question stringlengths 3 301 | answer stringlengths 9 26.1k | context list |
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Just how much has my view been skewed by typical Westerns (films)? Was there really so much active violence between civilians and Indians? | I believe I can provide a summarized case study:
One example is the Paiute War (1860-1), in which the Paiute tribe of Pyramid Lake, Utah Territory (now Nevada) fought against the US. Though tensions were rising, and attacks both by and on Indians were rising, no open fighting occurred until a massacre of American work... | [
"In many early western films and literature, Native Americans were often portrayed as savages; having conflicts and battles against gunfighters and white settlements. According to the U.S. Bureau of the Census (1894), an estimate of 19,000 white men, women and children were killed while the Indians killed numbered ... |
how is it that the piratebay was able to be taken down by a single raid on a physical location? | It looks like the answer is in the same article you posted: "All traffic goes through the load balancer"
From what I've been reading, this was precisely what was hit by the raid. | [
"The pirates boarded the vessel 25 minutes after they were sighted, and it took them three hours to breach three of the four security doors to the ship's security room. At that point the crew surrendered, and the pirates made them line the bridge, to serve as human shields.\n",
"The ship may have been subject to ... |
Is there any evidence that a large scale, traumatic event (like the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki) can have a long lasting effect on the overall psyche of a culture? | Japan was a closed country during a long time and started opening its borders less then two centuries ago. Since japanese culture developed without almost no external influence for so long it explains why it looks strange from outside. | [
"5-Strategic Bombing Survey The Effects of Atomic Bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki The most striking result of the atomic bombs was the great number of casualties. The exact number of dead and injured will never be known because of the confusion after the explosions. Persons unaccounted for might have been burned be... |
When did getting/having a drivers license really become a thing required to have? | In order to maybe cut down on some of the lackluster answers, I'll put in a few clarifying questions on what the original question (I presume!) is asking:
1. When did a driver's license first become a valid form of identification in the US? Did it replace an older form of state issued ID?
2. When did stores in Americ... | [
"Massachusetts and Missouri were the first states to require a driver's license in 1903, but there was no test associated with the license. “In 1908, Henry Ford launched the Model T, the first affordable automobile for many middle-class Americans. (In 1919, when Ford’s native state of Michigan started issuing drive... |
When do the Jews become Monotheistic, and when do they see themselves as separate from other Semitic tribes and cultures? | /u/midwesternphotograph talks about [the evolution of Judaism from polytheistic to monotheistic](_URL_0_)
/u/lcnielsen also [has a writeup about it](_URL_1_) | [
"Judaism, the oldest Abrahamic religion, is based on a strict monotheism, finding its origins in the sole veneration of the ancient predecessor to the Abrahamic God, Yahweh. The idea of God as a duality or trinity is heretical in Judaism - it is considered akin to polytheism. \"[God], the Cause of all, is one. This... |
Since capsaicin is water insoluble, how does it interact with water in spicy broths and salsas? | Insoluble is a relative term. Capsaicin will dissolve to some extent in water, especially if it is hot (13 mg per liter at room temp).
The molecule does have a polar end with some oxygen, nitrogen and hydroxyl groups, so water does have something to hang on to when it interacts. It's possible it may form some kind... | [
"Surfactin, like other surfactants, affects the surface tension of liquids in which it is dissolved. It can lower the water's surface tension from 72 mN/m to 27 mN/m at a concentration as low as 20 µM. Surfactin accomplishes this effect as it occupies the intermolecular space between water molecules, decreasing the... |
Why is it that, despite having such a close relationship for all these years, there seems to be few diseases that can spread from human to dog and vice versa. Yet, pig flu and bird flu exist and can be passed to humans. | Influenza exists as in pigs and birds because they act as a reservoir. There's a large amount of those animals migrating everywhere and are always in close contact with one another. This makes it easy for the virus to jump to different birds and thrive. Occasionally, a strain of influenza will jump to humans as a zo... | [
"Similarly, in recent times avian influenza and West Nile virus have spilled over into human populations probably due to interactions between the carrier host and domestic animals. Highly mobile animals such as bats and birds may present a greater risk of zoonotic transmission than other animals due to the ease wit... |
Does sugar/sugary sweets directly cause rotting/decay of our teeth? | No, not directly. Decay is caused by bacteria eating away at the enamel of the teeth. These bacteria will feed off of any kind of sugar or starch, not just sweets. Stuff like potato chips that cling to the teeth can often cause worse damage than sugars, which dissolve quickly in saliva before they can be consumed by sa... | [
"Frequency of sugar sweetened beverages results in dental caries, which are caused by Streptococcus bacteria. Dental caries is an infectious oral disease and is the breakdown of the teeth due to the bacteria in the mouth. It occurs when bacteria within the plaque metabolize the sugar, releasing various acids as was... |
I know Native Americans didn't have horses until Europeans showed up, but did they use any other animals for war, other than as pack animals? Battle llamas? | I cant speak for the possible usage of Llamas and Alpacas in combat, though maybe one of my South American counter parts could weigh in on the liklihood of releasing the Camelids of War. But in North America the only animal that may have been used would have been the domesticated dog. Dogs were commonly found across No... | [
"Indigenous populations of South America soon learned to use horses. In Chile, the Mapuche began using cavalry in the Arauco War in 1586. They drove the Spanish out of Araucanía at the beginning of the 17th century. Later, the Mapuche conducted mounted raids known as Malónes, first on Spanish, then on Chilean and A... |
Towards the centre of the galaxy, do the planets have "daylight" 24/7 due to the high concentration of stars in close proximity? | You can come up with the ballpark estimate on your own with some simple math. We know that light follows the [inverse-square law](_URL_0_). I.e. a light source that is twice as far away will give you 1/4th the energy, all else equal.
