includes a one-page introduction, explaining that this book covers the \"Old Empires\", three ancient kingdoms in the South of the Forgotten Realms world: Mulhorand, Unther, and Chessenta, each of which receives its own section. Pages 3–6 detail the his... |
how long will it be before we run out of metals? | Metal itself isn't going anywhere, looking at the big picture. Gigantic skyscrapers or megastructures that arguably hold the most metal will erode and disappear in mere centuries, eventually returning to the soil.
Minerals and terrain regenerate slowly, but they do, given enough time. They might be increasingly diffic... | [
"Using the recoveries estimated by IMC, the recoverable metal from the reserves would be 5.7 million tonnes of copper, 148,000 tonnes molybdenum and 188 million ounces of silver, giving a life of over 25 years at an average production rate of 210,000 tonnes copper annually, plus another 8 years if the resources pro... |
is rebalancing an investment portfolio a form of the gamblers fallacy? | No, that's not the assumption it's based on. Rather, it's based on *regression to the mean,* the statistical fact that something which has outperformed is likely to stop outperforming. | [
"\"The change in investment strategy represents an effort on the part of PBGC to increase the expected returns on its assets and to diminish the likelihood that taxpayers will be called on to cover some of its liabilities. The new strategy is likely to produce higher returns, on average, over the long run. But the ... |
dr. who | A nearly-immortal being stole a time and space ship, went off on adventures, and takes humans along for the ride. Sometimes he saves the universe. | [
"Doctor Who is a British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC since 1963. The programme depicts the adventures of a Time Lord called \"the Doctor\", an extraterrestrial being, to all appearances human, from the planet Gallifrey. The Doctor explores the universe in a time-travelling space ship ca... |
How does charge separation in clouds occur just by collision of ice, water and dust particles? | It's friction, like rubbing your socks on the carpet or a balloon on your hair- two substances, where one is more conductive and one is more of an insulator. The insulator donates to the conductor, IIRC.
Nasa has a great writeup on it here:
_URL_0_ | [
"When an ice crystal collides with supercooled water it is called accretion (or riming). Droplets freeze upon impact and can form graupel. If the graupel formed is reintroduced into the cloud by wind, it may continue to grow larger and more dense, eventually forming hail.\n",
"The differences in the movement of t... |
how do plastic tyre bikes work? why did we use rubber ones (requiring air to be pumped in) in the first place? | Well, the material itself is somewhat stiffer, while still retaining a certain flexibility. The holes are there to offer room for the material to flex, avoiding the uncomfortable hardness you'd experience if the tires were solid- it fulfills the same purpose as the pressurized air inside a regular tire, as well as lowe... | [
"Meanwhile, the businesses of rubber glue and parts for bicycles developed into a synthetic, chemical adhesive and sealant business for automobile production and construction applications, as well as for motorcycle disc parts such as sprockets and brakes, namely its vehicle equipment division.\n",
"Vulcanized rub... |
Since early humans mated with Neanderthals and created viable offspring, does that mean we aren't exactly the same species as the first humans genetically? | Sure, species evolve over time and allele frequencies change and new alleles can arise through mutations. Imagine humans existing 20,000 years from now. Even without a speciation branching we could be very different. The situations needed for speciation (reproductive isolation) may not occur so there wouldn't be new ... | [
"Other fossils found in this Siberian cave have previously shown that all three species (modern human, Neanderthal and Denisovan) lived there at different times, and that all three human species interbred with each other. The genes of both archaic human species are present in many people today, which suggests that ... |
If you are in an UNGROUNDED inflatable pool and an electric current passes through the pool, will you be electrocuted? | In the example given in that photo there is a ground for the electricity to flow through - the neutral connection in the socket (or the earth if that extension lead has one).
Current will always take the shortest route, therefore if the socket part of the extension lead dipped into the water then the electricity woul... | [
"Potential differences between pool water and railings, or shower facilities and grounded drain pipes are not uncommon as a result of neutral to earth voltages (NEV), and can be a major nuisance, but are usually not life-threatening. However, contact voltage resulting from damaged insulation on a current carrying c... |
Does air resistance go down the higher you go? | Since one of the variables that drag depends on is density of air, and since the higher you go, the less dense air is, the answer is yes.
In simpler terms, density is the amount of molecules, and since there are less molecules of air the higher you go, you're hitting less molecules, therefore losing less energy to dra... | [
"BULLET::::- Air resistance increases greatly as speed increases and is the most significant factor at speeds above 10 to 12 miles (15 to 20 km) per hour (the drag force increases in proportion to the square of the speed, thus the power required to overcome it increases in proportion to the cube of the speed).\n",
... |
Is there any evidence of weapons manufacturers manipulating political events to increase the likelihood of war? | The Anglo-German arms race seems like a great example. The British and the Second German Empire had a traditionally strong relationship. However, with the ascension of Kaiser Wilhelm II, an arms race pushed Great Britain to side with the French on the eve of WW1, as opposed to remaining neutral as they had in 1870.
T... | [
"The War has falsified almost every prophecy. Food was to be an enormous price [sic] unemployment rife ... Revolution was to be feared. What are the facts? The freight market ... is now active and prosperous ... Prices of food have risen very little, and the difficulty at present is to get sufficient labour, skille... |
Subsets and Splits
No community queries yet
The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.