Let's ask the question: if all the stars were 4.2 light years away from the planet in... | [
"BULLET::::1. The brightness contrast between the planet and its host star typically ranges from 10 for hot young giant planets emitting significant amounts of near-infrared light, to 10 for rocky planets seen exclusively through reflected light.\n",
"The Solar System and all of the visible stars are in different... |
why are parents more worried about giving their kids more freedom compared to the 70's to 90's when the crime rate was higher? | The actual crime rate was higher, but the perception of crime is higher now. Lots of people talk about how the world got unsafer. That is not based on actual crime statistics (which have all been going down) but rather on the fact that because we live in such an interconnected world nowadays, we hear *everything*. And ... | [
"A skills commission report released in 2013, backed by Labour MP Barry Sheerman, suggests that young people were being let down by the education system, with particular criticism aimed towards the lack of information, advice and guidance available to 14-19 year olds. The government were hopeful that the changes wo... |
colony collapse disorder | It's pretty widespread, but it's not all that complex. Current research indicates that it's linked to the use of a class of insecticides called neonicotinoids. Europe has, as a result, already banned use of these pesticides, and if/when their bee population begins to recover, we'll have a definite answer. | [
"Colony collapse disorder (CCD) is the phenomenon that occurs when the majority of worker bees in a colony disappear and leave behind a queen, plenty of food and a few nurse bees to care for the remaining immature bees. While such disappearances have occurred sporadically throughout the history of apiculture, and w... |
the concept of light years and how it is that we can measure distance with time | The speed of light in a vacuum is a constant. The distance it travels in a year is thus also a constant. And that distance is large enough that it's a convenient measure of large distances. Though for what it's worth, there are other units that astronomers also prefer in certain contexts, such as the parsec. | [
"George Gamow discussed measurements of time such as the \"light-mile\" and \"light-foot\", the time taken for light to travel the specified unit distance, defined by \"reversing the procedure\" used in defining a light-year. One light-nanosecond is roughly 30 centimeters (29.9792458 cm exactly), or about a foot (3... |
why is the sound quality so poor over airplane tannoys? | For those wondering, 'tannoy' is a British term for a loud speaker or public-address system. [From Wikipedia](_URL_0_), it comes from a company's name, Tannoy:
> "It became a household name as a result of supplying PA systems to the armed forces during World War II, and to Butlins and Pontins holiday camps after the... | [
"Modern commercial aircraft employ high-bypass-ratio (HBPR) engines with separate flow, non-mixing, short-duct exhaust systems. Their noise is due to the speed, temperature, and pressure of the exhaust jet, especially during high thrust conditions such as those required for takeoff. The primary source of jet noise ... |
why and how do lights flicker when faulty, and how does hollywood recreate faulty lights for shows | This is caused by a [preheater](_URL_0_) which doesn't function properly. When the lamp is ready to start up it sends a jolt, which starts the preheater. This jolt also lights up the gass in the light, after this the preheater kicks in and the light turns on properly. When the preheater is broken, you only see the flic... | [
"In an effort to duplicate the suspense on screen, movie theaters dimmed their lights to their legal limits, then turned off one by one until each light on-screen was shattered, resulting in the theater being plunged into complete darkness.\n",
"To immerse viewers in the suspense of the climactic scene, movie the... |
Atoms, molecules and ions. | What you have learned is a simplification of what's really going on.
In reality, everything is composed of 'fundamental particles' (also called elementary particles). These include things like protons and electrons. They are fundamental because they aren't made of anything else, you can't cut them into pieces, they ar... | [
"Ions consisting of only a single atom are termed atomic or monatomic ions, while two or more atoms form molecular ions or polyatomic ions. In the case of physical ionization in a medium, such as a gas, \"ion pairs\" are created by ion collisions, where each generated pair consists of a free electron and a positive... |
How scientifically valid is the Myers Briggs personality test? | I am the lead psychometrician at a personality test publisher, so I will attempt to answer your question.
To begin, it is important to note that no test is "scientifically valid". Validity is not an element of a test, but specifically has to do with test score interpretation. (see the Standards for Educational and Psy... | [
"Isabel Myers, an early pioneer of psychometric testing whose ideas remain controversial within psychology, formalised these ideas and proposed that the mixture of types in an individual's personality could be measured through responses to a personality test she devised along with her mother, Katharine Cook Briggs,... |
we name hurricanes, so why don't we name earthquakes? | I guess a hurricane will hang around for a while and will move all over the country, so there needs to be a name that people can refer to, to warn others.
With an earthquake, it comes and it goes within seconds. No need to name it because only one place will be effected, and for a relatively short time period. | [
"Tsunamis, the large waves that occur after earthquakes, are sometimes called \"tidal waves\", but this name is given by their \"resemblance\" to the tide, rather than any actual link to the tide. Other phenomena unrelated to tides but using the word \"tide\" are rip tide, storm tide, hurricane tide, and black or r... |
- why is not vaccinating children, not an arrest-able offence? | It’s recently new, and it needs to be a bigger threat than it is now before the police can be involved. | [
"Choosing not to vaccinate is largely to blame for the recent outbreak of measles. Parents choosing not to vaccinate prevents herd immunity, which is what patients who suffer with immunocompromising diseases rely on to protect them. To prevent the measles outbreak of 2019 from getting worse it is necessary for anti... |
why will only drugs and mechanical stimulus revive a flat-lined heart, versus a defibrillator? | Defibrillators stop fibrillation, or the uncoordinated contraction of heart muscles. It doesn't start the heart beating, rather it *stops* the beating so it can resume proper timing. That makes the pumping action start working rather than just twitching. | [
"As devices that can quickly produce dramatic improvements in patient health, defibrillators are often depicted in movies, television, video games and other fictional media. Their function, however, is often exaggerated, with the defibrillator inducing a sudden, violent jerk or convulsion by the patient; in reality... |
How do hand sanitizers work? (in chemistry terms) | It's not really like soap and water. But has some of the same end results.
Saponification yields polar molecules capable of micellars formation which results in dirt and microbes being surrounded and washed away while polar molecules can also break apart phospholipid membranes and cause cellular damage.
Alcohols gen... | [
"Hand sanitizer is a liquid generally used to decrease infectious agents on the hands. Formulations of the alcohol-based type are preferable to hand washing with soap and water in most situations in the healthcare setting. It is generally more effective at killing microorganisms and better tolerated than soap and w... |
there's hundreds (and probably thousands) of different beautiful gemstone minerals here in the world - why does it seem like diamond is the only one sought after for aesthetical purposes in jewelry? | _URL_0_
I dont like to just spam what someone else wrote but the whole article is great, and it really details it very well. Below is the "worth" part of the Article By: Rohin Dhar.
Before 1870, diamonds were very rare. They typically ended up in a Maharaja’s crown or a royal necklace. In 1870, enormous deposits of d... | [
"Diamonds have been treasured as gemstones since their use as religious icons in ancient India. Their usage in engraving tools also dates to early human history. The popularity of diamonds has risen since the 19th century because of increased supply, improved cutting and polishing techniques, growth in the world ec... |
Did the Rangers fought in Europe after D-Day? | Yes. After D-Day, the 2nd Ranger Battalion took part in the Battle for Brest in September 1944, the Battle of the Hürtgen Forest in December 1944, and the Battle of the Bulge in December 1944 and January 1945. They then participated in the crossing of the Roer River and advanced into Germany in early 1945. The 5th Rang... | [
"It was originally formed shortly after the United States' entry into World War II and was modeled after the British Commandos during the war. Members from the unit were the first American soldiers to see combat in the European theater when they participated in the failed raid on Dieppe in France in 1942, during wh... |
why do most businesses use ups or fedex instead of the us postal service. | In general, for packages you can get better prices from UPS or FedEx than you could from the USPS. For letters, sure, the USPS is best, but for packages? Depending on how fast you need it delivered, they aren't usually the best choice.
Source: Worked shipping/receiving for years | [
"FedEx and United Parcel Service (UPS) directly compete with USPS Express Mail and package delivery services, making nationwide deliveries of urgent letters and packages. Due to the postal monopoly, they are not allowed to deliver non-urgent letters and may not directly ship to U.S. Mail boxes at residential and co... |
Why is the maximum to the graph of y=x^x equal to e? Is this how e was determined? | I think you mean x^(1/x), which has derivative x^(1/x)(1-ln(x))/x^2 which is zero when x=e since 1-ln e=1-1=0.
We have (1-ln(x)) > 0 for x < e and (1-ln(x)) < 0 for x > e while x^(1/x)/x^(2) > 0 so the derivative is positive to the left and negative to the right. Hence, x=e is a local maximum for x^(1/x). | [
"The graph \"y\" = \"x\" illustrates the first possibility: here the difference quotient at \"a\" = 0 is equal to \"h\"/\"h\" = \"h\", which becomes very large as \"h\" approaches 0. This curve has a tangent line at the origin that is vertical.\n",
"The graph \"y\" = \"x\" illustrates another possibility: this gr... |
on many reality shows like bar rescue, they often find extreme health hazards like cross-contamination, mold, rotten meat, etc. how do these restaurants/bars/hotels not get shut down by the usda? | The USDA isn't the agency that shuts down bars/restaurants. It's the county health department.
Some of these departments inspect infrequently, so there's a lot of time to get scuzzy since the last inspection. Some are even corrupt, and will accept a bribe to give a passing grade. | [
"Ghost restaurants have been criticized for their unpleasant working conditions and cramped, windowless spaces. Several 2015 news articles found some \"ghost restaurants\" operated as unregulated, unlicensed standalone entities or as fronts for restaurants that might or might not have health code violations.\n",
... |
If Cowpox was used to create the smallpox vaccination, then why isn't FIV used to create an HIV vaccine? | Smallpox, or the variola major virus, is extremely similar to all the other relatively benign viruses in its genus. The genus "orthopoxvirus" also contains cowpox, vaccinia, monkeypox, camelpox, etc. all of which infect mammals. It is known that vaccination with cowpox provides protection from smallpox, but also the mo... | [
"Although Jenner used cowpox, the vaccine now contains a virus immunologically related to cowpox and smallpox viruses called vaccinia which causes a mild infection. The vaccine is infectious, which improves its effectiveness, but causes serious complications for people with impaired immune systems (for example chem... |
Why was the number 299,792,458 chosen as the definiton of a metre instead of a more rounded off number like 300,000,000? | The principle was to keep the definition consistent with previous measurements, within their uncertainty. We already had a definition for the metre, just not as precise as the current definition, and we want the new definition to be as consistent as possible, but just easier to measure precisely. Rounding to 300,000 km... | [
"Prefixes corresponding to an integer power of one thousand are generally preferred. Hence '100 m' is preferred over '1 hm' (hectometre) or '10 dam' (decametres). The prefixes hecto, deca, deci, and centi are commonly used for everyday purposes, and the centimetre (cm) is especially common. However, some modern bui... |
how is it that an airplane can take off even if it's on a treadmill that matches it's speed? i understand that mythbusters proved that it will take off, but i don't understand how? | An airplane's wheels aren't (normally) powered. All the thrust comes from the props/jets "pulling" on the air. The wheels just spin freely; there is some backwards drag from the treadmill but not enough to completely counteract the thrust of the engine.
Now if the plane were in a wind tunnel, that would be a different... | [
"The speed at which an aircraft is capable of its maximum aerodynamic maneuverability is known as the corner airspeed; at any greater speed the control surfaces cannot operate at maximum effect due to either airframe stresses or induced instability from turbulent airflow over the control surface. At lower speeds th... |
which lubrication to use when? | Depends on the item and context. Also, no such thing as "regular" oil - Different lubricants have specific features and uses, and equipment has unique needs for lubrication - viscosity, additives, corrosion inhibitors, that sort of thing.
Car oil - in your car engine to lubricate and cool bearings. look up the correc... | [
"A personal lubricant can be used to increase pleasure and reduce pain during sexual intercourse or other activities and may be used for lubricating the penis, vagina, anus, fleshlight or dildo or other sex toys before or during activity. Lubricant may be applied to any body part desired, to the inside and/or outsi... |
working class opposition to unions. | In many cases it simply comes down to fear. For example, my father's place of employment tried to unionize. Management started rumors that they wouldn't be able to afford it if a union came in and would have to shut the sawmill down.
| [
"Workers' solidarity means that anarcho-syndicalists believe all workers—no matter their race, gender, or ethnic group—are in a similar situation in regard to their (class consciousness). Furthermore, it means that, within capitalism, any gains or losses made by some workers from or to bosses will eventually affect... |
how can scientists conclude results similar to "doing x increases chance of cancer by 15%" | The answer is they use multiple regression analysis and very large and hopefully well chosen samples. This should weed out the correlations. For example women with breast implants get cancer more often, but women with breast implants also smoke and drink more and do other things that increase cancer risk. So by using m... | [
"For example, when studying risk factors of cancer, the cancer process may have been triggered long before actual diagnosis of cancer, and that therefore any exposure to risk factors in the \"lag\" time between may be unimportant.\n",
"The Cochrane collaboration (2013) states that the best quality evidence neithe... |
AskScience, I am so tired of newspapers turning every piece of scientific news into sensationalist bullshit. Can you recommend me a news source that tells it as it is? | physorg and sciencedaily.
lighter than a journal, several reading levels above a newspaper. | [
"Most inaccuracies and speculations in news coverage can be attributed to several barriers between the scientific community and the general public that include lack of knowledge by reporters, lack of time to prepare a proper report, and lack of space in the publication. Most news articles fail to discuss important ... |
Ionic compounds dissociate in water due to the positively charged components and negatively charged components being "pulled apart" due to their attraction to the polar water molecules. But how are organic, non-polar compounds "dissolved?" | There are indeed no partial charges in non-polar organic compounds, but there are transient "redistributions" of electron density that lead to favourable short-range interactions between solutes and solvents -- Van der Waals forces.
Solubility is all about what balance of forces leads to a lower-energy system. Ionic ... | [
"Some ionic compounds (salts) dissolve in water, which arises because of the attraction between positive and negative charges (see: solvation). For example, the salt's positive ions (e.g. Ag) attract the partially negative oxygens in HO. Likewise, the salt's negative ions (e.g. Cl) attract the partially positive hy... |
why are some sounds annoying when they're made by others but satisfying when we make them? | Liking unusual sounds is usually just you being satisfied that you know how to make the sound. When others hear it, they don't know the cause, and it feels odd to them, even after they see where it's coming from. So when they try it, they are satisfied that they're able to make a similar noise, like it's some type of a... | [
"Epidemological investigations have shown that the negative effects of sound annoyance include \"a feeling of resentment, displeasure, dissatisfaction, discomfort or offence when noise interferes with someones thoughts, feelings or actual activities\". Besides that, unwanted sounds can mask the positive indicators ... |
what's currently happening with michigan's water and why? | In Flint, MI (not the entire state) almost 2 years ago, the powers that be decided to stop using Lake Huron (via Detroit) as its water source and switch to using the Flint River, which to those who grew up in or around Flint is utterly laughable because it's a notoriously brown, murky, polluted mess, but I digress. The... | [
"The water crisis in Flint, Michigan has also led activists to focus on getting clean water to the people. After the 2014 decision to make the Flint River the primary water source of the town, residents quickly noticed the quality of their water declining. The American Civil Liberties Union filed multiple lawsuits ... |
Are all antioxidants equal in effectiveness? | I don't think there is much evidence for benefit of antioxidant supplements. Not all antioxidants are the same - they have differing abilities to mop up reactive oxygen species. We know that reactive oxygen species can cause damage, and antioxidants such as vitamin C and E and flavanoids can oppose these ROS. Dietary ... | [
"In the following discussion, the term \"antioxidant\" refers mainly to non-nutrient compounds in foods, such as polyphenols, which have antioxidant capacity\" in vitro\", so provide an artificial index of antioxidant strength—the ORAC measurement.\n",
"In the following discussion, the term \"antioxidant\" refers... |
Is there a relationship between droughts and the increased in carbon dioxide levels? | The short answer is "Yes". When people think of global warming, most people think of temperatures rising - which isn't surprising given the name! However, the temperature increase *itself* isn't actually the biggest problem. The real, major issues are the secondary effects that rising temperatures cause, such as change... | [
"The effects of fossil fuels emissions, the largest contributor to climate change, cause rising CO2 levels in the earth’s atmosphere. This raises atmospheric temperatures and levels of precipitation in the Northwestern Forested Mountains. Being a very mountainous region, weather patterns contribute higher levels of... |
why do asian immigrants more than any other race give their child "american" names? | A lot of the times, they don't. That's just those kids taking on the closest English approximation to their name (or just one they like best) to avoid always having to tell people how to spell / pronounce it. Most of the time, their legal name is indeed something Asian. | [
"There is a widespread perception that Asian Americans are not \"American\" but are instead \"perpetual foreigners\". Asian Americans often report being asked the question, \"Where are you really from?\" by other Americans, regardless of how long they or their ancestors have lived in United States and been a part o... |
What do historians think of John Geen's Crash Course History? | Always room for more discussion, but there is [a section of the FAQ](_URL_0_) devoted to this very question.
The only episode I have seen that I am qualified to comment on is the "Neolithic Revolution" episode. It is far from perfect, but it certainly isn't too far from the consensus in the field at the moment. It is... | [
"Nassim Nicholas Taleb criticised the premise of the book on the basis of two instances of survivorship bias: that there is no mention of the accumulators who have accumulated underperforming assets, and that the United States had just gone through the greatest bull market in its history at the time of the book's p... |
Why was ancient Egypt's technology lost/forgotten? Didn't they keep records? Wouldn't their techniques have been passed down through the generations? | Could you be more specific about which technologies were (supposedly) lost? | [
"The characteristics of Ancient Egyptian technology are indicated by a set of artifacts and customs that lasted for thousands of years. The Egyptians invented and used many basic machines, such as the ramp and the lever, to aid construction processes. The Egyptians also played an important role in developing Medite... |
how can animals live in contaminated areas created as a result of a nuclear disaster, but humans can not? | Plants and animals are not affected by laws, unlike humans.
That does not mean however, that most animals and plants aren't affected by the (Chernobyl*) radiation. Many species of birds and plants have evolved radiation-resistant abilities, for example by increasing the amount anti-oxidants or having more active cell ... | [
"Agricultural fields and plants will absorb the contaminated material and animals will consume the radioactive material. As a result, the nuclear fallout may cause livestock to become ill or die, and if consumed the radioactive material will be passed on to humans.\n",
"The damage to other living organism as a re... |
What are the actual addiction rates of various drugs? | Not exactly what you asked, but you may be interested in [this article](_URL_1_), and [this looks like the actual paper](_URL_0_). It's an attempt by David Nutt et al to classify drugs by personal and social harm. | [
"Due to cultural variations, the proportion of individuals who develop a drug or behavioral addiction within a specified time period (i.e., the prevalence) varies over time, by country, and across national population demographics (e.g., by age group, socioeconomic status, etc.).\n",
"Based upon representative sam... |
I don't mean to sound insensitive, but is homophobia mostly an Abrahamic religion thing? | This submission has been removed because it is [soapboxing](_URL_1_.) or [moralizing:](_URL_0_) it has the effect of promoting an opinion on contemporary politics or social issues at the expense of historical integrity. There are certainly historical topics that relate to contemporary issues and it is possible for legi... | [
"Internalized homophobia refers to negative stereotypes, beliefs, stigma, and prejudice about homosexuality and LGBT people that a person with same-sex attraction turns inward on themselves, whether or not they identify as LGBT. The degree to which someone is affected by these ideas depends on how much and which id... |
might be a /r/shittyaskscience question, but how the fuck does shaving cream work? | It's important to understand that most gasses compress very well.
Shaving cream is a compressed mixture of the actual 'cream' and gasses, this keeps the gas bubbles very, very small. Once you squirt it out, the gas is free to spread out and takes up many times the amount of space. This causes the cream to expand as th... | [
"Shaving cream, shave cream, or shaving foam is a frothy cosmetic cream applied to body hair, usually facial hair, to facilitate shaving. The use of cream achieves three effects: lubricates the cutting process; swells keratin; and desensitizes skin. Shaving creams commonly consist of an emulsion of oils, soaps or s... |
Why is the dot from a laser pointer "fuzzy?" [x-post from AskReddit] | It's called [speckle](_URL_0_). | [
"The speckle pattern which is seen when using a laser pointer is another diffraction phenomenon. It is a result of the superposition of many waves with different phases, which are produced when a laser beam illuminates a rough surface. They add together to give a resultant wave whose amplitude, and therefore intens... |
how can alexa (_url_0_) find out numbers of visitors of websites (and then their rankings)? | It's based on their toolbar. If you have the alexa toolbar installed, your traffic is recorded and sent to alexa, which uses the statistics to rank websites.
This does make sites which are frequented by people who have a lot of browser bars installed way overrepresented though, so you should take the alexa statistics ... | [
"Alexa Traffic Rank is based on the amount of traffic recorded from users that have the Alexa toolbar installed over a period of three months. A site's ranking is based on a combined measure of Unique Visitors and Pageviews. Unique Visitors are determined by the number of unique Alexa users who visit a site on a gi... |
why california's k-12 public education is so bad. | > Why is the education budget in California suffering from cuts?
1. [Prop 13](_URL_1_).
2. The [consequences of payday loan financing](_URL_0_) as the education funding source of last resort.
> Will the passing of Prop 30 (Raising the taxes on California's high income residents) have much of an effect at all?
Ban... | [
"All over the state of California there are public schools in various stages of disrepair. In a report to the public, the federal government noted that 75% of California Schools, 13,096 in total, were in need of renovation and modernization. Furthermore, the renovations and modernization(s) needed were required to ... |
tpp | It's a trade partnership, which means a bunch of nations agree to standardize their tarrifs and trading laws so that its easier for businesses in one nation to sell goods to all the nations in the partnership.
It's in the news currently because the US has been negotiating to join, and one of the terms the US is look... | [
"In July 2016, Kaine said that the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement was \"an improvement of the status quo\" in terms of it being an \"upgrade of labor standards... environmental standards... intellectual property protections\", but maintained that he had not yet decided how to vote on final approval of th... |
How important is social interaction in our everyday mental health? | The way to investigate this is to read up on the effects of social isolation
_URL_0_ | [
"Drawing from Behavioral ecology, social baseline theory purports that humans have adapted to function in a social environment. The brain acts under the assumption that proximity to other people is the norm, or baseline condition. As opposed to social isolation, which is associated with stress and poor health, soci... |
why do men enjoy boobs? why does it turn them on? if you think about it, it's just another part of the body. | If you are asking why men get sexually aroused by breasts, then it is a cultural thing. During parts of history women wore less revealing clothing so different parts of the body were sexualized including ankles. As clothes became more revealing the sexual zones moved. It is about seeing something that is forbidden o... | [
"In a March 2018 interview with \"The Punch\" (Lagos, Nigeria), Daramola-Salako stated that she considers her big boobs to be an asset not a curse: “The first attraction for most men who come across me is usually sexual. They see my big boobs and are moved immediately. But as a person, I would never go out with any... |
why and how do countries deliberately violate the airspace of others'? | I think a lot of the time they don't wonder in to the airspace as such, it is an order to simply fly in a certain direction and see what happens.
This is called 'probing'. Russia does this all the time, they simply fly a bomber in any given direction (then they can deny that it was given specific orders) and then wait ... | [
"BULLET::::1. Each nation has absolute sovereignty over the airspace overlying its territories and waters. A nation, therefore, has the right to deny entry and regulate flights (both foreign and domestic) into and through its airspace.\n",
"Violating prohibited airspace established for national security purposes ... |
why is it better to be relaxed than tense if falling from heights? | It's like the same thing as you can break spogotter but then u be cooking teh spogotter and then u cannot break it anymoar | [
"In climbing, overhangs and especially roofs place special demands both in terms of technique and equipment as well as the constitution of the sportsman or sportswoman. With increasing steepness the loading on arm and hand muscles increases, because the feet can support less and less of the body weight. Rest points... |
the economy of audio-books. why are they so expensive? | The answer to "Why does this cost so much?" is always "Because enough people are willing to pay that much."
The cost of production only puts a lower limit on the price --beyond which it would be a loss to sell the product. A lower cost of production opens up the opportunity to sell to a larger audience at a lower pri... | [
"In 2009 \"Rolling Stone\" reported a price war between iTunes and Amazon MP3. Bill Carr, vice president of digital media for Amazon.com mentioned the following of digital music \"one of the great benefits of the digital business versus the CD business is that we can experiment with price changes for an hour, a day... |
when i'm angry why/how does punching walls and wanting to be violent help to relieve anger? | It's actually a mature defense mechanism in psychology called "sublimation."
You take an unacceptable impulse, and divert it to an acceptable activity.
Example:
A kid is so angry at his dad he wants to punch his dad. He diverts his energy into playing sports instead.
_URL_0_ | [
"In such scapegoating behavior, aggression may be displaced onto people with little or no connection with what is causing anger or frustration. Some people punch cushions when they are angry at friends; a college student may snap at his or her roommate when upset about an exam grade.\n",
"Several of the symptoms ... |
the origin of miss, ms., and mrs. and how misses becomes mrs. | Mrs. is short for "mistress", which originally covered all women, but then in the 17th century, they created "miss" for unmarried women which also derives from the word mistress.
During the early 1900, "Ms" form appeared as a catch all title for women, the equivalent to the male "Mr", and the term really caught on dur... | [
"\"Miss\" is an honorific for addressing a woman who is not married, and is known by her maiden name. It is a shortened form of \"mistress\", and departed from \"misses/missus\" which became used to signify marital attachment in the 18th and 19th centuries. It does not imply age, though youth corresponds (as marria... |
How does the speed of earth traveling through space affect the passage of time? | > Since speed and time are related, does the speed of the orbit of earth influence the passage of time?
No. Everyone (frame of reference) experiences time at the same rate (one second per second if you like).
> If the two orbits that give us our speed through space act in different directions, can I assume that at ... | [
"If a space ship is using constant acceleration over interstellar distances, it will approach the speed of light for the middle part of its journey when viewed from the planetary frame of reference. This means that the interesting effects of relativity will become important. The most important effect is that time w... |
Why do we think certain things/animals are ‘cute’? Is this evolutionarily beneficial or is it socially-learned? | Cuteness is linked to nurturing instincts. Part of why we find baby animals (particularly mammals) cute is their similarity to human babies. Desire to nurture human babies has obvious evolutionary advantages. This is also a likely reason why women tend to be more into cute animals than men, because they play a bigger r... | [
"Mark J. Estren, Ph.D. in psychology from the University at Buffalo, said cute animals get more public attention and scientific study due to having physical characteristics that would be considered neotenous from the perspective of human development. Estren said that humans should be mindful of their bias for cute ... |
when the u.s. started adding fluoride to our tap water, how were other animals affected? | Fish do not have teeth. Adding fluoride to potable water supplies without fluoride naturally only seems to affect our teeth. Tap water gets discharged to sanitary sewer systems which discharge treated water into much larger bodies of water. The fluoride is diluted. It flows to the sea. It does not evaporate into the ai... | [
"Water fluoridation is the controlled addition of fluoride to a public water supply in order to reduce tooth decay. Its use in the U.S. began in the 1940s, following studies of children in a region where water is naturally fluoridated. In 1945, Grand Rapids, Michigan became the first city in the world to fluoridate... |
why is paddle shifting still considered automatic transmission? | A quick answer: Clutch
A manual gear box has a clutch that can be disengaged at any point in time removing power from the power train.
The clutch can also be partially engaged via a pedal much the same as the gas pedal to give variable amount of power, known sometimes as “bite”.
The clutch is essentially to large p... | [
"Automatic transmissions are better suited for these applications because they have a hydraulic torque converter which is externally cooled, unlike a clutch. Torque converters also do not have a friction material that rubs off over time like a clutch. Some automatics even lock the output shaft so that the vehicle c... |
Why do our teeth get so easily rotten? | They don't rot easily, in fact cleaning teeth only exists since the 20th century. There's a nice story of the US-Allies introducing toothpaste to the people of Upper Austria after they fought back the german troops: They handed it to kids who thought it would be some kind of sweets and ate all of it. | [
"There are many factors to why tooth disease and decay occur. When teeth aren’t cleaned or don’t get the proper care, food remains stuck between the teeth, and as the food decomposes on the tooth it generates acid that then decays the teeth. Leaving food in the teeth also causes more plaque growth. Due to the lack ... |
can a tech or software company just move out of the us so they don't have to deal with government demanded backdoors? | Yes. Assuming the country they move to doesn't demand backdoors either. Also, they would have to move *all* their operations overseas. | [
"The idea has often been suggested that computer manufacturers preinstall backdoors on their systems to provide technical support for customers, but this has never been reliably verified. It was reported in 2014 that US government agencies had been diverting computers purchased by those considered \"targets\" to se... |
How does sound behave in a Black Hole? | Here is an interesting article about the lowest musical note ever recorded and it came from a black hole. A within a black hole, there is no way to tell if there is sounds, but outside of a black hole (beyond the event horizon) escaping particles can make sound.
_URL_0_ | [
"A sonic black hole, sometimes called a dumb hole, is a phenomenon in which phonons (sound perturbations) are unable to escape from a fluid that is flowing more quickly than the local speed of sound. They are called sonic, or acoustic, black holes because these trapped phonons are analogous to light in astrophysica... |
why can phone companies claim they are better than others by using the company name, but other items have to say "competition"? | They have to substantiate their claims. They need to cite a study that shows their claim is true in order to say it. | [
"In business, self-competition is competition by a company with itself for customers. This can include one product or retail location competing with another. While self-competition is often undesirable for the business, it can be beneficial to the customer, because, like normal competition, the result is lower pric... |
What is the oldest organization that is still active? | I dont know the answer, but I do know the Eastern Orthodox Church predates the catholic church by a few hundred years | [
"Known as \"America's Oldest Council,\" CCC is the oldest existing, continuously registered council in the United States. In 1910, members of the community of Warren first explored Scouting activities. In 1913, the Boy Scouts of America gave a charter to an organization known as the Warren County Council. Then in 1... |
if blackjack is a game of 'skill', how is it not allowed in states that don't have gambling? | Blackjack/Poker can be a game of skill AND gambling. Gambling is just the wagering of money on an event with an uncertain outcome. Think of it as still being a game of chance (like roulette, craps, etc.) with a meta-game of skillfulness and card counting. | [
"Gambling is legal under U.S. federal law, although there are significant restrictions pertaining to interstate and online gambling. Each state is free to regulate or prohibit the practice within its borders. If state-run lotteries are included, almost every state can be said to allow some form of gambling. Only tw... |
What role, if any, did the Irish play in the American Revolution? | Well;
''Irish immigrants of this period participated in significant numbers in the American Revolution, leading one British major general to testify at the House of Commons that "half the rebel Continental Army were from Ireland."[16] Irish Americans signed the foundational documents of the United States—the Declarati... | [
"Eventually the United Irishmen would advocate revolutionary and republican ideals inspired by the French Revolution. Ironically it was only 31 years previous when Belfast had called upon volunteer militias from counties Antrim, Armagh, and Down to defend it from the French.\n",
"The Scots-Irish were some of the ... |
why do unicode emoji depend on the platform instead of the font which is used? | As part of the Unicode set, emojis can be made part of a font.
A complete font (with emojis and stuff) can be huge, so most systems probably store only one complete font and allow you to change only part of it. | [
"Because Unicode represents a character in an abstract way, the choice between glyphs is purely a matter of font design. While some Greek typefaces, most notably in the Porson family (used widely in editions of classical Greek texts), have a \"stroked\" glyph in this position (), most other typefaces have \"loopy\"... |
Were soldiers in the Conquistadors' armies well paid? | Conquistadors were not really soldiers in the modern sense. They were not paid a salary, so their recompense was typically in looted goods, preferably gold and silver. However, their motivation to go and become a conquistador was to win an encomienda, which is a quasi-feudal institution where a population of 'indians' ... | [
"The conquistadors were all volunteers, the majority of whom did not receive a fixed salary but instead a portion of the spoils of victory, in the form of precious metals, land grants and provision of native labour. Many of the Spanish were already experienced soldiers who had previously campaigned in Europe. Pedra... |
please help me understand the difference between being sad and having depression. | Being sad is usually a passing feeling and theres a reason behind it. Like, i was on my way to work and spilt my coffee down myself, broke up with my boyfriend, accidentally killed my dog and its Monday. That would make someone sad but they would get over it.
Depression is feeling shit nearly all the time. Its feelin... | [
"SAD shows a high degree of co-occurrence with other psychiatric disorders. In fact, a population-based study found that 66% of those with SAD had one or more additional mental health disorders. SAD often occurs alongside low self-esteem and most commonly clinical depression, perhaps due to a lack of personal relat... |
Do louder songs have a bigger file size? | An integer takes the same space no matter whether you put 0, 3, or 2 billion in it.
Having said that, with lossy compression algorithms and their 'quality'/'variable bitrate' modes, music with a lot of frequency components (eg distortion) would take more space than very simple music with only a couple of frequencies p... | [
"However, large compressible files become highly fragmented since every chunk smaller than 64KB becomes a fragment. According to research by Microsoft's NTFS Development team, 50–60GB is a reasonable maximum size for a compressed file on an NTFS volume with a 4KB (default) cluster (block) size. This reasonable maxi... |
How financially privileged was slave ownership in America? Could a "middle class" American own slaves, or was this only reserved for the very elite? Do we have knowledge of what percentage of Americans owned one or more slaves? | The reason why we tend to think of slavery as being synonymous with large plantations, and why these portrayals are the norm in popular media, is because this was essentially the normal experience from the perspective of the enslaved. The vast majority of *slave owners* though did not have a substantial number of slave... | [
"The historian James Oakes in 1982 stated that \"[t]he evidence is overwhelming that the vast majority of black slaveholders were free men who purchased members of their families or who acted out of benevolence\". After 1810 Southern states made it increasingly difficult for any slaveholders to free slaves. Often t... |
how does war 'work'? | War is not a game.
However, in a 'just war' (declared so by the UN) there are rules. These generally follow that of the Geneva Convention (Be nice to Prisoners-Of-War, don't kill innocent civilians etc)
Nations generally declare war through the UN (United Nations)
Sometimes debates just don't work, sometimes one sid... | [
"War is fought as a means of resolving territorial and other conflicts, as war of aggression to conquer territory or loot resources, in national self-defence or liberation, or to suppress attempts of part of the nation to secede from it. There are also ideological, religious and revolutionary wars.\n",
"War is of... |
how do octopi camouflage? | Cephalopods have a bunch of specilized cells carrying different pigments and such.
They can constrict or contract these cells to change the color of their skin on the fly.
They are also able to change their texture as well. Cephalopods without shells or bones I.e. squids and octopuses are able to squeeze through any ... | [
"\"Active camouflage\" (or \"adaptive camouflage\") is a group of camouflage technologies which would allow an object (usually military in nature) to blend into its surroundings by use of panels or coatings capable of changing color or luminosity. Active camouflage can be seen as having the potential to become the ... |
what's the difference between reptiles and mammals that allows one to be warm blooded while the other can't create its own heat? | some cold blooded animals do generate their own heat by muscle action, but they do not maintain a specific, stable body temperature. At rest, cold blooded animals slow down heartrate, respiration, digestion, etc
Active predatory fish like tuna have powerful muscles that make a lot of heat, and help the fish to move f... | [
"Modern non-avian reptiles exhibit some form of cold-bloodedness (i.e. some mix of poikilothermy, ectothermy, and bradymetabolism) so that they have limited physiological means of keeping the body temperature constant and often rely on external sources of heat. Due to a less stable core temperature than birds and m... |
how does the automatic wiper blades works? | Most have this clever system that relies on how light bends when it goes through stuff like glass & water. They project some infrared light through the glass at a 45 degree angle. if the glass is dry most of it gets reflected back to a sensor. But if there are rain drops on the glass some of it will be scattered. ... | [
"A wiper generally consists of a metal arm; one end pivots, the other end has a long rubber blade attached to it. The arm is powered by a motor, often an electric motor, although pneumatic power is also used for some vehicles. The blade is swung back and forth over the glass, pushing water, other precipitation, or ... |
why can't all the animals/fish that we are eating to extinction be farmed instead? | They can.
To begin with we are not hunting any animals to extinction, and take great steps to prevent extinction when we can.
As to fish, we are not really fishing anything into extinction but we are overfishing. There has been an effort to begin farming fish, known as aquaculture, but it has not become as widespread... | [
"Besides directly causing the collapse of the ecosystem due to their absence, this can create problems in the ecosystem through a variety of other methods as well. The animals higher in the trophic levels may not completely starve to death and die off, but the decreased food supply could still hurt the populations.... |
what distinguishes vowels from consonants? | Consonants involve a constriction of airflow through the vocal tract. On the other hand, air flows freely through the tract when pronouncing a vowel. | [
"Vowels are syllabic speech sounds that are pronounced without any obstruction in the vocal tract. Unlike consonants, which usually have definite places of articulation, vowels are defined in relation to a set of reference vowels called cardinal vowels. Three properties are needed to define vowels: tongue height, t... |
Writing with style; or, how do you write history that people want to read? | I write like I'm writing a speech: I imagine myself giving it as a lecture. That's why my AH answers are always filled with crazy amounts of parentheses and especially italics--it's me trying to capture the rhythms of how I would talk it.
In general, I just try to write really clearly and use good topic sentences for ... | [
"The Sense of Style: The Thinking Person's Guide to Writing in the 21st Century is a 2014 English style guide written by cognitive scientist, linguist and popular science author Steven Pinker. Building upon earlier guides, such as Strunk & White's \"The Elements of Style\" and Fowler's \"A Dictionary of Modern Engl... |
Why is it that oil seems to seep out of sealed bottles? | I suspect the oil is permeating the plastic, but I'd need to know more about the type of plastic (look for the recycle code on the bottom) and the type(s) of oils involved. | [
"A petroleum seep occurs as a result of the seal above the reservoir being breached, causing tertiary migration of hydrocarbons towards the surface under the influence of the associated buoyancy force. The seal is breached due to the effects of overpressure adding to the buoyancy force, overcoming the capillary res... |
How long does a black hole take to form ? | Instantly, depending on perspective? It's not a black hole. It's not a black hole. It's not a black hole. Now it's a black hole.
Same as death. Everyone dies instantly. You're alive. You're alive. Now you're dead. | [
"Black holes seem to have a sweet spot in terms of size, power and lifespan which is almost ideal. A black hole weighing 606,000 metric tons (6.06 × 10 kg) would have a Schwarzschild radius of 0.9 attometers (0.9 × 10 m, or 9 × 10 m), a power output of 160 petawatts (160 × 10 W, or 1.6 × 10 W), and a 3.5-year lifes... |
How did Hafizullah Amin's behaviour influence the Soviet's decision to invade Afghanistan? | Amin's behavior was *the* major cause of intervention - he killed Nur Mohammed Taraki and lied about it to Brezhnev.
Brief recap:
* [Nur Mohammed Taraki](_URL_0_), first leader of [Saur Revolution](_URL_2_), has close rapport with Brezhnev. Being a writer, he was rather hapless at ruling, made his own share of mista... | [
"Based on information from the KGB, Soviet leaders felt that Prime Minister Hafizullah Amin's actions had destabilized the situation in Afghanistan. Following his initial coup against and killing of President Taraki, the KGB station in Kabul warned Moscow that Amin's leadership would lead to \"harsh repressions, an... |
What are some lesser-known consequences of Rome moving its capital to Constantinople? | I was just thinking about one aspect of this - about how the pontic steppe over a few decades became just that bit more interesting for hordes on the other side of the steppe ocean. | [
"After the sole emperor of all the Roman Empire Constantine built the new imperial capital at Byzantium, a strategically placed city on the Bosporus. He renamed his new capital \"Nova Roma\" (\"New Rome\"), but the city would become known as Constantinople. The centre of gravity in the empire was fully recognised t... |
how does a bullet fit in the barrel of a gun? | Tightly wedged, the bullet usually forms a nearly gas tight seal that allows the pressure created by the burning powder to propel the bullet through the barrel. You can see something similar on videos of "[slugging a barrel](_URL_0_)" with a ball of lead and the amount of force required to force the lead through an em... | [
"A gun barrel is a crucial part of gun-type ranged weapons such as small firearms, artillery pieces and air guns. It is the straight shooting tube, usually made of rigid high-strength metal, through which a contained rapid expansion of high-pressure gas(es) is introduced (via propellant combustion or mechanical com... |
Was the phrases like, "once upon a time" derived from fictional stories that insisted they actually happened, during the Middle Ages? Was this a common trope of the time? | Stock phrases, including "Once upon a time," were used by storytellers to let the audience know that they were about to hear a folktale, a matter of fiction. In general, western and northern Europeans told two types of stories - folktales and legends. Legends were to be believed, and folktales were the oral novels of t... | [
"\"Once upon a time\" is a stock phrase used to introduce a narrative of past events, typically in fairy tales and folk tales. It has been used in some form since at least 1380 (according to the \"Oxford English Dictionary\") in storytelling in the English language and has opened many oral narratives since 1600. Th... |
- the difference between using a computer as a server versus using a computer to complete everyday tasks? | A server is just a name for any computer that provides any kind of service across a network. The server can be a multimedia server (providing music and video streaming), a web server (hosting a website), a file server etc.
The only requirements for such a computer are that it will always be online and connected to the... | [
"The purpose of a server is to share data as well as to share resources and distribute work. A server computer can serve its own computer programs as well; depending on the scenario, this could be part of a \"quid pro quo\" transaction, or simply a technical possibility. The following table shows several scenarios ... |
why do 99% of toothpaste/mouthwash have dyes? | The dyes aren't able to alter your teeth or anything. When you put food colouring in cake batter it doesn't change the cake batter in any way, it just puts molecules of a liquid that reflects a certain colour around the molecules of the batter.
If you put such colourings on your teeth they can't get mixed into your to... | [
"Prescription mouthwashes are used prior to and after oral surgery procedures such as tooth extraction or to treat the pain associated with mucositis caused by radiation therapy or chemotherapy. They are also prescribed for aphthous ulcers, other oral ulcers, and other mouth pain. Magic mouthwashes are prescription... |
where does the us dollar get its value if there is no gold standard? | the same place, essentially, that ANYTHING get's it's value from: popular consensus. Anything on this earth has value because people have all agreed it has value, whether it's gold, gem quality diamonds, milk, or dollars. That value is usually (but not always, gem quality diamonds for instance ain't that useful) a func... | [
"Thus the United States moved to a gold standard, making both gold and silver the legal-tender coinage of the United States, and guaranteed the dollar as convertible to 25.8 grains (1.672 grams, 0.05375 troy ounces) of gold, or a little over $18.60 per ounce.\n",
"The Gold Reserve Act of 1934 made gold clauses un... |
Is there any known limit to how old a tree can be? | As far as I learned in my college botany and biology lectures, most plants depend solely on resources and environment for their longevity. If environment is favorabel, and all nutrients are available, plant can technically live forever. That is why plants are good for cell cultures. | [
"It is a long-lived tree, though not attaining the longevity of \"Pinus longaeva\". The oldest known tree, which grows high on Black Mountain in Colorado, was found to have at 2,435-year tree ring record (and overall estimated age of 2,480 years, per Craig Brunstein) in 1992. However, trees rarely live over 1,500 y... |
Why is it hard to find a star system with 9 or more planets? | If you take our solar system as an example it becomes easy to recognize why we haven't identified very many solar systems with large numbers of planets. It's not because it's any less likely that they exist, but rather the most popular method we use to identify extra solar planets isn't conducive to quick identificatio... | [
"All three planets have masses low enough that they are likely to be rocky planets similar to the inner planets of the Solar System although their actual sizes and densities are currently unknown. However, this information could be determined if the planets happen to transit in front of Wolf 1061 when viewed from E... |
how is adblock still active? wouldn't big companies try to take them down? | Relatively few people use AdBlock, and the tech savvy crowd that uses it is relatively unlikely to click on ads anyways. If more people started using it, you can bet that ad based companies would try to take them down.
Also, big companies don't need to take them down at all. Google banned AdBlock Plus from their Googl... | [
"AdBlock was sold to an anonymous buyer in 2015 and on October 15, 2015 Gundlach's name was taken down from the site. In the terms of the deal, the original developer Michael Gundlach left operations to Adblock's continuing director, Gabriel Cubbage, and as of October 2, 2015, AdBlock began participating in the Acc... |
How did native Floridians handle mosquitos? | This is an interesting topic. No expert, but my source is Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings's autobiographical book *Cross Creek*, which talks about using a smoky fire to keep mosquitoes away. I know we did the same at beach parties and cookouts in New England.
Perhaps a better historian can address this: in preparing my lect... | [
"Worldwide introduction of various mosquito species over large distances into regions where they are not indigenous has occurred through human agencies, primarily on sea routes, in which the eggs, larvae, and pupae inhabiting water-filled used tires and cut flowers are transported. However, apart from sea transport... |
why is the liquid level inside a straw is higher than the liquid level in the rest of the glass? | This effect is called Capillary Action. It happens because water molecules are, in a sense, "sticky". They cling to themselves and other materials. Capillary Action occurs when the water wants to stick to the plastic of the straw more than to itself. It's more noticeable in a straw because the straw has a very high amo... | [
"Container glass has a lower magnesium oxide and sodium oxide content than flat glass, and a higher Silica, Calcium oxide, and Aluminum oxide content. Its higher content of water-insoluble oxides imparts slightly higher chemical durability against water, which is required for storage of beverages and food.\n",
"F... |
Are the electric and magnetic components of an electromagnetic wave really in phase? [Physics] | No, the wiki page is right. The two oscillate in sync. One way to see this is to write down Ampére's and Faraday's laws in vacuum, which (in differential form, cgs units) are:
∇ x **B** = (1/c) ∂**E**/∂t
and
∇ x **E** = -(1/c) ∂**B**/∂t.
Take the curl of the first equation, use that ∇ x (∇ x **B**) = -∇^2 **B** (n... | [
"In addition, and are perpendicular to each other and to the direction of wave propagation, and are in phase with each other. A sinusoidal plane wave is one special solution of these equations. Maxwell's equations explain how these waves can physically propagate through space. The changing magnetic field creates a ... |
why is it that i can use the same chocolate chip recipe but come out with varying results each time? | Gluten! Assuming your ratio of baking powder and baking soda and acid/base balance are exactly by the recipe and always consistent - if not fix that first - then the likey culprit is gluten. Flour can get more chewy and harder if you mix too much or get brittle if not mixed enough. It's why those chewy pizza doughs g... | [
"Chocolate chips are popular as a baking ingredient in the United States. Originating in the US, the chocolate chip cookie is widely available many parts of the world. Nestlé and the Hershey Company are among the top producers of chocolate chips.\n",
"Although convenient, melted chocolate chips are not always rec... |
how does seltzer water have a taste when it has no calories/sweeteners? | Calories listed on food items are calories that are usable by the body. Take water for example, water has 0 calories but they still have bonded oxygen and hydrogen molecules. So there must be energy there. But the body doesn't break down those molecules hence 0 calories.
So certain things like the sweetener may cont... | [
"This finding ran contrary to much of the learning literature of the time in that the aversion could occur after just a single trial and over a long delay. Garcia proposed that the sweetened water became regarded negatively because of the nausea inducing effects of the radiation, and so began the study of condition... |
Would having the earth's landmass more concentrated on one side in Pangaea have had any effect on its orbit? | Not on the orbit, but certainly on other dynamics like the length of day. I recently read a paper on the effect the melting ice caps are having on the period of the earth's rotation (due to the redistribution of mass on the surface). It's a *tiny* effect but there definitely is an effect. So whilst I'm not in the posit... | [
"Around 380 to 300 million years ago the area was on the Earth's equator as a part of the Pangaea super continent. With the uplifting of the continental plate, the area went from continental shelf to shallow sea. The geology of the area reflects this transition.\n",
"During the Triassic, almost all the Earth's la... |
how does euler’s formula connect real and imaginary numbers? | The best explanation I've ever seen is in Feynman's lectures on physics. One of the chapters is a condensed and exceptionally written presentation of algebra. It ends with the equivalences between complex exponents and trigonometric functions. _URL_0_ | [
"Being an equality of complex numbers, one necessarily has equality both of the real parts and of the imaginary parts of both members of the equation. If , and therefore also and , are real numbers, then the identity of these parts can be written using binomial coefficients. This formula was given by 16th century F... |
Where does the matter that comprises the structure of a plant come from? | With a couple exceptions of a few plants that are composed of largely water, it's air. Plants take up nutrients/minerals, nitrogen and water through their roots, but the bulk of the matter in a plant comes from the carbon and oxygen 'fixed' through photosynthesis from the surrounding atmosphere.
There's a good quote, ... | [
"Organic matter, organic material, or natural organic matter (NOM) refers to the large pool of carbon-based compounds found within natural and engineered, terrestrial and aquatic environments. It is matter composed of organic compounds that have come from the remains of organisms such as plants and animals and thei... |
Prominent Bolsheviks must have read Lenin's testament, so why wasn't Stalin removed from key roles? | Lenin's Testament was a profoundly embarrassing document in which Lenin insulted not only Stalin, but all of Stalin's rivals. Stalin, Kamenev, Zinoviev, Bukharin, and Trotsky were all criticized with varying degrees of venom. Publicizing the document wasn't in anyone's interest. | [
"Lenin's testament presented the ruling triumvirate or troika (Joseph Stalin, Grigory Zinoviev and Lev Kamenev) with an uncomfortable dilemma. On the one hand, they would have preferred to suppress the testament since it was critical of all three of them as well as of their ally Nikolai Bukharin and their opponents... |
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